Road Traffic Act 1961

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:

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;

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.

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.

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.

An order under this section is subject to any conditions which the

An order under this section renders lawful anything done in accordance with the order.

An order under this section may apply to the whole or a part of a road.

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—

the driver of a vehicle on a road; or

the owner or person apparently in charge of or with care or custody of a vehicle on a road; or

a person who appears to have left a vehicle standing on a road (whether the vehicle is attended by another person or not); or

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.

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.

A person to whom a direction of a police officer is given pursuant to this section must forthwith comply with it.

If a direction is given under subsection (7) to a person who appears—

to have charge, care or custody of a vehicle on a road; or

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.

In this section—