Is this Road Closure Order unlawful ?

[KFC]

The local Council have arranged a temporary Road Closure Order for a whole day while there is an event on.

 

My area, (containing hundreds of houses and various businesses), will be totally cut off as it is surrounded by railways, canals and is boxed in by the main Road which will be closed for approx 12 hours, 6.30am to 6.00pm.

 

There are diversion routes, but they are only accessible by one Road Crossing Point, which is only open for a few hours !

 

My question is that I believe that the Road Traffic Act says - that during road closures, a safe diversion route must be provided, also right of access must be available at all times.

 

So does that mean that this Road Closure Order is unlawful/ unenforceable ?

 

What can I Do ?

 

Please help, Kyle

[sailor sam]

I would of thought that a public notice of this would of been published before hand to enable resident's to voice their objections. Also there must be some temporary traffic orders in place for this. Have you checked with your local council?

 

Please Note

 

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I would always urge to seek face to face professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

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[Jamberson]

First thing I would do is get onto the council and ask them. What are you supposed to do. Moreover, supposing there was a fire? Or an ambulance was needed? There must be some kind of access, but what?

[KFC]

Thank you for your replies,

 

I've been on to the Council, the police, the event organisers, - the council are just passing it from department to department wasting my time.

 

The Police skirt around the issues saying the I should park further away in Tesco's car park or the local sports centre where they have warning signs with penalties if you are not a customer etc.

 

The event organisers seem to be trying to be more helpful, but unfortunately the person I contacted gave out incorrect information.

 

Apparently my email/concerns have been brought to the attention of the event director.

 

Not much more that I can do except to wait.

 

I am sure that is unlawful to have a whole area, effectively in lock down, completely cut off for most of the day.

 

Is that not a breach of my human rights under the Human Rights Act ?

[sailor sam]

There should of been should of been some kind of risk assessment done involving the fire and ambulance services I would of thought as Jamberson mentioned, so you could speak to someone at your local fire station. Also, there should be a temporary traffic order in place for the road closures so have you asked to see it? Also you could check your local newspaper to see whether there were official notices published giving locals the opportunity to raise concerns. AFAIK, unless those were actually published, the road closures could be unlawful.

 

Please Note

 

The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only.

 

I would always urge to seek face to face professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my reputation 'star' button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

[green_and_mean]

Is that not a breach of my human rights under the Human Rights Act ?

 

I don't think the 'right to drive to the shops' is covered under Human rights!

[Consumer dude]

I don't think the 'right to drive to the shops' is covered under Human rights!

 

What about freedom of movement..

[Jamberson]

This isn't about freedom of movement, it's about mode of transport. No-one's in prison!

[green_and_mean]

Maybe if you posted a few more details such as the event or traffic order help would be more forthcoming.

[Consumer dude]

This isn't about freedom of movement, it's about mode of transport. No-one's in prison!

 

If you can't get your car out you are..

[green_and_mean]

If you can't get your car out you are..

 

So you think missing out on a trip to Waitrose is like being banged up in Guantanamo bay?

[Jamberson]

If you can't get your car out you are..

 

You are what? Unable to walk? Unable to cycle? Unable to pogostick your way to the pub? Shackled to a concrete block in a prison yard? 100 years ago you wouldn't have had a car at all, but still had freedom of movement. The two are hardly the same.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not unsympathetic to the situation the OP is in - just that it needs to be addressed on logical grounds.

[sailor sam]

Can the OP address my points in post #5 please and then perhaps we can comment further?

 

Please Note

The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only.

 

I would always urge to seek face to face professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my reputation 'star' button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

[assisted blonde]

Its one day !"!!!! anyway there has to be some sort of vehicle access for emergency ttransport at least, may not be as convenient as usual but it should be there

[TheBogsDollocks]

The local Council have arranged a temporary Road Closure Order for a whole day while there is an event on

 

Then they neeed to have made an order under http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/27/section/16A to make the closure legal and any closure needs to comply with the law.

[Feebee_71]

We had a similar situation last year for the Olympic cycling road races and have the same again this year - we're told to make sure you put your car somewhere that you can park legitimately and can access alternative routes. If emergency vehicles need/ed to access any of the closed roads the marshals or police will direct them!!!

 

Feebee_71

[Jamberson]

Yep, same here when the Queen celebrated 60 years sitting on the throne without falling off. I had no interest in going out into the street to "celebrate" but was asked just to leave my car away from my street for the day, which I did.

[Feebee_71]

We didn't have to leave our cars away from the house if we didn't need to use it between 4am and 4pm (when the roads were closed) but, there was on access or exit during those times - and it's probably going to be the same when they do a similar road race later this summer!!

 

Feebee_71

[assisted blonde]

got to say what do you want to do? whether the closure is lawful or not dosnt really come into it, if its not lawful what do you want to do, get the event stopped? there has probably been a lot of planning gone into organising the event and a certain amount of cash, one day cant make that much difference, yes it may be a bit inconvenient but it is only 1 day, look it up and then tell the council after the event how they should do it next time.

[KFC]

Err... I needed to travel to work, the roads were closed from 6.30 am until 4 and 6 pm ! Being surrounded by canals and railway lines, these road closures leave a large area TOTALLY CUT OFF !!! The first we knew about it was some plastic signs 30 cms square strapped to lamp posts, we presumed that the council and the event organisers had it all worked out and that there wouldn't be any problems.

 

4 days before the actual event we received a flyer through our door explaining the road closures and we realised that we would be effectively totally cut off.

 

I had big commitments to full fill at work and couldn't get out of it.

 

I had to transport with me to work, valuable bulky items and could not leave them in the car on view overnight in a car park half a mile away.

 

In the end, I had to set off just after 5.30 am to get out of the area before the road closures took effect and unable to travel home until after 6 pm.

 

Bit of a long day !

 

My argument is, I believe that the Road Traffic Act says that a Safe diversion Must be provided with access available at all times during any road closures.

 

I think that there was an oversight by the organisers etc

 

I wanted to know if these Road closures were unlawful because no diversion was accessible or sufficiently provided as per the Road Traffic Act.

[sailor sam]

Well you would need to check that the temporary traffic order was adequately posted in your local rag with the statutory advanced warning time to answer that, as I mentioned in post #5.

 

Please Note

 

The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only.

 

I would always urge to seek face to face professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my reputation 'star' button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

[green_and_mean]

Was the road closure also covered by the official secrects act as well as you seem to be very reluctant to provide any details?