Criticism after major rescue operation launched to rescue rook from rooftop

Emergency services have been criticised after a busy street was put on lock-down by dozens of police officers and fire fighters to rescue a rook from rooftop. Two police cars, a rapid response vehicle and two fire engines, complete with a cherry picker, were involved in the dramatic rescue of the rook which was trapped on a roof on Monday. Emergency crews were called to the rescue after a passing church worker spotted the stricken corvid had trapped its foot in netting on a roof in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.



Ironically, the netting is put on roofs to stop birds roosting or nesting. The busy route was closed during the hour-long rescue while firefighters retrieved the bird before taking it to a rescue centre. Claire Sandys, PA to the vicar at Trinity Church, said: "It wasn't nice watching this poor bird suffer on the rooftop over the road from our window. "It seemed so sad to leave him there - so I just let the RSPCA know. After all, it is one of God's creatures."



Tom Wheatly said: "So it takes two fire engines and two police cars to rescue one bird from the roof of a three story building in the middle of Cheltenham. Two fire engines and two police cars when human beings die from ambulances not getting there in time." A spokesman from Gloucestershire Police said he did not know how many officers attended or how much the call out would have cost. He said: "They [the fire service] only asked us to close the road. The fire engine they were using, it would have blocked it [the road]."



When asked for the average cost of a call out of this nature, he said: "There are so many variables, it is impossible to say." Dave Hornibrook, of Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service, said: "Whenever undertaking a rescue of this nature we can redirect crews to a more serious incident." Staff at Vale Wildlife Rescue centre, in Beckford, Gloucestershire, said the bird was recovering and "in good spirits". A spokesman said: "He isn't eating as much as we would like, but that is not unusual because being in captivity is quite stressful. But he is looking quite bright."