The Department for Transport has issued statutory guidance for local authorities outside London on applying for and using civil enforcement powers for bus lane and moving traffic contraventions.
From this month, authorities wanting to use the new powers to enforce offiences such as blocking yellow box junctions will be able to apply to the transport secretary for an order designating themselves as the enforcement authority in their area.
The guidance, which is published Section 87 of the Traffic Management Act 2004 (TMA), sets out the policy framework for enforcement, including how to approach, carry out and review it.
It states that it aims to strike the right balance between overall consistency and allowing policies to suit local circumstances; providing ‘a system that is fair to the motorist, but also effective in enforcing traffic restrictions’.
The guidance places councils’ ‘fair and appropriate enforcement’ of restrictions firmly in the context of the role the restrictions can play a part in delivering policy objectives such as cutting congestion and rat-running, enabling more walking and cycling, creating more pleasant places to live and work in and improving road safety.
Councils can issue PCNs for bus lane and moving traffic contraventions based on evidence from an ‘approved device’ comprising a camera and associated recording equipment.
While warning that enforcement is unlikely to be self-financing by itself, the guidance advises authorities considering whether to apply to take into account the ‘indirect financial, environmental, and other benefits that would result’.
It also advises authorities to ‘appraise their bus lane and moving traffic policies and the way those are operating to see which traffic management objectives are being met and where improvements are needed, having regard to the potential effect on surrounding roads’.
With local authority decisions to begin enforcing the restrictions likely to be controversial, the guidance advises the use of warning notices for first-time contraventions for six months at each new camera location’.
The warning notice should set out the six-month period and advise that any further moving traffic contravention at the same camera location would result in the issue of a penalty charge notice (PCN). ‘It is therefore strongly recommended that accurate records of enforcement commencement dates are maintained.’
Not for revenue raising
The guidance also reminds councils that the primary purpose of penalty charges ‘is to encourage compliance with traffic restrictions, not for raising revenue’.
It adds: ‘In pursuit of this, local authorities outside London should adopt the lowest charge level that is consistent with a high level of public acceptability and of compliance.’
Recognising that authorities will need to forecast revenue in advance ‘for good governance’, the guidance also wards that authorities should not set targets for revenue or the number of PCNs they issue.
It also ‘strongly recommends’ that the public should have easy access to a local authority’s enforcement policies and priorities, which it says ‘makes a local authority more accountable to its residents and should also help counter accusations that enforcement is being carried out in an arbitrary or unfair way’.
The guidance also recommends that authorities should check the consistency and applicability of the restrictions that they plan to enforce and the Traffic Regulations Orders (TROs) used.
It suggests a review of those TROs applicable to planned moving traffic enforcement activity to check whether restrictions indicated by traffic signs and road markings are the same as those authorised by the TRO, adding: ‘If not, they should be made consistent.’
It states: ‘The Secretary of State will not sign a Designation Order until a local authority’s Chief Executive has confirmed in writing that all applicable existing and new TROs, traffic signs and road markings in the proposed civil enforcement area have been reviewed; comply with relevant regulations, principally, the TSRGD 2016 or subsequent editions and guidance on relevant chapters of the Traffic Signs Manual or have special authorisation from the government; are consistent with each other and in a good state of repair.’
It adds that as part of this process, authorities should be mindful of their duty under Section 122 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. ‘Scheme design should be reviewed to look afresh at the measures to be enforced to ensure that there is no location where a motorist would have to contravene the provisions to avoid a road safety or congestion problem.’
These might include left-hand turns where there is a bus lane and yellow box junction where the exit cannot be seen before entering it. The guidance warns: ‘Poorly designed schemes can undermine enforcement overall and give rise to public perception of revenue raising.’
