Many people might well be amused by today's story of the West Bowling family forced out of their home by squirrels which ate their way through wiring in the roof space.

These bushy-tailed creatures might give an outward impression of being cute and cuddly, but the reality is that they are pests which can do a great deal of damage. In this case it is damage which could have led to death for the people in the house.

Although it is difficult to legislate for such unusual situations, there is a salutory lesson here for everyone - that health and safety issues can occur in the most unlikely circumstances.

Fortunately this family have only been forced out of their home for a short time, to stay in an hotel until their house is re-wired. Their case is easier to resolve than that of the family evicted by bailiffs from a rented house in Otley Road not because they hadn't paid the rent to their landlord but because the latter had not paid the mortgage to a building society. Through no fault of their own, they found themselves dumped in the street with their property, including their pets, left in the house.

Admittedly the building society had postponed the eviction once to give them a chance to make other arrangements, but given the size of the family, finding suitable alternative accommodation to take them all has so far proved impossible.

Surely there should be better protection for people in their situation, who appear to have been good tenants but are now paying the price for someone else's failure.