Section 9 - Road traffic management – barriers/road closures
In this section, outline how the event will impact on local road congestion and car parking in the area around the event.
If your event is going to bring large numbers of people to a venue or site you should consider making arrangements for signage to direct the flow of traffic to the event.
If your event is in the city or a busy town centre, where there are already significant demands on parking, you may need to organise extra car parking. Rural sites may require people to park on narrow roads causing congestion, and you may need to provide off-road parking.
Consider liaising with local rail and bus companies to see if services will be available to bring people to the event to reduce traffic congestion. You may also need to liaise with around any road closure that will be put in place.
Outline how you will direct the public to the event and to suitable car parking both before and during the event. For example, publicity material and social media could be used to show nearby car parks.
Make sure you have permission from the landowner if you are using extra areas of land for parking.
As highways authority, Staffordshire County Council has put together a pack aimed at gathering the information they need to assess and coordinate an event alongside the activities that take place on the highway e.g. highway maintenance, utility works, vehicle breakdown and accidents.
The pack includes:
- Contact details for the highways authority and how to notify them of an event
- Details of how to provide information about an event to help coordinate it with other works and activities on the road network.
- Details of how to apply for a road closure, speed limit change and parking restrictions etc.
Download Staffordshire County Council’s Highway network management information pack.
Road closures/road barriers
State whether or not a road closure is necessary for your event. You will need a road closure to prevent vehicles accessing areas where there will be large numbers of pedestrians. This involves applying for permission to either Lichfield District Council or Staffordshire County Council.
Lichfield District Council can issue a temporary closure of streets order under The Town and Police Clauses Act 1847. This enables short term road closures in Lichfield city centre to enable processions or movements of people e.g. processions with floats, Remembrance Day parade. Find out more.
Staffordshire County Council Highways Authority can issue a road closure order for ongoing road closures which are required for a day or more including rolling overnight closures. This includes a food festival or market in the city centre. Download guidance from the county council.
Show how you will limit vehicle movements around the public and prevent collisions. This should also be included in your risk assessment.
Give advanced warning to anyone who is likely to be affected by the road closures, including businesses, taxi companies (if a taxi rank is affected) and residents.
For any road closures you will need to put barriers up that are supervised by security staff. Please set out your staffing arrangements and how you will manage any road closures.
Road closure barriers should be supervised at all times and a copy of the road closure order or temporary closure of streets order should be on display outlining the times and dates that it is in effect.