Rats ‘as big as a shovel’ plague housing estate

The view from Christine Morgan’s garden – a pile of builders’ rubble which she claims is rat-infested and has covered her house in dust. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 1053946)

RESIDENTS of a St Peter Port estate say their lives are being plagued by rats, dust and noise from a piece of waste land being used as a tip for building materials.
The land next to Sydney Vane House at Admiral Park backs onto Clark’s Estate and people living there say it has been used to dump industrial waste for the last seven years.
The owner, Retail Park Holdings Limited, a subsidiary of ComProp, has now applied for retrospective planning permission to create a temporary storage area for rubble and inert materials on the site.
Childminder Christine Morgan, who has lived on the estate for 24 years, said there was a big problem with vermin which she believed had been caused by the waste at the site. Her partner, Eddie Ratcliffe, 53, said some of the rats from the site were as big as a shovel.
* A representative from ComProp was not immediately available to comment. (from GEP)

including the handle?

That's the tail, the handle that is, Spirit.

"As big as a shovel" is new on me. Usually it's "as big as a cat", or with some "as big as a dog"

So, how big is a shovel?

OK You animal lovers.Who's been feeding them? I am of the understanding that rats will not hang around if there is no food!