31Transfer of classified roads in urban districts to county council.
(1)As from the appointed day, the county council shall be the highway authority as respects all classified roads which, immediately before the appointed day, were vested in the councils of urban districts within the county.
(2)When after the appointed day any road vested in an urban district council becomes a classified road, the county council shall thereupon become the highway authority as respects that road.
(3)It shall not be lawful for the Minister of Transport on or after the appointed day to make an order declaring that a road which is for the time being a classified road has ceased to be a county road.
(4)Section four of the [54 & 55 Vict. c. 63.] Highways and Bridges Act, 1891, shall as from the appointed day cease to have effect so far as it provides that no order declaring that a county road within a municipal borough has ceased to be a county road and has become an ordinary road shall be made without the consent of the council of the borough having been first obtained; but before any such order is made by the Minister of Transport he shall consider any representation which the council of the borough may make with reference thereto and shall, if so requested by the council of the borough, hold a local inquiry.
(5)As from the appointed day, a county council shall, with respect to county roads, and roads which, when constructed, are intended to become county roads (not being roads with respect to which an urban district council have claimed or are deemed to have claimed to exercise the functions of maintenance and repair), have within an urban district in the county the functions of an urban district council or a local authority under the enactments mentioned in the first column of Parts III, IV and V of the First Schedule to this Act, as amended by any subsequent enactment, subject, however, to such modifications as are mentioned in the second column of that Schedule; and those enactments shall apply accordingly.
As respects such roads as aforesaid, functions under the enactments mentioned in the first column of Part III of the said Schedule shall, as from the appointed day, cease to be exercisable by an urban district council, and functions under the enactments mentioned in the first column of Parts IV and V of the said Schedule shall, as from the appointed day, be exercisable by the urban district council as well as by the county council; but as respects the functions mentioned in the first column of Part V of that Schedule, only with the consent of the county council.
(6)Where after the appointed day any area, being or forming part of a rural district, is by a provisional or other order constituted an urban district, the order may provide that any unclassified roads within that area shall continue to be county roads and where the order contains such a provision as respects any roads the order may provide for contributions being made by the urban district council to the county council towards the cost of the maintenance and repair of those roads of such amounts as may be agreed between the councils or, in default of agreement, determined by the Minister of Transport.