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COMMENT: Over the top?

7:10am Tuesday 9th February 2010


WE recognise the police and other emergency services are damned either way when it comes to deciding an appropriate response to 999 calls.

But we cannot help wondering whether the response to reports of a man on St Andrew’s Spire in Worcester was a little over the top.

The police helicopter, 11 officers and the fire brigade were called out and Deansway, one of the city’s busiest roads, was closed.

There had been a man on the spire. He was working for the council carrying out routine maintenance checks but was long gone before the emergency services arrived.

Surely there was someone from the council available to reassure the police? If there wasn’t, then there should have been. We dread to think how much public money was spent during Sunday night’s operation.


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Peter WR5, Worcester says...
7:39am Tue 9 Feb 10

One concern expressed was that there might have been someone preparing to commit suicide who had entered the Spire. As much as this might have cost I'd have been grateful for the commitment of this community if one of my loved ones had been at such a moment of personal brokenness.

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chris peacockpeacock, yealmpton says...
8:37am Tue 9 Feb 10

The emergency services have to respond to calls regardless. Surely the responsibility lies with the council to inform them.

The emergency services get their share of stick, but to criticise them for doing their job is wholly unfair.

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Maggie Would, says...
9:11am Tue 9 Feb 10

I'm quite surprised that a single person was allowed to do this work. It may have only been a one person task, but it is good practice to have a permit system & often a 'buddy system' so that personnel are not entering restricted and potentially dangerous areas without informing anyone.
If the person concerned had, say, slipped & injured himself unnoticed by anyone, he could have been up there a lot longer than it takes to die of hypothermia before anyone realised he was missing.

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jb, worcester says...
11:00am Tue 9 Feb 10

A member of the public reported this in good faith and the emergency services responded excellently in my opinion. If this call had been ignored and it had turned out to be someone in trouble then they would have been hauled over the coals at the very least. They did their job and did it well which is what the public demand from the emergency services.

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COMMENT: Over the top?


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