David Oldbury elected a Fellow of the CIEH

We would all like to congratulate Dave Oldbury, group manager of the Pest Control Division of Manchester City Council, on the very recent awarding of his Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH).

A Fellowship is the highest honour the CIEH bestows. An individual has to be nominated for the award and it is only given to a member of at least 10 years” standing who, in the opinion of the Council, has given distinctive service to the Chartered Institute, or who has shown evidence of special knowledge or ability in relation to the work of environmental health practice.

Dave’s Fellowship was agreed at a recent Council meeting. Commenting, Dave said: “It came as a complete surprise to me as I had no idea that I was even being considered for a Fellowship.”

In his usual modest manner, Dave continued: “I”m more than a little embarrassed and stunned that CIEH has awarded me this Fellowship. I”m extremely pleased however that this is in recognition of the work undertaken to protect public health and to promote professionalism within pest control.

“I do however owe a large debt of gratitude to Dr Gai Murphy of Salford University for all the research work jointly carried out in Manchester over the years particularly with respects to the impact of rodents pests on public health and more recently to the risk mosquitoes pose in vectoring exotic disease as a result of climate change and air travel. I”d also like to acknowledge colleagues on the National Pest Advisory Panel (NPAP) who have worked tirelessly to promote best practice and guidance documents on a number of key pest issues which are facing the pest control industry at present.”

Dave Oldbury
Dave Olbury Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health

This is certainly a ‘purple patch’ for Dave as he was inducted into the Pest Control News Hall of Fame on 4 November.

Dave qualified in 1972. In addition to his responsibilities in Manchester, Dave is now an examiner for the Royal Society for Public Health, a member of the BASIS PROMPT Steering Committee and lectures to students of environmental health and trainee pest control technicians at the Universities of Salford & Manchester.

He is secretary to the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, National Pest Advisory Panel and is an author and co-author of a number of papers on urban pest management.