Water firm in fine mess with 600 road penalties

SCOTTISH Water has been handed more fines than any other utility company by local roads bosses, new figures have shown.

The water company, which carries out perhaps more work than any other utility firm, was hit with more than 600 fixed penalty notices in south-east Scotland, the road authority area which includes Edinburgh.

The figures came in the fourth annual report of the Scottish Road Works Commissioner John Gooday, the man dubbed the country's "cone tsar".

The next worst offender after Scottish Water was ScottishPower, which received more than 200 fines in 2010-11.

The penalties are handed out by councils to utility companies which fail to carry out roadworks to a sufficient standard and within a pre-planned period of time.

Commenting on the report as a whole, Mr Gooday said: "I will carefully review these results to see if the step-change improvement which I have been seeking has been achieved.

"If not, then I will have to consider the use of my powers to impose penalties up to a maximum of 50,000."