Grandmother's horror as rats invade her Pennywell home

Over a year ago, Linda Williamson, 60, had a new heating system installed into her Presthope Road house but the gas-board had to dig up her garden to change some piping.

Months later, Linda started noticing strange things which grew worse when council development work began at the rear of the property.

She said: “Every now and then, I’d notice things had been moved. Just before Christmas we bought sweets for the grandkids and we left them and came back and they were all over the house and in the kitchen.

“We thought we could hear rats in the sewers.”

Soon after, Linda and her partner got poison and glue traps. Her neighbours also told her they had spotted rats and between them, they managed to capture photos.

Linda added: “They’re really intelligent. At one point, there was a rat around eight or nine inches long stuck on the bottom of a glue trap. We’ve caught around five or six since.

“I’m a bag of nerves with it all. I’ve got a lovely home and it’s not fair.”

The council, Environmental Health and Northumbrian Water are working to solve the problem and inquiries continue.

A spokesperson for Sunderland City Council said: “Environmental health officers are aware of the rat sightings and working with householders and other agencies to determine the source of the problem.”

On Monday, February 3, a Northumbrian Water adviser spoke to Linda at her home.

A Northumbrian Water spokesperson said: “One of our Technical Support Advisors has already visited the property, inspected the site and has put a rodent baiting programme and cameras in place to establish whether there is an issue inside of the sewer network in the area.

“We are only responsible for issues with rodents in our sewer networks and if we do find an issue relating to our pipes then we will take appropriate action and get the situation resolved.

“To ensure that the issue is fully resolved we’re working closely with the local authority and Environmental Health.”