A QUICK-THINKING traffic warden helped save a toddler from plunging 15ft from a roof in west Reading.

Civil Enforcement Officer (CEO) Craig Weston was doing his rounds in Oxford Road at around 3.30pm on Saturday when he was alerted to a three-and-a-half-year-old boy in a nappy walking along the top of the Christian Community Action (CCA) shop.

With his heart in his mouth, Mr Weston ran across the road and tried to talk the boy into stopping, but the child kept on walking.

The 43-year-old positioned himself below the shop in case the toddler fell, but disaster was averted when a member of the public climbed a nearby drainpipe and grabbed the child while Mr Weston borrowed a ladder from a nearby van driver to get them down.

Mr Weston, who has been a CEO in Reading for 10 months, told The Chronicle his first thoughts were shock and fear for the boy as he walked along the roof above the shop sign 15 feet from the ground.

He said: “He was in a very, very vulnerable position. I stopped underneath and hoped if he fell I’d be able to catch him. I thought it was inevitable he was going to fall.

“But the man was up there like a shot and secured the child. I saw a scaffold truck driving down the road and flagged him down, got the ladder and they both came down safely.”

Once the boy was safely rescued, his father came out of his flat, above the shop, and the pair were reunited.

Mr Weston works for NSL, which carries out parking enforcement for Reading Borough Council, and deputy leader, councillor Tony Page, congratulated Mr Weston for his quick thinking.

He said: “The council’s team of traffic wardens do not always receive the best publicity, but in this instance his actions helped to bring this toddler down from the roof safely.”

Mr Weston, from Wokingham, said it was nice to be recognised for something other than handing out parking tickets, but added traffic wardens do a lot of work not seen by the public.

He thanked the unknown rescuer for climbing up the drainpipe and said: “He did an amazing. I would like to thank him for the help he gave me.”