Highways - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition highways

Definition :

Highways, all portions of land, and passage which every subject of the kingdom has a right to use. See Pratt on Highways; also defined by the Highway Act, 1835 (5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 50), s. 5, 'All roads, bridges (not being county bridges), carriage ways, cartways, horseways, bridleways, footways, cause-ways churchways and pavements. They exist either by prescription, by authority of Acts of Parliament, or by dedication to the use of the public; and see the Rights of Way Act, 1932 (22 & 23 Geo. 5, c. 45). The right of the public, when once acquired, is permanent and inalienable except by the authority of Parliament-'once a highway, always a highway.' It cannot be lost by abandonment or non-user, and the public retain the right, though they may never have occasion to use it. But the right is only a right of passing and repassing, pausing only for such time as is reasonable and usual when persons are using a highway as such. A man has no right to stand on the highway in order to shoot pheasants flying across it, R. v. Pratt, (1855) 4 E&B 860; and see Fitzhardinge v. Purcell, (1908) 2 Ch 168, or maliciously to interfere with the rights of others, Harrison v. Duke of Rutland, (1893) 1 QB 142. Where cattle or horses do damage to property adjoining a highway on which they are being lawfully driven, the owner of such cattle and horses is liable only on proof of negligence, and not merely on proof of trespass, see Gayler and Pope v. Davies, (1924) 40 TLR 591. As to cattle straying on highways, see the Highways Act, 1864 (27 & 28 Vict. c. 101), s. 25.

The liability to keep highways in repair (in whatever manner they may happen to have first originated) is of common right incumbent generally upon the parishes in which they respectively lie; but in some cases it attaches (by prescription) to particular townships, or other divisions of parishes, and occasionally to private persons bound ratione tenur', or in right of their estates, to repair some particular highway.

Highways in general are regulated by the Highway Acts, 1835 to 1885; the Local Government Acts, 1929 and 1933; Road Traffic Acts, 1930-1934; and Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933; and other Acts set out in Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'Highways'; and the 11th s. of the Local Government Act, 1888, threw the entire maintenance of 'main roads' upon the County Councils. As to improvements and Developments, see Development and Road Improvement Fund Act, 1909, and Roads Act, 1920, and the Roads Improvement Act, 1925; and TRUNK ROADS.The 72nd s. of the Highway Act, 1835, penalizes up to 40s. any person willfully riding on a footpath or playing at football or any other game on any part of a highway to the annoyance of any passenger, or wantonly firing off any gun or pistl or letting off any firework within 50 feet, or in any way willfully obstructing the free passage of a highway, or committing any of the various other offences therein mentioned; and the 78th s. of the same Act penalizes up to 5l. (or if owner 10l.) any driver not keeping his carriage or horse 'on the left or near side of the road,' or riding or driving furiously so as to endanger the life or limb of any passenger, or committing any of the other various offences therein mentioned; and see DRIVER.

The general plan of the Act of 1835 was to place highways under the care of surveyors, to be appointed for the respective parishes, subject to a superintending power to be exercised by the justices of the peace, at special sessions to be holden for the highways. By the Public Health Act, 1875, s. 144 (coming in place of previous enactments to the like effect), the powers and duties of surveyors of highways and vestries under the Act are vested in urban authorities.

The Minister of Transport, under Roads Act, 1920 (10 & 11 Geo. 5, c. 72), has transferred to him powers of the Road Board, and can make advances out of the Road Fund to any highway authority concerning the construction, maintenance or improvement of roads. To assist him there is the Transport Advisory Council (Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933 (23 & 24 Geo. 5, c. 53), s. 46), and concerning the London Traffic Area there is the London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee (London Traffic Act, 1924 (14 & 15 Geo. 5, c. 34), s. 1(1); London Passenger Transport Act, 1933 (23 Geo. 5, c. 14), ss. 57-60). See ROAD BOARD; TRANSPORT, MINISTER OF. Consult Glen or Pratt and Mackenzie on Highways, and see Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'High-ways.' As to the use of locomotives on highways, see LOCOMOTIVES.