Wales & West Utilities fined for Whittington traffic management offences

A gas firm has been fined for traffic management offences during work on a busy road outside a primary school.

West & Wales Utilities Limited admitted six breaches and failures to maintain a proper system to manage traffic in Whittington, Shropshire.

Inspections by Shropshire Council were prompted through concerns it posed a significant safety risk to the public.

This included switching off the pedestrian crossing without council authorisation, while the work was done.

The danger was made worse when the company did not safely put up temporary traffic lights with a pedestrian crossing, Telford Magistrates' Court heard on Monday.

The council told the court that because of a bus stop, shop and post office all nearby, there was still a high volume of uncontrolled traffic movements taking place, which put pedestrians at risk.

Excavations were also being undertaken on Castle Street without a permit.

Following the hearing, the firm was fined under the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 and the Traffic Management Permit Scheme (England) Regulations 2007.

It was ordered to pay £12,068, plus costs of £4,000 and a victims' surcharge of £2,000 - a total of £18,068.

Repeat site visits had been made on 19, 20, 21 and 22 June 2023, following the raising of issues on 16 June.

However, the firm had failed to deploy a traffic marshal to assist pedestrians, despite agreeing to do so.

Two months later, during work to reset some pavement kerbs, an inspector found that that there were no operatives from the firm on site and the temporary traffic lights were not being manually controlled, as specified under a permit condition.

In addition, the site information board was inadequate, not in the correct format, was facing live traffic and was illegible.

"The location of the works directly outside a primary school, and on a busy A road, exacerbated an already non-compliant site to the point where there were serious concerns that an accident could have occurred," Chris Schofield from the council said.

The company has been contacted for comment.

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