Residents are calling for quicker sink hole repairs after council bosses revealed it could take a week to fix the street.

The hole suddenly appeared in Old Southend Road on Sunday and has forced highways bosses to divert drivers until it is fixed.

Repairs are scheduled for completion on Friday but residents and drivers are calling for a much quicker fix.

Charlotte Nardolilli, 33, who uses the road regularly insists it needs to be sorted quickly.

She said: “Honestly, think it’s a joke.

“They have all this money to spend of resurfacing roads; however as soon as something like this happens, we are waiting for weeks.

“The same thing happened on a nearby road a few years ago when we had a burst water main and that took a few weeks to sort.”

Matt Dent, Labour councillor for Kursaal, took to social media to warn residents about the sinkhole and road closure.

He wrote on Twitter: “The north end of Old Southend Road is currently closed off, due to a sinkhole having opened up in the road surface.

“The highways department at Southend City Council are currently looking into the causes of and solutions to resolving the issue, which being a sinkhole is more complex than your standard pothole.

“The council is looking into what is needed to repair it and working on this as soon as possible.

“It’s a bit worrying for residents that it’s just opened up like this but it was shut off very quickly.”

Giving an update on repairs, Steven Wakefield, Southend councillor responsible for highways, said: “Highways engineers have inspected the site to ascertain the cause of the hole and the best possible way for repair.

“’The council’s highways contractor, Marlborough Highways officers closed the road and set up a diversion route along Wesley Road and Stanley Road, before commencing repair work today.

“It is anticipated that work should be completed by Friday.

“We will share further updates as and when required.”