Up to one year, is how long some Godstone residents may have to wait before they are allowed back into their homes, after two sinkholes opened on the High Street last week.

At a meeting held at St Nicholas Youth Centre on Tuesday Lloyd Allen, from Surrey Highways, said that work has already begun to investigate why the sinkhole has occurred.

While most of the families affected have found long term temporary accommodation, two households are still in Emergency accommodation.

Diego Silva with is wife and 17-month-old baby, rent a property William Way.

For the last four nights, they have slept in three different locations.

He told Susy radio about his experience on trying to get help with accommodation.

It’s been reported that the sinkhole in Godstone will be investigated using 3D mapping technology.

Two sinkholes which appeared last week on the High Street initially caused 30 households in the area to be evacuated, although six have now returned.

The leader of Tandridge District Council’s Catherine Sayer said remote sensing called LiDAR would be used to create 3D maps instead of borehole testing, as this is less intrusive and will be used first.

A public meeting being hosted by the council will take place this evening (25th February) at St Nicholas Youth Centre, Godstone at 6.30pm to address concerns from residents and business owners. The meeting will be led by Chief Executive David Ford and  Council Leader Catherine Sayer with representatives from Surrey County Council Highways and Surrey Police.

Surrey Police said on Sunday that security measures in the area had been strengthened.

Crawley’s Question Time is back for another year, giving residents an opportunity to ask questions about topics important to them. The event, now in its 20th year, will take place from 7pm to 9pm on Wednesday 19 March in the Town Hall.

The annual event takes the form of an independently chaired general debate and discussion. There are no set topics so attendees can raise any areas or concerns for discussion, such as community safety, planning, health, Gatwick Airport, parking or the economy.

Provisionally, this year’s panel will be:

• Councillor Michael Jones, Leader, Crawley Borough Council
• Councillor Yasmin Khan, Cabinet member for Public Protection
• Councillor Duncan Crow, Opposition Leader, Crawley Borough Council
• Lola Banjoko, Deputy Chief Integration & Primary Care Officer and Director of Joint Commissioning, NHS Sussex
• Fouzia Harrington, Director of Joint Commissioning and Integrated Community Team Development (West Sussex), NHS Sussex
• Superintendent Imran Asghar, Sussex Police
• Elijah Norton, Youth Mayor

The event will be hosted by Steve Sawyer, Executive Director of Manor Royal Business District.

This is the opportunity for Crawley residents to ask us directly any questions about topics they are concerned about or would simply like more information on. I would like to thank the rest of the panel for attending and Steve for hosting this year’s event.

Councillor Michael Jones, Leader of Crawley Borough Council

The event is open to everyone – the public, business leaders and partner organisations. The views and comments expressed will help the council and others to plan work on improving services and the town in general.

Parking is available at the Town Hall multi-storey car park on Exchange Road. A flat rate of £2.10 applies in the evening (6pm to midnight). Parking is also available at Kingsgate multi-storey car park opposite the Town Hall. A flat rate of £2.50 applies.

Two drug-dealers linked to the “UK’s biggest ever law enforcement operation” have been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.

Isshaq Khan and his nephew Jan Lee were both arrested as part of the National Crime Agency’s Operation Venetic, an investigation into the EncroChat encrypted communications platform, in 2020.

EncroChat was a service provider – since dismantled – which enabled criminals to communicate securely with one another.

But with the assistance of European law agencies, users’ data was hacked and shared with police forces across the UK.

This enabled Sussex Police to identify Khan, 30, of Grace Road, Crawley, and Lee, 33, of Percivale Close, Crawley, as both having EncroChat accounts, which they used to openly discuss their criminal activities.

Detective Inspector Jason Vickers, of the Sussex Police Serious and Organised Crime Unit, explained: “It was clear from just a snapshot of their messages, captured between March and June 2020, that Lee and Khan were running a well-established enterprise, handling hundreds of thousands of pounds and dealing with multi-kilos of cocaine and cannabis.

“This has been a large and complex investigation which resulted in both defendants charged with being concerned in supplying a controlled Class A drug (cocaine), being concerned in supplying a controlled Class B drug (cannabis) and acquiring criminal property (money laundering).”

Due to the overwhelming evidence against them, both defendants entered guilty pleas and were sentenced at Lewes Crown Court on 14 February to 10 years and six months’ imprisonment each.

In summing up, the judge stated they both played a leading role as they were directing or organising at a commercial scale, and were local wholesale suppliers in the Crawley/Sussex area.

Det Insp Vickers added: “The length of sentence handed to both defendants shows how this type of criminality will not be tolerated in Sussex, or anywhere else for that matter.”