Pest control services in Richmond will be cut despite the move being brought to a scrutiny meeting this week.

The council has been operating a pest control service through a contract awarded to SDK Environmental Ltd for the treatment of rats, mice and bed bugs at no charge.

However, according to the council, this year the contractor was “unwilling” to agree to another 12 month extension to the original contract “without a significant increase” of more than double the current charge.

The current charge is £28,000 per year which would increase to £75,000.

The changes will come into effect on January 1.

There were about 1,500 requests for pest control made to the council last year.

Councillors Suzette Nicholson and Jonathan Cardy called the meeting, as they believe “residents in difficult financial circumstances will be unduly penalised when infestation is not usually their fault”.

The councillors said the decision violates residents’ human rights, stating “taking the right away to potentially rid your home of rats, mice and bedbugs is taking your right of enjoying your home peacefully away from you”.

They also raised the potential impact on neighbouring homes suggesting if a household cannot deal with an infestation or afford it, the infestation could “easily” spread to another home.

In addition, no consultation has been carried out with housing providers, “who will know about the financial states of their clients” or with any charities who may know about dealing with pest infestation and have some knowledge to share.

At the meeting, financial constraints on the council were cited as one of the main reasons the service was being axed.

Cllr Thomas O’Malley said: “The council is losing £30 million of its funding and there is increasing demand on other services which the council must fund.

“It’s one of many difficult decisions that must be made.”

Cllr Gareth Evans argued that the council was not taking away the “human right to pest control” but “only the free cost of it”.

Cllr Suzette said if residents cannot afford to pay for the service “that would be taking away the right”.

Cllr Healy said: “I don’t think that this council should be the pest control arm of landlords.

“It hasn’t been proven that the landowners or landlords that use this service are in any way vulnerable.”

Responding to the result, Cllr Nicholson said: “While it’s right that the council shouldn’t subsidise pest control for millionaires, surely it is the duty of a responsible council to provide vital services such as this to those who are least able to afford market rate?”

Cllr Cardy said: “The council seems gripped by a succession of bizarre ideas including the idea that pest infestations only affect rented accommodation while ignoring local privately owned households in the borough where residents, such as pensioners, live on low fixed incomes.

“What they are saying to these residents is that they should choose between paying for pest control and paying for day to day necessities such as food.

“They also seemed to find it hard to grasp that as rodents and vermin are no respecters of property boundaries that there is a legitimate role for the council to play in controlling the problem.”

A council spokesman said: “Pest control is a discretionary service provided by councils, the legal responsibility for dealing with pest infestations lies with the landowner.

“The changes made to this discretionary service frees up funding which can be utilised for other statutory services, and is in line with polices put in place by a number of other councils, which no longer provide a free service for common pests such as rats and mice.”