Paragraph 13 FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

The network management duty, as set out in section 16 of the Act, is qualified to the extent that each authority have other obligations, policies and objectives which they must also address. Accordingly, the duty should not take precedence over everything else that they do. The Secretary of State recognises that all authorities face different challenges and have their own obligations, policies and objectives which will have to be taken into account when performing the duty. In addition, in assessing an individual authority’s performance, he will also consider their approach to the duty within the wider circumstances in which traffic presents itself on their network. The sort of circumstances envisaged could be projects involving economic regeneration, house building or special events. The Secretary of State will not expect every authority to approach the duty in exactly the same way.