A second sinkhole has opened on Fanthorpe Street within the space of a year, this time with Thames Water called in alongside Wandsworth Council.
The hole is about a foot across and goes down a foot or more. Stuck in the middle of the road, residents worried about a car getting stuck in it until one neighbour fetched a traffic cone from their house to alert drivers. By mid-morning the council arrived and the road was shut.
Paul Clements, who lives on the street, told Putney.news that a very similar hole had opened in almost the same spot a year ago, roughly ten metres down the road, and prevented access to the road for a week until the council was able to mend it. Wandsworth treats any 40mm drop in a road surface as a dangerous defect needing urgent repair.
Thames Water attended the site alongside council officers, raising the strong likelihood that the cause is a water main rather than the road surface itself. We have asked both what was behind the collapse, or whether it is connected to the hole that appeared last year. We have yet to receive a response.
We also asked both Wandsworth Council and Thames Water whether they hold any record of a defect on Fanthorpe Street from around a year ago, and what is being done to establish the cause of the current one. Again, no response.
What to do if you spot something similar
Wandsworth treats a 40mm drop in a road surface, a little over an inch and a half, or roughly the size of a ping-poing ball, as a dangerous defect that should be reported and fixed urgently. Faults can be reported through the council’s website.
The road remains closed while the cause is established and the road patched. Again.
