Village creates bylaw to ban lorries as County Council refuses to take action

[jervi]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c72gy9lxp9ko

Saw this the other day.
Residents in a village in Lincolnshire have been requesting that the County Council (Lincolnshire) to introduce a traffic regulation order to ban HGVs, however the county council is refusing to do so, so instead the local village council decided to create a bylaw to introduce a ban, and erected appropriate signs.

I wonder how lawful this introduction of a bylaw is, and whether it would be enforceable

Of course whether HVGs drivers abide by it would be the same if it was a TRO, bylaw, or no order at all, as at the end of the day it is just a sign and no one knows or cares about the legality of them.

[ravenbluemoon]

Difficult to tell which road(s) have the bylaw in effect, but if it's the C9 (Lincolnshire) running east from the A15 I can see why LCC wouldn't want to put a weight limit on the road - there's not much of an alternative for the local businesses, and even then you'd be diverting them along the C409 and no doubt annoying the villagers of Langtoft while you're at it.

[traffic-light-man]

Definitely stretches far beyond my knowledge, but can a council other than the LHA actually implement an enforceable bylaw that affects passage on the public highway under the control of the LHA?

I don't think I've heard of this happening before (cue plenty of examples ), but if it's enforceable, I wonder if a bit of a precedent will be set with other councils following suit.

[Chris5156]

I’d be interested to see the signage they’ve erected. I doubt it’s compliant with TSRGD.

[Fenlander]

Difficult to tell which road(s) have the bylaw in effect, but if it's the C9 (Lincolnshire) running east from the A15 I can see why LCC wouldn't want to put a weight limit on the road - there's not much of an alternative for the local businesses, and even then you'd be diverting them along the C409 and no doubt annoying the villagers of Langtoft while you're at it.

It is the C9. They can already take Cross Road (parallel to A15 but behind the villages of Baston & Langtoft) out onto the A1175 as an alternative but if they're heading North it's shorter & quicker to go via Baston village itself.

[Bryn666]

I’d be interested to see the signage they’ve erected. I doubt it’s compliant with TSRGD.

The article doesn't seem to say they have erected signage - merely passed a by-law to "allow" them to. I'm not sure their by-law can override the county's powers under RTRA 1984 S122, mind, so this will be a legal cluster-muck for sure.

[jgharston]

A parish council can't create by-laws, only Parliament can create by-laws. Local councils can only "create" a by-law where there is existing delegated power to the authority. I am fairly certain that highways powers have no delegation to parish councils. Otherwise, I'd put a height limit on Flowergate to stop the damn double deckers coming down there.

After about ten minutes' searching, I cannot find any evidence of this by-law, only reports of it. No agenda item, no officer's report, no minutes, nothing. I wouldn't be surprised if it was just "I move that High Street should have a 7.5tn limit, all in favour? Great, get the paint out."

[SteelCamel]

There's a list of parish council powers here. There are some powers over highways, but they're pretty limited. I can't see anything allowing them to create any kind of traffic regulation. They can erect signs (Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, section 72) - but only bus stops, warnings, and placenames, and only "with the permission of the highway authority".

I did check the Baston Parish Council website. The meeting minutes are posted up to November, but the December and February meetings don't have any minutes posted. Given the BBC story is dated 20th Feb, and the Council should have met on the 15th, whatever was decided probably came from that meeting - but without the minutes it's impossible to know. And there's nothing posted in the "news" section either.