OF all God's creatures the rat must be one of the most maligned by humanity. While most of us are all too willing to cuddle guinea pigs, rabbits, gerbils, pet mice and even ferrets, brown rats produce a reaction of almost universal revulsion.

Even white rats, one of the most affectionate, intelligent and hygienic of pets send a shiver of horror down the spine of the vast majority of the population.

Nothing has the ability to despoil the reputation of a

restaurant, shop, public area of even a whole town as much as the sight of a rat scuttling about oblivious to the mayhem its mere presence can generate.

Even if rats did not spread unpleasant infections such as Weill's disease and the black death, they would still remain an intolerable presence in civilised society. It is enough to realise that they thrive in sewers, that most unspeakable part of the modern metropolis.

When residents of Ilkley were informed the town was one of the Bradford district's rat 'hotspots' the news brought consternation.

As the 'Jewel in the Crown' of Bradford, nestled snugly in the Wharfedale stockbroker belt, upper class Ilkley felt it did not deserve the reputation as the 'Rat Capital' of the district.

There was even a suggestion that posh Ilkley's rats were actually water voles, more suited to the sylvan pages of Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows than the haunted graveyards of Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination.

Someone also suggested that people in Ilkley were more likely to have their sensibilities affected by the sight of the hated rodent so were more likely to report the outrage than those in other parts of the city.

Whatever the reality of the situation, the news that better co-operation between the local authority and Yorkshire Water has resulted in more work being carried out to bait the sewers in Ilkley will be greeted with relief. Hopefully, like Samuel Whiskers and his wife, Anna-Maria, in the Beatrix Potter story, the rats just might pack up their things and move on elsewhere.