Residents flee sinking homes

The area has been fenced off

Serious subsidence has forced dozens of people to abandon their homes in the south of Edinburgh.

More than thirty houses have collapsed in the Ferniehill area since the problem came to light in November.

Council engineers are monitoring the area round the clock to find out why the bungalows are sinking.

They believe movement in tunnels in a long-disused limestone quarry, which was subsequently filled in, is to blame for the subsidence.

The council has called in a team of engineers

So far, the problem has affected mainly elderly residents who occupied bungalows in Ferniehill Terrace, Gilmour.

But the latest ground movement has left other local people worried that their properties will be next to suffer.

One resident said "everyone is afraid or scared" while another said she "would not sleep" after the latest scare.

Edinburgh City Council's property conservation manager Robin Adamson said the latest subsidence was the worst so far.

"There have been several instances of subsidence and the last was extremely severe," he said.

"Fortunately we have managed to get everyone out and there hasn't been any injuries. We have also managed to get most possessions out."

On-going tests

Edinburgh councillor Sheila Gilmore said monitoring would keep engineers ahead of the problem.

"We have non-stop monitoring which has always alerted us to what's been happening, so we've been one-step ahead of the problem," she said.

The difficulty for council engineers is that old mining maps of the area do not give an accurate picture as they try to identify more weak points in the land.

The council say testing in the Ferniehill area will continue into the new year.