A bit of a problem

You've read the horror stories and seen them on TV. The ones where the builder doesn't ensure that the foundations are strong enough and walls start to crack.

Here is an example from just around the corner from us on our estate.

The house and the pool are fine. They are built on piles driven down to bedrock. The problem is with the garden walls and the terracing on this side of the house.
I suspect the land was built up to provide a level area for the terrace. First the walls began to crack so they repaired them. Then they cracked again and the paving started moving. Finally it got to the stage where it looked like the whole garden was going to slide down onto the next house

The builder has now taken drastic action. For the last two weeks they have had a "pecker" removing all the soil around the pool down to the house below. The structure you can see is the pool itself.

The interesting thing is that the people who own the house and the one below are still living there. In fact they were out on the other side of their houses sunbathing when I took the photographs. Somehow I don't think they will be swimming in that pool this summer though.

This problem has affected a group of houses in one part of the estate. Presumably when they have finished with this plot they will move onto the next. So we can look forward to months of pecking. If only they would start work at a sensible hour!