Sheffield Council applies for powers to tackle road offences

The council wants powers to fine drivers who make illegal turns on Sheffield's Hanover Street (pictured)

A South Yorkshire council is to apply for police-style powers to enforce traffic rules.

Sheffield City Council would be able to fine drivers who make illegal turns, ignore No Entry signs and drive in prohibited zones or yellow box areas.

Councillors agreed to the plan and, in the first instance, will target three key junctions in the city where there have been incidents.

They will apply to the Department for Transport to take on the powers.

Usually traffic rules can only be enforced by the police.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, councillors at a meeting of the authority's transport, regeneration and climate policy committee decided on Thursday to trial the initiative at the junctions of Queens Road and Bramall Lane, Glossop Road and Upper Hanover Street, and on Hoyle Street.

They were identified from police data as junctions where incidents have taken place because drivers made illegal manoeuvres, said Matthew Reynolds, council transport planning and infrastructure manager.

New traffic enforcement powers would help improve road safety, Sheffield City Council said

A seven-week public consultation last year found more than 70% of respondents supported the proposals, a report to the committee said.

Mr Reynolds said the plans were supported by South Yorkshire Police, bus and Supertram operators, South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard, Cycle Sheffield and Hunters Bar Living Streets.

He said the income generated from fines would be spent on running the scheme and any road issues, not general services.

Councillor Ian Auckland said he had given his support to the plans 10 years ago and the new measures had been "a long time coming".

"From my point of view, it's much to be welcomed," he said.

Councillor Craig Gamble Pugh also welcomed the move and said: "In 1998 I lived off Upper Hanover Street as a young student radical and we regularly set up community breakfasts to block traffic rat-running through Broomhall, to the applause of many and the indignation of a minority."