A small hole which opened up along a busy school route has been found to lead to a much larger void below.

There is no firm date yet for the re-opening of Gladstone Road in Maidstone.

A relatively small hole, around 12 inches wide, appeared there on Thursday, October 12.

The road was closed to through traffic at once, and Kent County Council (KCC) began investigative work on Wednesday this week.

Contractors have widened the surface hole to find a void underneath and “a bit of a tunnel” heading off in one direction.

A spokesman said: “KCC has closed the road and set up temporary works to enable us to safely investigate the cause of the void in the road.”

Gladstone Road is heavily used by families accessing two local schools: St Paul’s Infants School in Hillary Road and Northborough Junior School in Peel Street.

A similar hole appeared in Hildenborough Crescent in Allington in July.

That one is still not fixed.