Traffic Orders
The Roads Section within the Environmental Services Department prepare a report to Environmental Services Committee seeking authorisation for the promotion of a Road Traffic Order. These can cover various things such as speed limits, waiting restrictions, one way orders, weight restrictions on bridges. Committee approval is followed by a consultation period.
At the request of the Roads section the Administration Officer will arrange for the advertising of the Traffic Order. A draft advert and draft order are prepared, in consultation with Roads and the Principal Solicitor (Commercial & Conveyancing).
The adverts are then placed in the local newspapers i.e. the Banffshire Herald for the Keith area, the Banffshire Advertiser for the Buckie area, the Forres Gazette for the Forres area and the Northern Scot for the remainder of Moray. As well as advising of the proposal it also advises that any objections to the proposed Order require to be submitted to the Chief Legal Officer within 28 days.
Copies of the draft Order and any plans and statement of reasons for making the Order are passed to Roads to ensure that copies are deposited at the appropriate local offices. Roads are also provided with Site Notices for placing in relevant locations.
If no objections are received during the 28-day period the Committee Officer prepares a report, in consultation with Roads and the Principal Solicitor (Commercial & Conveyancing), for submission the next meeting of the Environmental Services Committee seeking approval of the Order following the statutory advertisement period.
Objections received during the 28 day period are acknowledged and passed on to the appropriate Roads Engineer either during or at the end of the objection period.
On receiving objections Roads officials may meet with the objectors to see if the issues can be resolved. If this can be achieved the draft Order may be amended which may require re-advertising. In some instances however it may not be possible to resolve the objections and there are specific statutory procedures to deal with this within the Road Traffic Regulations Act 1984, including the holding of a hearing to try and see if the objections can be resolved.
Before an Order can be finalised the Roads Section need to advise of the effective date which can be influenced by various factors such as resources and the availability of a contractor to carry out the necessary works, such as preparing the road lines and signs and it also may well be weather dependent.
Once the commencement date has been confirmed by the Roads Section the Administration Officer, in consultation with Roads and the Principal Solicitor (Commercial & Conveyancing), prepares an advert advising that the Order has been made and the effective date for advertising in the same paper as the draft Order advert was placed.
At this stage, members of the public are allowed a period of 6 weeks in which to appeal to the Court of Session if they wish to question the validity of the Order.
It is not strictly necessary to wait for the 6 week period to lapse before the Order can come into force albeit in some case the commencement date may be after the 6 week period. In some instances however where there is a degree of urgency the commencement date may well be prior to the 6 week objection period lapsing.
At the time of preparing the advert that an Order has been made the Traffic Order is finalised by having it printed on deed
paper with the commencement date typed in and signed by the Chief Legal Officer and sealed with the Council's seal. It is
thereafter indexed and placed in the Council's safe with a copy forwarded to Roads and Grampian Police for their information,
confirming the commencement date.
Temporary Notices
Under the legislation the Roads Section are entitled to promote temporary notices for restriction of traffic for various reasons,
in terms of powers conferred upon it by Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (as amended) and of all other
enabling powers, without the requirement for any formal legal process.