Durham County Council has warned utility companies they face the threat of legal action and fines if they don’t minimise disruption caused by their street works.
The warning comes after recent prosecutions resulted in British Telecom and Northern Gas Networks having to pay out more than £20,000 in fines and costs. Durham’s environment director, John Richardson, said: ‘Although over the years, we have encouraged compliance with legislation, it has been to limited effect and more robust action has become necessary.’
Utility companies carry out in the region of 17,000 street works in Durham every year, but test inspections carried out by the authority in the past year of the signing and guarding of works found 13.5% did not comply with the statutory requirements.
Richardson said concerns about ‘deteriorating standards and the demands of new legislation’ left him with little choice but to take legal action.
He added: ‘High-level meetings have been held with utility companies operating within the county, making them aware of our new enforcement procedures, and while each is beginning to take action, there is a long way to go.
‘I have set a target for the utilities to reduce their failure rates to less than 55 by April 2008, and have written to all the operators seeking their co-operation.’