A Sidcup woman is “over the bloody moon” after a noisy loose manhole cover on her road was fixed.

Patricia Penn, 60, of Sidcup Hill, compared the agony of the noise to “Chinese water torture”.

Thames Water was given the green light from Bexley Council to work on the loose manhole cover on Friday, and it took them an hour-and-a-half to secure it.

And Ms Penn and neighbours had been pleading to the council for three months to make a start on it by setting up two-way portable traffic signals.

She said the “awful” noise broke out whenever a car drove past her house and over the manhole.

Ms Penn told News Shopper: “I’m over the bloody moon.

News Shopper:

Patricia Penn

“The lorry arrived on Friday and it only took them an hour-and-a-half to fix it.

“It makes you think, why could it not have been fixed before? We were asking for three months as it was disturbing everyone.

“I love gardening, it’s my hobby, but when I went out to work on it, with that noise, it was like I was in purgatory. Who would want to stay outside and listen to that?”

Workers had previously tried to fix the loose manhole by wedging wood in-between the gap, an attempt which Ms Penn described as laughable.

She revealed how she would always wake up to the noise in the early hours of the morning.

“I’m a good sleeper, but the clanking would wake me up at 5am”, Ms Penn said.

“My room seemed to move when I heard the noise.

“People, who are complete strangers, came up to me and asked ‘how do you put up with that noise?’”

News Shopper:

Patricia Penn standing behind the fixed manhole

She added: “It was like Chinese water torture. The manhole went ‘clank, clank’ whenever cars went over it.

“I don’t have double glazing windows. But then again, my neighbour said he still heard the noise even with triple glazing.”

Before the manhole was repaired, a Bexley Council spokesman said: “A site meeting with Thames Water took place on Monday (May 23) and we have agreed a repair timetable that will cause the least disruption to residents.

“The work will involve two-way portable traffic signals during the evening. Permission has been granted for Thames Water to carry out the repairs from May 27.”