The aim of the Act is to tackle congestion and reduce disruption on the road network. It places a new Network Management Duty on local authorities and provides them with new powers to control what happens on the roads. All local authorities have now appointed a ‘Traffic Manager’, a new statutory post, to assist them meet the requirements of the Act.
The expectation is that that we will raise our game in terms of improved traffic management, controlling and co-ordinating occupation of our roads (e.g. road works, utility works, skips, refuse collection), event management, incident management, parking/traffic enforcement and so on.
Doncaster has, over the last 10 years, experienced amongst the highest traffic growth of any town or city in the UK. Improving the management of our road network to minimise congestion and disruption will become increasingly important as we continue to grow.
The Council now has a Network Management Duty:
‘To secure the expeditious movement of traffic (including pedestrians) on our highway network and facilitate the same on the networks of other authorities’.
Basically we need to:
be more proactive to minimise disruption by managing what happens on our roads.
work with our neighbouring authorities and the Highways Agency, who are responsible for our motorways, to manage the network as a whole.
The Council is currently preparing a Network Management Plan for Doncaster.
The attached report and presentation to the Council’s Economy and Enterprise Overview and Scrutiny Panel set out the main implications of the Traffic Management Act and the progress that we are making towards meeting our Network Management Duty.
For more information about the Act or our plans for improving the management of the road network please e-mail: traffic.manager@doncaster.gov.uk
