Hole in West St Helen's Street, Abingdon

11.17.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 10th Sep 2008

A hole that suddenly developed in West St Helen's Street, Abingdon on Saturday evening led to the immediate closure of the road for safety reasons after local councillor, Lesley Legge, rang Oxfordshire Highways after being contacted by a resident. "When I visited at about 9pm," said Lesley, "I was surprised to see such an enormous hole. I am very grateful to the highway authorities in acting so quickly to cordon it off."

It has been established that a damaged underground culvert is the cause of the problem, and a sewer pipe has also been damaged. Thames Water is now carrying out repairs to the sewers. It is not clear which authority has responsibility for the culvert. Until the investigations are complete, it is not known how long the road will need to remain closed. West St Helen's Street is closed between East St Helen's Street and Lombard Street with access for residents and the St Edmund's Lane car park only.

Lesley said, "I have been speaking to the Cabinet member for Transport to urge that disruptions are reduced as much as possible while this emergency is dealt with. Abingdon is such a historic town and this is one of the oldest streets so there may well be some hidden history below the surface which has caused this. I hope that Oxfordshire Highways continue to act as quickly as they did on Saturday to find a speedy solution so that the road can be repaired and re-opened."

Update: Thames Water finished work to repair the hole and culvert on 16th September. Oxfordshire County Council took the opportunity to repair sections of adjacent road whilst Thames Water was working on the hole .