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The Wiltshire Council in England has confirmed that it’s taking UK broadband and telecoms giant Openreach (BT) to the Swindon Magistrates Court over a dispute related to permits. The hearing is set to take place on 1st July 2026 and could potentially result in the network access provider being fined thousands of pounds.
Openreach’s new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP network has already reached more than 215,000 properties across Wiltshire, which they’re continuing to expand via both commercial deployments and publicly subsidised Project Gigabit contracts. On the whole this has been going well, but the local authority recently identified a number of problems.
According to Wiltshire Council (via the Wiltshire Times), Openreach is accused of carrying out a number of street (road) works without a permit. The claim is that the network operator failed to seek permits for work it carried out in Weymouth Street, Warminster in September and October 2024 (the road was closed in both directions during these works).
The local authority also claims Openreach conducted work on the A350 at Semley (Shaftsbury) and on the A30 at Barford St Martin, near Wilton, without a permit. Openreach are said to be denying a total of seven charges.
Cllr Martin Smith, Cabinet Member for Highways, said:
“Our Network Management Team has initiated prosecution proceedings against Openreach in relation to three separate incidents where roads were closed without securing the required permission from the highway authority. As this is an active legal case, we are unable to comment further at this time.”
This is of course not the first time that a major national UK telecoms operator like Openreach has faced such a case, indeed they faced similar charges in Cumbria (England) last year and ended up being fined a total of £9,000 at the Barrow Magistrates Court (here). Various other network operators have also fallen foul of the rules in recent years (examples here, here and here). Such cases are rare, but they do crop up from time to time.
At present, we don’t know the detailed context of the latest incidents, as there can sometimes be mitigating circumstances involved (e.g. third-party contractors or network operators finding it cheaper to take a fine than follow the tedious official route). In many cases operators often end up being charged under Section 71 of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 and Regulation 19 of the Traffic Management Permit Scheme (England) Regulations 2007.
We have asked Openreach to comment on this report, although it wouldn’t be surprising if they declined while the legal case is active.