Water firm pay over demolition

By JaMeS MUlHollaND A COUPLE whose home was demolished after a sinkhole appeared in their garden have been awarded £220,000 in compensation.

David O’Connor and Susan Docherty received the sum after suing Scottish Water at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

The pair claimed the company didn’t do enough to prevent the void from opening at their property in December 2013 in Calton, Glasgow.

They claimed Scottish Water should have done more to ensure the structural integrity of a manhole close to their house.

Lawyers for the couple argued that a water main near their home burst in December 2008.

The escaped liquid damaged the structural support for a nearby sewer and a manhole, causing the sinkhole to appear five years later.

Lawyers for Scottish Water claimed the leak didn’t contribute to the appearance of the sinkhole and that they had done everything in their power. They argued, instead, that there had been heavy rainfall in the area prior to the sinkhole appearing, and suggested the more likely cause of the collapse was the poor quality of the land in the area.

But in a judgment published at the court on Friday, judge Lady Wolffe ruled in favour of the couple, who were forced to move because the sinkhole made their property uninhabitable.

Lady Wolffe’s judgment tells how the couple led evidence from an expert called Neil Smith.

He concluded that water which had escaped from the mains caused the structure around the manhole and sewer to be undermined.

She said the evidence showed that the leak in 2008 contributed to the sinkhole in 2013.