A father has spoken of how close his family came to being seriously injured after a massive sinkhole opened up in his garden where his children were playing just hours earlier.
The emergence of a 60ft crater in the Surrey village of Godstone forced the evacuation of 30 households last month after a water pipe burst under the high street.
Only six households have been allowed to move back so far as investigations into the cause of the crater continue.
Rezgar Miri, who lives right next to the sinkhole, has been told it may take a year until his dream family home is declared safe.
He has now spoken of a smaller sinkhole opening in his garden where his children were hours earlier playing on the trampoline, which nearly tumbled into the two-metre crevice at 12.30am on 18 February.
“It’s so lucky really. If it happened four hours earlier there would be deaths,” Mr Miri said.
“My six-year-old daughter she didn’t speak for two days after, she was so stressed”
The father-of-two said he is yet to find permanent accommodation, being moved from relatives to short-stay Airbnbs before finally finding a suitable private rental property as highways engineers continue to examine the crater for a cause.
“It’s been so stressful. We’ve been told we can return maybe in a year just for us. Maybe other people can go back sooner,” He told The Independent.
“We have very limited access to go back inside to get stuff. We have to call the council and be supervised the whole time.
“When I went back in I heard it crack again and the second hole opened up. I’ve never moved so fast in my life.”
He said his neighbours had been “amazing” in offering sympathy and support to the family. “This is why we moved to Godstone. The landlady we’ve been renting from has given us a big discount too because of our situation. Our plan is to finally settle for a while now,” he said.
Mr Miri also spoke of a lady urging the family to get of the house immediately the night the sinkhole opened, and a stranger blocking the road with their vehicle to prevent cars falling into it, as acts of community kindness.
“But the government are different. They say one thing one day and the next day everything is completely different.
“We have to fight so hard for every single thing. I’ve asked them to make things less stressful - but they make things so difficult.
“They’ve given us just £1,000 for furniture... I don’t think they have ever been to a furniture shop, it’s not enough. They just told my kids to get a second-hand mattress - that is not right.
“I have brand new furniture in my house but I’m not allowed to get it. My kids are suffering because of their mistakes.”
Surrey County Council have been approached for comment.
Tandridge District Council is now leading the clean-up operation trying to bring a semblance of normality back to the village, locals are dubbing “Godshole”.
One council officer told a heated residents’ meeting on Tuesday the crater was growing after “some minor collapses around the edge of the hole”.
Lloyd Allen, who is in charge of the technical team, told displaced locals the collapse could take “up to a year to solve”.
The infrastructure team manager at Surrey County Council said: “We will try and make decisions to get people back into their homes as quickly as we can, but... we can’t let people go back into their homes if we feel there’s a danger.”
Riverdale Developments, the housebuilder behind the homes in William Way - where the sinkhole emerged - said extensive ground investigations were carried out before construction began.
For Mr Miri, he just wants clarity as to when he can return to the new-build home he has lived in since 2022.
“They still have no results for us, everyone’s just blaming each other,” he said. “No one is being human enough to admit they made a mistake. No one can say ‘sorry it’s a 200-year-old road and we forgot to check it.’
Asked if he considered moving from the village, he said: “No, I love it here. I moved from Croydon to raise my family here. Everyone here is smiling and welcoming - we don’t want to leave.”
A Tandridge District Council spokesman said the cause of the sinkhole is still being investigated and the council was meanwhile helping households with temporary accommodation.
“This has included booking accommodation for periods of between three and six months and providing grants of £1,000 to help with the purchase of furniture and essential items,” the spokesperson said, adding the size of the grants was in line with that provided to refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.
“In this resident’s case, the council provided an increased grant of £2,150 in recognition they are unlikely to be able to return to their property for a longer period of time than other households.”
He said the council was working with Surrey Highways and utility companies to return residents to their homes as quickly as possible.
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