Highway obstructions and nuisance

Highway obstructions

The fundamental public right in relation to a highway is for individual members of the public to pass and re-pass along its length. Along most highways, people have an additional legal right to use vehicular transport and/or to ride a horse and/or to drive animals from one place to another. See Practice Note: Definition and classification of highways.

Section 137 of the Highways Act 1980 (HiA 1980) states that it is an offence ‘if a person, without lawful authority or excuse, in any way wilfully obstructs the free passage along a highway’.

Apart from under the type of specific statutory provisions considered below, a highway authority has no power to permit or licence any form of obstruction or encroachment on the highway. Any permission given tacitly or without a statutory basis will be invalid.

The highway authority is also under a general duty to assert and protect the rights of the public to the use and enjoyment of any highway for which they are the highway authority. As to the powers and duties of highways authorities in relation to highway obstructions,

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