Highways Act 1959
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1959 c. 25 |
Highways Act, 1959
(7 & 8 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 25
An Act to consolidate with amendments certain enactments relating to highways, streets and bridges in England and Wales, including certain enactments commonly contained in local Acts, and to make consequential amendments of the common law.
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I
Highway Authorities
1 Highway authorities.
(1) The Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘the Minister’) shall be the highway authority for—
(a ) a highway which is a trunk road;
(b ) a highway as respects which an order made by him under any enactment expressly provides that he shall be the highway authority therefor but does not direct that the highway shall be a trunk road;
(c ) any other highway being a highway constructed by him, except where by virtue of section two of this Act or section three thereof or by virtue of some other enactment a local highway authority are the highway authority therefor or where by means of an order made under section nine of this Act or section thirteen thereof the highway is transferred to a local highway authority.
(2) The council of a borough or urban district shall be the highway authority for all highways in the borough or district, whether highways maintainable at the public expense or not, not being—
(a ) highways for which under the foregoing subsection the Minister is the highway authority, or
(b ) in the case of a non-county borough or urban district, either county roads for which by virtue of the next following subsection the council of the county comprising the borough or district are the highway authority or county bridges.
(3) The council of a county shall be the highway authority—
(a ) for all highways in a rural district within the county, whether highways maintainable at the public expense or not, not being highways for which under subsection (1) of this section the Minister is the highway authority, and
(b ) for all county roads in a non-county borough or urban district within the county other than roads for which the council of the borough or district are for the time being the highway authority by virtue of section four of this Act, and
(c ) for all county bridges in the county.
(4) The two last foregoing subsections shall be subject, as respects any highway, to any provision of this Act, or of any order made under this or any other Act, by virtue of which a council other than the council specified in either of those subsections as the highway authority for that highway are the highway authority therefor.
2 Highway authority for road which ceases to be a trunk road.
2. Where an order made under section seven of this Act directs that a trunk road shall cease to be a trunk road, then, without prejudice to the provisions of section four of this Act, as from the date specified in that behalf in the order, the following authority, that is to say—
shall become the highway authority for the road.
3 Local highway authority may be highway authority for certain highways constructed by Minister.
(1) The council of a county, borough or urban district may by agreement with the Minister undertake the maintenance and improvement of a highway in their area, being a highway (other than a trunk road) which the Minister proposes to construct or has, whether before or after the commencement of this Act, constructed.
(2) Where an agreement is made under this section the council who are a party to the agreement shall, on such date as may be provided by the agreement, become the highway authority for the highway to which the agreement relates.
4 Highway authority for claimed county roads.
(1) The council of a non-county borough or urban district shall be the highway authority for any county road in their area which they are for the time being entitled to maintain by virtue of section forty-five of this Act.
(2) A county road for which the council of such a borough or district are the highway authority is in this Act referred to as a ‘claimed county road’.
5 County council may be highway authority for highway in non-county borough, etc., which is not a county road.
5. The council of a county shall be the highway authority for a highway (other than a classified road) in a non-county borough or urban district within the county, being a highway maintainable at the public expense with respect to which there is such an agreement as the following in force, that is to say, an agreement made under this section between the council of the county and the council of that borough or district, as the case may be, whereby the first-mentioned council agree to undertake, in consideration of such payments as may be agreed, the maintenance and improvement of the highway.
6 Highway authority for approaches to, and parts of, certain bridges in non-county borough or urban district.
(1) Where a bridge wholly or partly situated in a non-county borough or urban district was constructed before the first day of September, eighteen hundred and thirty-five, and on completion became, and has since its completion continued to be, a county bridge, the council of the county comprising the borough or district shall, unless the bridge ceases to be a county bridge and subject to the provisions of subsection (5) of this section, be the highway authority for so much of any highway (not being a county road) within the borough or district as is carried by the bridge or forms an approach thereto and is situated within one hundred yards of either end of the bridge.
(2) Where—
(a ) a county bridge wholly or partly situated in a non-county borough or urban district was constructed after the thirty-first day of August, eighteen hundred and thirty five, and
(b ) immediately before the commencement of this Act, the council of the county comprising the borough or district were liable to maintain part of any highway in the borough or district, being a part which forms an approach to that bridge and does not comprise the surface thereof,
that council shall, unless the bridge ceases to be a county bridge and subject to the provisions of subsection (5) of this section, be the highway authority for that part of the highway:
Provided that this subsection shall not apply to any part of a county road.
(3) Where a highway was at any time a turnpike road and before it ceased to be a turnpike road the trustees of the road repaired any bridge carrying the road, that bridge shall, for the purposes of the foregoing provisions of this section, be deemed to have been constructed after the thirty-first day of August, eighteen hundred and thirty-five.
(4) Where a highway forming one of the approaches to a county bridge is situated in a non-county borough or urban district in a county adjoining the county in which the bridge is and the council of the county in which the bridge is would, by virtue of subsection (1) or subsection (2) of this section, be the highway authority for that highway if it had been situated in that county, they shall, notwithstanding anything in section one of this Act, be the highway authority for it.
(5) The council of a non-county borough or urban district may by agreement with the council of a county undertake, on such terms as may be agreed, the maintenance of any highway in that borough or district, as the case may be, for which by virtue of any of the foregoing provisions of this section the council of the county are the highway authority, and on the making of an agreement under this subsection the council of the county shall cease to be the highway authority for the highway to which the agreement relates.
(6) Where part only of a bridge is situated in a non-county borough or urban district and immediately before the commencement of this Act the council of the county comprising the borough or district were liable to maintain that part of the bridge, then, without prejudice to the provisions of subsection (3) of section one of this Act, they shall be the highway authority for that part of the bridge unless and until, by virtue of any provision of this Act (other than subsection (2) of the said section one) or by virtue of any order made under this or any other Act, some other highway authority become the highway authority therefor.
Part II
Trunk Roads, Special Roads, County Roads andCounty Bridges
Trunk roads
7 Trunk roads.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, all such highways and proposed highways as were immediately before the commencement of this Act trunk...
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