Here’s the situation on Tanners Street and Carr Street in Ramsbottom right now. In October 2025 a developer was served a Prohibition Notice by the HSE over a deep excavation cut into a steep hillside directly above a row of houses and a public road. He walked off site, became aggressive with anyone who turned up, and then went completely silent. Six months on, nothing has been done.
The hillside is actively cracking and crumbling. The garden of the house directly above the hole has already partially collapsed into it. A drain on the site is blocked, so sewage water is running out onto the public road. Debris is on the road surface. The houses below sit metres away with one single-lane road between them and the unstable ground.
Residents have reported it to Bury Council, HSE, the Environment Agency, United Utilities, their councillor (Gareth Staples-Jones, who has worked hard on this), and their MP (James Frith). HSE now say their powers are exhausted because there are no workers on site to enforce against. Everyone else has hit the same wall. The hole gets bigger every time it rains.
The petition asks Bury Council to use emergency powers under Section 78 of the Building Act 1984 to stabilise the site and recover the cost from the developer, commission an independent geotechnical assessment, and coordinate with United Utilities on the drain. Link in comments.