HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES ACT, 1891. An Act to confer further powers on County Councils [Preamble.] [5th August, 1891.] 1. This Act may be cited as the Highways and Bridges Short title. Act, 1891. 2. This Act shall not apply to Scotland or Ireland or Extent of the county of London. Act. between highway 3. The council of any administrative county, and any Agreement highway authority or authorities, and the council of any adjoining county, may from time to time make and carry authorities into effect agreements with each other for or in relation to for improvethe construction, reconstruction, alteration or improvement, ment of or the freeing from tolls, of any main road or other high-roads and bridges. way, or of any bridge (including the approaches thereto), wholly or partly situate within the jurisdiction of any one or more of the party or parties to the agreement. All expenses incurred by any such county council or highway authority, in pursuance of this section, shall be defrayed as part of the expenses incurred in relation to the maintenance, repair, improvement, or enlargement of bridges, main roads, or other highways by such council or highway authority, in such proportions as shall be determined by any such agreement as aforesaid, and any powers of borrowing, applicable to the raising of any fund for the payment of any such expenses as aforesaid, shall be applicable accordingly: Provided that if a highway board think it just that any parish or parishes specially benefited by any construction, reconstruction, alteration, or improvement under this section should bear the expense thereof, or any part of such expense, they may, with the approval of the county council of the county within which their highway district is situate, and with the assent of the inhabitants of such parish or parishes in vestry assembled, charge such expense, or such part thereof as they may think just, exclusively on such parish or parishes. Power to reduce main road to status of ordinary highway. 4. Section sixteen of the Highways and Locomotives Amendment Act, 1878, shall apply to any part of a main road in any county, and so much of such section as requires that any order made thereunder shall be provisional, and shall be confirmed as in the said Act mentioned, is hereby 41 & 42 Vict. repealed, but no such order shall be made in respect of any main road within a municipal borough without the assent of the council of the said borough having been first obtained. c. 77. Contracts for supply of road material not to disqualify for election to county council. Construction of Act. 5. No person shall be disqualified for being elected, or for being a member of a county council, by reason only of his having any share or interest in any contract with such county council for the supply from land, of which he is owner or occupier, of stone, gravel, or other materials for making or repairing highways or bridges. Provided always that no such share or interest in any contract shall exceed the amount of fifty pounds in any one year. 6. Words and expressions to which meanings are assigned by the Local Government Act, 1888, have in this Act the 51 & 52 Vict. same respective meanings, and in this Act the word "highway" includes any public bridle path or footway. c. 41. Short title. Interpretation. BARBED WIRE ACT, 1893. (56 & 57 VICT. c. 32.) An Act to prevent the use of Barbed Wire for Fences in Roads, Streets, Lanes, and other Thorough[27th July, 1893.] fares. 1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as the Barbed Wire Act, 1893. 2. In this Act The expression "barbed wire means any wire with spikes or jagged projections; and the expression "nuisance to a highway," as applied to barbed wire, means barbed wire which may probably be injurious to persons or animals lawfully using such highway: In England and Wales the expression "local authority" means any county council, any urban sanitary authority, any sanitary authority in London, any highway board, and any other local authorities existing, or that may be hereafter created by Parliament, having control over highways: In Scotland the expression "local authority" means the burgh local authority within the meaning of the Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act, 1878, the county council, 41 & 42 Vict. where In Ireland the expression "local authority" means the county surveyor, or the city engineer, or the borough surveyor, as the case may be, or some person duly appointed to act for any such surveyor or engineer. 3.-(1.) Where there is on any land adjoining a high- Removal of way within the county or district of a local authority a barbed wire, fence made with barbed wire, or in or on which barbed nuisance to wire has been placed, and such barbed wire is a nuisance to highway. such highway, it shall be lawful for such local authority to serve notice in writing upon the occupier of such land requiring him within a time therein stated (not to be less than one month nor more than six months after the date of the notice) to abate such nuisance. (2.) If on the expiration of the time stated in the notice. the occupier shall have failed to comply therewith, it shall be lawful for the local authority to apply to a Court of summary jurisdiction, and such Court, if satisfied that the said barbed wire is a nuisance to such highway, may by summary order direct the occupier to abate such nuisance; and on his failure to comply with such order within a reasonable time the local authority may do whatever may be necessary in execution of the order, and recover in a summary manner the expenses incurred in connexion therewith. c. 52. (3.) In Ireland, sections one hundred and twelve, one hundred and fourteen, one hundred and fifteen, and two hundred and sixty-nine of the Public Health (Ireland) 41 & 42 Vict. Act, 1878, shall apply, with the necessary modifications, where an order is made by a Court of summary jurisdiction under this section, in like manner as if that order were an order under the said section one hundred and twelve. S. N Proceedings where local authority is occupier of the land. Expenses of local authority. 4. Where the local authority are the occupiers of the land, proceedings under this Act may be taken by any ratepayer within the district of the local authority, and a notice to the local authority to abate the nuisance shall be deemed to be properly served if it is served upon the clerk of the local authority, and any ratepayer taking proceedings may do all acts and things which a local authority is empowered to do. 5. Any expenses incurred by a local authority in the execution of this Act shall be defrayed in like manner as the expenses of the local authority incurred in respect of any highways. Footpaths and roads. LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT, 1894. (56 & 57 VICT. c. 73.) An Act to make further provision for Local Government in England and Wales. [5th March, 1894.] 13.-(1.) The consent of the parish council and of the district council shall be required for the stopping, in whole or in part, or diversion, of a public right of way within a rural parish, and the consent of the parish council shall be required for a declaration that a highway in a rural parish is unnecessary for public use and not repairable at the public expense, and the parish council shall give public notice of a resolution to give any such consent, and the resolution shall not operate (a) unless it is confirmed by the parish council at a meeting held not less than two months after the public notice is given; nor (b) if a parish meeting held before the confirmation resolve that the consent ought not to be given. (2.) A parish council may, subject to the provisions of this Act with respect to restrictions on expenditure, undertake the repair and maintenance of all or any of the public footpaths within their parish, not being footpaths at the side of a public road, but this power shall not nor shall the exercise thereof relieve any other authority or person from any liability with respect to such repair or maintenance. parishes. 19. ... (8.) The provisions of this Act with respect to Provisions as the stopping or diversion of a public right of way, or the to small declaring of a highway to be unnecessary and not repairable at the public expense, and with respect to a complaint to a county council of a default by a district council, shall apply, with the substitution of the parish meeting for the parish council. district 26. (1.) It shall be the duty of every district council Duties and to protect all public rights of way, and to prevent as far powers of as possible the stopping or obstruction of any such right of council as way, whether within their district or in an adjoining to rights of district in the county or counties in which the district is way, rights situate, where the stoppage or obstruction thereof would in and roadside their opinion be prejudicial to the interests of their district, wastes. and to prevent any unlawful encroachment on any roadside waste within their district. of common, (2.) A district council may with the consent of the county council for the county within which any common land is situate aid persons in maintaining rights of common where, in the opinion of the council, the extinction of such rights would be prejudicial to the inhabitants of the district; and may with the like consent exercise in relation to any common within their district all such powers as may, under section eight of the Commons Act, 1876, be exercised by 39 & 40 Vict. an urban sanitary authority in relation to any common c. 56. referred to in that section; and notice of any application to the Board of Agriculture in relation to any common within their district shall be served upon the district council. (3.) A district council may, for the purpose of carrying into effect this section, institute or defend any legal proceedings, and generally take such steps as they deem expedient. (4.) Where a parish council have represented to the district council that any public right of way within the district or an adjoining district in the county or counties in which the district is situate has been unlawfully stopped or obstructed, or that an unlawful encroachment has taken place on any roadside waste within the district, it shall be the duty of the district council, unless satisfied that the allegations of such representation are incorrect, to take proper proceedings accordingly; and if the district council refuse or fail to take any proceedings in consequence of |