Around 4pm on Thursday the 5th of January, Kingston road, the main road connecting Teddington and Kingston was closed due to a sinkhole. Work is being carried out by Thames Water and the road is due to be reopened soon.

The Sinkhole is said by the Borough of Richmond upon Thames to have been caused by a 'main-pipe failure'. Thames Water have now taken over the site and are carrying out repairs.

On the 9th of January an update was issued which said: 'Thames Water anticipate the road will be opened next Monday (16 January) subject to no further issues arising.' so hopefull the road should be back in action by then.

Luckily for local residents both regular waste and recycling collections provided by the council 'not be impacted while works are undertaken.' and that Christmas tree collections will also run unaffected until the 13th.

The main issue this Sinkhole has created is that both the 281 and the 285 bus routes have been diverted. The routes are on diversion along Park Road, Sandy Lane, Park Road, Church Grove and Hampton Court Road bus stops and rejoin their regular courses in Kingston. This means that all of the stops along Kingston Road will not be served until the road reopens. This has caused issues for local students who rely on these bus routes to get to school every day. Students traveling from the area around the Sinkhole must now either walk, cycle or be driven to school along roads with increased traffic which is both more dangerous but also increases journey time compared to bus services usually available.

Fortunately pedestrian access around the sinkhole remains unaffected so local residents are able to access local shops such as the Teddington Co-op and Moore's Cycles by foot although cyclists are required to dismount around the site of the Sinkhole.