LARA was delighted to receive, from Kent County Council, notification of Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) on a number of Byways in the county. “Delighted” and “TRO” in the same sentence? Surely some mistake? But these are rather unusual TROs, made following a period of consultation with which LARA was involved.

They are all Seasonal Permanent Orders, prohibiting four wheeled motor vehicles (but not motorcycles) from using the Byways between 1st October and 30th April. So far so normal. But these Orders also permit closure “at additional times in the event of heavy rainfall, in response to the Met Office’s yellow weather warning for rain, for no longer than 5 working days”. This is just the sort of pragmatic and sensible approach which LARA has been advocating for years and, if implemented sensibly, should go a long way to preventing damage caused by irresponsible use of 4x4s during periods of wet weather in the summer. We do, of course, accept that periods longer than 5 days may be appropriate in some situations, and we’d be happy to discuss this with any other Councils contemplating Seasonal Permanent TROs.

You can read more about LARA’s approach to ‘targeted’ TROs in our Traffic Management Report, starting at Section 7.4 (19/27 in the PDF file).