Chichester girl, 6, injured in manhole collapse at holiday park

Those are the words of a Chichester father whose holiday took a turn when poor repairs to a manhole cover led to his daughter being injured.

Luke Shepherd, from Oving Road, had just arrived at the campsite with his wife and two daughters, aged six and two, when they began to set up their tent.

Mr Shephard had hoped his children would be safe at the ‘family-friendly’ Sandford Holiday Park, in Dorset, but just moments after telling the girls to play nearby he heard a scream.

“We got on the site and we were putting up our tent and I told the girls to play nearby,” Mr Shephard said, “Then I heard a scream and I ran round the back of the tent and shouted ‘where are you’.

“All I could see were her hands from the top of the manhole cover. I grabbed her and pulled her out of there as soon as possible. It was a foul water drain. God knows how dirty it was.”

After pulling his crying daughter from the pit, it was clear she was injured with visible grazing over her ribs and under her arms.

With other children playing nearby, Mr Shephard covered the manhole and surrounded it with orange barriers, but said he was angered and disappointed by the response from staff at the holiday park.

He added: “I found their response very lackluster — a child has fallen down man hole and they turned up five or ten minutes later to look at the drain.

“An elderly person could have broken their hip. [My daughter] could have down and drowned and I would never have heard her shout because she’d be underwater.

“The park manager did go and screw some plywood down there but I would rather they had sorted before the accident rather than after.

“He came back later with a couple of stuffed toys but no follow-up. That doesn’t really cut it I’m afraid.

“The children could’ve been killed. I don’t want financial reward — I will never go back there — but lessons need to be learnt from this.”

A spokesperson for Sandford Holiday Park said: “Our maintenance team attended the site and carried out repairs to the cover as soon as we were made aware of this incident.

"We remained in touch with the family for the duration of their stay, to make sure the rest of their visit was enjoyable."