A senior TfL manager has claimed that there is no need to tell motorists whenever speed limits are temporarily lowered. Gerard O’Toole, the authority’s network regulation manager, told a court that he believed details of “emergency” cuts to speed limits did not have to be made available to the public – even though such orders effectively create new criminal offences, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Mr O’Toole was giving evidence during the trial of John Dunlop, 55, who is accused of breaking a temporary 40mph speed limit imposed on the A20 near Sidcup, south-east London, last year. Up to 60,000 motorists have been prosecuted for speeding along the same stretch of road between late 2023 and early 2024, campaigners have previously said. Victory by Mr Dunlop could potentially lead to the conviction of these drivers being overturned.
Normally the speed limit on that stretch of the A2, which is the main road between south-east London and Kent, is set at 70mph. It was lowered at short notice in October 2023 after standing water formed on the carriageway, causing a traffic safety hazard. Mr Dunlop’s defence is that temporary speed limit signs put up by TfL contractor FM Conway were below the legally required minimum size.
He also claims they were positioned too low down at the sides of the road for motorists to see them, as traffic sign rules require.
Mr Dunlop, of Chislehurst, Kent, also claims a temporary traffic regulation order (TRO) made by TfL, giving precise details of where the speed limit had been dropped, could not be read by any member of the public despite putting drivers in legal peril if they broke it.
At Bromley magistrates’ court on Friday, Mr O’Toole was asked by Mr Dunlop’s counsel Chris Jeyes: “You recognise, undoubtedly, that making a traffic order is making a serious step? It may criminalise actions that may not otherwise be criminal?”
The TfL manager replied “Yes”, later adding that for temporary TROs: “There’s no statutory requirement on us to publish them.”
When asked if he believed that the Openness of Local Government Regulations 2014 apply to TfL – a law which says public authorities must make formal records of their decisions available to the general public – Mr O’Toole answered: “The openness regulations, yes, they apply to Transport for London. Obviously they don’t apply to the making of traffic orders. Because traffic orders have their own legislation and own set of statutory guidance.”
Mr O’Toole also said that TfL had taken out advertisements in local newspapers the Bexley News and the News Shopper saying that the speed limit on the A20 near Sidcup had been lowered.
District Judge Sarah Turnock adjourned the case until Nov 13.
(Pic: Yay Images)
