It is today reported in the
Hull and East Riding Mail that Cycle Races in the East Riding are being cancelled after Humberside Police told organisers that they 'would not support' events without road closures. Sometimes we do need to pinch ourselves to remember that, happily, we do not live in a police state. What we can, and cannot do, is governed by the law not the support, or otherwise of the Police. It is true that local Police forces do have some discretionary powers relating to the organisation of Road Races but this discretion is not unbounded and is strictly curtailed by statute.
My advice to road race organisers in the past has been that the police do not have the power to tell them that they may only run a race on condition that the road is closed. Here in a nutshell (but inevitably requiring 'legalese') is why.
A cycle race on a public road is
prohibited by section 31(1) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 unless the race is
authorised by or under regulations under that section. The powers of the police in this area stem
from the Cycle Racing on Highways Regulations 1960 (as amended in 1963, 1980,
1988 and 1995). These
Regulations now take effect as though made under section 31. Regulation 5 authorises a bicycle race on the
public highway subject to ‘the standard conditions’ which includes a condition
that the length of the circuit is at least 10 miles. If the standard conditions do not apply, then the
police may authorise the race pursuant to a power under regulation 7.
Pursuant
to Regulation 8, then, if the race is authorised by Regulation 5 and if the appropriate officer of police considers it desirable
that conditions should be imposed on the holding or conduct of the race he may
impose such conditions ‘for that purpose’ as he may think fit. If the race is authorised by the police
pursuant to Regulation 7 the officer of the police may impose such conditions
as he may think fit on the holding or conduct of the race. In practical terms it appears highly unlikely
that there is any real distinction in the power of the police under Regulation
8 to impose conditions in either case.
Examples
of the type of condition that the police may see fit to impose are set out in
Regulation 8(4). The list is expressly
non-exclusive and without prejudice to the generality of the above provisions. Nonetheless it is noteworthy that all the
examples (days, times, places, route, number of competitors and arrangements
for marshalling) are within the power of the race organiser. Although couched in wide general terms the
conditions all relate to ‘the holding or conduct of the race’ and, in
order to be workable, it is necessary that they relate to
matters that are similarly within the control of the race organiser.
The
1960 Regulations were brought into force under section 13 of the Road Traffic
Act 1956 (then in force but subsequently repealed) pursuant to which, the police had a power
under the same section to direct the
movement of traffic and/or close a road to vehicles or vehicles of a certain
class, see section 13(3) of the 1956 Act.
The police still have this power, now pursuant to section 31(4) and (5)
of the Road Traffic Act 1988. This
statutory framework makes it again virtually inconceivable that the conditions
imposed under Regulation 8 would ever have been envisaged as including a
condition that the same police who are imposing the condition exercise their
power under the Act to close the road.
It
was only later that the Highway Authority was granted the power to close roads
in connection with special events. This
power was introduced in the Road Traffic Regulation (Special Events) Act 1994
which, as Hansard for 4th March 1994 makes clear, was introduced to
facilitate the running of two stages of the Tour de France in England in July 1994. The power is now in section 16A of
the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984.
The section provides that the Highway Authority may temporarily restrict
or prohibit traffic on a road, on which a sporting event, social event or entertainment
is taking place. The Highway Authority
has power to restrict or prohibit the use of the road by vehicles or vehicles
of any class or pedestrians as it considers necessary or expedient. The debates in Parliament suggest that his
section was to apply to major events such as the Tour de France. The responsible minister, Robert Key, in
giving Government support to the Private Member’s Bill said (Hansard 04.03.94,
col 1226)
“As long ago as 1839, the House recognised that
special measures were needed when it gave the Metropolitan police Commissioner
powers to help control events in London. In 1956, it was agreed that events
such as cycle races need to be controlled and in the Road Traffic Act 1956,
cycle racing was made illegal unless held in accordance with regulations. That
Act also gave chief constables powers to close roads for authorised cycle
races. Those powers were perfectly adequate then and remain adequate for the
overwhelming majority of cycle races, but they are not sufficient for the
really big events, such as the tour de France or the Kellogg's tour of Britain. Those
and other events need powers that will make it possible to control the huge
number of spectators, so as to minimise the disruption to local communities.”
It
is clear enough that the Highway Authority was being endowed with powers to
close roads for the ‘really big events’ and existing powers, principally the
powers of the police to close roads, were considered adequate for the
overwhelming majority of cycle races.
In short the police have the power to impose conditions upon
the organiser of a race and the police have the additional power, should they
deem it necessary, to close the road. It
makes a nonsense of the statutory scheme for them to seek to impose a condition that somebody else close the roads. The
nonsense is further exemplified by the fact that the Highway Authority may not
make an order under section 16A in relation to a cycle race prohibiting or
restricting the use of roads unless the race is authorized by the Cycle Racing
on Highways Regulations. Plainly the
authorisation of the race and the question of road closure are two quite
distinct issues and the necessity or otherwise of closure should be considered
after the race has been authorised.
For those reasons the police do not have the
power to impose a condition on the running of a race that the roads be closed
by the Highways Authority. Nor do they have the power to ban a race, they have the power to impose conditions as authorised by the Regulations.
