A CAVERNOUS hole has opened up in the middle of a road – leaving residents fearing the whole street could collapse.

The yawning void first appeared in Daniells, WGC, on Sunday last week.

While council workmen acted quickly to get the troublespot fenced off, worried neighbours have noticed the hole getting bigger by the day.

And, with Daniells being on a bus route, the volume of heavy traffic passing is not helping the problem.

Bruce Piggott, who lives a few doors down from the hole, said: “We have no idea what is going on and we’re obviously quite concerned.

“The hole first appeared last Sunday and is growing on a daily basis.

“It is getting bigger as the unsupported asphalt crumbles around the edges.”

Mr Piggott, a retired engineer, said the hole did not go straight down, but was at an angle pointing towards the centre of the road.

“The extent of the hole is reaching underneath the centre of the road and if it is not fixed soon it will cause Daniells to be closed to all traffic.

“At the moment only the south side of Daniells is closed with a protective fence.

“If the undercut collapses, the north side will be closed as well.

“I’m concerned that heavy vehicles, including the bus which passes here, will eventually break through.”

He added: “What is the council doing about this?”

The answer, it would appear, is not a great deal.

For the Welwyn Hatfield Times’ request for a comment was dismissed by a Hertfordshire Highways spokesman, who pointed us in the direction of general pothole advice on the county council website.

When pushed about what the council was intending to do about Daniells as it appears to be much more than a pothole, we were again given a generic response.

The spokesman said: “We will endeavour to respond to every reported pothole within 14 days – and within 24 hours if the pothole is on a high priority road, or is particularly dangerous.

“If we don’t respond to a report immediately, please bear with us: we try to coordinate repairs in a particular area so that our repairs teams get through the maximum amount of work.”

The road was repaired earlier this week.