Merton Council has confirmed that it will fine Thames Water if the collapsed sewer in Worple Road isn't fixed by the end of the month

But much to the dismay of Cllr David Dean, the whole road will remain shut until a fix is in place.

The Dundonald ward councillor got in touch with the Wimbledon Times to share some shocking concerns raised to him earlier this week.

"Wimbledon was gridlocked on Thursday morning, in part due to a burst water main in the town centre, but also due to the long term closure of Worple Road, which is the main distributor road for the town," he said.

"Vehicles are having to use the much narrower Ridgeway and Toynbee Road to attempt to get through the town centre, but cars and buses are struggling to get along these smaller streets. The massive congestion means unnecessarily huge amounts of pollution is chugging out of vehicle exhausts."

And some of the examples he gave were truly shocking.

"Two hours 19 minutes to get from Roehampton Vale to Wimbledon," he said.

"Another one hour 39 minutes from Wimbledon Village to Lower Downs Road."

Thames Water are in charge of fixing the hole and have previously apologised for the delays, which were initially thought have been fixed before the RideLondon event a month ago.

They also added that an hourly shuttle-bus service is being run to service those living along the section of road which is shut.

But Cllr Dean called on the council to permit half of the road to re-open, and bring forward the permitted end date of September 30.

But this was something the council said they could not do.

“Unfortunately the carriageway in Worple Road does need to remain closed due to the voids still underneath the surface," a council spokesman said.

"Once the sewer works are complete we will requesting a full reconstruction of the road so we can reopen it."

The spokesman added that the council have lodged a complaint with Thames Water regarding both Worple Road and Wimbledon Hill Road and are seeking a review of the condition of Thames’ Water’s infrastructure in Wimbledon.

"There are no fines or charges to be applied to these works unless Thames Water work past the final day allowed to repair Worple Road which is Monday, September 30," he said.

"We are asking Thames Water for a sustainable plan to invest in the ageing infrastructure so our residents and businesses no longer have to suffer the impact of ad-hoc emergency repairs.”