Road closures and restrictions

What is a Traffic Regulation Order?

Traffic Regulation Orders (often shortened to “TRO”s) are legal agreements which allow us or the police to enforce regulations on the highway in line with the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. Most TROs are created in consultation with our local communities and the police, to address specific traffic congestion, road safety or quality of life issues.

TROs are introduced when we intend to change:

• waiting and loading restrictions (yellow lines)
• parking restrictions
• speed and weight limits
• bus lanes
• prohibition of driving (permanently closing a road), one-way streets and turning bans

Funding & Timescales

Creating a new TRO currently costs in the region of £3,800 plus the cost of any lines that will need painting and new signs that will need erecting. We often rely on funding from local developments or Area Forum funds allocated by your local Ward Councillors.
There is also a legal process which must be followed which includes consultation with statutory stakeholders (Police, Fire & Ambulance Service, Parish Councils, Bus Operators etc) and all those directly affected by any proposal. This consultation process allows representations to be made either in support or to object. All comments are duly considered before a TRO can be made operational and the scheme implemented on site. If significant changes are required following the consultation then the amendments may need to be re-consulted upon.
Due to this and the legal work involved, it would normally take over 12 months to process a TRO from start of the project to an order being made. 

A typical TRO process involves:

• Assessment of need, feasibility and priority assessment
• Proposed scheme design
• Informal consultation with Ward Councillors
• Amendments and preparation for statutory processes
• Public advertising (our website & the Bolton News) & consultation
• Consideration of all comments received
• Consideration of objections & amendments if required 
• Detailed report for Highways Committee if required (if unresolved objections)
• Making of the TRO including sealing the legal order
• Implementation of the TRO (making physical changes on site)

Once a scheme is complete, enforcement can be carried out by the Council for parking restrictions (under their powers stated in the Traffic Management Act 2004). The police have the obligation and power to enforce all moving traffic offences, i.e. speed limits, banned turns, weight limits, prohibition of driving restrictions.

Requesting a new TRO

If you believe that a new TRO is needed or an existing TRO altered, we recommend you contact your local councillors in the first instance. They can bring together similar concerns and act on behalf of all local residents and businesses in the area.
Sometimes it is cost-effective to group requests into one large, Area-wide TRO. For this reason we will often hold requests on our database until we have enough to create a scheme.

Experimental TROs

Experimental orders can be used in situations that need monitoring and reviewing. They usually last no more than eighteen months before they are abandoned, amended or made permanent. 
You have six months from the date an Experimental TRO starts in which to make a comment or objection.

Current Proposed TROs

Anyone can support or object to a Proposed Traffic Regulation Order if you think it’s a good or bad idea. We will consider your views before deciding whether or not to put the order in place.
Instructions on how to share your views are included in the online documents (accessed via the tab above) and in our newspaper ads.