Statutory guidance
Traffic Management Act 2004: network management to support active travel - Updated 1 April 2022
Applies to England
Network management duty guidance
Consultation and community engagement should always be undertaken whenever authorities propose to remove, modify or reduce existing schemes and whenever they propose to introduce new ones. Engagement, especially on schemes where there is public controversy, should use objective methods, such as professional polling to British Polling Council standards, to establish a truly representative picture of local views and to ensure that minority views do not dominate the discourse. Consultations are not referendums, however. Polling results should be one part of the suite of robust, empirical evidence on which decisions are made.
Engagement and consultation
When implementing these changes, authorities need to consider the impact on all road users, taking into account the need to provide for increased walking and cycling. Different types of intervention will be appropriate in different areas of the country. For example, what is appropriate in urban areas (including market towns) may not be suitable in more rural areas where a large proportion of journeys are too long to be made on foot or by cycle and people are more reliant on private vehicles.
As set out in Local transport note 1/20: cycle infrastructure design, effective engagement with the local community, particularly at an early stage, is essential to ensuring the political and public acceptance of any scheme. The department advises engagement as good practice even where there is no legal requirement to do so for the measures being proposed.
Authorities should seek input from stakeholders during the design phase of any scheme, in particular:
Accessibility requirements and the Public Sector Equality Duty apply to all measures, both temporary and permanent. In making any changes to their road networks, authorities must ensure that elements of a scheme do not discriminate, directly or indirectly and must consider their duty to make reasonable adjustments anticipating the needs of those with protected characteristics, for example, by carrying out equality impact assessments on proposed schemes. Engagement with groups representing disabled people and others with protected characteristics should be carried out at an early stage of scheme development.
Visually impaired people, particularly, may find navigating through changed layouts difficult if they are not thought through at the design and consultation stage. Guide Dogs, RNIB, the Thomas Pocklington Trust and Visionary have jointly produced a guidance document for local authorities which provides advice on designing temporary measures for visually impaired people.
Traffic Management Act 2004: network management to support active travel - Updated 1 April 2022
Applies to England
Network management duty guidance
Consultation and community engagement should always be undertaken whenever authorities propose to remove, modify or reduce existing schemes and whenever they propose to introduce new ones. Engagement, especially on schemes where there is public controversy, should use objective methods, such as professional polling to British Polling Council standards, to establish a truly representative picture of local views and to ensure that minority views do not dominate the discourse. Consultations are not referendums, however. Polling results should be one part of the suite of robust, empirical evidence on which decisions are made.
Engagement and consultation
When implementing these changes, authorities need to consider the impact on all road users, taking into account the need to provide for increased walking and cycling. Different types of intervention will be appropriate in different areas of the country. For example, what is appropriate in urban areas (including market towns) may not be suitable in more rural areas where a large proportion of journeys are too long to be made on foot or by cycle and people are more reliant on private vehicles.
As set out in Local transport note 1/20: cycle infrastructure design, effective engagement with the local community, particularly at an early stage, is essential to ensuring the political and public acceptance of any scheme. The department advises engagement as good practice even where there is no legal requirement to do so for the measures being proposed.
Authorities should seek input from stakeholders during the design phase of any scheme, in particular:
- local chiefs of police and emergency services must be consulted to ensure access is maintained where needed, for example, to roads that are closed to motor traffic
- local businesses, including business improvement districts, should be informed and given an opportunity to comment to ensure proposals meet their needs. The need for kerbside access for deliveries and servicing should be taken into account and balanced against the need to provide protected space for walking and cycling, for example, through the use of floating loading bays
- Royal Mail, to ensure that access can be maintained to post boxes and to premises for collections and deliveries, to enable them to meet their legal obligations to deliver a universal postal service
- local disability groups should be consulted at an early stage of scheme development. Any online engagement or consultation materials should comply with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 to ensure they are accessible to disabled people
Accessibility requirements and the Public Sector Equality Duty apply to all measures, both temporary and permanent. In making any changes to their road networks, authorities must ensure that elements of a scheme do not discriminate, directly or indirectly and must consider their duty to make reasonable adjustments anticipating the needs of those with protected characteristics, for example, by carrying out equality impact assessments on proposed schemes. Engagement with groups representing disabled people and others with protected characteristics should be carried out at an early stage of scheme development.
Visually impaired people, particularly, may find navigating through changed layouts difficult if they are not thought through at the design and consultation stage. Guide Dogs, RNIB, the Thomas Pocklington Trust and Visionary have jointly produced a guidance document for local authorities which provides advice on designing temporary measures for visually impaired people.