One sinkhole saga has its fill – while the other’s growing
THE epic Macclesfield sinkholes saga has taken yet another twist - one is now filled in and the other is growing tomatoes.
Work on the hole at Ryle Street was finally completed by East Cheshire Council this week after the adjacent house it had made dangerous was demolished.
But the ‘crater’ on nearby Hobson Street is still as large as ever and, with work ground to halt, it has tomato plants sprouting in it.
This sinkhole has been in situ around a year with no known end in site and it is believed at some point seeds have blown in and taken root.
In total the long-running palaver has been ongoing for around two and a half years - and counting.
Ally Burrows, 51, who lives nearby, said: “It is ludicrous and it is the residents who are suffering.
“This could have been fixed but so much time and money has been spent arguing who is responsible.
”The one on Hobson Street is a complete crater and has tomatoes growing out of it. All the neighbours have seen them growing and identified them. The site is now shut down with no plan to fix it, they’ve moved the diggers and the toilet off site.”
To recap a complicated story, a sinkhole appeared on Ryle Street in 2018 and made the house next it unsafe.
Its owners had to move out and a lengthy legal negotiation between the council and an insurance company took place before the home could be knocked down.
This allowed the sinkhole to be repaired this week and the site of the house was levelled off. In the meantime another sinkhole appeared on Hobson Street in early 2020 and a decision taken that this could not be repaired until the Ryle Street one was sorted.
The cause of all this is believed to be a culvert that has become blocked. Other complications include that the site is near a large underground gas main.
Now it has been decided further investigations need to be undertaken before work can start at Hobson Street and residents have not been told how long this will take.
They are also asking if the whole mess could have been avoided if the culvert had been better monitored and maintained.
Cheshire East Council has previously said work involves the installation of new manholes at both sites, culvert investigation and carriageway repair.
Its website says the issue has been ‘an extremely complex piece of work which involved a great deal of coordination with National Grid Gas and United Utilities’.
Councillor Laura Crane, who is the cabinet member for highways and waste, said: “We fully understand the frustration felt by the residents of Hobson Street and we are grateful to them for their understanding and forbearance.
“We have completed the work required in neighbouring Ryle Street but the situation in Hobson Street continues to present challenges which require wider investigation work than first anticipated.
“We intend to keep residents informed and we will update the council’s dedicated web page for this particular project.
“We hope to be able to give residents a fuller picture of the situation in the very near future.”