Council takes action on dangerous sink hole in Mansfield street

Eagle-eyed councillor Stephen Garner reported the sink hole, which is on Hall Street, near Racecourse Park, to the highways department of Nottinghamshire County Council.

He felt it could be dangerous and hoped the council could put barriers around it and block off the road before carrying out repairs.

Now Coun Garner says the council has taken action, and is expected to undertake work on the road in the coming weeks “after the sink hole has settled down”.

Gary Wood, the council’s head of highways and transport, said: “Our highways inspector attended reports of a collapse in the road surface on Hall Street, Mansfield.

"Our incident response team has now been out on site to put up barriers and make the area safe.

"We have referred the incident to Severn Trent Water to investigate further and establish the cause of the collapse.”

Coun Garner, who represents Mansfield South on the county council and the Racecourse ward on Mansfield District Council as an Independent, alerted drivers by posting photos of the sink hole on Facebook.

In response, he received a host of comments from residents urging drivers to be careful and demanding repair work.

Zoe Crookes said: “I hit this the other day and went with a right bang. It can’t be seen until it’s too late.”

Michael Tucker said: “It needs blocking off straight away.” And Kimberlie Fletcher asked: “Is something going to be done about it?”

Carl Palmer commented: “Hope somebody fences it off. Given the close proximity to a manhole, it could be services or drains related.”

Other posts revealed that sink holes had also emerged on Barringer Road and Nursery Court in Mansfield.

Mystery surrounds the cause of sink holes in the area. Coun Garner remembers there were many in the 1970s and 1980s, all connected to the mining industry.

Nowadays they are more likely to be triggered by leaking drainage pipes or burst water mains. A decline of water levels can create a void underneath the road surface.