Praise for policeman who helped distressed Wirral child home in snowstorm


A Wirral school police officer went above and beyond the call of duty when he assisted an 11-year-boy to get home after being caught in the snow storm by Wallasey School on Tuesday.

Constable Martin Ford, one of seven dedicated officers working with Wirral schools, had just finished duty when he noticed Sam Percy-Lloyd, a year seven pupil, standing in a state of distress at a bus stop near to his school.

Merseyside Police had been issuing severe weather warnings due to the snow and icy conditions on the roads and pavements with many bus services cancelled and roads gridlocked with heavy traffic.

Constable Ford said: "My colleagues and I had been helping the school to get the pupils back home safely. "I had just come off duty at 4.15pm and was in my own car driving home when I saw Sam looking upset standing at the bus stop so offered to give him a lift home.

"It took me two hours in the bad weather to get back home but it was worth it to make sure that Sam got home safely."

Sams' parents Des Percy and Mary Lloyd have praised Cons Ford's actions in helping their son to safety in the bad weather.

Mr Percy said: "I want to thank PC Ford and the school for helping Sam. PC Ford's kind actions are very much appreciated."

Ms Lloyd added: "It was really good of him. I am really pleased that we have someone like PC Ford working with the school."

Wallasey School is one of many across Merseyside currently affected by the adverse weather conditions.

Head teacher Phil Duffy said: "We were managing the very difficult situation on Tuesday of releasing 1,100 youngsters out of school.

"It was typical of the superb staff that we have that they offered and were willng to run children home via our minibuses and their own cars to ensure children got home safely.

"We have had several grateful emails from parents and we would like to thank PC Ford in particular.

"He was on his way home when he saw a child waiting at a bus stop so initially brought him back to the school where we could make some checks and then took him home.

"It was quite typical of him to do something like this and it is great to have him on board as our school officer."

THE GLOBE

The child may well have known PC Ford, but it does no harm to remind children not to get in just any car, whether a snow storm or not.

Was it 'above and beyond'? I would've done the same.

God forbid that one of the parents makes sure he gets home from school.

The kid (sweet lad )is not known to the police but the mum may well be.

If the school had of rang and told all parents the school was shutting due to the weather getting worse the parents could of arranged for their child/children to be picked up!
my son was let out of school with only a bus pass on him he was stranded at the bus stop no buses as they had stopped, no way of getting in touch with me, he goes back into school to ask the reception if he can phone home to be told the school is close he has to leave. By chance his form teacher was driving past on her way home she stop and asked him and 2 others if they can get home so she dropped each of them off where is her prase!. I will be coming down hard on the school when it open's again it is an outrage that they let the kids go without informing the parents.

Maybe it was sams mum who contacted the globe to tell them. She did that a couple of years back when one of her kids bikes got robbed-somebody gave her one and they were in the paper the following week too.

Theres probably hundreds of unsung heroes all over the wirral.

That is appaling. Surely they can't just let young kids out to make their own way home without informing their parents?

They did and I'm very angry about it

speaking of unsung hereos my partner works at arrow park and says the ambulance crews are working incredible hard, so much so that they delivered a baby on the m53 motorway, what about the nurses doing home visits still. My girlfriend left her car in work ran home 6 mile in the snow and ran back the following morning to make sure she was available for work.
Two staff walked from the three stags in wellingtons borrowed from surgery.

Heart warming story. bet there will be loads in the letter pages of the local rags next week.

I want to give a shout out to the those who are popping in the Globe and the News into my door. Even with all this snow and ice they still deliver. Shame the Postman can't take a leaf out of their book considering the huge difference in wages!

The foreign shite food leaflets haven't stopped neither, but there getting no praise from me because there just a fookin nuisance.

Im still not sure it was the council that failed to prepare - more that everyone couldnt deal with what happened.

Look at Northern Europe / Northern America - you dont see lovely clear roads there - people can be bothered to deal with it and get on with it. Here, I just dont think anyone can be arsed dealing with the situation and when they try they just fook it all up with stupidity and impatience.

It doesn't snow here often enough to warrant buying chains etc etc where as those places you mentioned chew its always crappy weather time.

TBH chains are becoming less and less common due to the damage they do to the roads.

Most countrys use winter / summer tyres, or a compramise on an "All Season Tyre" In Germany its been law since 2006, and you get fined / points for using a summer tyre in winter conditions and vice versa...

Yer different thing chew but same point.....we just dont get enough snow to warrent buying snow tyres of any for. Typical brittish attitude - wait till the shit hits the fan then deal with it.

The Germans have loads of good rules, everyone has to clear snow from outside their own premises, no lorries on the roads on Sundays, no washing out on Sundays, no lawn mowers on Sundays. There is no such thing as an accident, someone is always to blame. If you are dying for a P you can go somewhere discreet and so long as you are not waving it about you are ok. All we need in this country is the can-do attitude instead of the boo-hoo I can't do it mentality. It needs people to help each other too instead of just walking past and watching them struggle, look out for each other.

I agree with that Bandy, we should look out for each other and that means no moaning when its dangerous for certain services to be carried out. Now, when should we march on Poland.

I sometimes wish hitler won the war. Why did he start killing the jews, he was doing ok before that.

I think Andy really does long for Blue eyes and Blond hair.

Is that a giant fishing, or an ordinary bloke with a little tiny fish? You can't tell from the photo because there is nothing to guage the scale on.

The former, Bandy