Clause 1 - Liability of officers etc. forobstruction by body corporate
Highways (Obstruction by Body Corporate) Bill
9:30 am
Mr Michael Jabez Foster (Hastings and Rye, Labour)
My hon. Friend is right that Kate Ashbrook made enormous efforts to persuade the local authority to do what it could do. She certainly believed—I believe that others shared her view—that the authority was intimidated into doing less than perhaps it could have done. None the less, the authority was restricted in what it could do, because when proceedings were eventually brought, they were thwarted as a result of the lack of an ability to pursue individuals as well as the company.
The matter was brought to Parliament and the 2000 Act imposed new section 137ZA of the 1980 Act, which gave magistrates the power, when finding someone guilty of obstructing a highway under section 137, to order the removal of the obstruction by a certain date and/or to impose fines if the obstruction was not removed.
Importantly for Kate Ashbrook, the remedy was available against a body corporate as well as an individual. Unfortunately, it became obvious that in practice there was a loophole in the law. There was nothing to prevent a paper company from being created to have control over the land or parts of it—even quite a small sliver—over which the courts had no power to extract compliance or fines. That is indeed what happened. The company officers, who were in reality responsible, were able to hide behind the veil of incorporation, where they could not be held to account.
When Parliament speaks but its purpose is thwarted, we surely have an obligation to close that loophole, particularly when the issue affects so many of our countrymen. The statistics are clear; I will not go into them all, but rambling, or walking, is most important socially and economically in Great Britain. It is a pastime that has been engaged in by some 45 per cent. of people, I am told. Perhaps more of us should do so. The popularity of that activity is such that it is important that our countrymen and women have the opportunity to take advantage of it.
A more fundamental reason for giving our rights of way all the protection that they can get is that one of the fundamental tenets of a free society is that its citizens have the freedom to travel without restriction from one place to another. To block a highway with a menacing sign and a barricade is an oppression of that right. One might go as far as to say that it is a tyranny, and it should be curbed.
Clause 1(1) provides that section 314, which already applies personal liability to the officers of corporate bodies responsible for offences under other defined sections of the Act, should be extended similarly to
apply personal liability to breaches of sections 137 and 137ZA to close the loophole.