Virgin Media Face 14 Charges in Carlisle Court for Safety Breaches

Cable TV and ultrafast broadband ISP Virgin Media UK (Liberty Global) seems to be in hot water again after the Carlisle Magistrates’ Court in Cumbria highlighted 14 alleged safety breaches (locations), which relate to the Project Lightning network expansion in residential areas.

The charges themselves link back to the 1991 New Road and Street Works Act, which among other things was design to protect the structure of the street and the apparatus in it, as well as to ensure safety (both of workers and residents etc.) and to minimise the inconvenience for people using a street (particularly those with a disability).

Some may recall an article we wrote last July 2017, which highlighted how Virgin Media’s network expansion in Carlisle had come under fire for its quality of work after 400 defects were logged in one year (here). The local authority also said that as a result of this they were having to inspect 90% (instead of the “usual” 10%) of related street works and instruct a lot of repairs.

At the time Rob Betton, an independent Councillor for Botcherby, said: “Some of my constituents have fallen over these uneven pavements. In some cases, paving slabs are being left sticking up by as much as two inches. In many cases, the work has been done in conservation areas.”

All of this stems from the operator’s announcement in 2016, which confirmed a plan to extend their 350Mbps capable broadband and cable TV network to an additional 22,000 premises in the city (here). Allegedly the locally based contractors were actually doing quite a good job but the other third-party ones, which Virgin Media had hired from outside of town, seemed to be less reliable.

Fast forward to last week and a hearing in the Carlisle Magistrates’ Court has revealed that lawyers for Cumbria County Council are attempting to prosecute the operator due to the state of street works on a number of residential roads across Carlisle. The News and Star lists these locations as follows.

The 14 Locations / Charges (One Count for Each Area)

* Weardale Road, Caldewgate

* Monks Close, Caldewgate

* Dowbeck Road, off Wigton Road

* Beconsfield Street, Currock

* Thirlmere Street, Currock

* Uldale Road, Upperby

* Upperby Road, Upperby

* Embleton Road, Upperby

* Scalegate Road, Upperby

* Kirklands Road, Upperby

* Clementia Terrace, Currock

* Upperby Road, Upperby [a second charge]

* Lund Crescent, Upperby

* Dunmail Drive, Morton

The council claims that Virgin Media, which was being represented by barrister John Boumphrey, is responsible for the work of their contractors. Apparently the contractors are accused of failing to adequately guard and light parts of the street that were obstructed by plant or materials. On top of that it’s alleged that they also failed to ensure the appropriate traffic signs were correctly placed, maintained or operated.

The operator has yet to enter any pleas against the charges and the case is now due to go before a district judge on 2nd May 2018. We did contact Virgin Media about this issue but they have declined to comment, which is unsurprising given that the action is on-going and they’ve yet to enter any formal pleas.

At this point we usually say that building new fibre optic network infrastructure is a highly disruptive, as well as expensive, exercise. Similarly Virgin Media are by no means alone in causing the occasional problem for communities. In the end such disruption is typically a small price to pay for gaining access to an ultrafast broadband network and boosting local competition at infrastructure level.

However, the situation in Carlisle looks to be much more serious than we’ve seen elsewhere in the country, where most of the problems created by different broadband builders have tended to be fairly minor infractions or simple cases of temporary inconvenience.