Statute Law Repeals - Law Commission - Ministry of Justice

Southwark Improvement Act (1804)
6.69 The Southwark Improvement Act of 1804 126 was passed to amend an Act of
1766 127 relating to improving the streets in Southwark. The preamble to the 1804
Act recorded that the powers in the 1766 Act, which covered the parishes of St
George, St Saviour, St Mary Newington and part of St Olave, had proved
defective and insufficient. Accordingly the 1804 Act appointed Commissioners to
supervise the cleaning of the streets, the removal of obstructions and levy of
rates.
6.70 Responsibility for paving and maintaining public streets has long ceased to vest
in individual parishes but has passed to local and county councils and the London
boroughs. 128 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. Accordingly the 1804 Act has long been obsolete.
Southwark Improvement Act (1845)
6.71 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 Improvement Act of 1845 129 was
passed to abolish the charging of turnpike tolls in Southwark on Sundays. The
preamble to the Act recorded that an Act of 1766 130 provided for the charging of
tolls in respect of cattle and carriages passing through certain turnpikes on
Sundays. As the preamble put it, “the Collection of such Toll is a general and
public Annoyance and Inconvenience”.
6.72 Accordingly the 1845 Act repealed the provisions in the 1766 Act providing for
this toll. Indeed the 1845 Act ordered the removal, by 29 October 1845, of all
turnpikes erected pursuant to that Act and the repayment of all outstanding loans
by using rates moneys authorised by the 1766 Act. Given that the 1766 Act was
repealed in 1901, 131 it is clear that the 1845 Act has been obsolete for well over a
century.
126 44 Geo.3 c.lxxxvi.
127
6 Geo.3 c.24. This Act was repealed by the Southwark Improvement Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict.
c.xiii), s I; SR & O 1901/264, 275.
128 The Commissioners’ powers under the 1804 Act ceased in 1855 with the creation of the
Metropolitan Board of Works by the Metropolis Management Act 1855 (18 & 19 Vict.
c.120). The Commissioners’ functions devolved either upon the parish Vestry or upon the
Board of Works for the relevant parish. Today these functions are mostly vested in the
London Borough of Southwark.
129 8 & 9 Vict. c.xiii.
130 6 Geo.3 c.24.
131 SR & O 1901/ 264, 274.
190