Although Market Street in Crediton will be closed for the next two weeks, possibly longer to repair a collapsed sewer, businesses on the street are still open for trading as usual.

A small hole appeared in the road two weeks ago and grew increasingly bigger, so much so that it forced the closure of the road.

Engineers used a robot camera to investigate the extent of the collapse.

Martin Ashley, assistant town clerk, explained on Tuesday: "Having spoken to the contractors earlier today, it appears that their work has been slowed down considerably by the dense network of utilities running beneath the roadway and reducing much of the work to hand digging.

"This means that the repair will not be completed this week and may take a couple of weeks more, depending upon obstructions and also what damage they find once they get to the drain or culvert in question.

"They can obviously give no firm time scale, but I will update you on the situation as more information becomes available."

Alan Quick