End of the road for historic law

11:00pm Thursday 7th February 2008

Comments (1)   Have your say »

A 300-YEAR-OLD law which kept one end of the county connected to the other looks set to be scrapped.

Parliament is to consider repealing hundreds of defunct statutes to tidy up Britain's legal framework.

The oldest is the 1695 London to Harwich Roads Act, which allowed county justices to set up turnpikes and collect tolls on the route.

It meant travellers could be charged each time they used the road between Harwich and the captial, with proceeds ploughed back into its upkeep.

The Act effectively maintained the Great Essex Road, which became the A12 from London as far as Colchester, the A137 to Manningtree and B1352 to Harwich.

However, the Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission said the Act should be consigned to history.

It has published proposals to repeal 260 obsolete Acts of Parliament.

A further 68 would be partially struck from the Statute Book under recommendations set out in the 18th Statute Law (Repeals) Bill.

Law Commission chairman Sir Terence Etherton said: "People need to be clear about what is in force and what is not, and an oversized Statute Book filled with out-of-date information wastes everybody's time."

Other repeals proposed in the review are: :: A law of 1839 requiring street musicians - particularly brass bands and organists - to leave the area if required to do so by irritated householders :: Parts of the 1968 Transport Act which would have allowed ministers to acquire land for a Channel tunnel project which was abandoned in the 1970s :: 40 Acts dating from 1700 for building local prisons across 19 counties in England and Wales, including the Ely House of Correction :: Obsolete laws relating to London workhouses, including one at Wapping mentioned by Charles Dickens in his 1860 work The Uncommercial Traveller.

The most recent laws to be repealed will be minor elements of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 relating to forging servicemens' discharge certificates.

The plans will now be considered by Parliament.