Commentary on Sections Schedule 1 Strategic highways companies: consequential and supplemental amendments Schedule 1 Part 1 – amendments to the Highways Act 1980
36.Part 1 of Schedule 1 contains amendments to the Highways Act 1980 to allow one or more strategic highways companies to become highway authorities instead of, or alongside, the Secretary of State. (Otherwise, the Secretary of State is in law the highway authority for the strategic roads network even though his functions are in practice exercised by the Highways Agency.)
37.Where a strategic highways company is appointed, the amendments will have the effect that, for the most part, the powers and duties of the Secretary of State, in relation to the roads included in the appointment, will transfer to the strategic highways company. These include the duty to maintain public highways; powers to construct, maintain and improve highways for which it is responsible; powers to acquire land for the purposes connected with carrying out the functions of a highway authority; and powers to enter into agreements with local highway authorities. A company will also be responsible, where it is the highway authority, for determining whether an environmental impact assessment is required for schemes pursued under powers in the Highways Act 1980. The Secretary of State retains order making powers on the classification of a highway including whether a road is trunked.
38.Paragraph 43 inserts a new section 175B into the Highways Act 1980. It requires consent to be obtained from the strategic highways company for the construction, formation or laying out of any access to or from a trunk road in England. This new power allows the strategic highways company to ensure that access to its network does not interfere with the safety of road users or have a negative impact on the network (for example, by increasing congestion). Where the Secretary of State is the highway authority, these aspects can be managed by the Secretary of State who may give directions restricting the grant of planning permission by local planning authorities for development affecting the strategic road network. These powers of direction will not be available for a strategic highways company to use directly; new section 175B provides a means by which it will be able to safeguard road safety and the integrity of the road network.