A local authority must not act in a way which contributes indirectly towards, or facilitates, a breach of ECHR Article 8 rights, for example by providing land for or subsidising a pollution causing waste disposal or other plant: Lopez Ostra v Spain (1994) 20 EHRR 277.  A local authority may be liable for inaction, or insufficiently speedy and robust action, against polluters and the perpetrators of nuisance, or for the environmental consequences of development which the authority provides under economic development powers, or which the authority permits, as landowner, or as planning or licensing authority.  There may be positive obligations under Article 8 and fair balances have to be struck.

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Local authorities are subject to a network management duty. Section 16(1) of the Traffic Management Act 2004 imposes a duty upon them not only to manage their road network, but to do so with a view to achieving objectives which include securing the expeditious movement of traffic upon the network. The duty is subject to reasonable practicability, and is elaborated upon in Section 16(2). In Trail Riders Fellowship v Devon County Council (2013) EWHC 2104 (Admin) the Court held that the highway authority had been entitled to make a Traffic Regulation Order prohibiting motor vehicles from using part of a road where that was expedient in the interests of road safety.

In HHRC Ltd v Hackney LBC (2021) EWHC 2440 ( Admin) Dove J says, at para 42, that the terms of Section 16 provide the authority with broad parameters within which to act consistently with the duty, that the objectives of Section 16 are broad, and qualified by the need to act, as far as reasonably practicable, having regard to the local authority’s other obligations and Policies. There is also statutory Guidance from the SoS. Read more »

A statutory challenge to a decision in February 2021 not to revoke an Experimental Traffic Order in relation to a street in the Barbican failed in R (Tomkins ) v City of London Corporation (2021) EWHC 2265 (Admin). The challenge was on the basis that it was no longer possible to continue with the experiment in any meaningful way once traffic levels had reduced because of covid lockdown. However, monitoring had continued, albeit on a less comprehensive basis than intended, and useful data obtained. A genuine experiment continued. Not revoking the ETO was not irrational. See especially para 101 of the Judgment, and the treatment at para 86 of Trail Riders v Peak District Authority (2012) EWHC 3359 (Admin).