Action being taken as Hampton's Serpentine Green is plagued by swarms of flies

Swarms of flies are plaguing visitor to Hampton's Serpentine Green and has led to numerous complaints from residents.

Visitors have taken to social media to highlight the issue affecting the shopping centre.

But the centre’s management team say it is a wider problem affecting the whole of Hampton and action is being taken to stop the swarms of the Lesser House Fly.

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Shopper Emma Fisher posted on Serpentine Green’s Facebook page: “Flies everywhere!!! Was put off eating and drinking in the new costa because of this. Went inside to the food hall and exactly the same problem.”

Nicola Jane White added to the shopping centre’s Facebook page: “The place is totally infested with flies at the moment so avoid eating anywhere in the centre. The issue has been going on for a number of weeks now. It was so bad yesterday that I have informed Environmental Health.”

And Ailsa Cousins added: “Totally disgusting flies everywhere .. couldn’t eat our sub in food court cos of it”

A spokesman for Serpentine Green said: “Unfortunately the issue with the flies is something that is currently affecting the wider Hampton area and isn’t something that is exclusively at Serpentine Green. We are well aware of the problem and are working closely with pest controllers and the council’s HSE to try and improve things and hopefully quickly eliminate the problem at our centre. Hopefully it shouldn’t persist too much longer, but as the problem does seem to be on a large scale in the general area we’re not sure how long it will take.

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“We are currently taking steps to try and reduce the impact of the problem at Serpentine Green, including monitoring bins throughout the day to ensure they don’t encourage flies, ensuring retailers that serve food are keeping things clean and meeting with retail managers to discuss how things can be improved. We are also taking advice from pest controllers about what we can do to help the situation.

“We are continuing today to look into this and ensure that there’s nothing we, or our retailers are doing to encourage the problem.”

A Peterborough City Council spokesman said: “The council’s environmental health team have been down to the centre and continue to monitor the situation.

“There has been no specific cause identified for the flies.
“We have given advice to businesses affected, including to clean up spillages quickly, remove waste as soon as possible and keep covered food.”

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