EAGLE-EYED children in Cae Mawr Road in Caldicot reported a dangerous open storm drain to resident Christine Mayo and her husband on Sunday, but no-one seems to want to sort the problem out.

Mrs Mayo contacted the Review and said: “We were approached by two small children who asked for our help in telling someone about the dangerous hole. It was in the grassy area by the car park, so we had a look and saw that it was an open storm drain and the surrounding metal area had fallen to the bottom completely. The hole was about 12 feet deep and two and a half feet wide. It was too dangerous to just walk away from and our concern was that when it became dark someone could fall down it.”

Mrs Mayo called the police non-emergency number and was cut off before she could speak to someone. She rang the emergency number for Welsh Water and was told it was not their responsibility.

She said: “I phoned the police emergency number hoping that someone would take this seriously and point me in the right direction as to who to contact. They told me to try the council. I rang Monmouthshire County Council and was given an emergency number. I rang this number and was told by the man on the other end of the phone that this was not his concern it was Welsh Water.

“He was quite rude and asked me what I was doing in the car park. I told him not to speak to me in that tone and to send someone out before a child is dead at the bottom of the hole. I am appalled to think that nobody thinks that an open storm drain is not an emergency. Surely it is better to do something before someone dies; the children who had the sense to tell an adult obviously have more sense than the services I contacted.”

Eventually she enlisted the help of a neighbour who covered the hole with a garden gate. She returned on Monday morning to see if warning signs or a secure cover had been put in place but said that there had not.

Welsh Water told the Review that it would send someone out to look at the drain straight away.