This is a
translation of the
Loi (1914) sur
la Voirie
(Chapter 25.950)
as in force on 1
January 2019
This is not an
authoritative translation of the Law. Whilst it is believed to be correct, no
warranty is given that it is free of errors or omissions or that it is an
accurate translation of the French text. Accordingly, no liability is accepted
for any loss arising from its use.
Law (1914) on the public roads
WHEREAS
it is necessary to make several amendments to the Law on Public Roads, passed
by the States on the 13th day of March 1874, and confirmed by Order
of Her Majesty in Council in the year 1874, the 7th day of
July;
THE
STATES have decided to repeal the said Law, and to substitute therefor the
following Law, subject to the sanction of His Most Excellent Majesty in
Council, to come into force on the 1st January following
its promulgation.
1
(1) The
States shall be charged with the direct administration of the main
roads and shall meet all costs of construction, maintenance
and other expenses.
(2) The
by-roads shall remain, as previously, under the administration of the different
parishes.
(3) The
following shall be classified as main roads –
(a) the public roads
mentioned in the lists approved by the States on 15th March 1934, 6th
February 1936, and 20th May 1937; and
(b) any other public road
which shall be classified as a main road by the States.
(4) All
other roads shall be classified as by-roads.
1A
The
Minister for Infrastructure is authorized to take all necessary measures for
the proper maintenance of the main roads.
2
A
Roads Committee shall be established in each parish to superintend the repair
and maintenance of the by-roads, to direct the planning and execution of the
work, and to ensure compliance with this Law in all respects as hereinafter
more fully provided.
3
Insofar
as the Parish of St Helier is concerned, the Roads Committee shall consist of
the Connétable of the parish, who shall be its President, the Rector and 5
Principals of the parish. The Connétable and four of the aforementioned persons
shall constitute a quorum. In the other parishes, the Committee shall consist
of the Connétable of the parish, who shall be its President, the Rector and
three Principals resident in the parish. The Connétable, with two of the
aforementioned persons, shall constitute a quorum.
4
There
shall be two Roads Inspectors for each Vingtaine, chosen from eminent
inhabitants of the parish irrespective of Vingtaines, whose duty and functions
are hereinafter specified.
5
The
said Principals (members of the Roads Committee) and the said Inspectors shall
be chosen for a term of 3 years by an Assembly of the Principals and Officers
of their respective parishes, convened for that purpose during the month of
December, and they shall commence their duties on 1st January
thereafter. Both the members of the said Committee and the Inspectors shall
take oath before the Royal Court well and faithfully to discharge the duties of
their office. They shall be required to present themselves to the Royal Court
on receipt of a notice to this effect from the Connétable of the parish. Any
such person who fails to appear, or refuses to take oath, without offering an
excuse which the Royal Court considers to be valid, shall be liable to a fine of level 1 on the standard scale.
In either case the Parish Assembly, without delay, shall choose a person to
replace him or her. The person so chosen shall also be required to take oath,
subject to the same penalties.
The
person incurring the said fine shall not, for that reason, be exempt from
serving if again chosen after the expiration of 3 years.
Centeniers
and Vingteniers shall not, during their terms of office, be permitted to serve
as members of the Roads Committee: provided that where a Vingtenier currently
in office is chosen as a member of the Roads Committee in pursuance of
this Law, he or she shall have the right, when appearing before the Royal
Court under this Article, to choose between the said offices of Vingtenier and
member of the Roads Committee, following which another person shall be duly
elected to fill the office that has become vacant, as the case may be.
6
Should
a member of the Committee or an Inspector die or leave the parish, another
shall be chosen and sworn in his or her stead to complete the term of
office of the member he or she replaces. The same shall be the case if a Curator
is appointed for a member of the Committee or an Inspector, or if that member
or Inspector appoints one or more Attorneys without whom he or she cannot act
in relation to his or her estate, movable or immovable.
7
Each
Connétable shall convene the Roads Committee as often as the need arises, and
whenever required to do so by any of those entitled to attend the Committee. The
Connétable shall advise each of them of the subject for which the Committee is
convened.
8
The
Roads Inspectors shall superintend works of repair of the by-roads, and they
shall see that the directions of the Roads Committee are duly complied with.
10
The
Assembly of the Principals and Officers of each parish convened for this
purpose by the Connétable, shall place at the disposal of the Roads Committee
the necessary sums for the repairs and other work on by-roads during the year,
and the Roads Committee shall render an account once a year, to the Parish
Assembly, of the funds placed at its disposal and of the contributions
which have been specially applied to the upkeep of the by-roads.
12
Each
Roads Committee shall make an annual visit of inspection of the by-roads of its
parish in the month of September, and more often if necessary, accompanied by
the Inspectors in their respective Vingtaines. The Committee shall indicate the
places requiring repairs, the manner in which the work is to be carried out,
the materials needed and the proper time for undertaking the work. The
Inspectors must comply with the directions of the Committee in all respects.
13
Each
Roads Committee shall also be responsible for designating places along the
by-roads where carts can be left, when necessary, which the Inspectors
shall oversee, and if it is not possible to achieve this without going
onto a person’s property, the owner thereof shall be obliged to consent,
being recompensed for any inconvenience suffered, in the manner prescribed
by Article 3 of the Roads Administration (Jersey) Law 1960.
15
In
adjacent parishes having party roads and where it is necessary for roads to be
distinguished and marked out, the Roads Committees of such adjacent parishes
are authorized and charged to abolish all party roads by mutual consent and, if
necessary and at the same time, to place boundary stones, at joint expense, to
distinguish the roads of one parish from those of the other. If necessary, each
Committee shall in its parish likewise delineate the roads of adjacent
Vingtaines, the Inspectors of such Vingtaines being summoned to be present.
16
A
book shall be kept in each parish specially for the affairs of the Roads
Committee, in which the Connétable shall regularly enter all decisions and
orders of the Committee, both as regards the repair of roads and the cutting of
foliage, as well as other matters under the Committee’s jurisdiction.
20A
Each
Roads Committee, as well as the Minister for Infrastructure, shall receive and
examine any representations which may be made with regard to matters under the
Committee's, or the Minister's, remit and shall, for the information of either,
summon the interested person to appear before the Committee or the Minister, as
the case may be.
22
The
Vingtaine de la Ville de St Hélier shall as in the past be divided into 2
Cantons, and 3 Vingteniers shall be chosen and take oath, 2 for the Canton de
Haut de la Ville, and 1 for the Canton de Bas of the same Vingtaine, to fulfil
the duties of Vingtenier therein, in all respects independently of the duties
and functions of the Vingtenier Militaire of the said parish.
41
(1) At least one week before the first visit in each period specified in
paragraph (3), each Connétable shall notify the persons who occupy the houses,
lands, and other properties, bordering the public roads in his or her parish –
(a) that
those persons must cut forthwith the overhanging branches growing from their
properties along those public roads, in such a way that there remains a height
of 12 feet up to the branches, such requirement extending over the entire width
of those roads (including their “reliefs”), except over the footpaths where the
height to be left free is to be 8 feet;
(b) that,
in addition, they must remove the branches that have been cut off in accordance
with this Article as well as brambles, weeds and all other obstructions and
deleterious matter encroaching on the public road; and
(c) that,
in the case of a failure to comply with these requirements, they shall be
liable to a financial penalty not exceeding £100 for each infringement.
(2) The
Connétables shall at the same time announce the dates fixed for the branchage
visits in their respective parishes.
(3) The branchage visits shall be carried out in the
three-week period starting on 24th June each year and in the three-week period
starting on 1st September in each year.
(4) In
the application of paragraphs (1) and (2) –
(a) a
notification and an announcement is to be made by
notice in the Jersey Gazette;
(b) such
a notice –
(i) may relate to one or more parishes or all
the parishes, and
(ii) must
be signed, either by the relevant parish Connétables if the notice relates to
one or more parishes, or by the Chairman of the Comité
des Connétables if the notice relates to all the parishes;
(c) the
expression ‘the houses, lands, and other property, bordering the public roads’
includes a house, land, or other property, which borders a public road, even in
the case where the property is not situated in the same parish as the public
road but in the adjoining parish;
(d) the
person who occupies a house, land, or other property, bordering a public road is considered to be –
(i) in the case of a building that is divided
among several persons by virtue of a co-ownership declaration, a reference to
the association of co-owners, or
(ii) in
the case of a building that is divided into flats that shareholders of the
company that owns the building have a right to occupy, a reference to that
company.
42
(1) On
the days fixed for the branchage visits, each Connétable shall visit the
roads in his or her parish accompanied by the members of the Roads
Committee and the Centeniers.
(2) The
Connétable shall be accompanied in each Vingtaine of the parish either by one
or more Vingteniers of the Vingtaine or by one or more other Vingteniers of the
parish.
(3) On
the advice of the said members of the Roads Committee and Centeniers, the
Connétable shall decide the financial penalties that each person who has failed
to comply with the notice referred to in Article 41 shall incur.
(4) One
of the Vingteniers shall have the duty –
(a) to
enforce the said financial penalties in respect of the said persons;
(b) to
serve on each of the said persons a written order from the Connétable
specifying which branches, obstacle or other deleterious matter must be
removed; and
(c) to
notify each of the said persons that they have eight days in which to remove,
as the case requires, the branches, obstacle or other
deleterious matter.
43
(1) A financial
penalty referred to in Article 42 that is not paid shall be recoverable by the
Connétable as a civil debt.
(2) Any
person who does not remove the branchage, obstacle or other deleterious
matter in accordance with the requirements of an order under Article 42(4)
shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine of level 2 on the standard
scale.
(3) If a
person charged with such a contravention accepts the decision of a Centenier
having jurisdiction in the matter, the Centenier may deal summarily with the
offence and impose a fine of level 1 on the standard scale.
(4) Such
a fine imposed by the Centenier shall be retained by the relevant parish.
(5) In
any case, the Connétable may undertake the necessary work in
order to remove the branches, obstacle or other deleterious matter and
may recover the costs incurred as a civil debt.
44
Irrespective of the
number of branches or obstructions judged to be nuisances on the
above-mentioned visits, only one penalty shall be levied on a road for each
kind of obstruction or nuisance along the same piece of land.
45
It
shall be the duty of the Connétable, at all times, irrespective of the
above-mentioned visits, to have all injurious branchage cut and all
obstructions including all effluent, mud or other nuisance whatsoever removed
from the public roads in the country and streets in the town. If the branchage
is not cut or the nuisance is not removed within the time ordered by the
Connétable he or she may impose on the person responsible a financial penalty
not exceeding £100, which may be recovered by the Connétable as a civil debt
and the Connétable may have the necessary work carried out and shall be
entitled to recover the cost thereof in the manner prescribed in paragraph (1)
of Article 5 of the Highways (Jersey) Law 1956, as amended.
46
The
financial penalties imposed by virtue of this Law shall be applied to the
repair of by-roads of the parish.
47
The
powers conferred on the States by the Order in Council of 26th
December 1851 to make Regulations relating to the police of the public roads
include a power to amend the provisions of this Law.
48
It
is understood that this Law neither prevents the visits of inspection of roads
by the Bailiff and Jurats nor diminishes in any way the authority of the
Royal Court in this respect.