Power to pay grant
4.—(1) The functions of a Minister of the Crown(1) specified in section 31 of the 2003 Act (power to pay grant) are functions of the Combined Authority that are exercisable in relation to the Area.
(2) The functions are exercisable by the Combined Authority concurrently with a Minister of the Crown.
(3) In determining the amount of grant to be paid towards expenditure incurred or to be incurred by a constituent council in relation to the exercise of its highways functions, the Combined Authority must have regard to the desirability of ensuring that the council has sufficient funds to facilitate the effective discharge of those functions.
(4) To comply with paragraph (3), the Combined Authority must take into account any other sources of funding available to the council for expenditure incurred or to be incurred in relation to the exercise of its highways functions.
(5) For the purposes of the exercise by the Combined Authority of the functions specified in paragraphs (1) and (2), section 31 of the 2003 Act has effect as if—
(a)in subsection (1)—
(i)the reference to a Minister of the Crown were a reference to the Combined Authority,
(ii)the reference to a local authority in England were a reference to a constituent council,
(b)subsection (2) were omitted;
(c)in subsections (3) and (4), the references to the person paying it (the grant) were references to the Combined Authority;
(d)subsection (6) were omitted.
(6) In this article “highways functions” means the functions which are exercisable by a constituent council (in whatever capacity) in relation to the highways for which they are the highway authority(2).
See section 105A(9) of the 2009 Act for the definition of “Minister of the Crown”.
Section 1(2) of the 1980 Act provides that outside Greater London the council of a county or metropolitan district is the highway authority for all highways in the county or, as the case may be, the district, whether or not maintainable at the public expense, which are not highways for which the Minister or a strategic highways company is the highway authority.