TELECOMMUNICATIONS firm BT Group has been fined and ordered to pay £28,000 for roadworks that put pedestrians and road users at risk.

Two of the roadworks run by the utility company’s subcontractors were in Thormanby on the A19, six miles south of Thirsk, where residents have long called for a bypass due to the high number of serious accidents there.

The village has a 30mph speed limit inside a 40mph speed limit, together with a electronic sign that warns motorists if they are exceeding 30mph.

The prosecution at York Magistrates Court was the first of its type brought by North Yorkshire County Council.

Kelly Dawson, prosecuting, said the first set of roadworks on August 8, 2016, forced pedestrians to cross the busy A19 main road through the village twice or walk in the road itself to get round them.

When subcontractors Eltel-UK of Swainby, near Northallerton, working on behalf of BT Group returned to the village on September 19, they didn’t properly secure a road plate across a hole in the road which led to it moving and exposing part of the hole.

BT Group PLC of London pleaded guilty at York Magistrates Court to three breaches of roadwork regulations by failing to have the correct safety measures in place.

District judge Adrian Lower said utility companies had to make sure they carried out work without putting the public at risk and BT had to make sure it chose its contractors carefully.

He fined BT £26,000, plus the council’s £2,100.85 costs, plus a £170 statutory surcharge.

For BT, Gemma Maxwell said the two men responsible for the August 8 breach no longer worked for Eltel-UK.

On each occasion when the council’s inspector had told those on site about the dangers they had acted immediately to remove the danger.

BT took its responsibilities very seriously and had put measures in place to prevent similar incidents occurring. The road plate was probably moved by a car driving over it to get into a driveway and the Bolton Abbey problem had been a planning error.

Representatives from BT and the contractors were in court. The Government has issued a 100-page document on the minimum precautions needed to make roadworks safe for road users, the court heard.