Site breadcrumb trail...
Extinguishment of Public Rights of Way
Section 73 of the Roads Act 1993 governs the extinguishment of public rights of way and requires the local authority to give notice of any proposal to extinguish a public right of way. This notice must be placed in one or more newspapers and a sign must be placed at either end of the road affected for at least 14 days. The minimum period for inspection of any proposal is one month and for the making of objections or representations, a further two weeks. The road authority must consider all written objections and representations. Any person making objections or representations can request the authority to hear his/her case at an oral hearing and it may, if appropriate appoint a person to hold an oral hearing and must consider that person’s report.
Having gone through the procedures as outlined above, the local authority may make an order extinguishing the public right of way specified in the published notice or having considered the objections and representations received it may if it wishes decide only to extinguish part of the public right of way specified in the original notice. Ministerial approval is necessary to give effect to the local authority’s order to extinguish a public right of way over a national or regional road. The Minister may approve, amend or refuse to approve the order. In the case of a National Road the Minister is obliged to consult the National Roads Authority before making his/her decision.
The local authority is obliged to publish a newspaper notice announcing the extinguishment of a public right of way once it has made the relevant order or in the case of national or regional roads the Minister has approved the extinguishment order. The authority must also notify the objectors and persons who made representations. The
making of an extinguishment order and the consideration of objections or representations are reserved functions of the elected members.
A local authority will no longer be responsible for the maintenance of a public road over which the public right of way has been extinguished.
- It terminates the right of the public to use the road for all purposes;
- It automatically relieves the road authority of its responsibility to maintain the road;
- It removes the power of the local authority to do any works on the road unless it owns the site of the road;
- The land on which the road is built generally reverts to the owners of the land on either side of the road unless the local authority actually owns the site of the road or there is some other evidence to the contrary.
