Member

Section 137 of the Highways Act 1980 makes it an offence to obstruct the traffic without lawful reason or excuse. Some police forces claim—when it suits them—that using legitimate escort techniques is illegal, and it is certainly not clear. On Tuesday we discussed the case law in Ziegler, but I am not aware of any case law regarding abnormal load escorts. My Amendment 403A would make it clear that a person who has been granted a traffic regulation dispensation order does have lawful reason or excuse to obstruct the traffic. This could be on foot or by using an escort vehicle. It is expected that a chief constable would always allow a solid white line in the middle of the road to be crossed when granting a dispensation.