Buckinghamshire Highways is investigating a 'historical issue' that caused a road surface in Hazlemere to collapse.

The highways branch of Buckinghamshire Council began working with Affinity Water to close one lane of Penn Road in Hazlemere and install three-way traffic lights on Friday, February 9 after a "subsiding" section of road and pavement was detected.

Affinity Water initially pumped water from below the road surface to see whether the collapse had been caused by a broken water main, but a spokesperson for Buckinghamshire Highways has now confirmed (February 22) that the problem is thought to have been caused by a "historical issue" rather than a faulty main.

They said traffic control measures would remain in place while highway teams investigate the issue and apologised for the inconvenience caused.

Adding: “We have taken over the site from Affinity Water and our drainage specialists are surveying the area to look into the best way to fix the issue.

“Three-way traffic lights, manually controlled from 7am to 7pm on Monday to Friday, will need to remain in place and we will progress the works as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience.”