Quote:This is the wasp capital of Coventry.
'Hundreds of people have called the council to make this pest buzz off...'
(See what intrepid Reporter -Mr. Sandford, did there? That was a joke.)
Quote:'Any kind of pest in your home is bad enough - but this one really comes with a sting in the tail...'
Oh shyte, he's on a roll!!
Quote:'...Hundreds of Coventry residents have called the council to deal with wasp infestations in recent years.
Last year, the total number of calls to Coventry City Council's pest control team to deal with the flying
stingers fell compared to previous years, though there were still 168 calls.
Figures released by the council show that in 2017, there were fewer calls than in any of the previous
five years.
2012 - 313
2013 - 484
2014 - 658
2015 - 287
2016 - 369
2017 - 168
And these figures have just been released and therefore, important. This isn't just word-play by a young
Journalist to spruce-up a banal story for a pay-cheque, no... this is investigative Journalism about wasps.
Quote:'...The official statistics from the authority for 2017 show the full extent of the wasp problem, and a postcode
for each call. This means that we can reveal which council wards have the biggest wasp problem, according
to how many times council workers were called out to deal with the winged pests...'
'Official... released' (again!) and 'we can reveal' -implying a focused, coordinated scheme by the Council.
I guess the residents of Coventry sleep easy in their beds at night.
Quote:'...A phone call to the city council will see a specially trained team sent out to deal with the problem...'
Oh FFS, we're doing Ghostbusters now?
Quote:'..For wasps, the council will charge £76, or £38 (with concessions) to treat the pests, with a few conditions.
They will not treat the pests if:
Wasps are entering your loft space above the guttering
The wasp nest is in the loft and the insulation is so deep it would be unsafe to enter
Items in the loft restrict access to the nest
The nest is in or on the chimney
The wasp nest is on or in a neighbouring property
The nest is, upon inspection, bees...'
The sting that Mr. Sandford fails to point out is the conditions against the cost. Councils are elected by those
they take the money off and looking at the list, a wasps nest has to be on a person's paid-for property and outside
for the 'specially trained team' to deal with.
Will Council-provided rented accommodation be subject to these conditions...? Mr. Sandford must enter the rabbit
hole and find out. Film at eleven.
Quote:'...This is the breakdown of where the calls came from, so you can see which area is the hotspot for waps in Coventry.
Nine calls were made to locations that were either not recorded, or areas not covered by Coventry City Council
ward boundaries...'
'Hotspost'...? really? This article was published 2nd April 2018 and April Fool's Day cannot be carried over just because
the Editor won't let you out on the street. Mr. Sandford, ask the guy sitting next you who doesn't have his Facebook page
open on his screen.
Quote:'17 - St Michael's and Upper StokeThe Coventry Telegraph:
These are two wards which have seen the highest number of rats in infestations, so it is a pleasant surprise to see
them so low this time around. Last year, these wards saw three calls apiece.
16 - Foleshill
The mice, bedbug and cockroach capital of Coventry avoids a grand slam, with just five calls made last year.
Over the course of the last six years, only St Michael's and Radford saw fewer calls in total
A very respectable finish, overall.
13 - Holbrook, Lower Stoke, Radford
There were six calls to each of these wards last year, and all three saw a reduction in calls compared to the previous year.
The biggest change came in Holbrook, where the total fell from 17 to six in just one year.
10 - Henley, Sherbourne, Woodlands
We enter the top 10 with a trio of wards, all three having had seven calls last year.
Compared to previous years, all three saw a massive reduction in calls, which appears to be a similar pattern across
the majority of wards.
9 - Wyken
There were just eight call outs for wasp trouble in Wyken last year.
Given that there has been 136 calls since 2012, last year was a significant reduction on previous years.
7 - Bablake and Whoberley
The majority of wards have seemingly seen a significant reduction in calls, but when it comes to Whoberley,
he totals have remained fairly consistent. With nine calls last year, there were actually fewer calls just a couple
of years prior to this, with just seven in 2015.
6 - Binley and Willenhall
We reach the double digits, with 10 calls made from this ward last year.
The year 2017 saw the fewest calls to the south-easternmost ward on record.
5 - Longford
It may not have the most number of wasp calls, but Longford takes home the dubious honour of being the only ward
to have seen an increase in calls since 2016. Last year, there were 12 calls, compared to nine in the previous 12 months.
4 - Westwood
For the first time in this pest series, Westwood has finished near the top -or the bottom, of the list.
Last year, there were 13 calls made to this ward.
3 - Wainbody
Narrowly finishing ahead of Westwood is Wainbody, with a total of 14 wasp calls in 2017.
The southern ward has the second highest number of calls for wasps across all years, with 183 in total.
2 - Cheylesmore
A pattern seems to be emerging with wards at the south end of the city featuring at the business end of this list.
In total, there were 16 calls to Cheylesmore, which just about avoids taking the top spot.
1 - Earlsdon
For the final time we go down south, to Earlsdon. In 2017 there were 18 calls made to this ward to deal with wasp
problems. Aside from 2015, when there were 17 calls, this was the lowest year on record for wasp calls.
But despite this, Earlsdon is the Coventry capital of wasps for 2017...'
Rogue Nation may award a prize to any of the readers who didn't break down and weep half-way through that list.
A whole freakin' page that's set in an exciting 'Pop Chart' format about wasps.
Wouldn't it have been easier and beneficial to the Coventry Telegraph's coffers just to say "Buy our paper, roll it up
and kill the little annoying bastards"
And I didn't mean you, Mr. Sandford.
Edith Head Gives Good Wardrobe.