A burst water main has led to the collapse of the carriageway at a junction barely two weeks after it was last closed for repairs.

The junction of Forest Hill with Postley Road in Tovil near Maidstone is closed while South East Water (SE Water) carries out repairs.

People living nearby noticed early on Sunday morning that the road surface of Forest Hill seemed to have slipped away from that of Postley Road. During the morning, it moved even further, until there was ridge-line of about six inches.

The alarm was raised and KCC Highways, Kent Police and SE Water engineers were all quickly on the scene.

The road was sealed off and although there was no water on the surface of the road, SE Water engineers said that the principal main along Postley Road was leaking.

A hole was dug and the leak fixed that same day by placing a jacket over the pipe.

Neighbours briefly lost their water supply while the work was in progress.

Now the hole needs to be back-filled and the road surface repaired.

SE Water has told residents the job should be done by Wednesday, but there was no-one working there this morning.

The leak follows another just yards away.

The spur main that goes down Forest Hill sprung a leak about two weeks before Christmas, again resulting in the closure of the junction.

It remained shut for six weeks, only re-opening on January 31.

During that time there were repeated issues with impatient motorists - who had ignored road closed signs - driving across one homeowner’s lawn to skirt around the closure bollards.

This time, at the local residents’ insistence, SE Water has also erected barriers and fencing on neighbours’ lawns in a bid to stop it happening again.

Carole Hardy, who lives next to the junction, said SE Water had yet to restore her garden following the first leak.

On that occasion, water had run across the the road onto her side lawn, causing two small cracks in the earth.

Mrs Hardy is also concerned that it may have caused some subsidence to her home and is having that checked by a building surveyor.

She said: “This is actually the third leak in the last few years.

“SE water has been very cooperative and accommodating, but the problem is that they only ever do some kind of patch repair and clearly the mains need replacing properly.”

Nick Bell is SE Water's head of operations. He said: "We apologise to residents for disruption in the Postley Road area of Maidstone."

"A leak was found on our network here on Sunday morning and repairs were completed later that afternoon. We are now in the process of putting the road back to its original condition."