COUNCIL bosses admitted allowing a lorry to be loaded with rubble to twice its legal weight when they appeared before Hyndburn magistrates.

The driver, a Hyndburn Council employee for six years, had never received training on how much weight his vehicle should carry, the court heard.

The council, nearing its 25th anniversary, has never before appeared in court charged with a criminal offence, said Gordon McMillan, defending.

Transport and operations chiefs admitted three charges of using a vehicle exceeding its maximum weight. The council was fined £900 and ordered to pay £35 costs.

The lorry driver, David Moore, of Royal Oak Avenue, Blackburn, admitted three identical charges. He was given an absolute discharge but ordered to pay £35 costs. Margaret Duckworth, prosecuting, said the council-owned Leyland DAF lorry was stopped by a police officer in Whalley Road, Clayton-le-Moors, as it headed towards Great Harwood loaded with rubble from traffic calming works.

The officer suspected the lorry was overloaded and ordered Mr Moore to drive to a weighbridge at Church.

The lorry was found to have a gross vehicle weight of 5,100 kg. The maximum permitted for the lorry is 3,500kgs and the vehicle was thus 45 per cent over its legal weight, said Mrs Duckworth.

Mr McMillan said the council had no wish to shift any blame on to the driver. The vehicle had been loaded by a contractor.

He said: "The driver did not supervise the loading of the vehicle because it was raining very heavily. As soon as it appeared to be loaded he simply leapt into the cab and drove off."

Notices stating the maximum payload of each vehicle have been placed inside each council lorry as a result of the case.

Mandy Peacock, defending Mr Moore, said he had worked for the council for six years. "He has never had any training regarding vehicles and weightloads in all that time," she said.

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