Recent News

March 2008
Are councils prepared for their new traffic enforcement powers?

Local authorities in England have less than a month to put everything in place to implement Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004, covering matters such as parking, bus lane and moving traffic contraventions. Will they achieve it? No.

Certainly the legislative move from the Road Traffic Act 1991 to the will have taken place so that civil parking enforcement can continue but it is unlikely that the broader implications of Part 6 (Civil Enforcement of Traffic Contraventions) will be fulfilled from day one. After all, the DfT circulated its final regulations and guidance barely three months before the planned implementation date (and published them on its website only a week ago).

Many observers have been critical of the tight timetable imposed on local authorities. While legal and procedural issues were ironed out, calls for a postponement fell on Departmental 'deaf ears'. It may be that the DfT itself was under pressure not to delay any further. Whatever the reason, it leaves local authorities facing an uphill struggle over the next twelve months.

At the heart of the Part 6 provisions is the desire for broader national consistency and openness about the way parking departments operate and how that operation contributes to the wider traffic management objectives of the traffic authority. There is an expectation that parking policies will be regularly reviewed and the public involved in their development of these policies. Moreover, there is a requirement to publish them.

This is an abstract from Alistair Turk's Viewpoint article in Local Transport Today 6 March 2008. To read on: LTT magazine

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