A woman today criticised authorities for not acting swiftly to fill in a dangerous well which almost claimed the life of her dog.

German Shepherd Inca spent six hours yelping for help and trying desperately not to drown after tumbling into the 6ft deep pit.

Fortunately her Pitsea owner, Jill Taverner, managed to rescue her in the nick of time - but is furious that three days later the well was still uncovered.

Jill, of Trenham Avenue, said: "Supposing a child had fallen down there? I have no doubt they would have drowned."

The drama unfolded after two and a half year old Inca darted into woodland at the bottom of Trenham Avenue.

At first Jill didn't realise what had happened but when it became clear Inca wasn't in the house or garden, she launched a search.

As she approached the woods she heard terrified whimpers. Jill, 51, said: "The well had at least 6ft of water in it and Inca was yelping.

"It took three of us to get her out but luckily she had a collar on so we could reach her quite easily.

"Once she was out we could see her nails were completely gone where she had been trying to climb up the sides."

Jill immediately called Basildon Council so work could begin to fill the hole.

But officers initially told her it wasn't their responsibility because the land belonged to Chalvedon football club. However, when Jill contacted the club, staff insisted the authority had got it wrong and should have taken action.

Jill said: "In the meantime I boarded the well up on two sides and put bollards around it so people knew it was there.

"Someone else could easily have fall into it. I just think the council should have done something straight after I told them about it."

Last night the well had been covered, but only with a few planks of wood.

Jill said: "It's made the situation worse because it's still unsafe and now people don't know what is underneath."

A council spokesman said: "After a few attempts to locate the well we made temporary arrangements to make it safe. We will be returning today to completely fill it in".

Lucky dog - Jill rescued Inca from the well, temporarily covered over

Picture: ROBIN WOOSEY

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.