Judge due to sentence council after busway deaths

A council which has admitted breaching health and safety legislation after three people died following accidents on a guided busway must wait several months before a judge imposes a penalty.

Judge Mark Bishop indicated he would penalise Cambridgeshire County Council when a sentencing hearing takes place on 13-14 March.

During a case management hearing at Cambridge Crown Court, he was told by the council's legal representative that he would be given a "lot of information" about the local authority's finances at the hearing next year.

A prosecutor told the judge that a commercial organisation convicted of the same offences would expect a seven or eight-figure fine.

The Health and Safety Executive prosecuted the council after three people died and a teenager was seriously hurt during a six-year period.

Jennifer Taylor, Steve Moir and Kathleen Pitts all died after collisions with buses on the The Busway, serving Cambridge, Huntingdon and St Ives, between 2015 and 2021.

In September 2024, council chief executive Dr Stephen Moir apologised.

"We fully recognise and accept that during the historic operation of the guided busway, when these incidents occurred, that we fell far short of meeting these standards," he said in a statement released by the council.

"For that we are truly sorry."

In October at an earlier court hearing, the council admitted two breaches of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act:

• Failing to ensure members of the public were not "exposed to risks" when using "designated crossing points"
• Failing to ensure members of the public were not "exposed to risks" when in the "vicinity of, or seeking to travel alongside" the busway

Barrister Ben Compton KC, representing the council, told the latest court hearing that the authority's "financial circumstances" would have to be considered before sentence was passed.

"The court is going to need a lot of information about the financial circumstances of Cambridgeshire County Council," he said.

Prosecutor Pascal Bates, who represents the HSE, added: "A commercial organisation would be looking at a fine at least in seven figures, if not eight figures."

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