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Work to fill in Wooburn Green playground sinkhole to cost £270k

Andrew Buckley The sinkhole appeared last year on the site of a children's playgroundAndrew Buckley
The sinkhole in Sappers Field, Wooburn, Buckinghamshire, appeared last May but work to fill it in will start next month

Work to fill in a 35m (115ft) deep sinkhole that appeared in a playground last year will begin next month - and cost an estimated £270,000.

Sappers Field in Wooburn Green, Buckinghamshire, has been closed to the public since the hole appeared last May.

Buckinghamshire Council carried out ground investigation works at the old mineshaft in autumn 2023.

Soil Engineering Geoservices Ltd has been appointed to carry out the work.

The authority's cabinet member for accessible housing and resources, John Chilver, said: "Once the remediation works are finished, Sappers Field will be restored as a public space.

"Based on recent analysis and surveys, we anticipate that there will be no recurrence of the previous issue."

Charlie Smith Wooburn sinkholeCharlie Smith
The sinkhole in Sappers Field, Wooburn, Buckinghamshire, measures 35m in depth

Laser scans and video surveys showed that the hole was a 35m deep "bell pit" - a primitive form of excavation.

The sinkhole is the second to appear in Sappers Field after another at the end of February 2020, but that one has now been filled in.

The field, bordered by Kiln Lane, has a history of clay extraction dating to the 19th Century.

It was eventually decommissioned and backfilled with waste before the land was covered over with soil by army sappers.

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