A report informing the Sub-Committee of progress and decision making in respect of the Traffic Regulaiton Order rectification process.

The Sub-Committee received a report that informed them of progress and decision making in respect of the TRO rectification process.  A drawings pack to highlight the locations and restrictions affected was appended to the report.

The report explained that at Council on 15 October 2024 a summary of issues that related to certain TROs had been reported which meant that there were restrictions on the Highway that could not be enforced.  A rectification process had been agreed (Minutes 19 and 20 refer) that involved advertising new, permanent TROs to address the issues that had been identified.

The report included a table that detailed the TROs affected and stated that to ensure the restrictions presented on street were compliant with national signing regulations and that they were enforceable, valid TROs needed to be in place.  The consultation process was a regulatory process and officers would follow a standard approach for each TRO, as set out in the report. 

The launch of the statutory consultations would be staggered and a table that showed the progress of each TRO through the rectification project was included in the report.  The table would be updated and submitted to future meetings until the processes were concluded for all effected TROs.  The reported stated that the timelines might be subject to change and would be influenced by the feedback that would be received during the statutory consultation, currently it had been assumed that there would be no objections and a decision taken to implement the resultant TROs. 

It was expected that enforcement would commence following the making of each TRO and as part of the rectification scheme, officers were also identifying areas where signing and lining relating to the restrictions required improvement.  These works would be carried out following statutory consultation, subject to a decision to make the TRO. 

At Council on 15 October 2024, officers had reported that motorists had been wrongly issued Penalty Charge Notices for alleged breaches of the restrictions in TROs with known issues and had submitted a proposed scheme of restitution.  A dedicated webpage had been set up for affected motorists to claim a refund and a list of frequently asked questions and details of the TRO areas where claims could be made had been set up on the Council’s website.  The report included a table that provided some headline data for claims that had been made through the scheme of restitution as at 14 November 2024.  The report also included a table that provided details of the media communications that had been carried out and had been planned, to date.

The Sub-Committee discussed the report and officers confirmed that more detailed reports setting out for example, a breakdown of the reasons why claims were not verified, would be submitted to future meetings of the Sub-Committee and other Council Committees.

Resolved –   That the report be noted.