Council implementing local plan and making experimental orders for priority route – Applicants seeking to quash orders – Whether council exercising their powers unlawfully – Road Traffic Act 1991 – Application dismissed
The first respondent (the council) made two experimental orders under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, which implemented a “red route” along the A3220, the Earls Court one-way system (the ECOWS). The red route was a priority route designed to improve the movement of traffic along what were deemed to be important traffic routes in London. Under the London Priority Route Order 1992, the Secretary of State had designated the ECOWS as a red route, which the council were opposed to in principle. A network plan was prepared by the director of transport (the second respondent) for the design and operation of the red route. Accordingly, the council submitted a local plan to the director, which was approved in September 1995. Following various amendments, the Highways and Traffic Committee authorised the making of the orders.
The applicants, who were individual members of the fifth applicant, sought to quash both orders, pursuant to Schedule 9 to the 1984 Act, on six grounds, inter alia that the council had unlawfully or irrationally exercised their powers when making the orders, in failing to consider the principle of whether the ECOWS should be a red route.
