It is our duty as Highway Authority to assert and protect the rights of the public to use and enjoy the highway that we are responsible for maintaining. Sometimes we have to use our powers of enforcement to achieve this.
This is very far reaching and complicated duty that we do on your behalf and will include such things as:
- ensuring that no illegal obstructions or encroachments onto the road
- ensuring that the road is not dug up without our permission, thus preventing damage to the roads
- ensuring that anything legally placed on the road, such as skips or scaffolding, is done so safely and with our permission
- ensuring that no one deposits anything on a road that could be a danger to road users
- ensuring that public rights of way are kept free of obstruction
Most of the powers of enforcement that we are allowed to use come from The Highways Act 1980 but there are many other Acts of Parliament that also give us powers or lay down how we have to carry out our duties. For example The New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 governs digging in the road by utility companies. The Road Traffic Regulations Act 1984 allows us to make orders and the Countryside and Rights Of Way Act 2000 is concerned with Rights of Way and with the right to roam.