Major update on work to fill sinkhole after residents evacuated and car left teetering over the edge
Work to fill in the sinkhole which appeared in the driveway of a home on a new-build estate in Darwen in September will begin on Monday.
The start date was revealed after councillors approved a planning application for the remediation of the void in Green Field on Thursday night.
They also approved a new temporary access road on Tilia Homes’ Taylor’s Green development to allow the work to go ahead.
Initially, six homes were evacuated when the hole opened up outside 4 and 6 Greenfield, off Pole Lane.
Three families remain evacuated and are being put up in temporary rented accommodation by the housing developer.
On Thursday night Harry Russell from Tilia Homes agent Lichfields outlined progress on sorting the sinkhole to Blackburn with Darwen Council’s planning and highways committee.
He told Ewood ward’s Cllr Jim Casey: “Work will start next week.
“We are committed to getting the families back into their homes at the earliest possible date.”
Mining Remediation Authority (MRA) has estimated that the sinkhole could be 100 feet (30 metres) deep, roughly the height of a 10-storey building.
The meeting approved remediation works including mobilisation and set up of drilling rigs, drilling platform and grout plant; drilling of mineworkings treatment boreholes to the required depth; grouting of encountered workings where required; monitoring for hazardous gas during drilling and grouting works; grout acceptance tests; probing to confirm shaft location and diameter; and, shaft drilling, filling and grouting to the depth specified.
It also authorised that following the filling and grouting of the hole a reinforced concrete cap should be added.
Following the meeting a Tilia Homes spokeswoman said: “Remediation works are scheduled to begin on Monday February 23.
“Tilia Homes will also begin reinstating the footpath for pedestrian use only, with permission now granted for the temporary access road.
“Thursday’s decision marks an important step forward in the remediation of the hole at Taylors Green and in supporting displaced residents as they move closer to returning home.
“With planning permission now in place, we will move ahead with the remediation works as soon as possible.”
Conservative planning spokesman Cllr Paul Marrow questioned why the housing development was allowed to go ahead when there were already concerns about possible unmapped coal mines in the area.
Borough planning manager Gavin Prescott said the collapse was not thought to be connected to coal mining but sandstone quarrying.
The council’s growth spokesman Cllr Quesir Mahmood objected to Cllr Marrow’s ‘insinuation’ that proper checks had not been made before planning permission for the housing estate had been granted.
And he praised Tilia Homes for its ‘excellent response’ to the collapse – a view echoed by Darwen South ward’s Cllr Anhtony Shaw who said he now expected to see a ‘permanent and effective solution’ to the problem.
Committee chairman and Darwen West ward’s Cllr Dave Smith said he understood the collapse could have been caused by flag quarrying more normally associated with land to the east of the town.