CHILDREN and residents in Lamerton had a lucky escape last Friday morning, after a telegraph pole came down outside the village primary school. The pole, bearing British Telecom and electricity wires, ended up at a 45 degree angle across the road, held up only by the cables. Mike Jefferies, chairman of Lamerton Parish Council, said he was horrified at the condition of the pole ? and the resulting health and safety implications. He said: ?The pole is totally rotten right the way through at the stump ? it literally gave way at the base. ?It wasn?t blown down, it?s just rotted away and I think it?s very serious as far as the safety issues are concerned. ?It?s right next to the school ? if it had fallen the other way it would have gone right across the school playground. It was just fortunate that it fell the way it did.? Mr Jefferies, who lives near the school, said the pole fell just after 6am, when the road was quiet ? just a few hours later, the area would have been busy with cars and parents bringing their children to school. He said he was concerned about the procedures for checking and maintaining telegraph poles ? particularly if they were situated in potentially sensitive areas, like beside a school playground. Ann Mitchell, headteacher at Lamerton, said she had been told the telegraph pole, situated on the boundary of the school grounds, had been labelled as requiring replacement within a year. Mrs Mitchell said: ?If it needed to be replaced, then quite honestly if it?s on the borders of a school, I feel it should have been replaced immediately. ?If it had fallen the other way it probably would have leant against the fence, but there was a risk ? it could have electrified the wire netting, so it was quite a serious incident. I?m just concerned it was rotten ? and they hadn?t fixed it.? When telegraph poles have a shared use, it is the responsibility of the electricity company to maintain and replace them, rather than BT. A spokesperson for Western Power Distribution said: ?Our poles are subject to an annual rolling maintenance programme ? this particular pole was due for replacement this year. ?We immediately sent a team out to replace it once it was reported ? this type of thing is a very rare occurrence.? The spokesperson said the pole could not have been totally rotten, because the cables would not have been strong enough to support its weight.