Our street has turned into a car park after landslide BLOCKED the road… we’re trapped in our driveways & have to walk
A SWANKY street has turned into a car park after a landslide blocked the road, leaving residents trapped in their driveways.
A set of posh new-build houses have been cut off by tonnes of mud and rubble which has seen them unable to use their cars for almost a month.
The locals from Haden Cross Drive in Cradley Heath, West Midlands, have to park up to 100 metres from their front doors.
The properties look out on a steep wooded area where a ‘criblock wall’ was built to keep the earth at bay.
But they soon started noticing parts of the wall had begun bending forwards under the weight of the hillside.
In March, part of it collapsed onto the road, blocking off several houses on the cul-de-sac.
Developers Dunedin Homes & Development, quickly cleared the rubble, bringing in 150 giant sandbags to stabilise the situation.
But in the December storms, that was all washed away and tonnes of hillside fell across the road touching the pavements and coming within a few feet of the houses themselves.
Since then, the households have been plunged into a nightmare – unable to drive past the disaster and having to park nearby and carry shopping and young children past the disaster every time they leave their homes.
Sandra Whittall, 77, who moved into one of the detached properties when they were built four years ago, said: “I feel devastated by what has happened because it has ruined everybody’s lives around here.
“We had been trying to move because of the other problems with this estate – the lack of lighting, the trip hazards everywhere, the fact it was never finished properly, but now there is no chance of selling.
“People can’t even access their own homes properly,” she explained.
The retired company manager added: “The situation now is just chaos and the developer is doing nothing about it whatsoever.
“We would never have moved in had we known.”
Residents say they are in a nightmare because the road still belongs to the developer and has not yet been adopted by the local Sandwell Council.
And it seems that no one is taking responsibility for the landslip that has marooned them.
“There is an argument between the developers and the company that built the wall,” said Reece Aleksander, 33, whose home sits next to the collapsed wall.
Reece, an engineer, said that a bigger incline to the road and fewer houses would have been better.
“This is an old mining area,” he added.
“The houses are beautiful but you have to question the Council giving permission to build in this area.
“You could see the wall bending and I warned them for six weeks but was ignored.
“They patched things up with sandbags but a week or so before Christmas the road became properly blocked.
“The Council say they are monitoring the situation but are not interested because this is still a private road.”
Another resident said that it was a “nightmare” walking to their house with their young child – especially when it’s icy.
Mark Payne, 64, an HGV driver, said: “I have a van on my drive and I’ve not been able to use it since well before Christmas.
“We are stuck. It’s not the landslip that really gets me but the fact that no-one seems to be doing anything about it.”
He explained that residents received a letter in early December assuring them that it would be fixed, but nothing has been done.
“If an ambulance or fire engine needed to get down here I don’t know what would happen,” Mark warned.
The extra cars parked around the street have also caused issues for bin lorries, with some struggling to get down it.
The Sun has contacted Sandwell Council for comment.