Construction has been halted on a new 300-home estate in a village after the works caused a neighbouring street to collapse.
Locals living in George Street, in Huthwaite, Nottinghamshire, woke to find their gardens had sunk when vibrations from diggers working in nearby Ashland Road West caused cracks to open up in the ground.
The street has partially collapsed with photos showing ‘apocalyptical damage’ with mounds of earth and crumpled turf.
Homeowners are living in fear and are too scared to go near the devastation in their gardens. One pensioner said they had seen cracks forming and growing in the ground ever since workers started digging up a bank with neighbours sounding warnings to the developers.
Ashberry House – a sister company of Bellway Homes – has investigated the ‘earth movement’ and says it was exacerbated but recent heavy rainfall. Measures have been put in place to restrict any further movement and work is being mooted to restart ‘imminently’.
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Locals living in George Street, in Huthwaite, Nottinghamshire, woke to find their gardens had sunk when vibrations from diggers working in nearby Ashland Road West caused cracks to open up in the ground
The street has partially collapsed with photos showing ‘apocalyptical damage’ with mounds of earth and crumpled turf
Susan Tighe, 81, woke up last Thursday to find a chasm forming in her garden.
She said her lawn started sinking into the ground over the next few days.
‘They’ve been digging at the bank [to the back of the garden] and the vibrations have caused this all to happen,’ she said.
‘I could just see a crack in the ground – ever since it has been growing and growing and we can’t make it stop.
‘They have had to stop work on the section now, but they had been warned many times.’
On the damage caused to her property, Ms Tighe added: ‘It’s scary and I am not going anywhere near it, but it will have to be fixed by them so I’m not too worried.’
The homeowner explained she had been told local councillors were meeting representatives of Bellway Homes soon to discuss the issue.
Now locals at another nearby street in Norwood Close fear their gardens could also be damaged by the works.
John Whitehead, 70, said: ‘We are very concerned because they have dug 20 feet down at the bottom of our garden and we are extremely worried it might happen to us next.
‘They were digging last week and my wall clock was vibrating, so I’m worried it might have done damage to my house. We do not want a landslide like in Mansfield a few years ago and that is the fear at the moment.’
Mr Whitehead, who explained he had been fighting against Bellway’s development for more than five years, added: ‘We’ve warned Bellway and the council but nobody seems to be interested, we need a site visit from everyone now to sort this out.’
Mr Whitehead’s anxiety was echoed by his neighbour Alan Allwood, who felt the relationship between the new estate’s builders and existing residents ‘really could not get any worse’.
‘The neighbourhood is very concerned as it is a very serious situation,’ the 77-year-old said.
‘They have cut into the Norwood bank near me by about 10-12 feet and because of what has happened on other streets we are now quite concerned that the bottoms of our gardens are going to fall away.
‘This is predominantly a street with lots of retired people who have had to put up with dust, noise and vibrations for most of the day up to now – but this is too much.’
Calling on both Bellway and Ashfield District Council to listen to locals’ concerns and warnings, Mr Allwood added: ‘We just want somebody to fight our corner.’
Residents had vehemently fought against the development on the former farmland for years before any work started.
But in December 2021 a government-appointed Planning Inspector overturned Ashfield District Council’s and allowed construction to proceed.
Councillor Jason Zadrozny, leader of Ashfield District Council, claimed the fault partially lay with the Government’s planning officials for approving the development and explained an emergency meeting had been arranged over the ‘apocalyptical’ damage.
Residents had vehemently fought against the development on the former farmland for years before any work started
‘Ashfield Independent Councillors turned down this application on multiple occasions because we warned this would happen,’ Mr Zadrozny said.
‘Conservative government appointed Planning Inspector overturned our decision and this is the result. All work has now been suspended as residents are seeing significant damage to their properties with gardens subsiding, roads and pavements collapsing and more.
‘Officers and local councillors are holding an emergency meeting with developers this afternoon to discuss a way forward. The massive, apocalyptical conditions caused by developers are why there needs to be a wholesale review of planning law.’
A statement from Ashberry Homes, a sister brand to Bellway Homes, read: ‘Ashberry Homes has been made aware that there was some earth movement at the western boundary of the Sutton-in-Ashfield site over the weekend.
‘Some of this movement has been identified as historic, while other parts have been identified as occurring more recently within the site boundary.
‘We have investigated the root cause of the issue and determined that heavy rain over the weekend has exacerbated this problem.
‘We have now put temporary measures in place to restrict any further movement and planned works to the area in question will be starting imminently to provide a permanent retaining structure along this boundary.’
The housing firm previously halted preparation works on the site in March after neighbours complained of being kept awake by diggers.
MailOnline has contacted Bellway Homes for further comment.