Radio Features

The A458 at Harley Hill has been plagued with landslides for several years, despite extensive remedial work to stabilise the rock face. The latest incident happened in the early hours of the morning on 24 April 2009.

The problems began in June 2007 when the road was closed because of fears that rocks could fall onto the roadway. Shropshire County Council ordered an in depth survey into the state of the bank.

On 3 June 2008 the road was closed for six weeks of remedial work to stabilise the rock face. This left local people and commuters facing an extra 10 to 20 minutes driving to avoid the works on one of Shropshire's busiest routes.

Work on Harley Hill in summer 2008

The work involved removing 16,000 tonnes of rock from the cliffs either side of the road, using huge earthmoving equipment.

The length of the works brought complaints from local traders, in particular Graham Marchant of the Plume of Feathers pub and Nick Murphy, the manager of Harley Nursery plant centre who said their businesses had been badly affected by the road closure.

In July, the county council paid for people in Much Wenlock to stage a street market to apologise for the road works.

Earthmovers at work

On 1 August, 2008 the road was re-opened, a week ahead of schedule, but just over a month later, it closed again for a short time.

On 6 February 2009 there was another landslip. This was blamed on part of an old quarry collapsing and was not connected to the stabilisation works carried out the previous summer.

A week later, rocks fell onto the road again. It was not as serious as the previous fall and the road was not totally closed. It's believed cold weather had destabilised the old quarry working above the road.

On 24 April, there was another heavy fall and council engineers are examining the site to try and determine how it happened.