What does it take to close a road?

[saaby93]

Discovered by google
Lets face it a lot of people would like to close the road outside their house
http://goo.gl/maps/bQJNs
http://www.gazetteseries.co.uk/news/10305289._Deat...
but shouldnt the views of anyone wanting to use it be taken into account?

Edited by saaby93 on Thursday 21st March 21:56

[Fozziebear]

£30,000, bloody hell!

[MX7]

It's a local road, for local people.

Who paid for it to be built? Instead of the council splashing out £30k, they should sell it to the residents for £50k.

[Fozziebear]

I'd like to know where a council can find £30,000 to do this, it's an insane waste of money. I guess the local council tax bill will be raised to cover the costs?

[bobbo89]

Fozziebear said:

I'd like to know where a council can find £30,000 to do this, it's an insane waste of money. I guess the local council tax bill will be raised to cover the costs?

Probably 30k tied up somewhere that needs spending before the year end or its lost.

I find it funny that the residents chirp on about safety etc when you can tell all they're thinking about is the value of their properties!

[Fozziebear]

bobbo89 said:

Fozziebear said:

I'd like to know where a council can find £30,000 to do this, it's an insane waste of money. I guess the local council tax bill will be raised to cover the costs?

Probably 30k tied up somewhere that needs spending before the year end or its lost.

I find it funny that the residents chirp on about safety etc when you can tell all they're thinking about is the value of their properties!

This is what grinds at me, the whole spend it or lose it mentality of councils. I know they have to invest in the area, but surely there was something more deserving of the money? Our council was told to put new fancy signs up, metal sculpture type ones, they are blocked by the hedges.

[poing]

Fozziebear said:

I'd like to know where a council can find £30,000 to do this, it's an insane waste of money. I guess the local council tax bill will be raised to cover the costs?

I find it hard to believe that sticking up a couple of signs and some concrete bollards or whatever they use will cost £30,000. I'm pretty sure some Irish lads with a bit of rubble left over from the latest driveway did will happily dump a pile of rocks there for free.

[sc4589]

That's interesting. There are loads of roads like that on, say, the Isle of Wight and I don't know of many/any that are closed to cars.

People power... yay...

[talksthetalk]

So now they have the problem with large lorries with frustrated drivers reversing back up the road. Job jobbed.

[coppice]

It's actually quite an involved legal process- my first court appearance was an application to close an old and now by passed section of road in E Lincs. Process is under hIghways Act, lots consultation required by law etc- not only with locals but fire/police etc as well as gas electric etc.Can't access link properly but there is power to charge person who requested closure the costs of the application. £30k sounds high- given work involved 5ish would be about right.But as I haven't done one of these since I was wet behind the ears articled clerk in the 70s things may have changed !

[TheTurbonator]

So has no-one actually died on the "death-trap road" then?

[saaby93]

TheTurbonator said:

So has no-one actually died on the "death-trap road" then?

Even if they had surely there are other ways of fixing 'the problem' than closing the road.
Suppose we close every road where one person has an accident - how many roads do we have left?
How does that square with the purpose of roads to get from A to B?
Roads like this are often convenient local links between villages

[trashbat]

TheTurbonator said:

So has no-one actually died on the "death-trap road" then?

Horses are people too you know.

[tvrgit]

coppice said:

It's actually quite an involved legal process- my first court appearance was an application to close an old and now by passed section of road in E Lincs. Process is under hIghways Act, lots consultation required by law etc- not only with locals but fire/police etc as well as gas electric etc.

Almost.

The road can be "stopped up" under the Highways Act - that means that it (or a section of it) is no longer a road. That means you can't drive along it, walk along it, cycle along it or ride a horse along it. It's shut to everybody. I don't think that's what the residents are looking for!

Reading between the lines, it seems to me that what is being promoted here is a Traffic Regulation Order under the Road Traffic Regulation Act, to prohibit the passage of motor vehicles over certain sections. A TRO would be required, in any case, for the proposed speed limit.

Whichever Act the closure is being promoted under, then, as Coppice says, it requires a statutory consultation - quite separate from the exercise the Council have undertaken so far - and advertisement of the proposals in a newspaper circulating in the area. A quick google shows that the Council obtained approval at the end of January to consult the locals on various options for this closure. This current approval has decided which of those options will be taken forward through the above legal process. There is no way that the Council can have completed that process in parallel - it takes a lot longer than a month and a half, for a start - there is a 28-day "objection period" in there, after the consultations with the police/fire services etc.

As somebody pointed out earlier, objections are not limited to those who live along the road: anybody can object if they have good reason to do so.

The Council cannot pre-empt that process, at the moment all that they can say is "that is what we aim to do" not "this is definitely going to happen". The linked article says "this will happen" and that may be slack reporting (it usually is) but if the Council have given any assurances to anyone that this is now a definite, then they leave themselves wide open to a legal challenge for not following the correct procedures and allowing for proper public comment and representations.

The fat lady ain't singing yet.

[otolith]

No problem - I'd even give the residents on the road a couple of months notice to sell their own cars before completely closing the road to all traffic at the junctions with the main roads.

[Fozziebear]

Sad thing to say, but I give it a couple of months before one of the residents runs over a child on the now safe closed road.

[arfur sleep]

otolith said:

No problem - I'd even give the residents on the road a couple of months notice to sell their own cars before completely closing the road to all traffic at the junctions with the main roads.

how long before they complain that the road isn't being maintained by the council?

[tvrgit]

Fozziebear said:

Sad thing to say, but I give it a couple of months before one of the residents runs over a child on the now safe closed road.

Sadly... you may be right.

arfur sleep said:

how long before they complain that the road isn't being maintained by the council?

My understanding is that the road will still be a "public road" (maintained by the Council for those who use it) but no longer a through route.

bd to grit in the winter though.

[timtoo2]

hmmm, I must admit it sounds like a cool business opportunity to me - buy rights to a local road and shut it to the public, then you have the facility for a D.I.Y. Rally stage.

[Fleckers]

i shut a road once

cost me about £3 grand

but it was £3 grands worth of BMW that was scattered over about 50 yards of the road

February 7th 1999