Clause 44 - The Street works register
Traffic Management Bill
4:15 pm
Mr John Mann (Bassetlaw, Labour)
The clause gives the opportunity to raise a potential weakness in the Bill, which relates to unadopted roads. I seek the Minister's advice on the matter, and perhaps he will send it in writing as there is such a wide array of expertise available on the issue.
Will unadopted roads be covered by the clause? In my constituency there are problems with two sorts of unadopted roads. Some are lined by recently built houses—though some of the disputes in these cases go back 15 years—and I shall come back to those later if I have the opportunity. The other example is perhaps more pertinent. I cite the example of Mill street in Worksop, which is an unadopted road where there is
an ongoing dispute about whether it should be adopted. The highways authority allegedly laid down tarmacadam 20 years ago and there is a dispute about whether that makes it an adopted road, or whether it should be adopted because of that.
I can see a number of complications relating to Mill street tied up in the legislation. It may help to resolve the problem and get the thing adopted and tarmacked, which it should be anyway. How do unadopted roads fit with the clause? On the issue of older unadopted roads, are the Government not missing an opportunity to put responsibility on local authorities under the Bill to adopt roads that have existed for a significant period into which utilities have been placed so that oddities throughout the country, such as Mill street, get the same service as the rest of us?