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Road Traffic Act 1972

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36Prohibition of driving motor vehicles elsewhere than on roads

(1)Subject to the provisions of this section, if without lawful authority a person drives a motor vehicle on to or upon any common land, moorland or other land of whatsoever description, not being land forming part of a road, or on any road being a footpath or bridleway, he shall be guilty of an offence.

(2)It shall not be an offence under this section to drive a motor vehicle on any land within fifteen yards of a road, being a road on which a motor vehicle may lawfully be driven, for the purpose only of parking the vehicle on that land.

(3)A person shall not be convicted of an offence under this section with respect to a vehicle if he proves to the satisfaction of the court that it was driven in contravention of this section for the purpose of saving life or extinguishing fire or meeting any other like emergency.

(4)It is hereby declared that nothing in this section prejudices the operation of section 193 of the Law of Property Act 1925 (which relates to the rights of the public over commons and waste lands), or of any byelaws applying to any land or affects the law of trespass to land or any right or remedy to which a person may by law be entitled in respect of any such trespass or in particular confers a right to park a vehicle on any land.

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