BT fined just £120 for unauthorised Lanark roadworks

And the multi-million pound utility company will only have to cough up £80 if it pays the South Lanarkshire Council penalty promptly.

One Lanarkian caught up in the long jams caused by the January 19 town centre works described the `punishment’ as “a joke; do they really think huge companies like BT are going to put off doing what they like, when they like by a piffling fine like this.”

At last week’s Lanark Community Council meeting, its chairman Frank Gunning — before learning what the size of the fine was — greeted it as “showing BT and the other services they don’t own the roads of Lanark and can’t get away with causing turmoil with unauthorised works like this and doing it without giving proper notice.”