Supreme Court set to rule this week on overlapping powers of local authority

A London council will find out this week whether it has been successful in its appeal to the Supreme Court in a highways case examining a local authority’s overlapping powers.

A panel of five judges heard Cusack v London Borough of Harrow in April this year. The judgment will be handed down on Wednesday (19 June).

The issue before the Supreme Court was whether, where there are two overlapping powers, the local authority, having regard to the financial savings, can choose which to invoke, or whether it must use the narrower and most focused provision of the two.

The respondent is a solicitor who has for many years practised out of premises in Harrow. There is a forecourt in front of the premises which is currently used for car parking, and which itself fronts onto the A409, a stretch of single carriageway road. To use the forecourt, car drivers must mount the kerb and pass over a footway.

Harrow Council concluded that the use of the forecourt was dangerous for pedestrians and other road users, and so decided to erect barriers along the side of the road to prevent its use.

The county court and the High Court both held that Harrow was entitled to do so pursuant to s. 80 of the Highways Act 1980 under which no compensation was payable to Cusack.

The Court of Appeal reversed those decisions, holding that the local authority was required to use s. 66 of the 1980 Act.

This is a narrower provision aimed at improving public safety and meant compensation was payable to Mr Cusack.

The council then appealed to the Supreme Court.