When local authorities make traffic orders, regulation 18 of The Local Authorities' Traffic Orders (Procedure) (England and Wales) Regulations 1996 (LATOR) requires the placing of such traffic signs as the Council
consider requisite for securing that adequate information as to the effect of the order is made available to persons using the road
It is well-established case law that if someone transgresses the terms of a traffic order, no contravention occurs if the local authority has failed to make adequate information available about the traffic order.
In R (Neil Herron et al) v The Parking Adjudicator [2011] EWCA Civ 905 Lord Justice Burnton found (Lord Justice Aikens and Sir David Keene concurring) :
35. It has long been recognised that the enforceability of a [traffic order] requires that adequate notice of the applicable restriction is given to the road user. This principle is derived from the duty imposed by Regulation 18 of [LATOR 1996]. In Macleod v Hamilton 1965 SLT 305 Lord Clyde said, at 308
It was an integral part of the statutory scheme for a traffic regulation order that notice by means of traffic signs should be given to the public using the roads which were restricted so as to warn users of their obligations. Unless these traffic signs were there accordingly and the opportunity was thus afforded to the public to know what they could not legally do, no offence would be committed. It would, indeed, be anomalous and absurd were the position otherwise. ...
36. That principle was approved and applied by the Divisional Court in James v Cavey [1967] 2 QB 676. Giving a judgment with which the other members of the court [Justices Ashworth and Widgery] agreed, [Lord Justice] Winn said:
... The short answer in my view which requires that this appeal should be allowed is that the local authority here did not take such steps as they were required to take under that regulation. They did not take steps which clearly could have been taken and which clearly would have been practicable to cause adequate information to be given to persons using the road by the signs which they erected. …
This was a judgment in the Court of Appeal, so is binding on the High Court as well as on tribunals and adjudicators.
The assessment of the adequacy of the signage therefore covers not only signs which were present but also signs which could have been placed.
Written 29th October 2025; last updated 1st November 2025