Section 256: Power to exchange land to adjust boundaries of highways., Highways Act 1980

Subject to the provisions of this section, the highway authority for any highway maintainable at the public expense may, for the purpose of straightening or otherwise adjusting the boundaries of the highway, enter into an agreement with the owner of any land which adjoins or lies near to the highway providing for the exchange of any such land for land on which the highway is situated, with or without the payment by either party of money for equality of exchange.

A highway authority proposing to enter into an agreement under this section shall—

publish once at least in each of 2 successive weeks, in one or more newspapers circulating in the area concerned, a notice giving particulars of the proposed agreement; and

not later than the date on which the notice is first published in pursuance of paragraph (a) above ("the publication date"), serve a copy of the notice—

on any statutory undertakers appearing to the authority to be affected by the proposal; and

on any other person appearing to the authority to have an interest in the land proposed to be conveyed by the authority; and

not later than the publication date, cause a copy of the notice to be displayed in a prominent position on the part of the highway to which the proposal relates;

and shall not enter into the proposed agreement before the expiration of the period of 2 months from the publication date and, where an appeal under subsection (3) below is brought against the proposed agreement, until the determination or abandonment of the appeal and of any appeal arising out of that appeal.

Any person who objects to a proposed agreement under this section may, before the expiration of the period aforesaid, appeal to a magistrates' court against the proposed agreement; and the court shall, after considering any representations made by or on behalf of any party to the appeal and the desirability in the public interest of the proposed agreement, either dismiss the appeal or order the highway authority not to enter into the proposed agreement (without prejudice to the power of the authority to make the same proposal on a subsequent occasion).

Where any land on which a highway is situated falls to be conveyed by the highway authority in pursuance of an agreement under this section, then—

if the land belongs to the highway authority, nothing in this section dispenses with any consent of a government department which, under any enactment, is required for the conveyance, but where such consent is given or is not required the conveyance of the land by the authority operates, by virtue of this paragraph, to extinguish the public right of way over the land;

if the land does not belong to the highway authority, the authority may convey the land in accordance with the agreement and the conveyance operates, by virtue of this paragraph, to vest the land in the transferee for an estate in fee simple freed and discharged (subject to subsections (6) and (7) below and section 334(2) below) from all other estates, interests, rights and charges, including the public right of way, which subsisted in, over or on the land immediately before the conveyance.

Where by virtue of subsection (4)(b) above any person suffers damage by being deprived of such an estate, interest, right or charge as is there mentioned, other than the public right of way, the highway authority shall pay him compensation equal to the amount of the damage.

Where immediately before the conveyance of any land by a highway authority in pursuance of this section there is under, in, upon, over, along or across the land any apparatus belonging to or used by statutory undertakers for the purposes of their undertaking Part II of Schedule 12 to this Act applies to the land.

In this section " statutory undertakers " includes operators of driver information systems

Nothing in this section affects any mines or minerals under a highway.

Section 256: Power to exchange land to adjust boundaries of highways.

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