A HUGE hole which appeared in a High Valleyfield street is set to be filled in.

The sinkhole opened up in Valleyfield Avenue in September and the stretch of the road has been closed since before Christmas with drivers forced to make diversions around the village.

After consultation with Scottish Water and the Coal Authority, Fife Council has said repairs will be carried out as soon as they can but this has been delayed because of the recent bad weather.

Valleyfield Community Council chairperson Rab McKenzie, whose home is next to the massive hole in the road, has been in contact with the council attempting to get the issue resolved.

"Vehicles are having to go all the way round the village which is a bit of a nuisance," he said. "This sinkhole happened roughly in the same area where there was one about 25-30 years ago that a car went into. The full avenue is broken up and there are scars all around it."

After fencing off the hole since September, the whole road was blocked off in December after a pothole started to appear on the other side of the road.

"Vehicles were having to mount the pavement because of the size of the pothole and pedestrians were coming through as well so the next thing we knew, they had closed it off," Mr McKenzie said.

"I had an email from Fife Council saying that they had invited Scottish Water to have a look and if they were not needed, then work was to start at the end of last week or the beginning of this week but that hasn't happened yet."

Kane Smith, roads maintenance lead consultant with Fife Council, confirmed they were aware of the issue.

“When we closed the road just before Christmas, we wanted to check if old mineworkings in the area, or the sewer which runs close to where the hole opened up, could have caused this to happen," he said.

“British Coal and Scottish Water have investigated and confirmed that this is not the case.

"We planned to start work ourselves last week to further investigate the cause of the hole and repair the road but this was delayed due to the poor weather. We intend to start work as soon as we can, and we’ll keep the area safe in the meantime.”