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ROADS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1948

ROADS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1948 - LONG TITLE

An Act to provide that the Ministry of Commerce shall be the road
authority for such of the principal roads in Northern Ireland as
may for the time being constitute the main system of routes for
through traffic therein; to facilitate road traffic and prevent
danger to persons using roads; to make certain amendments in the
law relating to roads; and for purposes connected with the matters
aforesaid{1}.
[23rd December 1948]
The Act has been repealed subject to savings for s.17 (abandonment,
etc., of roads), s.34 (acquisition of land, etc.), s.41 (Crown
rights), sch.5 (provisions as to compulsory acquisition) and sch.6
(provisions as to inquiries) as applied by any other statutory
provision.

Restriction of building, alteration of fences, etc.

[

ROADS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1948 - SECT 18

18.(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, any person who
without the consent of [the Department of the Environment]

(a)erects or makes any building, wall, fence or other structure
whatsoever whether permanent or temporary

(i)on, or within eighty feet of the middle of, a road situated
[within an area which immediately before 1st October 1973 was a
rural district] and classified under section fifteen of this Act as
a first-class or a second-class road; or

(ii)on, or within thirty feet of the middle of, any other road so
situated;

(b)makes any pit, ditch, drain, watercourse or other excavation

(i)on, or within forty feet of the middle of, a road situated
[within an area which immediately before 1st October 1973 was a
rural district] and classified as aforesaid as a first-class or a
second-class road; or

(ii)on, or within thirty feet of the middle of, any other road;

(c)constructs, forms or lays out any means of access to a road;

(d)alters any ditch, drain or fence at the side of a road; or

(e)otherwise breaks up the surface of any road or footpath;

(2) Any person convicted of any such offence as is referred to in
the preceding sub-section shall within such period as the court may
allow

(a)remove any building or structure so erected or made, or any
means of access so constructed, formed or laid out;

(b)fill in any excavation or restore anything altered, broken up or
taken away;

(c)make good any damage done;

(3) Where a person who has been convicted under sub-section (1) of
this section becomes under the last preceding sub-section liable to
prosecution for a continuing offence, [the Department of the
Environment] may thereupon themselves do anything which he has so
failed to do, and may recover, as a civil debt due by that
person, any expenses incurred by them in the doing thereof; and may
for the purpose of doing any such thing as aforesaid enter any
lands upon, or in relation to which, the offence was committed.

(4) A consent for the purposes of sub-section (1) of this section
may be given by [the Department of the Environment] where they are
satisfied that the safety or convenience of traffic using the road,
or which may be expected to use the road, will not thereby be
prejudiced, and any such consent shall be given subject to such
conditions as seem to [the Department of the Environment] to be
adequate for securing the safety and convenience of traffic; and any
such conditions shall, without prejudice to the generality of the
foregoing words, include conditions designed to ensure

(a)safe access to the road for traffic likely to use the road as
a result of the execution of anything to which the consent relates;
and

(b)the provision of adequate accommodation adjoining the road for
vehicles which, by waiting to load or unload or otherwise using the
road for any purpose relating to any such thing as aforesaid, might
reasonably be expected to obstruct the traffic on the road.

(5) Any person aggrieved by the withholding by [the Department of
the Environment] of any such consent as aforesaid, or by the
imposition by [the Department of the Environment] of any such
condition as aforesaid, may within twenty-one days of receiving
notice thereof give notice in writing to [the Department of the
Environment] requiring the matter in dispute to be heard by a
barrister or solicitor of not less than ten years' standing
practising in Northern Ireland, to be appointed by the Lord Chief
Justice. A person so appointed shall for the purpose of such
hearing have all the powers conferred on an arbitrator by the
Arbitration Act (Northern Ireland), 1937; and on the conclusion of
such hearing shall make his recommendations to [the Department of
the Environment]. Where [the Department of the Environment] propose
to act in any case otherwise than in accordance with such a
recommendation, a copy of the proposal together with a copy of the
recommendation and of a report of the [Department] thereon shall be
laid before each House of Parliament; and if either such House
within the statutory period next after the date upon which such
copies were so laid resolves that effect shall not be given to
such proposal, the proposal shall not take effect; and in any such
case [the Department of the Environment] shall take such steps (if
any) as may be necessary to give effect to the recommendation.

(6) Anything which by virtue of any of the provisions of
sub-section (1) of this section may be done only with the consent
of [the Department of the Environment] shall, if done without such
consent, be deemed not be a contravention of that provision if

(a)it has the effect only of repairing any lawful works or of
restoring them to substantially the form in which they were at any
time within the period of three years immediately before that thing
was done; or

Para.(b) spent

(c)it is done by any statutory undertakers in the exercise of any
statutory powers.

(7) The foregoing provisions of this section shall have effect in
relation to trunk roads as they have effect in relation to roads
classified as first-class or as second-class roads.

Subs.(8) amends s.12 of 1928 c.10 (NI)[

ROADS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1948 - SECT 42
Interpretation.

42.(1) In this Act, except where the contrary intention appears, the
following expressions have the meanings hereby assigned to them, that
is to say:

"access" includes ingress, egress and regress;

....

"building" includes any erection of whatsoever material and in
whatsoever manner constructed, and any part of a building;

....

"fence" includes any hoarding or paling;

....

"road" means a public road and includes any part of a public road
and any bridge or tunnel over or through which a road passes, and
"trunk road" shall be construed accordingly;

....

"statutory period" means...

definition in 1954 c.33 (NI) s.41(2) substituted by 1979 NI12 art.10

"statutory undertakers" means any persons authorised by any enactment
to construct, work or carry on any railway, canal, inland
navigation, dock, harbour, tramway, trolley vehicle, light railway,
gas, electricity, water or other public undertaking;

....

"wall" includes any partition of whatsoever material constructed, and
any bank.

....]

Short title.

[

ROADS ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1948 - SECT 43

43.(1) This Act may be cited as the Roads Act (Northern Ireland),
1948.]