BT fined by Transport for London for putting public at risk during street works

During works at Bishopsgate in August, BT failed to properly sign and guard the work area. TfL said it also used the wrong traffic management methods

TfL already took BT to court in March last year, for a similar offence in Streatham Hill (Getty)

British Telecom has been fined £90,000 by Transport for London for putting the public at risk during street works in the capital last year.

TfL on Thursday said BT had failed to properly sign and guard the work area while also using the wrong traffic management methods during works at Bishopsgate in August.

Despite repeated demands by TfL, the company also failed to take actions to improve the situation, which TfL said led to unsafe conditions for road users and pedestrians as well as cyclists.

BT this week pleaded guilty to the charges at Westminster Magistrates Court. In addition to the £90,000 fine, the company was ordered to pay a further £3,394 in court costs.

"There is clearly a disconnect between BT and its contractors, consistently resulting in a number of these breaches, which must be fixed by BT to avoid future offences,” the district judge said in passing the sentence.

“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.”

Glynn Barton, TfL’s director of network management, said that the transport authority prosecuted BT for street works offences 47 times since 2010.

“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,” he added.

TfL already took BT to court in March last year, for a similar offence in Streatham Hill. TfL said in that instance BT had “failed to properly sign and guard the working area, which meant that pedestrians were able to walk dangerously close to heavy plant and machinery”.

“We fully accept the judge’s decision and we’re sorry that our safeguards were not up to scratch in these two cases,” a spokesperson for BT’s Openreach division said in response to the latest fine.

“We carry out 3,500 projects like this every month across London and over 99 per cent of these 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.”