The £1.18m bill Bradford Council had to pay for getting rid of mice and rats is an astonishing figure.

But rats are a menace that plague every city in the world to a greater or lesser degree. Any large centre of population will have some form of rat presence nearby. And, unfortunately, they are extremely difficult to eradicate.

It is good news that year on year the number of call-outs by Council pest control to rat infestations seems to be falling. That would seem to indicate that the population of this scavenger does not seem to be growing in Bradford.

And alarming as the seven-figure bill is, particularly in our extremely straitened times, the rodent issue has to be tackled.

All of that said, there are ways we can all help to further reduce the rat population and at the same time make our general environment a more palatable place to live.

We need to think very carefully about how we dispose of our food waste. Anything that is accessible, such as bin liners left on streets, is fair game for a hungry rat. And discarded fast food is like manna from heaven for them.

The streets of the city centre on a Friday and Saturday night – in fact, on virtually every night of the week – is an open buffet table, strewn with pizza slices, chicken bones, partially eaten kebabs and the rest.

This is not only unpleasant to look at. Rats are a public health risk. At the end of the day, the creatures cannot be blamed for following their instincts and going where the food is.

Humans need to take some responsibility and be more scrupulous about where and how we dispose of food waste.