British Telecom has been handed a record fine for putting the public at risk during streetworks in the City of London following a court case brought by Transport for London.

 

The telecommunications firm was ordered to pay £90,000 after pleading guilty to charges against it at Westminster Magistrates Court. This represents the highest fine ever prosecuted by TfL in relation to a streetworks offence.

 

During works at Bishopsgate in August 2017 (pictured), BT failed to properly sign and guard its work area and was also found to have used the wrong traffic management methods.

 

The court heard that, despite repeated demands by TfL, the firm failed to take swift action to improve the situation, leading to unsafe conditions for road users, pedestrians and cyclists.

 

“The safety of the public and workers should be top priority when undertaking roadworks,” said TfL’s director of network management Glynn Barton. “It is absolutely vital that companies such as BT ensure safety on site and we will always push for the strongest possible action against those that put the public at risk.”

 

In addition to the £90,000 fine BT was ordered to pay a further £3394 in court costs. This marks the second time in 12 months that TfL has taken the company to court for unsafe working practices.

 

In passing sentence, the District Judge said: “It took over a day for BT to rectify these faults despite the works taking place in a busy part of the City of London with substantial impact on traffic. The response was unacceptably slow in my view and I hope that is reflected in my sentence.”

 

A spokesman for BT Openreach said: “We fully accept the Judge’s decision and we’re sorry that our safeguards weren’t up to scratch. We carry out 3500 projects like this every month across London and over 99% are completed without incident.

 

“Safety of the public is absolutely paramount to us, and we’ve put further measures in place for our contractors to follow that we believe will prevent this happening in future.”