tim-b wrote: ↑6 Aug 2022, 7:52am
Hi
Maudlin Lane, Bramber?
That's subject to a road closure which has a public notice available online. If it's subject to a closure then that section is no longer a road, including the foopath, because the closure stretches from building line to building line
Highway Act 1835 says, "If any person shall wilfully ride upon any footpath or causeway by the side of any road..." doesn't apply because it's legally not a road
Both the highway code and the later revisions to the highway act, clearly state that you should not ride on the footway which has been set aside for pedestrians.
In both the highway code and the later acts themselves, no other clauses have been listed as when you can ride on the footway. As a result this is a blanket statement and no other factors can be taken into consideration..
..closing the road for repairs does not legally change the status of the road. It is a road before and after the works, and continues to remain a road even if it is closed to vehicles (a road does not in law cease to be a road, just because work is being carried out to it). When the law talks about closing the road, the correct term is 'closing the road to traffic' meaning traffic is not permitted along that stretch of road. It does not affect the legal existence of that road, it just means you can't use it.
For the road to actually stop existing takes the local authority a large amount of paperwork as well as public consultation and may result in that parcel of land (where the road had existed) being placed into private ownership. As this has not happened in this case, it is still a road.
If we accept that the whole road and footway is closed by the order, but the footway has been left open under the discretion of the road crew, then you should also not cycle on that footway as the sign which has been placed there by the road team incidicate. The works team by licence of the road closure have full rights to ask anyone not to use that stretch of road, or to give instruction as to how to pass the works safely.