As new councillors taking on the challenge of Ryle Street and Hobson Street sinkholes which have plagued residents for over a year now has been a massive learning curve.

Even the Leader of the Council Sam Corcoran has described as the "most complex issue he's seen as a councillor".

Residents are understandably and justifiably frustrated at the apparent lack of progress. However, in the background, Liz and I have been tirelessly dealing with the issue on the behalf of the residents, and council officers have been extremely busy dealing with the extraordinary complex issue which revolves around private property and "riparian rights".

There is an old culverted watercourse from South Park pond sluice through and under the properties Hobson Street and Ryle Street. Where a culverted watercourse runs under private property the owner of that property is responsible for the repair of the watercourse through "riparian rights".

This culvert has been damaged somewhere along the course and eroded under the highway, over what we can assume is many years before the sinkholes appeared.

The council is responsible for the public highway and has gone as far as they can go with the repair until the private property issues have been resolved, which would then allow for full inspection and completion of the works.

This process is now tied up in litigation and so specific details can not be provided.

For our part as well as keeping those residents which have contacted us directly up to date as much as possible, we have been pushing for the Council to inform residents as much as they can, we've been pushing for letter drops which have been hindered due to COVID and contact spreading but we hope will proceed soon.

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In the meantime, the council have set up a webpage where residents can be updated with any progress.