A family living in an area plagued by sinkholes say they fear for their future of their home after two voids appeared in their garden.

Ron Garrott, 68, and daughter Stephanie Sasmaz, 35 are now waiting for their housing association to begin investigation work, after the most recent hole was discovered in the back garden of their Barming home 13 days ago.

While small, they say it has already deepened and fear it is just the start of bigger problems.

Over three years, there have been 10 sinkholes in Barming, with four incidents alone in 2020 and one in 2018 just down the road from the family, which closed Tonbridge Road for five months and led to ten homes being evacuated.

The family say the idea of the holes growing bigger is "terrifying".

Local MPs Tracey Crouch and Helen Grant called for a halt to housebuilding in Hermitage Lane in September 2020, after more voids appeared in the area.

Mrs Sasmaz, who has a 12-year-old daughter, says the holes are the latest in a long line of problems with their Cherry Orchard Way home, with a sinking driveway, crumbling brick work at the bottom of the property and cracks all over their home, where she has lived all her life.

She said: "It's hard to sleep at night because you don't know what you're going to wake up to the next morning, more cracks, more holes.

"It's scary, you don't know what you're going to wake up to.

"I had a dream where I was sitting where the sinkhole is and we saw the house fall around us."

Mrs Sasmaz's grandparents moved into the home in the 1950s.

She remembers sinkholes in the area as she was growing up.

"When I was a child, number 20 had a massive sinkhole, she went to put her washing out and just fell down it," she says.

The problems with their own property started occurring in the 1990s.

Mrs Sasmaz says she has asked the housing association, Golding Homes, to remove the cement covering the building and and examine the brickwork, to get to the bottom of the numerous cracks, but so far they haven't.

Mrs Sasmaz says a surveyor visited the property in January to inspect the driveway, which had slightly sunk, exposing part of a pipe previously hidden, and the increasing unevenness of the garden.

They were told the issues could be to do with a broken drain and a hole in the drain was fixed.

The family were advised to wait and see if that solved the problems, but since then a hole in their front garden has increased in size after the recent heavy rainfall.

The void at the back appeared on June 19.

A surveyor visited this week on Wednesday and the family have been told that investigation work will be carried out into the structure of the house, including into the brickwork behind the cement.

They will also investigate how big the hole is in the back garden, underneath the surface. Mrs Sasmaz says she was told it could be bigger under ground.

A date for the work has not yet been set.

Before Wednesday's visit, Golding Homes said in a comment: “The safety of our customers is our top priority and we are committed to acting swiftly to address the situation at Cherry Orchard Way.

“We appreciate Mrs Sasmaz’s concerns about the issues raised and are sorry for any distress caused. We did act earlier in the year to try and resolve the situation and now we’ve been informed of further concerns we will assess and take action.”

'The safety of our customers is our top priority and we are committed to acting swiftly to address the situation'

Today director of operations, Annemarie Roberts, added: “The structural engineer that inspected the property on Wednesday has stated that the small sink holes and render coming away from the house are not connected.

"The property has no structural issues and we are attending today to further inspect the brickwork and ties beneath the aging render and decide on next steps.

"We remain in close contact with Mrs Sasmaz and have already let her know that we will be making a further appointment to fill in the small sink holes.”

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