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Injuries to public roads.
Omitting to scour ditches after notice, or to have drains under passages in and out of roads.
Building houses within 30 feet of the centre of the road.
Deepening ditches or altering fences, &c. without consent of county surveyor.
Scraping roads, &c. without consent of county surveyor.
Drawing timber, &c. so as injure road.
Riding on footpaths.
Taking materials to the injury of any road, &c.
Destroying any pay gate, &c.;
or rescuing person in custody for such offences.
Assaulting engineers, surveyors, or contractors on public roads, &c.
Justices may forbid the using of a new road for a certain time after making thereof, &c.
County surveyor or contractor may require owners of land to remove obstructions, &c.
and to prune hedges or trees injuring roads.
Owners not complying to be summoned before justices at petty sessions;
who may order obstructions to be removed, &c.;
and on refusal of owner, the surveyor or contractor may do it at expense of owner.
Expenses may be levied by distress and sale.
Trees, &c. to be cut or pruned only at certain seasons.
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9. Any person who shall commit any of the next following offences on or relating to any public road shall be liable to the punishment herein-after specified in each case:
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1. Any owner or occupier of any lands contiguous to any public road who sball omit to scour any ditch or drain leading from such road, so as to allow the water to pass away, within ten days after notice shall have been given to him so to do by the county surveyor or by the contractor for the repair of such road, or who shall suffer the passage of the water to be obstructed by making or leaving any way or passage from any road into the adjoining lands, or into his house, without a sufficient pipe, sewer, or gullet underneath it, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty shillings:
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2. Any person who shall build or cause to be built any house or part of a house within thirty feet of the centre of any public road, except in the streets of corporate or market towns, or where a house now stands, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding ten pounds, and to a further sum of ten shillings a week from the time of his conviction until the same shall be pulled down or removed:
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3. Any person who shall scour, deepen, widen, or fill up any ditch or drain on the side of any public road, or who shall alter the fences of any public road; or who shall build any wall, or make any ditch, drain, or watercourse, or dig any pit or hollow, on any public road, or within thirty feet of the centre thereof (save upon or within any ancient fence adjoining such road); or who shall otherwise break up the surface of any read or footpath, unless with the consent of the county surveyor, or by the authority of any presentment, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty shillings (and the centre of the road for the purposes of this Act, shall be deemed to be the centre of the part thereof made with gravel or stones):
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4. Any person who shall, without the consent of such surveyor or contractor, scrape any public road . . . or who shall draw any timber or stones along any part of a public road, without being supported by wheels from touching the same, or who shall ride or drive any horse or other animal, willingly and unnecessarily, on any footpath, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty shillings:
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5. Any county surveyor or road contractor, or other person, who shall dig, raise, and carry away any gravel, stones, sand, or other materials from the side of any public road, or from any beach or sea-shore, whereby a public road, or bulwark or defence to any bridge or like building, or any land within the fences of any such road, may be injured, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five shillings for every cartload of such gravel, stones, sand, or other materials so dug, raised, or carried away:
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6. Any person who shall wilfully damage or destroy any pay gate . . . , or any post, rail, wall, chain, bar or other fence of any kind whatsoever, which shall be used to prevent passengers from passing by without paying the toll payable by virtue of any Act of Parliament, or any toll house for the use of any such pay gate . . . , or who shall forcibly rescue or attempt to rescue any person or persons, being lawfully in custody of any constable or other person for any such offences, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding forty shillings, or to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two months:
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7. Any person who shall wilfully prevent or assault, or threaten to prevent or assault, any county surveyor or road contractor in the execution of his duty, or any person or persons employed by proper authority in surveying or measuring or laying out any line intended for a new road; or who shall wilfully destroy, pull up, deface, or injure any surveyors instruments or implements used in making or laying out any public road, or any milestone, milepost, or direction post, or any bridge, battlement, wall, railing, mound, or fence belonging to any public road; or who shall wilfully break, deface, pull down, or take away stones out of any such battlement, wall, mound, or fence, or out of any bridge, pipe, arch, or gullet belonging to any public road, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding ten pounds, or to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding three months:
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8. It shall be lawful for any two justices of the county, upon application of the county surveyor, to forbid any person or persons from riding or driving any kind of beast or carriage on any new road for such space of time as shall to them appear necessary, not exceeding six months after such new road shall have been made, and the expenditure thereon duly accounted for at special sessions; and any person who shall wilfully disobey such order (the same being duly notified by a notice affixed to a board or boards erected upon such road) shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty shillings.
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And if the county surveyor or the contractor for the repairing of any public road in any county shall think that such road is prejudiced by any of such neglects or offences as aforesaid, or by the shade of any hedges or trees, (except those planted for ornament or shelter of any dwelling house, courtyard, or garden,) or that any obstruction is caused in any public road by any hedge or tree, it shall be lawful for such surveyor or contractor, by notice in writing, to require the person who shall be guilty of any such neglect or offence, or the owner of the land on which such hedges or trees are growing, as the case may be, to fill up any ditch or drain which shall have been so scoured, deepened, or widened, or to scour any drains which have been so filled on the side of any public road without the consent of the said county surveyor or the authority of a presentment, or to scour or deepen any drain or ditch leading from any road which shall be omitted to be scoured or deepened after due notice by such surveyor or contractor, or to remove any way or passage from any road into any adjoining land or to any house which may obstruct the free passage of the water, or to remake the same by building a gutter, sewer, or arch therein, or to pull down any wall or fill up any ditch or drain the building of which shall have been an offence against the provisions of this Act, or to cut or plash such hedges, or to prune or lop such trees, so as that such road may not be prejudiced or obstructed by the same; and if such person or owner shall not comply with such request within ten days after such notice, it shall be lawful for such surveyor or contractor as aforesaid to summon such person or owner before the justices assembled at any petty sessions of such county, to show cause why he has not complied with such request; and upon the hearing of such case it shall be lawful for such justices, if they shall see fit, to order that such person or owner shall act as required by such notice as aforesaid; and if the said person or owner shall not obey such order within ten days after the making of the same, it shall be lawful for such surveyor or contractor, if so directed by the justices, to do all or any of the said acts so required by such notice, for the benefit and improvement of such road, or to remove such obstruction as aforesaid, to the best of his skill and judgment, and at the expence of such person or owner; and it shall be lawful for such justices, upon complaint of such surveyor or contractor as aforesaid, and upon proof of the expences incurred, to issue their warrant for the levy of such expences by distress and sale of the goods and chattels of such person or owner: Provided always, that no person shall be compelled, nor any such surveyor or contractor as aforesaid permitted, to cut or prune any hedge at any other time than between the last day of September and the last day of March.
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