A LITTLE girl fell down an open drain while walking to her school.

Eleanor Freear, aged eight, was on her way to Cranham Drive Primary School in the morning with her mother, Denise, when her foot slipped down the small, square uncovered, drain in Leckhampton Close, Warndon.

Her foot got stuck, she scraped the skin on the back of her leg and she was extremely upset by the incident.

"My wife brought her back to the house to clean it up," said Ellie's father Stanley, aged 46.

"She was really upset. But we sent her back to school because she just wanted to see her friends."

Mr Freear, who is a team leader for Worcester Bosch, described the smell from the drain as horrific.

On the way home from school on Tuesday, they were shocked to see the drain was still uncovered despite Mrs Freear reporting it to Worcester City Council that morning.

"It's been open for a few days now," said Mr Freear, "People have been covering it with a piece of concrete.

"I wish I had reported it earlier, but I assumed that someone else had already done that. Eleanor could have broken her ankle. It's really dangerous. Somebody else could get hurt."

The family, who live in nearby Chatcombe Drive, walk down Leckhampton Close every day to take Ellie to-and-from school.

"It amazes me that they know about it, but still nothing has been done," said Mr Freear.

A spokesman for the council said as soon as such a fault is reported it is passed on to the relevant council department or handed on to the correct water company - in this case Severn Trent. It may be the case that Mrs Freear's call was the first they heard about it.

After being contacted by the Worcester News on Tuesday afternoon, Severn Trent sent out a workman to look at the drain and they have now replaced the faulty cover.