Giant sinkhole opens up in middle of road

PROMISES have been made to repair a huge sinkhole which has blighted a busy road in Barwell.

However, no timescale has been set for completion of works to the crater which has appeared on The Common and caused its closure.

Complications with removing various utility pipes are delaying Severn Trent from fixing damage to a sewer - the source of the sinkhole.

Until this can be done the water company is draining waste from the sewer into tankers for removal to prevent services being interrupt- ed.

The fissure was reported to Leicestershire County Council as the highways agency on Friday July 7 by parish and borough councillor Russ Roberts.

He had been concerned over the state of roads and the effectiveness of pothole repairs.

Investigations led to the hole being linked to the undermining of a sewer pipe caused by damage to other utility channels.

A spokesman for Severn Trent said: “Our teams have been working on a damaged sewer pipe under The Common in Barwell and have found that the damage to the pipe was caused by other utility pipes in the area with the damage also leading to our pipe being undermined.

“Before we can fix our pipe the other utility pipes have to be moved.

“In the meantime we’re closely monitoring the area and using tankers to make sure the local waste services are not affected for customers.

“We’re really sorry for any inconvenience but to keep our teams and other road users safe we’ve had to close the road.”

He added“When the other pipe has been moved our priority will be to fix our pipe and return everything back to normal as quickly as possible.”