THE NETWORK MANAGEMENT DUTIES
18.—(1) The network management duties are as set out in sections 16 and 17 of the Act and for the purposes of determining the nature and extent of each duty reliance should only be placed on the precise wording of the legislation. However it may assist to explore the duties in more detail and accordingly they are set out as follows in a slightly expanded format.
(2) Under section 16 (the network management duty), an authority must manage their road network with a view to achieving two objectives, so far as may be reasonably practicable having regard for their other obligations, policies and objectives. These two objectives are—
(a)to secure the expeditious movement of traffic on that network, and
(b)to facilitate the expeditious movement of traffic on road networks for which another authority is the traffic authority.
(3) Section 17 (arrangements for network management) sets out a number of additional duties for an authority which are single duties for the purposes of sections 20 and 21 but which nevertheless underpin the main duty under section 16. These are more particularly set out in the following sub-paragraphs.
(4) An authority has a duty to make such arrangements as they consider appropriate for—
(a)planning the action to be taken in performing the network management duty, and
(b)carrying out that action.
(5) An authority has a duty to ensure that these arrangements include provision for the appointment of a traffic manager.
(6) An authority has a duty to ensure that the arrangements also include provision for establishing processes for ensuring (so far as may be reasonably practicable) that they—
(a)identify things which are causing—
(i)road congestion on their road network, or
(ii)other disruption to the movement of traffic on that network;
(b)identify things (including future occurrences) which have the potential to cause—
(i)road congestion on their road network, or
(ii)other disruption to the movement of traffic on that network; and
(c)consider any possible action that could be taken—
(i)in response to, or
(ii)in anticipation of,
anything so identified,
but this does not require the identification or consideration of anything appearing to have only an insignificant effect (or potential effect) on the movement of traffic on their network.
(7) An authority has a duty to ensure that the arrangements also include provision for ensuring that they—
(a)determine specific policies or objectives in relation to—
(i)different roads in their road network, or
(ii)different classes of road in that network;
(b)monitor the effectiveness of—
(i)their organisation,
(ii)their decision making processes, and
(iii)the implementation of their decisions; and
(c)assess their performance in managing their network.
(8) An authority has a further duty to keep under review the effectiveness of the arrangements they have in place under section 17 of the Act.