The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides.
A number of UK news sources (e.g. the BBC) have featured an ongoing, highly disruptive landslide on a new build housing estate in Cradley Heath in Birmingham, England. This is a sad example of the ways in which unsuspecting and entirely blameless residents can be left in limbo by a failure to manage a slope appropriately.
The site is located at [52.4668, -2.0572]. SWNS has put a video on Youtube with drone footage and interviews with the residents:-
This still from the drone footage shows the situation well:-
There area few things of interest here. First, the landslide is a slump. Second, the unfailed slope at the top of the image appears to be supported with a crib wall. As I’ll show below, this originally extended through the area that has now failed. And third, note the displaced bags, which the resident says in the video was part of an attempt to support the failing mass. It is surprising to me that this was considered to be an adequate measure to take to support a failing slope.
The image below is from Google Earth, showing the site (Haden Cross Drive in Cradley Heath). I believe that this is from March 2022:-
The crib wall is clearly shown, extending through the area that failed. To the left, the slope appears to be supported by a gabian wall. The image below, also from Google Earth, is from May 2019, showing site formation works. This image clearly shows that there was excavation into the slope to create the platform upon which the houses have been constructed:-
There is a lower quality image from February 2021. At this stage the slope had been completed:-
Is there a small failure at the location that has subsequently suffered the landslide?
Thereafter, the crib wall was constructed, presumably to provide additional support. In the March 2022 imagery, it appears that the slope had started to fail again:-
There is imagery from June 2023 that also seems to show tension cracks. I wonder why action was not taken at this time?
The Express newspaper has a detailed article on this landslide, which to be fair is quite good. They report that the site is owned by Dunedin Haden Cross, who reportedly accept responsibility for the site. The article quotes a statement from Dunedin Haden Cross:-
“Since [the failure in March 2024] we have been working closely with those who completed the original design for the slope’s stability, and installed a wall to try to understand the cause of the slippage.”
“Dunedin Haden Cross do not accept any liability for the slope failure and in the matter of costs and liability the insurers and loss adjusters have been notified and our solicitors are closely monitoring all correspondence,”
There is one additional aspect of this that is interesting. In 2020, the Halesowen News reported concerns about the management of earth materials at “a new housing estate next to Haden Hill Park in Cradley Heath”. Dunedin Haden Cross is named as the developer. It includes this line:
“Residents say the mound has been getting bigger and bigger and are worried it could collapse.”
Whilst the current legal position is perhaps understandable, this leaves the owners of the houses – the entirely innocent victims of this situation – in complete limbo. Of course, their home insurance is unlikely to cover landslides, and as the site is in private hands, the local authority has no direct responsibility. Such situations are deeply unfair.