Work starts to repair drainage at giant Peterborough sink hole - as portable toilets arrive for residents
Residents have been told they are unable to use their toilets while repairs are taking place
Work has started on repairs to drainage at Henry Penn Walk in Peterborough city centre – as residents living near the giant sink hole have been banned from using toilets while the work is carried out.
Emergency work is taking place this week, after fears were raised that sewage could seep into the River Nene in the city centre.
Now they have been told they cannot use appliances that use water – including toilets, showers and washing machines – while the repairs take place, after The Environment Agency raised the sewage concerns.
It is hoped the repairs will be finished today.
Portable toilets have been placed in the car park near by for residents to use, while in a letter from freeholders Riverview House Freehold Ltd (RHFL), they were told they would be given buckets ‘for temporary storage of waste water and subsequent disposal.’
MP’s letter to Environment Agency
Now Peterborough MP Andrew Pakes has called for action to be taken to fix the sink hole, and associated problems, once and for all.
There had been a dispute between RHFL and the city council over who was responsible for fixing the sink hole, before it was decided it was the freeholders who would have to pay for the works.
It has been estimated that the repairs will cost millions of pounds.
In a statement to The Peterborough Telegraph, a spokesperson for RHFL said: “Structural engineers working on behalf of Riverview House Freehold Ltd (RHFL), which is owned by leaseholders, have successively developed four schemes over the last three years, only to find each scheme is either not approved, unworkable or unaffordable.
"RHFL are currently seeking the consent of the Environment Agency and approval by Peterborough City Council for the latest solution to this very difficult problem."
In a letter to Philip Duffy, Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, Mr Pakes called for the Environment Agency to work with the freeholders to find a solution – saying he understood the agency ‘seemed to be holding up the works.’
His letter reads:
I am writing to ask for your help in resolving the ongoing dispute over works needed to repair a collapsing river wall and a significant sink hole on a footpath alongside the River Nene in Peterborough.
Following a long period of delay over ownership of the land and responsibility for the works, a solution has been put forward by both the freeholders and Peterborough City Council (PCC). Despite initial support from the Environment Agency locally, I am informed the agency nationally is putting undue and bureaucratic blocks on a practical solution.
This issue has gone on for too long. Cracks first started appearing in the path in 2018. The result is a collapsing river wall and major sinkhole in a key location for our city centre that is unsightly, unsafe for residents and financially damaging for tenants and leaseholders in the adjoining flats. The issue needs to be resolved quickly so that repairs can be made, and this saga can be drawn to a conclusion. Delays to consent mean that the wall continues to deteriorate – it has moved over a metre towards the river in the last year alone.
With the focus of the new government on ending unnecessary red-tape and blocks on growth, I am disappointed that the Environment Agency seems to be holding these works up.
My aim is not to re-open what has happened in the past but to seek an urgent meeting so that we can move this problem forward.
The footpath was constructed on reclaimed land as part of the development of Riverview House in 2009. The Section 38/278 agreement drawn up was between the Environment Agency and the developers (GKL). During construction of the sheet piled retaining wall to Henry Penn Walk the designed pile length was halved due, apparently, to difficulties in penetrating the limestone layer within the substrata. Also, it has subsequently transpired that the horizontal tie bars, designed to secure the sheet piles, were not installed. Apparently neither PCC nor the EA supervised the original installation of the wall.
In 2018, 8 years after construction, cracks started to appear in the asphalt surface of the footpath/cycleway and PCC attempted to repair by adding more layers of asphalt which in retrospect merely added weight and accelerated the development of the sink hole behind the piles. The sheet piles were visibly moving towards the river.
Under Riparian law, the leaseholders have unexpectedly now found themselves in the position of owning the land and hence responsible for the maintenance of the river wall and foundation to the footpath/cycleway.
Since 2022 structural engineers for Riverview House Freehold Ltd (RHFL), the freehold company owned by leaseholders, have produced a succession of remedial works schemes for the river wall. The latest scheme of an embankment solution was initially given tacit consent by local EA management in December 2024 on the basis of avoiding an environmental disaster threatened by the impending catastrophic failure of the wall.
I have since been informed that Environment Agency officials nationally objected to the plans in January this year due to a ‘major disruption of navigation’. This does not make sense given the marginal scale of works proposed. It just sounds like a bureaucratic response without giving consideration to local circumstances or practical consideration of alternatives. Consequently, the leaseholders now have no way to proceed and the existing damaged wall will soon collapse into the river, which will cause environmental damage in itself.
The leaseholders were promised a proportional and pragmatic response by both PCC and the EA but sadly instead have met with inflexibility and a bureaucratic response to a situation where it is in everybody's interest to achieve an immediate workable solution.
I am asking for an urgent meeting so that we can avoid the wall collapsing and further reputational damage for the city and the Environment Agency at the lack of action to help resolve this situation.
Yours sincerely
Andrew
The street was named after Peterborough bell maker Henry Penn, who ran a foundry near Lower Bridge Street .
Along with having the street named after him, there is a giant bell sculpture on Bridge Street. The underpass leading from Bridge Street to the Lido and the Crown Court is also named Foundry Walk in his honour.
The Peterborough Telegraph has contacted The Environment Agency for comment