RESIDENTS living near the road that partially collapsed in Malmesbury last week are hoping for a speedy resolution to the problem.

The private road, which runs off the Tetbury Hill roundabout by Somerfield, began to subside on Tuesday last week.

Contractors HG Development had caused structural damage while working on the Abbey Mews site, next to Ebley Tyres by digging too far into the embankment on which the road is built.

Cars were removed amid fears that the road might collapse completely but has since been reopened to traffic.

A Health and Safety Executive spokesman said: "The contractors involved in the development destabilised the private road, while doing excavation work."

An HSE inspector had seen the site and said remedial work was necessary to meet health and safety standards.

"The officer put a prohibition notice on the works around the road," the spokesman said.

"The contractors will have to get in a geostructural engineer to look at it and come up with both a risk assessment and a proposal to stabilise the site.

"This is so that it meets the required health and safety standards. Once that has been done, we will lift the prohibition notice."

Juliet Evans, who lives nearby with her husband Roy, said: "The contractors did some cementing and and built the bank up again, but it still slipped a bit over the weekend."

The slippage has meant that builders working on nearby houses have had to park at the bottom and shuttle materials up.

Despite repeated calls to HG Development, the company had not made a comment by the press deadline.