Pest control and bird proofing in Salford Quays & MediaCityUK.

Studios, offices and venues on the old docks

The Manchester Docks opened in 1894 and, at their height, made up the third-busiest port in Britain. Their closure in 1982 cost about 3,000 jobs, and the former dock estate has since been rebuilt as studios, offices, venues and homes.

MediaCityUK’s first phase, on a 36-acre site at Pier 9, was completed in 2011. The BBC has teams in Quay House and Dock House, ITV Granada and the University of Salford share the Orange building, and dock10 runs television facilities on the site. Beyond it, the former Palmolive factory has been converted into the Soapworks offices, and Quays Reach houses businesses that include a data centre operator. The Lowry opened in 2000, and Imperial War Museum North followed in 2001 on the Trafford Wharf side, next to ITV’s Coronation Street production facility.

Buildings like these are usually run by a facilities team or managing agent for several occupiers, so monitoring has to fit around recordings, lectures and server maintenance: tamper-resistant stations in plant rooms and loading bays, insect monitors in tea points, and visit dates agreed with building management. Each visit produces a dated report that a landlord, a facilities team or an auditor can follow. Our commercial pest control contracts here also extend across the Ship Canal to Trafford Park, home to about 1,400 companies and a long history of food manufacturing, so occupiers with units on both banks can work to one plan and one reporting format.

Why does food on a shared estate need joined-up records?

Food and drink at MediaCityUK includes national names: a convenience store, coffee chains, a bakery chain and a noodle restaurant. The Lowry’s Lyric and Quays theatres seat more than 2,000 people between them, and Quayside MediaCityUK adds outlet shops and a Vue cinema.

Under food hygiene law, still in force in England as assimilated Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, every counter, bar and concession is a food business with its own duty to keep adequate pest control procedures in place. That duty stays with the operator even where the building, the bin store and the back-of-house corridors are run by someone else, and shared space is where problems cross unit boundaries. A waste compound serving several outlets gives mice and cockroaches a route that no single tenant can close.

Our food premises pest control visits are timed before service or after close, and the report goes into the outlet’s HACCP records. Anything we find in a shared area is sent to the building manager in writing, so each operator can show an environmental health officer what it reported, when, and what happened next.

Why do the basins matter for rodents?

The Erie, Huron and Ontario basins and the Mariners Canal keep open water close to many of the Quays’ buildings, and the council describes the Quays and its neighbouring inner-city wards as bounded by the Ship Canal on two sides. The water is managed: dams isolate the basins from the canal, aeration improved it enough for 12,000 coarse fish to be introduced, and scientists test it every fortnight.

Managed water still has edges. Brown rats swim well, burrow into soft ground and planting, and use drains and sewers to reach buildings. In June 2023 Salford Now reported hundreds of dead fish washing up across the Quays after heat and thundery weather lowered oxygen levels, and noted that the basin’s shape gathers floating material in the same way it gathers rubbish. Carcasses and stranded litter at the water’s edge are easy food for scavengers.

Council sewer baiting helps, but it does not treat the ground, bin stores or drains on your site. Our rodent control on waterside premises starts there, with any external bait held in tamper-resistant stations in line with CRRU stewardship. The council’s rats page notes that a rat can get through a gap of 12 mm, which is why proofing service entries and door thresholds usually does more than bait alone.

How do pigeons and gulls use waterside buildings?

The council calls The Lowry Greater Manchester’s most visited attraction, and visitors, lunchtime food trade and open water give feral pigeons and gulls easy feeding, while ledges, canopies and roof plant give them places to rest and nest. Fouling at entrances, on outdoor seating and along balcony edges is a slip and hygiene complaint, and droppings and nesting material on roof plant can block gutters and condensate drains.

All wild birds are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Feral pigeons can be controlled lethally only within the conditions of Natural England’s general licences or an individual licence, which expect non-lethal options to be tried or ruled out first. Exclusion is therefore the normal answer: netting over plant decks and light wells, post-and-wire on ledges, spikes only where they will not trap debris, and a check for active nests before anything is closed off.

Check Salford City Council’s website for current pest control services and charges. Our bird control surveys work from ground and roof level and specify fixings to suit the cladding, glazing or stonework in question.

What will further development mean for pests?

The council’s page on the area says Media City is due to double in size over the next decade, and the work is already under way. The Pie Factory has been demolished to make way for MediaCityUK’s second phase, and the Greenhouse is set to follow. On Michigan Avenue, Building 3 of X1 Michigan Towers topped out in January 2026, with just over 1,300 homes planned across four buildings by an estimated 2031.

Groundworks displace rats into neighbouring buildings, and new buildings can open with the gaps that cause later trouble: unsealed service penetrations, bin store doors that do not close tightly and planting set hard against the facade. A proofing check before handover, and monitoring that starts when the first occupier moves in, is far easier than retrofitting once complaints begin.

Flats and towers: the domestic picture

The first homes on the docks were low-rise. Merchants Quay dates from the mid-to-late 1980s, Grain Wharf was built between 1985 and 1995, and Labrador Quay’s three-storey blocks were completed in 2003. Towers arrived from 2001, starting with the 16-storey Imperial Point and followed by the three 18-storey NV Buildings and the 20-storey Sovereign Point by 2005. MediaCityUK added The Heart and Number One, with 378 apartments between them. The 2021 census counted about 6,006 people in some 3,459 households in the Salford Quays statistical area, and the council notes significant change in neighbouring Ordsall from new private and affordable family housing.

In blocks like these, pests travel along shared services. Bed bugs pass between flats through wall voids and pipe runs, German cockroaches favour warm risers, and mice move through service ducts between floors, so treating one flat on its own often fails. The block manager usually controls the bin rooms, car parks and plant areas where trouble starts. Our pest control for landlords service reports flat by flat and for each common area, which helps landlords and managing agents show that repair and fitness duties are being met.

Council service or contract?

Many councils run a pest control service for residents, but what is covered, who can book and the charges all vary and can change, so check the council’s own pest control pages before you book. If you rent, report the problem to your landlord first. If you would rather book a private firm, phone or use the enquiry form and we will arrange a survey.