Specially-Authorised signs

Most special authorisations are the result of an application by a local authority to DfT to be allowed to use:

• a sign which is not prescribed; or

• a prescribed sign in a way which is not prescribed.

A sign which is not prescribed may be of the local authority's own creation or (more often) a variant of an existing sign.

DfT decides whether to authorise the sign or not. It may agree to authorise something slightly different to what the local authority requested. Applications and authorisations can be specific to one location or across the entire local authority's area.

Since 2011, DfT has posted special authorisations on a website where they can be found and inspected. Beware: the search function is case-sensitive and seems a bit flaky. If you don't find what you're looking for, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Try searching using different combinations of words or search for the name of the local authority and then scan all the special authorisations found.

DfT only posts the special authorisation which it issues. You can't see what the local authority requested and what correspondence there was leading up to the authorisation.

DfT has "house rules" and only authorises signs which comply with them. One instance where the application of such a house rule can be inferred is with the signs for Merton School Streets. From 2020, Merton erected signs which included a panel reading "Except for authorised vehicles". This is not part of diagram 618.3C. 

In October 2022 DfT provided special authorisation GT50/090/0025 for this sign with the panel "Except authorised vehicles". We may infer that Merton would much have preferred their own wording, as they then had to go around all the non-compliant signs fixing plates with "    Except    " over "Except for".

Traffic Signs Policy Review 2011

In October 2011, DfT published Traffic signs policy paper: signing the way. Reporting that The Traffic Signs (Amendment) Regulations and General Directions 2011 would reduce by 40% the number of special authorisations local authorities had to seek, it went on to say that the Department had further reduced the burden by issuing local authorities with authorisations.

These were two sets of special authorisations which were issued to each local authority individually (the links are to the authorisations to Lancashire County Council):

• 17 November 2011: Traffic Signs Policy Review Area-wide Authorisation 

• 17 November 2011: Traffic Signs Policy Review Area-Wide Special Direction 

It was as though the Department had realised that it should have put more signs in the Amendment Regulations, but didn't want to make them as a further set of Amendment Regulations. Instead it issued them to all authorities as special authorisations which they hadn't asked for.

The Department repeated this process three times in 2012:

• 17 February 2012: Traffic signs policy review area-wide authorisation second edition (trixi mirrors) 

• 5 March 2012: Traffic signs policy review area-wide authorisation third edition 

• 1 October 2012: National authorisation for portable traffic signals (area-wide) 

As foreshadowed in the Policy Paper, the Department was working on a substantial revamp of the Traffic Signs Regulations, which it issued as TSRGD 2016.

This process is relevant today because some of the signs in these special authorisations were not included in TSRGD 2016 and so, when the sign is used today, it is under a special authorisation from 2011-12. An example is the yellow plate waiting restriction on motor caravans.

The Department appears to have issued special authorisations to all local authorities on one further occasion: 

• 14 December 2023: Small Wild Animals Warning Sign, Area-wide. (squirrels, badgers, otters, hedgehogs) 

Legal Issues with Moving Traffic Contraventions

The powers which local authorities use to issue PCNs for moving traffic contraventions are:

• London: Local Authorities and Transport for London Act 2003 Section 4 and, as amended, Schedule 3

• Elsewhere: Traffic Management Act 2004 Schedule 7 Part 4 

Each of these specifies a table of traffic signs which can be the subject of civil enforcement:

• London: Table in paragraph 4 of the amended Schedule 3 to LLATfL Act 2003 

• Elsewhere: Table A in TMA 2004 Schedule 7 Paragraph 8A (5)

For London, before the table, it states:

3. The signs include permitted variants of the signs as described in the 2016 Regulations.

Elsewhere, it also states that where alternative types are shown, any of those types can be the subject of civil enforcement.

Specially-authorised signs are not permitted variants of a sign or an alternative type shown in the Regulations. If they were, special authorisation would not have been obtained. It follows that local authorities do not have the power to bring civil enforcement proceedings for moving traffic contraventions of specially-authorised traffic signs. They do have power to bring civil enforcement proceedings for other types of contravention, e.g. parking, bus lane.

Street Art

Some local authorities have installed "street art" on the carriageway. The most well-known instances are "rainbow crossings", e.g. those across Dulwich Road and Norwood Road near the entrance to Brockwell Park in Lambeth, London. 

Special authorisation is not sought for these as they are not traffic signs. They do not substitute for the white bands of a zebra crossing. They are placed on pelican crossings where traffic is stopped by lights before pedestrians cross. It is well-established that coloured surface-dressings have no legal meaning, although Leeds uses red surface dressings as the sole means of showing the extent of bus gates (see Bridge End, Leeds). 

These rainbow markings take that lack of legal meaning up to and perhaps beyond its limit. Section 122 of Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 requires local authorities to 

secure the expeditious, convenient and safe movement of vehicular and other traffic (including pedestrians) ... on and off the highway 

Brightly-coloured street art, especially that with highly contrasting colours may distract motorists and cause difficulties for pedestrians with impaired sight or balance, epilepsy or who are neurodivergent. In 2021 The Access Association sent a letter to ministers raising these issues.

Special Authorisations

The following special authorisations are described:

• Merton School Streets

• Motor Caravan Parking Restrictions

Written 2nd November 2025; last updated 2nd November 2025