Decision

To proceed with the implementation of the changes arising from the review of Traffic Sensitive Streets

Reasons for the decision

Buckinghamshire Council has a legal duty under the Traffic Management Act 2004/Section 59 New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 to co-ordinate works activities on the road network. As part of this duty, a power is afforded to Buckinghamshire Council to enable the designation of certain streets as ‘Traffic Sensitive’.
Statutory Regulations outline when a street can be designated traffic sensitive. Regulation 16 of the 2007 noticing regulations sets out the criteria that may lead to a traffic sensitive designation.
A programme of work has been undertaken, analysing all the streets in Buckinghamshire and using both data such as traffic counts, bus route data and local knowledge, to determine if the street meets one of the six criteria set out in the 2007 noticing regulations, as amended by The Street and Road Works (Miscellaneous Amendments) (England) Regulations 2020 and Section 5 of the Department for Transport’s document ‘New Roads and Street Works Act 1991: Code of Practice for the Co-ordination of Street Works and Works for Road Purposes and Related Matters’.
The six criteria for designation are as follows:
• the street is one on which at any time the authority estimates traffic flow to be greater than 500 vehicles per hour per lane of carriageway, disregarding bus or cycle lanes
• the street is a single carriageway two-way road, the carriageway of which is less than 6.5 metres wide, having a total traffic flow in both directions of not less than 600 vehicles per hour
• the street is one on which more than 25% of the traffic flow in both directions consists of heavy commercial vehicles
• the street is one on which the traffic flow in both directions includes more than eight buses per hour
• the street is within 100 metres of a critical signalised junction or a critical gyratory or roundabout system
• the street has a pedestrian flow of at least 1,300 people per hour, per metre width of footway
The formal consultation regarding the proposed changes to the Buckinghamshire Traffic-Sensitive Streets Network ran for a period of four weeks starting on the 30th of October 2024. The deadline for receipt of responses was no later than 5pm on 27th of November 2024.
A list of comments received, and responses or amendments are provided in Appendix A.
This is a limitation of the mapping system, and where the Traffic-Sensitive designation is determined, the Gazetteer will be updated accordingly, i.e. the Unique Street Reference Number (USRN) will be modified in due course, or the designation will only apply to the first 100m or a separate USRN allocated.
Whilst this update to the Gazetteer is being undertaken, any permit applications on the sections of USRN not identified as Traffic-Sensitive or not being a Category 0-2 street will be charged the Category 3-4 Non-Traffic-Sensitive fee rate.

Alternative options considered

The process is determined by statute, therefore there is no alternative.