A Hellesdon park which has been closed following the discovery of a 30ft deep hole is to remain closed until the true extent of the hole is established.
Mountfield Park was closed to the public in October after a groundskeeper discovered a small, but deep hole in the ground, which was later confirmed to be part of a former soak away.
Hellesdon Parish Council initially kept the park open and cordoned off the hazard, but after the cordons were stolen the decision was taken to close the entire park for health and safety reasons, since then the popular park has remained closed.
Now, the community has been told it will have to wait a little longer until the park re-opens, while excavations are carried out to establish the true extent of the hole.
Updating the council and a packed public gallery at the parish council's monthly meeting on Tuesday, Mark Knight, clerk to Hellesdon Parish Council said the parish council had confirmed that there is nothing else under the park but excavations are still needed to establish the depth of the hole.
Sue Prutton, chairman of the council added that the council hoped to re-open the park as soon as possible: 'We hope that we can fill in the hole and re-open the park with additional fencing around the hole on a permanent basis for health and safety reasons.
'I am not prepared to agree to any fencing going up until we have found out the extent of the hole.
'We have had dealings with other authorities and we hope within the next couple of weeks we will have more information,' she said.
In response to criticism from the public over the length of time the park had been closed and the council's refusion to re-open the park with just the area around the hazard fenced off, Shelagh Gurney a district and county councillor for Hellesdon, added: 'The worst thing we could have read was a headline about someone falling into a hole in the soak away.
'I would ask for your patience in this, we are doing something about it and we are doing our best for Hellesdon,' she said.
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