Bolton family's 2 year wait for garden sinkhole to be repaired

Nathan Spragg moved into his home on Grove Street in Halliwell in May 2021, with his partner and their daughter. 

The couple chose the home for its garden, where their daughter, Primrose Spragg, would be able to play. 

When they first moved in, there was a leak coming from between the flagstones. After maintenance engineers worked on the leak in summer 2022, the leak got worse and it became a sinkhole. 

Despite multiple calls over the years to their landlord, Onward Homes, the issue was not fixed until earlier this week, after The Bolton News contacted the association.

Nathan Spragg and his two children, Primrose Spragg (left) and Luna Spragg (middle) (Image: Public) A spokesperson for Onward said: “We appreciate that this is a distressing situation for Mr Spragg and his family. Since he reported these issues to us, we have monitored his home and have been working to find a date to undertake the repairs.

"We are visiting Mr Spragg’s home today (Monday) with the utility provider to carry these out and will check if he needs any further support from us at this time.” 

Nathan said: "It started as a puddle in the middle of the flags. I didn't think anything of it, it's Bolton, I thought it would be the weather. 

"It didn't go away so I called the landlord. They kept coming around and looking at it, we must have had about eight people look at it, saying it will take so many days, this many people, etc. 

The sinkhole (Image: Public) "Every time they came round to fix it I was given some excuse like the weather's not good, or they need to get the materials. 

"In about summer 2022 I took a day off work to make sure I was in, the sun was nice, everything like that." 

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He added: "They found out it was a leak underneath the ground. They said they would go and get some materials and would be back in 10 minutes.

"A couple of hours went by and I rung Onward back up asking what has happened, they said it had been cancelled due to adverse weather - the garden was beaming with sunlight, I didn't know what they were on about. 

Sinkhole (Image: Public) "They left me with a hole in the back garden, which slowly got bigger and turned into a sinkhole that is six feet deep. 

"The landlord told us it was safe after they put a flag over it, and said to avoid it. It is in the middle of the garden, when I take the bins out I carefully have to avoid it." 

Nathan added: "My little girl has not been able to use it. We have had nice weather recently and she has wanted to go out in the garden." 

On Monday, October 14, Nathan said engineers came and "fixed the leak".