Highways Act 1971

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1971 c. 41


Highway Act 1971

1971 CHAPTER 41

An Act to make further provision with respect to highways, streets and bridges in England and Wales, including provisions with respect to means of access to premises from highways, provisions amending section 49 of the Public Health Act 1961, provisions authorising the provision of picnic sites and public conveniences for the benefit of users of certain highways, provisions authorising the provision of facilities for purposes connected with the transport of goods by road, provisions amending the law about the recording of public rights of way, and related provisions amending the law of town and country planning.

[1st July 1971]

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:—

I Provisions with Respect to Construction, Improvement, etc., of Highways

Part I

Provisions with Respect to Construction, Improvement, etc., of Highways

Classified roads

Classified roads

S-1 Powers of local highway authorities as respectsroads that cross or join classified roads.

1 Powers of local highway authorities as respectsroads that cross or join classified roads.

(1) Provision may be made by an order under this section for any of the following purposes, that is to say,—

(a ) for authorising the highway authority for a classified road, not being a special road,—

(i) to stop up, divert, improve, raise, lower or otherwise alter a highway that crosses or enters the route of the classified road or is or will be otherwise affected by the construction or improvement of the classified road;

(ii)to construct a new highway for purposes connected with any such alteration as aforesaid or for any other purpose connected with the classified road or its construction and to close after such period as may be specified in the order any new highway so constructed for temporary purposes;

(b ) for transferring to such other highway authority as may be specified in the order, as from such date as may be so specified, a highway constructed by the highway authority in pursuance of the order or any previous order made under this section;

(c ) for any other purpose incidental to the purposes aforesaid.

(2) An order under this section shall be made by the highway authority for the classified road and confirmed by the Secretary of State.

(3) For the purpose of applying certain provisions of the principal Act to a highway to which an order under this section relates and to such an order the provisions of the principal Act specified in Part I of Schedule 1 to this Act shall have effect subject to the amendments set out in the said Part I.

(4) No order under this section authorising the stopping up of a highway shall be confirmed by the Secretary of State unless he is satisfied that another reasonably convenient route is available or will be provided before the highway is stopped up.

(5) An order under this section may provide for the payment of contributions—

(a ) by the highway authority for the classified road to any other highway authority in respect of any additional liabilities imposed on that other authority in consequence of the provisions of the order or of any previous order made under this section;

(b ) to the highway authority for the classified road by any other highway authority in respect of any liabilities so imposed on the first-mentioned authority, being liabilities which would otherwise have fallen to be discharged by that other authority;

and may also provide for the determination by arbitration of disputes as to the payment of such contributions.

(6) In this section ‘classified road’ means—

(a ) a highway or proposed highway which for the time being is classified by the Secretary of State under section 27(2) of the Local Government Act 1966

(i) as a principal road for the purposes of advances under section 235 of the principal Act; or

(ii) as a classified road for the purposes of this section; and

(b ) a highway which for the time being is, or by virtue of section 27(4) of the said Act of 1966 is to be treated as, classified by the Secretary of State under section 27(2) of that Act as a classified road for the purposes of the principal Act or of enactments which include that Act.

Powers to stop up and provide access to premises from highway

Powers to stop up and provide access to premises from highway

S-2 Power to stop up private access to premises causingdanger etc. to traffic on highway.

2 Power to stop up private access to premises causingdanger etc. to traffic on highway.

(1) Subject to subsection (2) below, where the highway authority for a highway consider that a private means of access from the highway to any premises is likely to cause danger to, or to interfere unreasonably with, traffic on the highway, they may be authorised by an order made by them in accordance with this section to stop up the means of access.

(2) No order under this section relating to an access to any premises shall be made by the Secretary of State or, in the case of an order made by a local highway authority, confirmed either by the Secretary of State or by that authority unless the Secretary of State or, as the case may be, the confirming authority is or are satisfied—

(a ) that no access to the premises from the highway in question is reasonably required, or

(b ) that another reasonably convenient means of access to the premises is available or will be provided by the Secretary of State or, as the case may be, the local highway authority.

(3) Subject to subsection (4) below, the Secretary of State may make regulations for prescribing the procedure to be followed in connection with the making and confirmation of orders under this section, and such regulations shall in particular make provision—

(a ) for the publication in such manner as may be prescribed by the regulations of notice of the order proposed to be made or confirmed and for service on such persons as may be so prescribed of a copy of that notice and of such other documents, if any, as may be so prescribed;

(b ) as to the content of that notice;

(c ) for objections to the making or confirmation of the order received within such period as may be so prescribed and not withdrawn to be considered by the Secretary of State; and

(d ) for the making of modifications in the order, whether in consequence of any objections or otherwise, before the order is made or confirmed.

(4) In the case of an order made by a local highway authority under this section if no objection to the confirmation of the order is received within the period prescribed by regulations under subsection (3) above or if every such objection so received is withdrawn, the local highway authority may themselves confirm the order, but without modification.

S-3 Further powers of the Secretary of State anda local highway authority to stop up private access to premises.

3 Further powers of the Secretary of State anda local highway authority to stop up private access to premises.

(1) Subject to subsection (2) below, an order under section 9 of the principal Act (which empowers the Secretary of State to make an order for certain purposes connected with a trunk road), an order under section 91 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1968 (which empowers the Secretary of State by order to stop up or divert a highway that crosses, etc. the route of a main highway) and an order under section 1 of this Act may authorise the following authority, namely, in the case of an order under the said section 91, the highway authority for the main highway, and, in the other cases, the authority by whom the order is made—

(a ) to stop up any private means of access to premises adjoining or adjacent to land comprised in the route of the trunk road, main highway or classified road, as the case may be, or forming the site of any works authorised by the order or by any previous order made under the same enactment;

(b ) to provide a new means of access to any such premises.

(2) No order authorising the stopping up of a private means of access to premises by virtue of subsection (1)(a ) above shall be made or confirmed by the Secretary of State unless he is satisfied—

(a ) that no access to the premises is reasonably required, or

(b ) that another reasonably convenient means of access to the premises is available or will be provided in pursuance of an order made by virtue of subsection (1)(b ) above or otherwise.

(3) For the purpose of modifying Part I of Schedule 1 to the principal Act in its application to an order under section 9 of that Act or section 1 of this Act, where the order authorises the stopping up of a private means of access to any premises, the provision of the said Part I specified in Part II of Schedule 1 to this Act shall have effect subject to the amendment set out in the said Part II.

(4) Section 154 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1962 (procedure for making certain orders) in its application to an order under section 91 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1968 which by virtue of subsection (1)(a ) above authorises the stopping up of a private means of access to premises shall have effect as if the persons on whom the Secretary of State is required by subsections (2) and (6) of section 154 to serve certain documents relating to the order included the owner and the occupier of those premises.

In this subsection ‘owner’, in relation to any premises, means a person, other than a mortgagee not in possession, who is for the time being entitled to dispose of the fee simple in the premises, whether in possession or in reversion, and includes also a person holding or entitled to the rents and profits of the premises under a lease the unexpired term whereof exceeds three years.

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