Concerns have been raised over an “apparent rise” in rat sightings in Renfrewshire as a politician calls for “solutions” to address the worrying trend.

Labour group leader Iain McMillan is seeking support for a motion at next Thursday’s full council meeting, which would direct officers to prepare a report on the issue and consider how it can be tackled.

The Johnstone South and Elderslie representative is anxious a “pattern” could be developing as constituent complaints about the rodents become more common for him and his colleagues.

Councillor McMillan’s motion asks elected members to recognise “concerns that local people have had over the apparent rise in the sighting of rats” in communities.

If agreed, it will instruct officers “to bring a report to the appropriate board that will produce evidence of the issue locally and provide possible solutions on how the council, partner organisations and residents can manage the situation.”

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “The main reason for bringing it forward was the number of instances I’ve seen over the summer months about this, particularly from the Elderslie area although it’s not exclusive to there.

“Basically the council’s response was, ‘If you get your constituent to contact us, we’ll come out and lay down some poison’, and it’ll cost whatever it is.

“That’s maybe fine if it’s a one-off event but there seems to be a pattern developing. This is becoming a big issue here for people.

“Some people are seeing rats for the first time in their area. I’ve dealt with rat problems in all my years as a councillor but I’ve never known it to be such a big problem.

“We all know they hang about burns and they hang about rubbish but there just seems to be more instances of it.

“The thinking behind the motion was to highlight the issue and maybe try to get the council to do something about it.

“It’s not just a case of going to someone’s house and putting down a box or poison, they have to look at the wider picture of why this is happening.”

The council has a pest control section on its website, which details the services it can provide to commercial and domestic properties in relation to rat treatments as well as the relevant costs.

A 25 per cent concession rate applies for those in receipt of relevant benefits or tax credits, while council tenants are not charged.

But Councillor McMillan is keen to see a report drafted that would examine some of the root causes of the issue in Renfrewshire.

He said: “I’ve done a wee bit of research, so I’m trying to find out if the council can do anything about this.

“Is it something the council is playing a part in, in terms of letting the grass grow a bit longer?

“We’ve got these biodiversity areas, is this encouraging rats? Is it people’s habits in terms of feeding birds or foxes?

“Is it people dumping rubbish? Are bins not getting emptied enough?

“I’m asking the council to look at it – why is it happening, why is it affecting so many areas where it was never an issue before and what can we do about it?

“I’ve been getting a lot of complaints from people to say, ‘We’ve never had rats before, they’re running about our gardens, they’re hanging about our bins.’ “These are things I would like to see discussed.”

The council has decided not to comment on the matter ahead of the discussion at next week’s meeting.