Praise for council team after man is trapped 'head first' in storm drain

The man got stuck at a home in Low Grange, Billingham, and had to be taken to hospital after Cleveland Fire Brigade was called out.

A meeting this week heard how Stockton Council’s One Call service was first on the scene.

Councillor Ann McCoy said the service had saved lives in the past at Tuesday’s Home Safety Association.

And Paul Bell, from One Call, responded by referring to the case.

He said: “Everyone was congratulated except us who were first on scene.

“It was a gentleman who’d fallen down a drain head-first.

“It was filling up with water and we got there and managed to get the emergency services.

“But obviously we weren’t mentioned in the report.”

Cllr McCoy said this was a “shame” given the work they did.

She added: “Everybody who works together in partnership ought to get that recognition. We’ll make sure this is in the minutes of this meeting if nothing else to highlight that.”

One Call is a council-run home care service which offers 24/7 help to adults aged over 65 and others.

The idea is the service helps people live safely and independently in their own homes for longer.

It received 128,544 calls between January this year and the end of November – with 98.2% answered within 60 seconds and 99.9% answered in under three minutes.

Its teams attended 5,407 times at homes.

Almost 2,000 of these cases were to residents who had fallen – with only 15% of these cases leading to further medical treatment.