A COUNTY council is to be prosecuted for alleged breaches of health and safety law following the death of a boy who drowned during a school caving trip, it was confirmed today.

Joe Lister, 14, died when floodwater swept through Manchester Hole Cave in the Yorkshire Dales in November 2005.

He was one of a group of 11 pupils from Tadcaster Grammar School who were visiting the cave during a week at Bewerley Park Outdoor Education Centre in North Yorkshire.

An inquest heard that water levels rose, flooding the exit route from a section of the cave, forcing the terrified youngsters to swim for their lives.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is prosecuting North Yorkshire County Council for breaches of health and safety law. The prosecutions follow a joint police and HSE investigation.

North Yorkshire County Council, who own and operate the outdoor education centre, faces charges under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act (1974).

The charges allege the authority's failure to ensure the safety at work of its employees, including the Tadcaster Grammar School teacher who accompanied the school group.

Another charge relates to the authority's alleged failure to ensure the safety of persons not in its employment, namely the Tadcaster Grammar School pupils, including Joe Lister.

The case will be heard before Harrogate Magistrates Court on February 27 next year.

An inquest into the youngster's death heard from local experts who said the cave was prone to flooding when water was being blown over the top of a reservoir dam three miles from the cave.

The reservoir had risen by 5ft in the days before the tragedy yet no one checked the dam before the Year Ten party went down the cave.

The 11 pupils reached the bottom of the 500-yard cave system when water levels suddenly rose.

The jury returned a narrative verdict, blaming among other things weather conditions and the overspill from the reservoir as reasons for the tragedy.