Statute Law Repeals - Law Commission - Ministry of Justice

6.38 The 1754 Act has long ceased to serve any useful purpose. Responsibility for
providing public street lighting and cleaning, policing and road maintenance has
long ceased to vest in the parish but has passed to local and county councils and
the London boroughs. 70 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 1754 Act is
now obsolete.
Bethnal Green Road Acts of 1756, 1767 and 1805
6.39 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 Bethnal Green Road Acts of 1756, 1767 and
1805 were turnpike Acts passed to raise money for the construction and repair of
roads in the Bethnal Green area of east London.
6.40 The preamble to the 1756 Act 71 recorded that “the several Parishes of Saint
Matthew Bethnal Green, Christ Church, Saint Leonard Shoreditch, and the
Hamlet of Mile End New Town … are large and populous” and that it would be “of
great Benefit and Utility to the Publick” if certain roads in the area were made or
widened. The 1756 Act appointed trustees to build and repair the roads and
authorised them to levy tolls until May 1777. The 1767 Act 72 was passed to
amend the 1756 Act, in particular by extending its powers until 1798. The 1805
Act 73 was passed to extend the powers of the 1756 and 1767 Acts until 1826.
Under the provisions of the 1805 Act, the powers of all three Acts expired in
1826. Accordingly all three Acts have ceased to serve any useful purpose for
nearly two centuries.
70 Policing expenditure is today covered by means of precepts issued by police authorities
under the Local Government Finance Act 1992, Pt 1. So far as highways maintenance is
concerned, the parish remained the body responsible for highways until 1894, when
section 25 of the Local Government Act 1894 transferred the powers of the highways
authority to the district council. Today the cost of maintaining public highways is governed
by the Highways Act 1980, Pt 4.
71 29 Geo.2 c.43.
72 7 Geo.3 c.105. The preamble to the 1767 Act recorded that £3000 of debt had been
incurred in carrying out the 1756 Act and that some parts of the road were in a ruinous
condition.
73 45 Geo.3 c.vi.
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