81 INTRODUCTION. PART I. THE HIGHWAY ACTS, 1862 TO 1878. 1. FORMATION AND ALTERATION OF HIGHWAY DISTRICTS. Provisional Orders forming Districts. ANY five or more justices of a county may by writing under their hands require the Clerk of the Peace to add to or send with the notice for holding courts of general or quarter sessions a notice that at the court a proposal will be made to the justices to divide the county or some part of it into highway districts, or to constitute the whole or some part of it a highway district. The justices may also require the Clerk of the Peace to send by post notices to the churchwardens or overseers of the several parishes proposed to be formed into a highway district. Upon the requisition being complied with, the justices at the quarter sessions may entertain the proposal, and make a provisional order dividing the county or some part of it into highway districts, or constituting the whole or some part of it a highway district, for the more convenient management of highways. Such order, however, shall not be of any validity unless it is confirmed by a final order of the justices assembled at some subsequent court of general or quarter sessions. (a) When it is proposed that only a part of a county shall be constituted a highway district, not less than two out of the five justices making the proposal shall be resident in the district, or acting in the petty sessional division in which the district or some part of it is situate. (b) (a) 25 & 26 Vict. c. 61, s. 5. (b) 27 & 28 Vict. c. 101, s. 6. B In forming any highway districts the justices, who are termed "the county authority" in the Act of 1878, shall have regard to the boundaries of the rural sanitary districts in their county, and shall, so far as may be found practicable, form highway districts so as to be coincident in area with rural sanitary districts, or wholly contained within rural sanitary districts. (c) Making, Confirmation, and Approval of Orders. The following are the regulations as to the making, confirmation, and approval of the orders of justices for forming highway districts: 1. The justices making a provisional order shall appoint some subsequent court of general or quarter sessions, to be held within a period of not more than six months, for the taking into consideration the confirmation of the provisional order by a final order: 2. The Clerk of the Peace shall add to or send with the notice for holding of courts of general or quarter sessions a notice of the appointments so made by the justices in relation to the confirmation of the provisional order: 3. The justices assembled at the appointed court of general or quarter sessions may make a further order quashing the provisional order, or confirming it with or without variations, or respiting the consideration of it to some subsequent court of general or quarter sessions, provided, Firstly, that where the variations made extend to altering the parishes constituting any highway district or districts as formed in the provisional order, the order shall be deemed to be provisional only, and shall be dealt with accordingly: Secondly, that where a respite is made to any subsequent general or quarter sessions, the Clerk of the Peace shall give notice of such respite in the manner in which he is required to give notice in respect of sessions at which a (c) 41 & 42 Vict. c. 77, s. 3. provisional or final order is proposed to be made: 4. The provisional order shall state the parishes to be united in each district, the name by which the district is to be known, and the number of waywardens (such number to be at least one) which each parish is to elect: (d) 5. The first meeting of the Highway Board after the formation of a district shall be held at such time as may be appointed by the provisional or final order of the justices, so that the time appointed be not more than seven days after the expiration of the time limited by law for the election of waywardens, or, in the case of a special day being appointed for such election, be not more than twenty-one days after that day. The day appointed for the first meeting of the Board shall for all the purposes of the Highway Acts be deemed to be the day of the formation of the district; and the surveyor for the time being of every parish within the district shall continue in office until seven days after the appointment of the district surveyor, and no longer. (e) 6. Notice of the provisional and final orders shall as soon as possible after the making thereof be given by the Clerk of the Peace by publishing a copy in the London Gazette, and in one or more newspapers circulating in the county, or if the whole county is not affected by the order, in one or more newspapers circulating in the district affected by the orders, and by sending a copy by post in a prepaid letter to the overseers of every parish within the proposed highway district. There shall also be added to the notice of the provisional order the date of the sessions at which the confirmation of it will be considered: (f) But the order shall not be invalidated by reason of its not being published in the London Gazette; and where any reference is made in the "Highway Act, 1862," to the date of the publication in the Gazette of the order, it shall (d) 25 & 26 Vict. c. 61, s. 6. (e) 27 & 28 Vict. c. 101, s. 10. (f) 25 & 26 Vict. c. 61, s. 6. be construed as if the date of the making of the final order under which the district is formed were substituted for "the date of the publication in the Gazette of the order under which the district is formed;" and any copy of the provisional or final order of the justices forming a highway district, certified under the hand of the Clerk of the Peace to be a true copy, shall be receivable in all courts of justice and in all legal proceedings as evidence of the formation of the district and of the matters in the order mentioned. (g) In forming a highway district the justices may, for the purpose of avoiding delay in bringing the Act into operation, appoint by their final order a day on which the first election of waywardens as members of the Highway Board is to take place in the district. On the day so appointed waywardens shall be elected in every parish in the district entitled to elect such officers by the same persons and in the same manner by and in which waywardens are elected under the "Highway Act, 1862," and all the provisions of the Highway Acts relating to the qualifications of surveyors or waywardens, and to the appointment of surveyors and waywardens by justices in the event of no election taking place, shall apply accordingly. (h) The waywardens so elected shall continue in office till the 30th of April in the year following the year in which they were elected, and on that day their successors shall come into office. (i) Extra-parochial Places. Where, in pursuance of the Act 20 Vict. c. 19, for the relief of the poor in extra-parochial places, any place is declared to be a parish, or where overseers of the poor are appointed for any place, such place shall for the purposes of the Act be deemed to be a parish separately maintaining its own highways; and where, in pursuance of ss. 4 or 8 of the 20th Vict. c. 19, any place is annexed to any adjoining parish, or to any district in which the relief of the poor is administered under a local Act, such place shall for the purposes of the Act be deemed to be annexed to the same parish or district for the purposes of the main (h) Ibid. s. 11. (g) 27 & 28 Vict. c. 101, s. 12. tenance of the highways, as well as for the other purposes in the Act mentioned. (j) The justices in petty sessions may appoint overseers, or otherwise deal with any extra-parochial place with a view to constituting it a highway parish or part of a highway parish, in the same manner as the justices may deal with such place for the purpose of constituting it a place or part of a place maintaining its own poor, in pursuance of the powers for that purpose given by the 20 Vict. c. 19. (k) Outlying Parts of Parishes, and Union of Parishes in different Counties. Again, where part of a parish is not contiguous to the parish of which it is part, the outlying part may at the discretion of the justices be annexed to a district, and, when annexed, it shall, for all the purposes of the Highway Acts, be deemed to be a parish separately maintaining its own highways. (1) Contiguous places situate in different counties and places situate partly in one county and partly in another county or counties shall, for the purpose of being united in one highway district, be deemed to be subject to the jurisdiction of the justices of any county, who may make a provisional and final order constituting them a highway district, in the same manner as if all such places or parts of places were situate in such last-mentioned county; subject to this proviso, that the provisional and final orders of the justices of the county shall be of no validity unless provisional and final orders to the same effect are passed either concurrently with or subsequently to the first-mentioned provisional and final orders by the justices of every other county in which any of the said places or parts of places are situate. (m) Alteration or Dissolution of Highway Districts. Any highway district formed under the Act may from time to time be altered by the addition of any parishes in the same or in any adjoining county, or the subtraction therefrom of any parishes, and new highway districts may (j) 25 & 26 Vict. c. 61, s. 32. (1) 25 & 26 Vict. c. 61, s. 33. (k) 27 & 28 Vict. c. 101, s. 9. |