Subject to any regulations, it shall be lawful for any person authorised by a highway authority, or for any police constable authorised on behalf of a highway authority by a police authority or a chief officer of police, on production of his authority, to require the person in charge of any motor vehicle to allow the vehicle or any trailer drawn thereby to be weighed, either laden or unladen, and the weight transmitted to the road by any parts of the vehicle or trailer in contact with the road to be tested, and for that purpose to proceed to a weighbridge or other machine for weighing vehicles, and if any person in charge of a motor vehicle refuses or neglects to comply with any such requirement, he shall be guilty of an offence :

Provided that it shall not be lawful for any person or police constable so authorised to require the person in charge of the motor vehicle to unload the vehicle or trailer, or to cause or allow it to be unloaded, for the purpose of being weighed unladen.

If at the time when the requirement is made the vehicle is more than one mile from the weighbridge or other machine, and the weight is found to be within the limits authorised by law, the highway authority on whose behalf the requirement is made shall pay in respect of loss occasioned, such amount as in default of agreement may be determined by a single arbitrator agreed upon by the parties, or in default of agreement appointed by the Minister.

Where a motor vehicle or trailer is weighed under this section, a certificate of weight shall be given to the person in charge of the vehicle, and the certificate so given shall exempt the motor vehicle and the trailer, if any, from being weighed so long as it is during the continuance of the same journey carrying the same load.

It shall be lawful for a highway authority to erect and maintain, or to join with any other highway authority in erecting and maintaining, weighbridges or other machines for weighing vehicles or to contribute towards the cost of the erection and maintenance of any such weighbridge or other machine by any other authority or person.

Any expenses incurred by a highway authority under this section shall be defrayed, in the case of a county council, as expenses for general county purposes, and in the case of a borough or district council, as general expenses incurred by the council in the execution of the Public Health Acts, 1875 to 1926, and the erection or making a contribution towards the erection of any such weighbridge or other machine shall be a purpose for which the highway authority may borrow in the case of a county council under the M1Local Government Act, 1888, and in the case of a borough or district council under and subject to the provisions of the Public Health Acts, 1875 to 1926.