Residents' lives 'ruined' by giant four-foot sink hole in Stoke-on-Trent for over two years

Residents say their home life has been 'ruined' due to a giant sinkhole that has closed the only road onto their estate for more than two years.The closure of Boatman Drive, in Etruria, means 50 residents have to compete for five parking spaces on a nearby street.They've called for the road to finally be repaired so that emergency service vehicles can access their streets, delivery vehicles can park outside their homes and they can use their drives and garages.Stoke-on-Trent City Council, developer Redrow and Severn Trent remain in dispute over the four-foot chasm.

One nearby resident said he's been able to sell his home due to the sinkhole.

Sridhar Madadi said: "I'm worried about what would happen in a fire or emergency.""The ambulance was called here due to a resident having a heart attack and they had to park their ambulance at the road closure and run across the road with a stretcher to find the property as they can't drive on to the estate.

"They had to push the stretcher all around the road, there's no privacy for the patient out in the street."We have seen rats running out of the sinkhole and there have been a lot of smells. The smell was so bad in the summer I had to report it to Severn Trent."Sridhar has also seen other areas of subsidence on the estate including in a garden of another property on Boatman Drive.Carol Vince has fibromyalgia, spondylosis, osteoarthritis and diabetes, but has to park on Etruscan Street due to the road closure.The 66-year-old, of Waterlily Close, said: "I suffer from fibromyalgia, spondylosis, osteoarthritis and diabetes and when we moved here we had to park the moving van on the main road and carry everything over."There are a lot of families on the estate who have children with disabilities. One of them has breathing apparatus and to see them struggle walking from their house with their oxygen tanks around the estate is not very nice."Robert Wilson, managing director for Redrow Midlands, said: "We are calling on Severn Trent Water to step forward and at least attend a meeting to try and resolve this distressing issue for residents.Meanwhile, Stoke City Council say they understand the frustration residents share.

"Our primary concern from the start has been to protect the safety of residents and the public and that is why we took the difficult but reasonable and proportionate decision to close part of the road by making a temporary traffic regulation order.""All emergency services were consulted on the road closure and remain supportive of the decision. The closure is flagged on their computer systems and they’ve confirmed it has no impact on their response to incidents."A Severn Trent spokesman said: "We’re really saddened to hear about the issues residents on the Boatman Drive estate have been experiencing, and since 2018 we’ve been carrying out extensive investigations on our network to help understand the cause of theproblems."Despite not being responsible for the issues on the estate, we do fully understand how distressing this is for the homeowners, which is why we’ll be happy to support where possible and work with those involved while they find a solution."

Those living on the street say they're still awaiting a solution.