Experimental Traffic Order Process
The Scottish Government process for ETROs states that a public consultation must run for six months and begin when the ETRO starts. This period of consultation ran from 24 May to 23 November 2023.
On 8 January 2024, we made changes to the ETRO (see below for further details). These changes required us to start a new six-month consultation period.
All comments to both consultation periods are included in our reports to councillors at the Traffic Orders Sub-Committee.
What is an ETRO?
An ETRO is a legal mechanism used to introduce trial changes to the layout of a road for a limited period of 18 months.
The legal power to use an ETRO comes from the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and the Council follows the process set out in The Local Authorities Traffic Orders (Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 1999.
An ETRO may be used to introduce restrictions or prohibitions on
- parking
- loading
- movement of certain vehicles such as general traffic but maintaining access for buses, taxis, cycles and emergency services.
ETROs can remain in place for a maximum of 18 months while we monitor and assess the effects.
Changes to the Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO)
A key objective of the trial was to improve the safety and ease of movement for children at the two primary schools in the area.
We have continued with the ‘School Streets’ restrictions, which prohibit traffic from using streets by school entrances during the start and end of the school day, with an exemption for residents of the street. These restrictions operated Monday to Friday 8am - 10am and Monday to Thursday 2pm - 4pm, and 11am - 1 pm Friday.
Through the trial, we looked at
- the traffic data for the streets
- timings of school activities
- feedback from residents of the streets
- feedback from the head teachers
As a result, we changed the ETRO to reduce the length of the morning ‘School Streets’ restriction from 8am-10am to 8am-9.30am. Afternoon restrictions did not change. We trialled this to give more flexibility for deliveries and visitors by motor vehicle to residents on these streets. As school drop off finishes before 9.30am, the change did not affect road safety for school children.
Manse Road
Some Manse Road residents told us that they find parking challenging because of the parking restrictions near 27-31 Manse Road. These restrictions were introduced so that a large refuse lorry could turn left if required. We changed this so we could remove these parking restrictions.