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Popular 'rat run' Chinnock Hollow to stay shut after landslide

Somerset Council Chinnock Hollow following the landslide in 2021Somerset Council
Chinnock Hollow In East Chinnock has been closed since February 2021 following landslides

A popular market town short cut will not reopen due to the £2.7m cost to repair and secure it, acouncil says.

Chinnock Hollow runs from the A30 High Street in East Chinnock through next door Odcombe near Yeovil, Somerset.

Used by motorists at peak times, the road has been closed since February 2021 following a significant landslide involving 20 tonnes of rock and sand.

Somerset Council said it "could not justify" the cost but will explore "potential avenues for funding".

The landslide on February 21, 2021 followed a smaller incident the previous week and resulted in part of the road being buried as debris rolled down the side of the 12 metre (39 ft) wall along the route.

In-depth engineering reports showed a substantial risk of another landslide, potentially even larger in the same area, as well as the risk of other failures at different points along the road.

WSP Map showing different levels of risk of future landslidesWSP
Different sections of Chinnock Hollow have been assigned different levels of risk of future landslides

Somerset County Council held a public meeting in East Chinnock in October 2022, where four options were presented for the road's future.

  • Close the road permanently (at a projected cost of £5,000)
  • Carry out routine maintenance to remove vegetation (£45,000)
  • Contain future debris through steel mesh wire (£312,500 to £347,500)
  • Strengthen the existing slopes and removing vegetation (£1.95m to £2.25m)

Following this meeting, a final independent report was commissioned to establish a more precise cost for a hybrid option involving clearance and some containment work alongside regular safety monitoring.

This option would entail clearing the debris and installing steel meshing to hold the steep sides of the hollow in place - at a projected cost of £2,731,000 (including a 40 per cent contingency).

However, councillor Mike Rigby, portfolio holder for transport and digital, said: "We understand people's concerns about an indefinite closure of Chinnock Hollow, but the reality is that there just isn't the available budget to consider this scheme.

"We cannot justify spending nearly £3m when there are so many pressing and competing maintenance priorities across more than 4,100 miles of road in Somerset."

He said there is also no available funding from central government, as reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

"It is simply not possible to open the road and hope for the best when there is a substantial risk of a further significant landslide," he added.

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