Boston Spa sinkholes: Numerous depressions appear on busy Leeds village road after recent resurfacing

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Concerns have been raised after numerous sinkholes and depressions appeared on a key road in a Leeds village that was recently resurfaced.

Church Street in Boston Spa was fully resurfaced in February but a local councillor has said that there has since been six defects with the road.

It was felt that the issues were related to a pipe running under the road but Yorkshire Water say they have “not found any issues” after an assessment. However, the council has said that they were “unable to access the worst impacted locations”.

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Cllr Penny Stables said that the pictured depression on Church Street in Boston Spa was "around half a foot deep"Cllr Penny Stables said that the pictured depression on Church Street in Boston Spa was "around half a foot deep"
Cllr Penny Stables said that the pictured depression on Church Street in Boston Spa was "around half a foot deep" | Penny Stables

Ward councillor Penny Stables said that the council had done a “very good job” of resurfacing the road, which is a busy through route used by cars and cyclists. She added that the road had become “quite dangerous” before the work, though there were no prior incidents of sinkholes appearing.

Cllr Stables said: “When it was done it was all smooth and there was no indents but over time the along the centre line you started getting areas that dropped.”

She said that she had reported six drops in the road to the council, who had fixed them within 48 hours, adding that “if it was left the surface would break”.

Yorkshire Water came to assess the pipeline but couldn’t establish the cause of the issues. Cllr Stables said: “They weren’t able to look at it all though.

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The sinkholes have been swiftly filled in by the council.The sinkholes have been swiftly filled in by the council.
The sinkholes have been swiftly filled in by the council. | Penny Stables

“Highways currently think it’s likely that when the pipeline was laid years ago they didn’t reinstate the area above to the surface correctly and so it’s dropping in areas where it’s not compressed enough.”

A member of staff at The Crown Hotel said that the work on the road had been “a big inconvenience” as it had prevented customers from accessing their car park.

Both Yorkshire Water and the city council have said they will continue to monitor the issues with the road.

A spokesperson for Leeds City Council said: “Following the completion of the resurfacing work on Church Street in February, we began receiving reports of sinkholes and attended the site as a matter of urgency. Nothing prior to the old road surface being removed suggested these defects would appear.  

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“Once on site, an inspection showed depressions that were perfectly aligned with the line of a clay pipe underneath the road. We advised Yorkshire Water who sent a team out and confirmed their asset was not failing. However, we were unable to access the worst impacted locations.

“We will continue to investigate the cause of the sinkholes alongside Yorkshire Water and in the meantime, we have been working to keep the road safe for users and visiting the location weekly to monitor its condition.”

A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “We have used cameras to investigate the sewer under the road and have not found any issues with the pipe that could cause depressions in the road.

“We’re in contact with the council and will carry out any further investigation required following the resurfacing.”

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