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.’
