33—Road closing and exemptions for certain events
(1) On the application
of any person interested, the Minister may declare an event to be an event to
which this section applies and may do either or both of the following:
(a) make
an order directing that specified roads (being roads on which the event is to
be held or roads that, in the Minister's opinion, should be closed for the
purposes of the event) be closed to traffic for a period specified in, or
determined in accordance with, the order;
(b) make
an order directing that persons participating in the event be exempted, in
relation to specified roads, from the duty to observe an enactment, regulation
or by-law prescribing a rule to be observed on roads by pedestrians or drivers
of vehicles.
(2) An order to close
a road under subsection (1) can only be made with the consent of every
council within whose area a road intended to be closed by the order is
situated.
(3) At least two clear
days before an order under subsection (1) takes effect, the Minister
must, at the cost of the applicant, cause the order to be advertised in the
prescribed manner.
(4) An order under
this section is subject to any conditions which the Minister thinks fit to
impose and, on breach of any condition, ceases to have effect.
(5) An order under
this section renders lawful anything done in accordance with the order.
(6) An order under
this section may apply to the whole or a part of a road.
(7) In addition to any
other power to regulate traffic conferred by this or any other Act, a police
officer may give such reasonable directions to—
(a) the
driver of a vehicle on a road; or
(b) the
owner or person apparently in charge of or with care or custody of a vehicle
on a road; or
(c) a
person who appears to have left a vehicle standing on a road (whether the
vehicle is attended by another person or not); or
(d) a
pedestrian on a road,
as are, in the police officer's opinion, necessary for the safe and efficient
conduct of an event to which this section applies.
(8) Such directions
may include directions for clearing vehicles or persons from a road or part of
a road or temporarily closing a road or part of a road and may be given on the
day of an event in preparation for, during or immediately after the conclusion
of, the event.
(9) A person to whom a
direction of a police officer is given pursuant to this section must forthwith
comply with it.
(9a) If a direction is
given under subsection (7) to a person who appears—
(a) to
have charge, care or custody of a vehicle on a road; or
(b) to
have left a vehicle standing on a road,
that person is not guilty of an offence against this Act of failing to comply
with the direction if it is proved that the person did not have charge, care
or custody of the vehicle and did not leave the vehicle standing on the road.
(10) In this
section—
"event" means an organised sporting, recreational, political, artistic,
cultural or other activity, and includes a street party.