Pest Control News is saddened to hear of the recent passing of Adrian Batty. In recognition of his services to the industry, we hear from close colleagues and friends of Adrian.
Adrian Batty qualified as an Environmental Health Officer, in 1972, at Hull City Council. Although Ade’s name is synonymous with pest control services, he started off his career in food services before moving to general district work. It wasn’t until the late seventies that Adrian was given the opportunity to take the helm of the Pest Control and Drainage Section at Hull; a section he remained in control of until his retirement from Hull City Council in 2005.
During those early years Adrian worked the section into a good shape. He dealt with various duties while ensuring that his team were fully trained in all aspects of pest control services. He had an eye on turning a profit but without losing the need to always ensure that domestic rat control should be free. Keen to innovate he introduced a dog warden service at Hull City. This was forward thinking as he recognised the problem before national dog control legislation was introduced.
One of his greater successes was revitalising the Humberside Pest Control Liaison Group. Taking on the role of secretary he ensured meetings took place regularly, arranging for regular guest speakers and putting the group on a firm financial footing by charging an annual fee to authorities; thus enabling provision of coach hire for trips to PestEx and to pay expenses for speakers when needed.
The group merged with other Yorkshire groups in the nineties to form the Yorkshire Pest Liaison Group (YPLG). The YPLG still meet at the Killgerm Chemicals offices in Ossett. The idea behind this was to create a greater sharing of knowledge and consistency across the region and again Adrian contributed significantly as secretary.
Following the East Riding Council prosecution by HSE in 1998 Adrian teamed up with Paul Mears. This was to consider the implications of the case and help hone the dynamic risk assessment process put in place to satisfy HSE requirements. This was followed by a period where the two of them visited various pest liaison groups to discuss the case and showcase the solutions put forward.
With the introduction, by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, of the National Pest Advisory Panel in the early 2000s, Adrian was invited to join as a keen advocate of pest control services. He travelled regularly to London to take part, always with a view to protecting and improving the position of pest control within local authorities.
Finally, in 2005, he retired from local authority service with Hull City Council. However, his journey with pest control was not complete. Adrian decided to put his money where his mouth was and start a pest control company. He was also invited, by Jonathan Peck, to assist Killgerm with the running of the Royal Society of Public Health Level 2 Certificate in Pest Control. This he did and went on to both assist with the running of and lecture on the course for years.
In 2015 he retired fully from pest control in order to devote more time to his family and his myriad of interests.
Article kindly produced by Peter Fielding (retired Area Sales Manager, Killgerm Chemicals), Paul Mears (retired East Yorks council and a very close friend of Adrian’s) and David Oldbury (retired Manchester city council and secretary to NPAP).
