The Traffic

Management Act:
an overview

lightcast briefings from the ILE technical committee

Institution of Lighting Engineers– technical briefing note

16 September 2009

This briefing note has been prepared by the ILE Technical Committee for study and
application. The document reports on current knowledge and experience within the
specified field of light and lighting described and is intended to be used by the ILE
membership and other interested parties. This is a briefing note and is not of mandatory
status. The ILE should be consulted regarding possible subsequent amendments.

Any mention of organisations or products does not imply endorsement by the ILE. Whilst
every care has been taken in the compilation of any lists, at the time of going to press,
these may not be comprehensive.

Compliance with any recommendations does not itself confer immunity from legal
obligations.

© 2009 Institution of Lighting Engineers. Permission is granted to reproduce and

distribute this document, subject to the restriction that the complete document must be
copied, without alteration, addition or deletion.

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 The Traffic Management Act: an overview

The Traffic Management Act: an overview

There are 1.5 million kilometres of buried assets under our roads and each year there are
approximately 4 million road openings to maintain or improve them. Co-ordinating all
these activities has major consequences on local authorities, and it is thought congestion
due to road works costs the UK economy more than £6 billion each year.

The Traffic Management Act (TMA) was mentioned in the Queen’s speech in December
2003 and it received Royal Assent in July 2004. The overall emphasis of the TMA is to
help local authorities manage their road network effectively and cut out some of the
unnecessary disruption to road users.

The Traffic Management Act 2004 places a duty on local traffic authorities to:

“...manage their road network with a view to achieving, so far as may be

reasonably practicable having regard to their other obligations, policies and
objectives, the following objectives:
a) securing the expeditious movement of traffic on the authority’s road
network; and
b) facilitating the expeditious movement of traffic on road networks for which
another authority is the traffic authority.”

Contents
1. Summary of the Act 4

2. New Roads and Street Works Act 6

3. Categories of works 7

4. Highway authority powers and restrictions 8

5. Notices and permits 8

6. Implications on the street lighting service delivery 9

7. Conclusion 11

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Institution of Lighting Engineers– technical briefing note

1. Summary of the Act

The Act is wide ranging, being in seven parts:

Part 1: Traffic officers

This empowers the Secretary of State for Transport in England or the National Assembly
for Wales to establish a uniformed on-road traffic officer service under the control of a
national authority to manage the traffic consequences of random incidents (such as
accidents, obstructions, debris and breakdowns) and manage programmed highway
events such as the passage of abnormal loads. Traffic officers have the powers to:

 stop or direct traffic

 place temporary traffic signs

 remove certain vehicles

 wear a uniform

 acquire land.

Offences relating to traffic officers include: assaulting, resisting, wilfully obstructing, or

impersonating a traffic officer or failing to give a name and address to a traffic officer
when lawfully demanded.

Part 2: Network management by local traffic authorities

This imposes a duty on all local traffic authorities to secure the expeditious movement of
traffic on their road networks, and to facilitate the expeditious movement of traffic on
other authorities’ networks. Authorities are required to make arrangements as they
consider appropriate for planning and carrying out the action to be taken in performing
the duty; part of the arrangements must be the appointment of a ‘Traffic Manager’.

Part 3: Permit schemes

Part 3 provides for the introduction of permit schemes. A permit scheme would control
specified works in the street and would require a permit to be obtained for such works.
The Act provides that permit schemes could extend to works such as road works and
street works, and could extend to corresponding works. A permit scheme may provide for
conditions to be attached to permits which would apply in relation to the carrying out of
specified works.

Part 4: Street works

Part 4 provides for changes to the regulatory regime for utility companies’ street works.
The Act also provides for increases in levels of fines for specified offences, and for highway
authorities to issue Fixed Penalty Notices for certain offences. Under section 59 of New
Roads and Street Works Act (NRSWA), a street authority has a duty to co-ordinate

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 The Traffic Management Act: an overview

statutory undertakers’ street works and their own road works. Part 4 amends section 59 to
allow that duty to be extended to encompass the co-ordination of some other prescribed
temporary activities on the highway, for example the placing of skips and scaffolding.

Part 5: Highways and roads

This includes specific measures that alter the arrangements for traffic management in
London. These include provisions for the Secretary of State to designate an initial network
of strategic roads (and for changes to that network to be made by the Assembly or the
Mayor of London acting on its behalf). The purpose of designating this network is to
enhance Transport for London’s (TfL’s) powers in relation to Borough roads by enabling it
to object to proposals that would affect strategic roads.

The Act also amends the Highways Act 1980, most notably to provide for regulations to
apply ‘lane rental’ charges to skips, scaffolding, building materials and temporary
excavations that occupy the highway.

Part 6: Civil enforcement of traffic contraventions

Part 6 includes powers providing a single framework to make regulations for the civil
enforcement by local authorities of parking and waiting restrictions, bus lanes and some
moving traffic offences. These regulations will replace existing powers in national and
London local legislation. It will enable regulations to be made giving authorities outside
London civil enforcement powers to cover some moving traffic offences (such as ignoring
the rules at box junctions and banned turns) using camera evidence, and additional
powers in respect of parking enforcement which already exist in London. The regulations
require that a vehicle must not be immobilised if it displays a disabled person’s badge (a
‘blue badge’). However, the regulations make it an offence, punishable by a fine not
exceeding level 3 on the standard scale, if a person inappropriately uses a blue badge
and as a result the vehicle in question is not immobilised.

Part 7: Miscellaneous and general

The final part contains general and miscellaneous provision, including provision relating
to blue badges, for the application of surplus income from parking places, and financial
provision for the establishment of traffic officers. This part amends section 21 of the
Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 which established the disabled persons’
parking blue badge scheme. The scheme provides certain parking concessions for
disabled people. The effect of the provisions introduced is that police, traffic wardens,
local authority parking attendants and civil enforcement officers will have the power to
require blue badges issued under the scheme to be produced for inspection. Apart from
the police, these bodies only have this power when carrying out their other parking
enforcement functions.

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Institution of Lighting Engineers– technical briefing note

2. New Roads and Street Works Act

Part 4 (Street Works) amends several sections of the NRSWA; some of these are listed
below:

Section Description
48 Streets, street works undertakers
49 The street authority and other relevant authorities
50 Street works licences
52 Emergency works
53 The street works register
54 Advance notice of certain works
55 Notice of starting date of works
56 Power to give directions as to the timing of street works
56A Power to give directions as to the placing of apparatus
57 Notice of emergency works
58 Restriction on works following substantial road works
58A Restriction on works following substantial street works
59 General duty of the street authority to co-ordinate works
60 General duty of undertakers to co-operate
61 Protected streets
62 Supplementary provisions as to designation of protected streets
63 Streets with special engineering difficulties
64 Traffic sensitive streets
66 Avoidance of unnecessary delay or obstruction
70 Duty of the undertaker to reinstate
72 Powers of the street authority in relation to reinstatement
74 Charge for occupation of the highway where works are unreasonably prolonged
74A Charges for occupation of the highway
76 Liability for cost of temporary traffic regulation
81 Duty to maintain apparatus
83 Apparatus affected by highway, bridge or transport works
87 Prospectively maintainable highways
88 Bridges, bridge authorities and related matters
91 Transport authorities, transport undertakings and related matters
95 Offences
95A Fixed penalty notices
97 Service of notices and other documents
98 Reckoning periods
99 Arbitration

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 The Traffic Management Act: an overview

3. Categories of works
Minimum notice periods
Matrix of notice periods and response times
Notice period Validity period Response time
S 54 S s55/57 S54 Ss 55/57 S 54 Ss 55/57 S 74
Major 3 months 10 days 15 days 5 days 1 month 5 days 5 days
Standard n/a 10 days n/a 5 days n/a 5 days 5 days
Minor n/a 3 days n/a 2 days n/a 2 days 2 days
Immediate n/a 2 hours n/a n/a n/a Any time 2 days
after during works

Major works
Three months advance notice will be required if the duration is 11 days or over or if a
temporary traffic order is required. There is a requirement for increased planning and
advance notification and a 5-year ‘wish list’ programme to help with restriction
embargoes.

There is now a requirement for major works to be discussed much earlier that previously,
at 6 months prior to commencement rather than the previous 3 months. With better co-
ordination joint advertising will be possible for most traffic disruptive schemes.

Standard works
It is envisaged that the majority of works that were undertaken under the 7-days notice
period will now fall into the 3-months advance notice requirement. Standard works of
4 to 10 days duration requires a 10-days’ advance notice.

Minor works
The daily whereabouts notice has been scrapped and a 3-day advance notice is required
for 1 to 3 days works duration.

Immediate works
 Emergency: works undertaken which are to prevent imminent danger to
people or property

 Urgent: works undertaken which are to prevent loss of supply or service

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Institution of Lighting Engineers– technical briefing note

4. Highway Authority powers and restrictions

The power to direct
Section 56 gives the authority the power to give timing of highway works as well as when
the work can be done. Section 56A gives powers to the authority to give direction as to
where apparatus can be placed.

Restrictions
Section 58 allows the Highway Authority (HA) to place the following maximum
restrictions:

 Newly constructed and reconstructed surfaces 5 years

 Resurfaced areas 3 years

 Other substantial street/road works 6 months to 1 year

 New connections 20 working days

5. Notices and permits

Currently, the HA has two options in relation to managing activities on its network; either
a traditional noticing scheme or a permit scheme. For an HA to have a permit scheme it
will need to have the scheme approved and registered with the Secretary of State. The
permit scheme could be registered for a single HA or a group of HAs operating under the
same ‘rules’. With the familiar noticing scheme the promoter of the work such as a utility
company serves a notice on the HA of its intentions; the HA can then challenge these
plans as it sees fit. This allows the HA to fulfil its obligations to ensure the expeditious
flow of traffic on its network and to balance this against the need of the promoter to
maintain or improve its network. The alternative is for all activities on the highway to be
subject to a permit issued by the HA. The difference is that the first scheme depends on
a notice – an intention to do work unless challenged – whereas the second scheme
depends on a permit, and work cannot be done until the permit has been issued. Permit
schemes will have a wider remit than notice schemes as they will cover non-utility
activities such as skip and scaffold permits.

More activities now require a notice or permit, such as:

 all works that involve breaking up or resurfacing of any street

 all work that involves opening the carriageway or cycleway at traffic sensitive
times, including opening a chamber cover

 all works that require any form of temporary traffic control as defined in the Code
of Practice for Safety at Street Works and Road Works

 all works that reduce the number of lanes available on a carriageway of three or
more lanes

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 The Traffic Management Act: an overview

 all works that require a temporary traffic restriction or the suspension of pedestrian
crossing facilities

 all works that require the reduction in width of the existing carriageway of a traffic
sensitive street at a traffic sensitive time.

All works now have to be registered, including works for road purposes; maintenance and
improvement works to the road (including street lighting) itself carried out by, or on behalf
of, the HA. Section 53 of NRSWA requires an Authority to place information about its own
works on the street works register in similar timescales and protocols as a statutory
undertaker. Fines will be applicable for contraventions to permits for over-running works
or failure to have the necessary notice or permit in place when works commence. Fines
will be applied to all those working on the highway including the HA's own workforce such
as direct labour organisations, and although the HA cannot fine itself it will be required to
keep records of all incidents for comparison with other utilities.

6. Implications on the street lighting service delivery

Immediate works
 Accident damage

 Vandalism

 Lantern and/or lantern bowl hanging

These would either be emergency or urgent works requiring a notice within 2 hours of the
works commencing. However, the emphasis is about reasonableness: if the works are on
a traffic sensitive road then notices are required; if they are on a minor road then this
may not be necessary. In all cases, if excavations or barriers are necessary then notices
must be served or permits sought.

Routine maintenance works

 Lamp cleaning and changing

 Electrical testing

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Institution of Lighting Engineers– technical briefing note

 Structural inspections

 Structural testing

 Painting

These are planned operations and being minor works require a 3-day notice. Daily
whereabouts notices are no longer valid so these works could be done as a rolling 3-day
programme requiring notices or permits.

Reactive maintenance works

 Fault repairs

 Conversion of a lantern or bracket arm replacement

These would be considered to be urgent works and, acting reasonably, 2-hour notices or
permits would probably not be required in many situations except on traffic sensitive
roads but would, of course, be needed where there is excavation or occupation of the
highway with barriers.

Planned works – small schemes

 Conversions

 Attaching signs

These would be planned operations or minor works for which 3-day notices or permits
will be required.

Planned works – new works and larger schemes

 New or replacement lighting installation works

 Seasonal decorations installation

Notices are required for these and the notice periods will be dependent on the period of
highway occupation. As a minimum a 7-day notice or permit is required.

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 The Traffic Management Act: an overview

7. Conclusion
The intention of the Traffic Management Act is to improve co-ordination between all those
occupying the highway that could lead to disruption to the travelling public. It is now a
duty for all those involved in these activities to talk to each other and discuss these
activities so they can be better planned and co-ordinated. This legislation requires the
highway authority to treat all those working on the highway the same way, whether they
be a statutory undertaker OR the highway authorities own workforce. The highway
authority must keep records of highway activities and for those that do not co-operate or
exceed their authorised highway occupation there will be penalties applied. Though the
highway authority cannot apply financial penalties on itself, it is required to keep records
on the performance of its own operations in order to achieve parity with utility
companies. These records, being open to public scrutiny, could adversely affect its local
and possible national Key Performance Indicators, its Comprehensive Performance
Assessment or its Comprehensive Area Assessment.

Peter Harrison MBA, CEng, FILE,

Street Lighting Manager,
Birmingham City Council

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lightcast
briefings from the ILE technical committee

Institution of Lighting Engineers

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