A GAPING hole in an Oxford road has been filled in after it gradually became wider and wider – although the cause for the disruption remains unclear.

Residents on Kennett Road in Headington were unable to drive down the full length of their road on Wednesday as engineers worked to find why a hole in the road had sunk further into the ground.

As part of the work, they dug a hole about six feet deep in an effort to find why the road had continue to sink despite initial resurfacing work earlier this week.

The hole was at its deepest on Wednesday when the Oxford Mail went to take pictures as Oxford City Council investigated the cause – but the road was reopened at about 10am yesterday after resurfacing work was completed.

Headington Lib Dem city councillor Ruth Wilkinson reported the hole at the beginning of the month and it grew, then more exploratory work was done.

She said: “Nobody knows what caused it. They dug down and they couldn’t find an underlying cause for the problem. Whether it’s something else that has happened to make the level of the road sink a bit, I don’t know.

“I think some of the residents are feeling a bit concerned because if it’s happened for no reason once, there’s no indication it won’t happen again. They did (the work) quickly – but it’s just a bit odd.”

Kennett Road resident Mark Russell said: "It seemed the council acted pretty quickly.

"They closed off the road, which is normally a busy one-way street."

The 57-year-old added: "Then they dug down something like six feet or so until they got to the water pipe so they just thought it was subsidence and they filled it with something better than sand, which they said had caused the subsidence."

It is expected further work on sewers running underneath Kennett Road will be undertaken to ensure that all pipes are still intact. This will not cause any further disruption for residents.

In April another 'crater' opened up in the middle of Hill Top Road, East Oxford and gradually got bigger over time – soon it was four feet deep.

At the time, Oxfordshire County Council said it had told Thames Water to install barriers in the road at the beginning of March to prevent children getting hurt by jumping or getting stuck in the hole.

Work was undertaken later to see whether the hole had been caused by a water leak or sewers.