Pest control and bird proofing in Stockport.

A town centre built over its river

The Goyt and the Tame meet in Stockport to form the Mersey, and through the centre that river runs in a culvert with Merseyway, the main shopping street, built on top. There is more below the town: tunnels driven from the Goyt to power the mills, a system of Second World War air-raid shelters under the centre, and the Ashton Canal’s Stockport branch, used until the 1930s, much of which has since been filled in.

For anyone managing a shop, café or office here, that history matters in practice. Old drain connections, abandoned service runs and voids between buildings of different ages are where rats move unseen, and they seldom appear on a building plan. So when a unit near Merseyway or The Peel Centre reports droppings in a stockroom, our survey starts below floor level, with drains, gullies, rodding points and every place a service enters the building, before any station is fixed.

Market Place and its listed premises

Market Place has been the centre of the town since the Middle Ages. It holds a concentration of listed buildings, including the covered Market Hall, restored in 2008 and still trading, and several 18th- and 19th-century commercial premises. Traders and cafés in buildings of that age often share cellars, roof spaces and party walls in ways a modern unit rarely does.

Two things follow. Rodent activity in one business is often a symptom of a route shared with the next, so we ask to look at adjoining voids wherever access allows. And anything fixed to the fabric of a listed building, whether a proofing plate or a bird deterrent, is chosen with care: discreet post-and-wire, gel or fixings set into mortar joints rather than stone, and an early conversation with the council’s planning team where listed building consent may be required.

Pubs, kitchens and leisure: the inspection question

Robinsons, the family brewer founded at the Unicorn Inn in 1849, brewed at its Unicorn Brewery on Lower Hillgate until production moved to Bredbury in 2024, and its estate runs to around 250 pubs, most of them in the North West. Newer trade has gathered around Redrock, the leisure complex that opened in 2018 with a twelve-screen cinema, bars, restaurants and a gym.

Pub cellars, beer gardens, takeaway kitchens and cinema concessions all face the same question when an officer calls: can the business show that pests are under control? Food hygiene law, built on Regulation 852/2004 as kept in UK law and applied here by the 2013 Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations, expects adequate pest-control procedures, and a Food Hygiene Rating Scheme score weighs confidence in management alongside the state of the kitchen. Our food premises pest control service is organised around the paperwork that proves it: station plans, dated reports, product details and evidence that recommendations were acted on.

Brick, ledges and new roofs: bird pressure in the centre

Stockport Viaduct is a Grade II* listed structure of about 11 million bricks, carrying the West Coast Main Line across the Mersey with the M60 passing through two of its arches. Big brick structures and the older commercial buildings nearby offer the recesses, ledges and sheltered soffits where feral pigeons like to roost.

New development brings its own exposure. Stockport Interchange opened officially in March 2024 on the old bus station site between Wellington Road and the viaduct, combining a bus station, a mixed-use residential and commercial building and a rooftop park, Viaduct Park. Public spaces where people sit and eat draw pigeons, and the canopies, balconies and plant decks of new buildings give them somewhere to settle unless they are proofed early.

All wild birds, their eggs and nests in use or being built are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, so bird proofing here starts with a survey of species, how each ledge or canopy is used, safe access above busy shopping streets and whether any nest is active.

Bredbury’s industrial land and the canal

East of the centre, Bredbury’s industrial land was made in the 1960s by levelling colliery spoil heaps at Ashton Road and Stockport Road East. Before that, cotton mills grew up along the Mersey’s head-streams and the Peak Forest Canal, which still passes through Bredbury on its way to the aqueduct over the Goyt at Marple.

Industrial and trade units typically contend with loading doors left open for long periods, pallet stacks against walls and large roofs, and where a site is near the canal, the waterside gives rats cover. A scheduled commercial pest control contract, combining external monitoring, internal stations, proofing of dock doors and service entries, and bird checks on canopies, usually causes far less disruption than reacting to each sighting.

Rising rat numbers and the council’s position

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.

Homes and rented property

At the 2021 Census, 71.1% of Stockport households owned their home, private renting had grown to 14.4% from 11.4% a decade earlier, and 13.3% of households rented from a social landlord.

The housing stock shapes the typical problems. Edgeley’s Victorian terraces around Alexandra Park share walls and often drainage, so one house’s mice can be the next one’s too. Heaton Moor’s Victorian and Edwardian housing, including large houses with generous gardens along Heaton Moor Road, gives wasps and squirrels plenty of room. Brinnington is mainly council-owned housing, including high-rise flats, where refuse areas and service ducts serve many households at once. With 45% of the borough green space and 14 local nature reserves, gardens that back onto parkland can see rodents move closer to houses as the weather cools.

Our pest control for landlords service handles tenant liaison, access and the written evidence that matters under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018. With blue-bin collections changing in December, it is a good moment to remind tenants to keep lids shut and side returns clear.