Deep sinkhole in children's playground filled

The sinkhole in Sappers Field, Wooburn, Buckinghamshire, measures 35m (114ft) in depth

A 35m-deep (114ft) sinkhole that appeared in a children's playground has been filled in, more than a year after it first appeared.

The huge hole was first reported in May 2023 in the Sappers Field in Wooburn, Buckinghamshire, where a similar sinkhole had previously appeared towards the end of February 2020.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, a meeting of Wooburn and Bourne End Parish Council revealed that although the hole had been filled, the site was still not open to the public.

Vice-chairman Sue Wagner told her fellow councillors: “The remedial work has been completed at Sappers Field and we are awaiting a report from Buckinghamshire Council.”

The site was formerly used for making bricks, with clay being excavated from a deep bell pit

Buckinghamshire Council has paid for both sinkholes in Sappers Field to be filled and previously said remedial works on the second hole, which are now completed, were estimated to have cost £270,000.

The original sinkhole was backfilled and remediated by Soil Engineering Geoservices in 2022.

Parish clerk Mike Balbini explained: “We are waiting for [Buckinghamshire Council] to come back to us and only when they tell us it is safe to open, we will open it."