Millionaire mansions have to be DEMOLISHED after embankment collapses beneath them
Two mansions worth £1.4million are being demolished after a Victorian railway embankment collapsed beneath them.
The elderly homeowners are set to be made homeless after a mudslide caused their back gardens to fall down on the railway tracks below – and blocked the line.
Stephen and Lynne Coverdale have lived in their property on the Woodlands Estate in Baildon, West Yorkshire since it was build in 1986.
Neighbours David and Fiona Lerner moved in 2009 after buying their home for £385,000.
In February, the home owners were evacuated to a hotel before being moved to temporary accommodation.
Neighbours in the area are now waiting for Network Rail to determine whether their homes are also at risk.
Experts are now monitoring all gardens for any danger.
The two houses were located directly above the Ilkley to Bradford line – which will be blocked until June.
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Margaret Dugdale who lives next to the two demolished houses hopes her house will be safe as it appears to be on more stable ground.
“If I have to move out, I have to move out. I have no idea where I stand with the insurance,” she told the Daily Mail.
“I am behind with the garden and I need a new carpet but there is no point if I am not going to be there. We first knew something was wrong when cracks were spotted in one of the gardens.
“Then the gardens went. When me and my daughter saw what had happened, we nearly had a fit.
“They tried to stop it by removing 2,500 tonnes of earth to reduce the pressure on the cutting. But they could not stop it and now we hear it might be too dangerous to work on.”
Jason Hamilton, Network Rail’s route director, said “every effort” had been made to save the homes but all other resolutions had been ruled out.
He said: “Regrettably, after a number of weeks of looking at an extensive number of options, due to the complex nature of the site and the critical need to reopen the railway line, we need to use our statutory powers to allow us to safely resume repairs to this site.
“That will mean safely removing the properties”, before adding, it was “a very unusual situation and a sensitive situation”.