Highways Act 1980

10 General provision as to trunk roads

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, all such highways and proposed highways as immediately before the commencement of this Act were trunk roads within the meaning of the [1959 c. 25.] Highways Act 1959 continue to be, and to be known as, trunk roads.

(2) The Minister shall keep under review the national system of routes for through traffic in England and Wales, and if he is satisfied after taking into consideration the requirements of local and national planning, including the requirements of agriculture, that it is expedient for the purpose of extending, improving or reorganising that system either—

(a) that any highway, or any highway proposed to be constructed by the Minister, should become a trunk road, or

(b) that any trunk road should cease to be a trunk road,

he may by order direct that that highway or proposed highway shall become, or, as the case may be, that that road shall cease to be, a trunk road as from such date as may be specified in that behalf in the order.

(3) The power of the Minister under this section to direct that a highway or proposed highway shall become a trunk road shall include power to direct that a highway or proposed highway which he considers suitable for the purpose of relieving a main carriageway of the trunk road from local traffic shall become part of the trunk road, whether or not the highway or proposed highway is separated from the remainder of the road by intervening land.

(4) Without prejudice to the powers of the Minister under this Act—

(a) to improve trunk roads by the construction of cycle tracks and footways for use in connection therewith, or

(b) to provide such tracks or ways as part of any trunk road which he is authorised to construct,

the power under this section to direct that a highway proposed to be constructed by the Minister shall become a trunk road may be exercised in relation to any cycle track or footpath proposed to be constructed by the Minister on land separated by intervening land from the trunk road in connection with which it is to be used.

(5) Parts I and III of Schedule 1 to this Act have effect as to the making of an order under this section; and Schedule 2 to this Act has effect as to the validity and date of operation of any such order.

(6) If objection to an order proposed to be made under this section is duly made in accordance with Part I of Schedule 1 to this Act by a council who are responsible for the maintenance of a highway to which the order relates, or who will become so responsible by virtue of the order, and is not withdrawn, the order shall be subject to special parliamentary procedure.

(7) If an order under this section directing that a highway proposed to be constructed by the Minister shall become a trunk road is revoked or varied by a subsequent order made at any time before the date on which the highway is opened for the purposes of through traffic, the revoking or varying order shall not be deemed for the purposes of section 2 above to be an order directing that a trunk road shall cease to be a trunk road.

(8) In addition to the case where a trunk road ceases to be a trunk road by virtue of an order made under this section, a trunk road shall cease to be a trunk road if the road is transferred from the Minister to some other highway authority to become part of a special road provided by that authority.

(9) No highway which is within the City shall be, or become, a trunk road, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provision, none of the following bridges, that is to say, Blackfriars Bridge, London Bridge, Southwark Bridge and Tower Bridge, and no highway carried by any of those bridges, shall be, or become, a trunk road.