Council agrees to end defence of legal proceedings over traffic regulation order

Cambridgeshire County Council has revealed it will no longer be defending a legal challenge brought against its decision to approve a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO).

In an announcement made yesterday (6 August), the council said it would undertake the statutory consultation and decision-making process on the traffic regulation order again.

It said: “This is to stop the council spending money and time associated with defending this case.”

Pamela Wesson, chair of Friends of Mill Road Bridge, made a statutory claim under paragraph 35 of Schedule 9 to the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 challenging Cambridgeshire's decision to make the Cambridge (Mill Road) (Bus Gate) Order 2023.

Ms Wesson argued that the authority: failed to provide adequate reasons for proposing and for making the order; made a mistake of fact in the operation of an exemption for ‘blue badge' holders; failed to carry out the public sector equality duty; erroneously took account the potential to attract funding; and that the decision was tainted by predetermination.

In May this year, the High Court rejected a bid by the council to have the statutory claim struck out.

Mill Road was closed to private motor vehicles between June 2020 and early August 2021 after which it was reopened pending a public consultation on the road’s future use.

In July 2022, Cambridgeshire’s Highways and Transport Committee considered the consultation’s results and officers said these “clearly supported a re-instatement of the Mill Road filter but with important caveats such as allowing exemptions for disabled residents and taxis”.

The council agreed to pursue Mill Road’s permanent closure except to buses and exemptions including disabled residents and taxis.

However, Cambridgeshire County Council has now said the judge has agreed to quash the decision that was made to approve the traffic regulation order for the scheme.

The council said: “We’d like to apologise for the time this has taken thus far and recognise the frustration people have expressed locally.

“The proposed Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) to close Mill Road bridge to all vehicles, with some exemptions, will be advertised on Friday, 9 August until midnight on Friday 13 September. All feedback, including objections, is welcome.”

Lottie Winson