A volunteer escaped death after sending his pickaxe through an electrical cable buried in the ground while planting trees.

Barry Manners felt an explosive pulse of electricity jolt through his body after raining down on the 450-kilowatt cable in the Thanet council-owned Northdown Park, Cliftonville.

Mr Manners believes his thick rubber soles protected him from electrocution during the accident which, he believes, came from a misunderstanding with the authority over health and safety.

Now, Mr Manners has spoken out about the mix-up to help ensure others do not suffer in similar ways.

When Thanet District Council granted Mr Manners and the Botany Bay community group permission to carry out the works earlier this year, his group was unclear on how to safely survey the land.

Describing the harrowing moment electricity coursed through his arm and down his leg, he said: “It left me recoiling back and I dropped the pickaxe – then there was a puff of black smoke.

“So I recognised fairly immediately that something had gone wrong, presumably electricity.

“It was painful. I mean it was a big high-voltage, three-phase electric cable.

“I asked volunteers to clear the site and called the fire brigade.”

When crews arrived, they insisted an ambulance was called, as he was suffering from aching numbness in his arm and chest pain.

Mr Manners was wearing working boots with thick rubber soles, and the pickaxe had a rubber handle.

Had this not been the case, he believes the outcome could have been very different.

“I’m extremely lucky. It could have been fatal,” he said.

Mr Manners, a Conservative councillor for Cliftonville East, was working with the Botany Bay community group, helping plant trees on the council-owned land, at the time of the accident last Saturday.

He told KentOnline he believed the relevant surveys had been carried out to ensure the work was safe however, due to a misunderstanding this was not the case.

“I was checked up at QEQM and had an ECG and bloods, and fortunately I’m okay,” he said.

“But I've had some nausea and a metallic taste in my mouth.

“I’m still feeling a bit weak and tired.

“The advice from the doctor is to rest and drink lots of fluids for a while.”

Now, he wants to ensure a similar thing does not happen to another volunteer trying to make their area a better place.

Mr Manners claims the district council told the community group to carry out its own risk assesment on the land.

He says they then paid £120 for the work, which included a surveryors fee, but unbeknown to them did not cover the relevant survey designed to find underground cabling.

He claims the council did not give the group correct guidance which meant they did not know to check for underground wires.

Mr Manners continued: “My principle concern now is to make sure that we've got proper procedures in place to keep volunteers safe, but also to encourage more participation of people working on public lands.

“You do have to have checks and balances and there does have to be a robust procedure that makes sure that things are done properly and safely.

“But that isn't what's happened here. Something has fallen through the cracks. I think we need to learn from that.

“If you're going to have community groups working on council land I think the idea of making them entirely responsible for every aspect of the planning is ridiculous.

“What was I meant to check for on that risk assessment?

“At what point is it unreasonable to dump that onto a group of volunteers who are just trying to plant some trees?

“The council should be trying to help volunteers, not making their jobs harder.”

Fellow councillor Cedric Towning witnessed the incident and spoke to UKPN staff who came to make the cable safe.

He told KentOnline: “They said Barry would not be speaking to us today had he not been wearing his rubber boots and holding the rubber handle. He is a very lucky man.

“I fail to understand why we had not been told the cable was there.

“The scan to find them takes minutes and they showed me where the cable was.

“This isn’t about looking for someone to get the chop, but about finding a way going forward to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

TDC’s staff will now carry on planting the young fruit trees themselves while an investigation is underway.

A spokesman for the authority said: "We support a number of volunteer groups who choose to offer their time to various projects in the district. The contribution of these volunteers is greatly appreciated.

“We have been made aware of the incident involving a volunteer at Northdown Park. An internal investigation is ongoing."