fit, on or at any time after the presentation of the memorial, require the memorialists or those ratepayers or inhabitants, or any of them, or the local authority having so offered (as the case may be), to pay to the Commissioners such sum as the Commissioners think requisite for or on account of those expenses, or to give security to the satisfaction of the Commissioners for the payment of those expenses on demand. to contribute The local authority may in relation to any Metropolitan Power for common for which they are the local authority, and the Metro- local authority politan Board of Works may, in relation to any Metropolitan for purposes common (although not one for which they are the local autho- of scheme. rity), contribute such amount as they think fit (in a gross sum 29 & 30 Vict. or by annual payments or otherwise) towards the expenses c. 122, s. 25. of executing any scheme under the Act when confirmed by Act of Parliament, including the payment of the compensation (if any) to be paid in pursuance thereof. All expenditure incurred by local authority under the Act Expenses of shall be defrayed by them out of the general district rate. local authority trict rate. CHAPTER VII. HIGHWAYS. to be sur veyors of § 1. MANAGEMENT OF HIGHWAYS. Local Board LOCAL BOARDS within the limits of their districts are, exclusively of any other person whatsoever, to execute the office of and be surveyors of highways, and to have all such powers, authorities, duties, and liabilities as any surveyor of highways in England is invested with or is liable to by virtue of his office, except in so far as they may be inconsistent with the provisions of the Public Health Act, 1848. c. 63, s. 117. District of a The district of a Local Board, or any part of it, cannot be Local Board formed into a highway district under 25 & 26 Vict. c. 61; but any parish or part of a parish in a highway district may (subject to 26 Vict. c. 17, s. 2) adopt the Local Government Act in the same manner and under the same circumstances as if it had not been included in a highway district. cannot be formed into a highway district. 25 & 26 Vict. c. 61, ss. 7, 41. 11 & 12 Vict. c. 63, s. 117. Ib. s. 118. Existing surveyors to recover rates Application 21 & 22 Vict. The inhabitants of any district are not in respect of any property situate therein to be liable to the payment of a highway rate or other payment, not being a toll, in respect of making or repairing roads or highways within any parish, or part of any parish, township, or place, situate beyond the limits of the district; and notwithstanding the application of the Act to the district the liability of any person whomsoever to defray or contribute towards the expense of paving or flagging or putting in order any street or part thereof within the district shall, if incurred previously to the time when the Act shall be applied to the district, continue and be enforced. The several persons who at the time when the Act is applied are surveyors of highways within the district may, however, recover any highway rate made in respect of the district, and then remaining unpaid: and the money so recovered is to be applied, in the first place, in reimbursing themselves their expenses, and in discharging any debts legally owing by them. on account of the highways within their jurisdiction; the surplus (if any) is then to be paid by them to the treasurer, and carried to the district fund account; but for every district or part of a district where the roads are repaired out of the highway rate, the surplus is to be carried by the treasurer to a separate account to be kept by him, and called the highway rate account. The Act of the 13 Vict. c. 35, "for requiring annual returns of the expenditure on highways in England and Wales to be Annual transmitted to the Secretary of State, and afterwards laid before returns. Parliament" is to apply to the clerk of every Local Board in 13 Vict. c. 35. like manner as to the clerk to any trustees or commissioners as in that Act mentioned. For the purposes of the Public Health Act, 1848, streets Highways (not being turnpike roads), roads, public bridges (not being defined." county bridges), lanes, footways, squares, courts, alleys, pas- 11 & 12 Vict. sages, whether thoroughfares or not, and such parts of any c. 63, s. 2. of them as may lie within the district of the Local Board, are declared to be highways. All the powers, authorities, and discretion which in and by Local Boards the 5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 50, are vested in and given to the inhabi- enabled to tants in vestry assembled of any parish, township, or place, act instead of shall, within the districts where the Local Government Act is vestry of townships in in force, be vested in and exercisable by the Local Boards, or their districts Commissioners exercising the powers of such Local Boards, in all matters under the provisions of this Act and of the Public Health Act relating to (1848), and of the Local Government Act (1858); and all highways. acts or consents already done or given or purporting to be done or given by such Local Boards, under and by virtue of the 5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 50, acting or assuming to act in lieu of the inhabitants in vestry assembled of any parish, township, or place within the district of the Local Board, shall operate and be as valid and effectual as if the same had been done and given or executed by such inhabitants in vestry. so 24 & 25 Vict. c. 61, s. 10. 24 & 25 Vict. Where a Board of Improvement Commissioners, or other Encroachlocal authority, exercising any of the powers of the Local Go- ments on vernment Act, 1858, maintains and repairs the highways within highways managed by the area of its jurisdiction, the 69th section of the Act of the local 5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 50, shall be held to apply to all encroach- authority. ments on such highways. By 5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 50, s. 69, if any person shall encroach c. 61, s. 26. by making, or causing to be made any building, hedge, ditch, or other fence on any carriageway or cartway, within the distance of fifteen feet from the centre thereof, every person so offending shall forfeit on conviction for every such offence any sum not exceeding 40s. ; and the surveyor (Local Board, 11 & 12 Vict. c. 63, s. 117) who hath the care of any such carriageway, or cartway, shall and is required to cause such building, hedge, ditch, or fence to be taken down or filled up at the expense of the person to whom the same shall belong; and it shall and may be lawful for the justices at a special sessions for the highways, upon proof to them made upon oath, to levy, as well the expenses of taking down such building, hedge, or fence, or filling up such ditch, as the several and respective penalties enforced, by distress and sale of the offender's goods. and chattels in the same manner as distresses and sales for forfeitures are authorized and directed to be levied by virtue of the Act. Wakefield. 16 & 17 Vict. c. 24, ss. 7, 8. Ib. s. 9. Wakefield Local Board of Health. Ib. s. 10. In the borough of Wakefield there are funds applicable for the repair of certain roads, which vest in the Local Board of that district, to be applied in and towards the repairs of the public highways within the borough; and all persons liable to pay any money to the surveyors of highways towards the repair of any public roads or ways which the inhabitants of the borough are liable to repair are to pay the same to the Wakefield Local Board of Health, to be applied by such Board accordingly, saving the rights of the lord of the manor of Wakefield. The same statute further provides for the clerk or agent of the Local Commissioners of the district whose powers were transferred to the Local Board of Health being continued in office, or being paid an annuity of £40. And a somewhat similar provision is made by a subsequent statute, securing compensation to the officers under the Local Acts for the city of Bristol 17 & 18 Vict. and the borough of Plymouth, who may be removed from their respective offices. Bristol. 14 & 15 Vict. c. 98, s. 12. Plymouth, c. 53, s. 2. Township of 22 Vict. c. 31, 3. 2. Cost of repair of highways. Cost of highway repair to be defrayed out of general district rate in certain cases. 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, s. 37. Power to By the Local Government Supplemental Act, 1859, special provision is made in regard to the highways of a detached portion of the township of Newton Heath, known as Kirkmanshulme, which is to be considered and treated as a separate and distinct township within the parish of Manchester, for all purposes relating to the highways, and be liable to repair its own highways accordingly. As regards highways in the Matlock Bath district, see 28 Vict. c. 28, s. 2. The Local Board being exclusively the surveyors of the highways within the district, and invested with all the powers, duties, and liabilities of the surveyors of the highways, though limited in certain specified cases, it was doubted whether in future the highways within the district were to be kept in repair out of the general district rates, levied under sect. 87 of the Public Health Act, 1848, or whether the Local Board of Health were to levy highway rates under the 5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 50, for the purpose of defraying the necessary expenses of so doing. The doubt on the subject has been removed by 21 & 22 Vict. c. 98, s. 37, reciting that whereas doubts have arisen as to the rate out of which the repair of highways is to be provided for in districts under the Public Health Act, 1848, that in such districts, or in districts where the Local Government Act is adopted, and where no other mode of providing for the repair of highways is directed by any Local Act: (1.) Where the whole of the district is rated to public works of paving, water supply, and sewerage, or to works for such of these purposes as are provided for in the district, the cost of repair of highways shall be defrayed out of the general district rate. (2.) Where parts of a district are not rated for works of levy highway paving, water supply, and sewerage, or for such of these purposes as have been provided for by rate in the district, the cost rates in certain cases. of the repair of highways in the same parts shall be defrayed out of a highway rate to be separately assessed and levied in the same parts by the Local Board as surveyors of highways, and the cost of such repair in the residue of the district shall be defrayed out of the general district rate. (3.) Where no public works of paving, water supply, and sewerage are established in the district, the repair of highways in the district shall be provided for by a highway rate, to be levied over the whole district by the Local Board as surveyors of highways. For this purpose the Board cannot divide the district into separate divisions, and assess and levy a highway rate in each of the divisions separately. The highway rate in such case must be assessed and levied over the whole district. (1) Government (4) The Local Government Act, 1858, Amendment Act, Repair of 1861, 24 & 25 Vict. c. 61, repealed the subdivision numbered highways in (4) in the 37th section of the Local Government Act, 1858, parts of parishes or and in lieu thereof enacted as follows:townships (1.) Where part of a township, or place not comprised not included within any district in which the Local Government in districts Act (1858) is in force, and which part is hereinafter under Local referred to as "the excluded part," was, before the Act. said Act came into force in such district, liable to 24 & 25 Vict. contribute to the highway rates for such township or c. 61, s. 9. place, such excluded part shall for all purposes connected with the repair of highways and the payment of highway rates be considered to be and be treated as if forming part of such district. 310. But now where part of a parish is in pursuance of the Highways in The highway rate should be made for the whole district (2.) It shall be lawful for a meeting of ratepayers of the (1) Re Broughton, 12 L. T. (N. S.) J. P. 389. (2) With reference to the above provision, see Reg. v. Gascoign, 29 (3) Reg. v. Nield, W. N. 1871, p. 121. |