Statute Law Repeals - Law Commission - Ministry of Justice

6.34 The 1749 Act has long ceased to serve any useful purpose. Responsibility for
providing public street lighting and policing has long ceased to vest in the parish
but has passed to local and county councils and the London boroughs. 65 Similarly
the cost of providing these services is no longer collected on a parish by parish
basis. Today the arrangements for making, levying and collecting local taxation
are provided by the Local Government Finance Acts 1988 and 1992. Part 3 of the
1988 Act relates to non-domestic rating whilst the 1992 Act provides for the
council tax. Accordingly the 1749 Act is now obsolete.
Southwark Roads Act (1750)/ South London Roads Act (1764)
6.35 As explained above in relation to the Kensington, Chelsea and Fulham Roads
(Tolls) Act of 1725, the maintenance of Britain’s highways for much of the 17 th ,
18 th and 19 th centuries was managed on a local basis, sometimes by means of
tolls chargeable at turnpikes. The Southwark Roads Act of 1750 66 and the South
London Roads Act of 1764 67 were turnpike Acts passed to raise money to
construct and repair roads in South London.
6.36 The 1750 Act recorded the need to improve roads in Lambeth, Newington,
Southwark, Bermondsey and Lewisham. The Act appointed trustees to build and
repair the roads and authorised them to levy tolls until 1781. The 1764 Act was
passed to amend the 1750 Act, in particular by extending its powers until 1802.
Under the terms of the 1764 Act, both Acts were to expire in 1802. Accordingly
both Acts have ceased to be operable for more than 200 years.
St Luke’s Middlesex (Lighting and Watching) Act (1754)
6.37 This 1754 Act 68 dates back to a time when local taxes were commonly raised on
a parish basis. The preamble to the Act recorded that “it would greatly tend to the
Benefit and Safety of the Inhabitants of the Parish of Saint Luke in the County of
Middlesex, and other Persons resorting thereto, if Provision was made for
enlightening and cleansing the open Places, Squares, Streets, Lanes, Alleys, and
other Passages and Courts within the said Parish, and maintaining an able and
regular Nightly Watch therein; and that the Highways of the said Parish should be
kept in good Repair”. 69 The Act accordingly appointed trustees to supervise the
erection of lamps, appointment of constables and watchmen, cleansing and
repairing the streets and levying rates to pay for the costs of the Act.
65 Policing expenditure is today covered by means of precepts issued by police authorities
under the Local Government Finance Act 1992, Pt 1.
66 24 Geo.2 c.58.
67 4 Geo.3 c.54.
68 27 Geo.2 c.25.
69 The parish of St Luke’s was created when the church of St Luke (in Old Street) was
constructed in 1733 from the part of the existing parish of St Giles Cripplegate that lay
outside the City of London. The church was closed in 1964, the parish having been reunited
in 1959 with the parish of St Giles-without-Cripplegate.
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