A HOLE has opened up at the bottom of Walton Street, Jericho, Oxford, raising the prospect of more rush hour traffic chaos along with a planned city road closure.

A cordon has been put around the 3ft by 3ft hole – at the south end by Beaumont Street – by Oxfordshire County Council, which has yet to comment.

The cordon - blocking the southbound part of the road - comes ahead of a closure from Monday morning for two weeks of part of Park End Street nearby.

Motorists and commuters are being warned they could face delays of up to 45 minutes near Oxford railway station due to work to remove a “fatberg” from a sewer.

The £60,000 emergency work is to repair the sewer which Thames Water said has partially collapsed due to a congealed mass made up of “fat, wet wipes and other litter wrongly put down drains and toilets”.

Oxfordshire County Council spokesman Martin Crabtree said it was likely to cause disruption elsewhere on the road network and that delays could be as much as 45 minutes.

He said: “We strongly recommend that anyone who normally drives into the city considers using one of the park-and-ride sites.”

Eastbound traffic coming from Frideswide Square will be blocked from entering Park End Street. Cars will still be able to access Hollybush Row and Hythe Bridge Street.

A temporary bus stop will be placed outside the Said Business School for eastbound buses. Westbound buses that do not stop at Oxford Station will continue to use the Frideswide Square stops.

Oxford Bus Company has said buses that to and from Oxford station will not stop in Frideswide Square and will call at Hythe Bridge Street instead.

Park-and-ride services from Seacourt will call at the square, and take a diversion down Hollybush Row, Oxpens, Thames Street, Speedwell Street and then into St Aldate’s.

Stagecoach has said that its outbound services from Oxford that use Botley Road will come out from George Street, on to Hythe Bridge Street and stop at Frideswide Square.

To facilitate that, barriers at the junction between George Street and Hythe Bridge Street have been removed to allow vehicles through.

Services coming into the city from Botley will stop at the temporary Said bus stop. Westbound traffic on Park End Street will be allowed to turn left into Hollybush Row only.