(1) A Highway Authority, after consultation with the
owner or occupier of the land concerned, shall have power to
erect and maintain signposts along any footpath, bridleway or
byway for which they are the Highway Authority.
(2) Subject to subsection (3) below, at every point
where a footpath, bridleway or byway leaves a metalled road the
Highway Authority shall in exercise of their power under
subsection (1) above erect and maintain a signpost-
- indicating that the footpath, bridleway or byway is a
public footpath, bridleway or byway, and
- showing, so far as the Highway Authority consider
convenient and appropriate, where the footpath, bridleway or
byway leads, and the distance to any place or places named
on the signpost.
(3) A Highway Authority need not erect a signpost in
accordance with subsection (2) above at a particular site if the
Highway Authority, after consulting the council of the parish in
which the site is situated, or as the case may be the chairman
of the parish meeting for the parish, not having a parish
council, in which the site is situated, are satisfied that it is
not necessary, and if the parish council, or as the case may be
the chairman of the parish meeting, agree.
(4) It shall also be the duty of a Highway Authority
in exercise of their powers under subsection (1) above to erect
such signposts as may in the opinion of the Highway Authority be
required to assist persons unfamiliar with the locality to
follow the course of a footpath, bridleway or byway.
(5) With the consent of the Highway Authority, any
other person may erect and maintain signposts along a footpath,
bridleway or byway.
(6) Section 131(2) of the Highways Act 1980 (destruction
or defacement of a traffic sign) shall apply to a signpost
erected or placed along a footpath, bridleway or byway in
pursuance of this section as it applies to a traffic sign placed
on or near a highway.
(7) In this section (and in the amendments made by this
section in other enactments) references to signposts shall
include references to other signs or notices serving the same
purpose and references to the erection of a signpost shall
include references to positioning any such other sign or notice.
(8) In this section ‘byway’ means a byway open to
all traffic, that is to say, a highway over which the public
have a right of way for vehicular and all other kinds of
traffic, but which is used by the public mainly for the purposes
for which footpaths and bridleways are so used.
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