Residents and businesses on Arbury Road East – and its tributaries – need to be aware of what is imminently about to happen in the implementation of permit-based ‘Residents Parking’ on our road.
Adoption of this has been progressing very slowly through a very bureaucratic process. This process is about to reach a critical point – the issuing of a Traffic Regulation Order. This will offer you a short, time-limited, last chance to object, if you want to, to what is being proposed.
The Greater Cambridge Partnership has finished its consultations on Residents Parking Scheme for the Milton Road Area which includes Arbury Road East as part of the Hurst Park area. The GCP has passed its scheme to the Cambridgeshire County Council which has to make the final decision about whether it should be implemented, as the statutory highways authority. Before the scheme can go ahead, a Traffic Regulation Order must be issued.
As Lynne Miles, the City Access Director for the GCP, advises in the information she has provided to the Residents Associations concerned, this TRO could be issued “in the next few weeks”, see attached pdf.
The County Council explains the legal basis and purpose of TROs on its website, https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/travel-roads-and-parking/roads-and-pathways/traffic-regulation-orders
The relevant information in our case would appear to be that:
“Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) are legal documents that enable us as the local highway authority to prohibit, restrict or reduce the use of a road by traffic. This includes motor vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians. We implement TROs in line with:
· The Road Traffic R
· egulations Act 1984
· The Local Authorities’ Traffic Orders (Procedure) (England and Wales) Regulations 1996
Measures we can bring in using TROs include:
· Road or public right of way closures
· Speed limits
· On-street parking
· Waiting, loading and unloading areas and time limits
· Single and double yellow lines
· One-way streets
· Access and turning
· Prohibition of certain types of vehicles
· Width, height and weight restrictions
· Bus and cycle lanes
· Taxi ranks.”
Once you have seen the scheme set out in the TRO, if you want to, you can object to what it contains.
“Any person may object to a TRO. The traffic authority is obliged to consider such objections (and, if a public inquiry is held, the Inspector’s recommendations) before deciding whether or not to make the order”, see https://www.highwayengineer.co.uk/downloads/traffic-regulation-orders.pdf
You can find out more about TROs by contacting the County Council’s Policy and Regulation Team by email at policyandregulation@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
As yet, it is unclear how the imposition of permits for residents parking might impact on our Local Highways Improvement bid for another zebra crossing on Arbury Road East. We have requested further information on this and will keep members posted.