§ MR. HEYWOOD JOHNSTONE (Sussex, Horsham)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board, if, under Section 82 of the Local Government Act 1894, a district council may determine that particular highways, or parts of highways, in a parish or other highway area, shall be placed in proper repair before the expenses of repairing the same become a charge upon the district; or whether, if they determine that the highways in the parish or other area shall be placed in proper repair, they must all be placed in such repair before they or any of them become a charge upon the district?
THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (MR. G. J. SHAW LEFEVRE,) Bradford, CentralIt does not appear to me that where, under Section 82 of the Local Government Act, 1894, a rural district council determine that the highways in a parish must be placed in proper repair before the expense of repairing them becomes a charge on the district, the parish council or parish meeting have any power to repair them. The Section does not state by whom the work is to be done; but if in fact it is not done the district council may themselves place the highways in proper repair, and the expense thus incurred will be a separate charge on the parish. Any 121 question whether the expenses are properly a separate charge on the parish is to be determined by the county council, who can thus in effect decide whether the district council were right in considering that the roads were not in a proper state of repair.
§ MR. HEYWOOD JOHNSTONEArising out of that answer, may I ask who will be responsible for the maintenance of highways which are at the present time in repair pending the time that other highways in the parish are put in repair?
§ MR. SHAW LEFEVREThat is rather a legal question which I am not quite certain I am prepared to answer offhand, nor am I quite sure it is my duty to answer any of them.
§ MR. HEYWOOD JOHNSTONEIf I put a question down will it be possible for the Law Officers to answer?
§ [There was no reply.]
§ MR. HEYWOOD JOHNSTONEI beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if, when a district council, in a county where no order has been made by the County Council, postponing the operation of Section 25 of the Local Government Act, 1894, determine that the highways in a parish shall be placed in proper repair before the expenses of repairing the same became a charge upon the district, they are to be placed in proper repair by the parish council (or parish meeting, as the case may be); and can the parish council, or parish meeting, appoint and pay a way warden or highway surveyor, and can such appointment be made at any time and for less than twelve months; and out of what funds is the parish council or parish meeting to pay the expense of putting such roads in repair; and if the existing highway authority do not agree with the district council that a road is not in proper repair, who is to determine the question?
§ MR. SHAW LEFEVREIt seems to me that if a district council determine that the highways in a parish must be placed in proper repair before the expense of repairing them becomes a charge on the district, all the highways in the parish which the district council consider out of proper repair must be placed in such repair before any of them, or any of the other roads in the parish, become a charge on the district.
§ MR. HEYWOOD JOHNSTONEDo I understand that the only possible course to adopt is, for the district council themselves to repair the road which is out of repair and charge the amount on the area?
§ MR. SHAW-LEFEVREI think that would be better, and then it could be determined whether that could be charged on the parish or not.