IT has taken nearly 14 weeks but, at last, residents of Witt Road in Fair Oak are smiling.

Work has finally started on repairing a huge hole in the residential road which has had many householders tearing their hair out in frustration.

Local resident Anne Hunt said the road had started to dip towards the end of last year, and in January it had "caved in".

The matter was reported and excavations were carried out - but as various authorities wrangled about who was responsible for the repair, three-quarters of the road was blocked and passing vehicles had to mount the pavement to get by.

The 12ft-deep hole was left while the debate raged and two householders were informed that the cost of the repair might even be their responsibility.

'Road closed' signs were initially put up - only to disappear again - and Mrs Hunt said: "At first there were no lights on it and they just boarded up the hole with a couple of bollards round it."

However, within hours of telling the Daily Echo that they were "heartily sick" of the situation, householders were celebrating the start of repair work.

Lesley Wheatland said: "Everywhere we turned we got fobbed off and no one wanted to know."

Mrs Hunt added: "If it hadn't been for the Daily Echo they wouldn't have done anything."

A Hampshire County Council spokesman explained that it had been aware of a depression in the carriageway and had tried to deal with the situation by patching the surface. However, in January it became clear that the problem was more serious.

The road was excavated and raw sewage was found, so the county council alerted Southern Water, which insisted that it was more likely to be a customer problem with individual connections to the sewer.

The county council then wrote to the two nearest homes, suggesting that they get in touch with their household insurers, but neither property felt it was their problem. Eventually, the county council called in a specialist sub-contractor, who said the problem was quite obviously Southern Water's.

A spokesman for the water company told the Daily Echo: "When we did a CCTV investigation it didn't show any form of collapse. Upon further investigation it looks like there is a leak there and it is probably us."

Work has now started and Witt Road resident Pat Harding quipped: "It's been such a topic of conversation that we won't have anything to talk about now."

Not everyone is happy, though. A local, who wanted to remain anonymous, said some residents had grown to love the hole because it had acted as a traffic calming measure on a route which was used as a rat-run.