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Backhouse Jones, led by Libby Pritchard and Kai Leyland instructing Piers Riley Smith of Kings Chambers, has successfully challenged a local authority Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (“ETRO”) weight restriction in the High Court, with Mr Justice Sheldon quashing North Yorkshire Council’s decision in Peter Stevens Estates Limited v North Yorkshire Council.
Heavy goods vehicles keep the economy moving. They deliver the materials, stock and supplies that businesses and communities depend on every day. Yet HGVs are also a frequent source of local complaint, and they are often the trigger for the access and weight restrictions that councils impose on residential and mixed-use roads. As specialists in the transport sector Backhouse Jones recognise the adverse impact local authority decisions can have operators and, in this case, the landlord to operators and businesses dependant on deliveries.
The ETRO imposed timed restrictions on goods vehicles over 7.5 tonnes using Hambleton Grove in Knaresborough, during set morning and afternoon periods on weekdays, with no exemption for access. For Peter Stevens Estates Limited, the landlord of an industrial estate for which Hambleton Grove is the only means of access, the restriction struck at the ability of its tenant businesses to receive the HGV deliveries on which they rely.
The High Court allowed the challenge on two grounds. First, the Council had been materially misled by the officer report, which wrongly indicated that the afternoon peak for HGV movements fell outside the proposed restricted hours when in fact it fell within them — an error that gave false comfort to the decision-maker on the impact to local businesses. Second, the Council failed to comply with the public sector equality duty, having not properly grappled with the impact of the restriction on elderly residents of a nearby care home. The decision was quashed.
The result is a reminder that measures aimed at managing HGV traffic must rest on accurate evidence and a lawful balancing of the competing interests at stake — including reasonable access for the businesses that depend on it.
For advice on traffic regulation order and Public Law challenges, contact the Commercial Litigation team at Backhouse Jones.
This article was written by Libby Pritchard.