Following major excavation work on a controversial Swanage building site in Dorset, a six foot high drystone wall has collapsed, demolishing a footpath and bursting a water main.
While fortunately no one was injured, two homes were left without water on Sunday 22nd September 2024 after the land gave way on the old St Mary’s school site adjacent to the Sunshine Walk footpath in West Durlston.
The cracks along the footpath begin to get wider on Saturday – the day before the collapse
Residents take photos on Saturday to report the matter again to Dorset Council on the Monday but by then it turns out to be too late
Large cracks appeared
Local residents, especially those in Sunridge Close whose gardens back on to Sunshine Walk, had become increasingly concerned earlier in the week when large cracks appeared in the surface of the footpath and reported the matter to Dorset Council.
On Saturday 21st September 2024 regular users of the popular walking route into town noticed, what they believed to be, fresh tarmac pushed into the crack. However it looked like it had sunk further into the gap, as the crack had widened.
Around 6 pm on Sunday 22nd September 2024, the land gave way, collapsing a large section of the Purbeck stone wall and leaving only part of the footpath intact.
Around 6 pm on Sunday 22nd September 2024 there’s a landslip and the wall collapses
Wessex Water are on the scene on Sunday evening to stop the water leak after the main bursts
Water main was damaged by falling wall
As the wall fell down onto the excavated area of the building site, it hit an exposed water main, causing it to burst.
Wessex Water was quick to respond on a Sunday evening and while it was unsafe to carry out a permanent repair, the team managed to install temporary overland pipework by lunchtime the following day to reconnect a water supply to the two nearby homes.
A Wessex Water spokesperson said:
“Third-party damage to our water main caused a leak and left two properties without supply, so we delivered bottled water to those affected. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.”
On Monday morning Wessex Water do a temporary fix to connect two homes back to a water supply
Wessex Water offer the bottled variety to householders while they work to reconnect the supply
“Trying to batter the ground back”
A Dorset Council spokesperson said:
“We held a meeting at the site on Monday, including our structural engineer, Wessex Water representatives, and contractors, to discuss the issue.
“The footpath has now been made safe at both ends, and temporary safety works are moving ahead by trying to batter the ground back, creating a better angle of repose.”
The construction workers continue to dig along the other much higher wall that borders the Chapel Lane footpath, despite the collapse of the neighbouring drystone wall
The work to repair the damage is going to take a long time to complete
Controversial planning battle
The old St Mary’s School building site was the subject of a lengthy and controversial planning battle. The developers eventually successfully argued that there was not enough profit in the building of the 30 homes, if 11 were designated as affordable.
However at a Dorset Council planning meeting in February 2022, it was agreed that there should be a further economic viability assessment done when work started.
If the assessment then showed an improvement in the financial viability, then the developer would have to pay a financial contribution towards local affordable housing. It’s not known whether this has been done.
The original plan for the site before the affordable housing was removed. The collapsed wall borders the south side of this drawing
Sunshine Walk as you’ve never seen it before…with a seaview!
Work to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds
It was also a condition of the planning permission that the historic Purbeck stone walls must be preserved. They were built by the Victorian Swanage entrepreneur and quarryman George Burt to surround his estate and home, which now operates as the Purbeck House Hotel.
It’s not yet known who will pay to restore the footpath, drystone wall and water main but the work is estimated to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds and likely to take months to complete.
