Phil W Lee wrote:
JNugent considered Sat, 12 Jun 2010
18:09:49 +0100 the perfect time to write:

JNugent wrote:

Phil W Lee wrote:
JNugent :
Phil W Lee wrote:
[ ... ]

Yet compare the statistics for the number of pedestrians killed on
the pavement by cars and bicycles respectively.
How many of them involve cars being driven *along* footways (to get
somewhere else) in the manner of bicycles?
Far more than involve bicycles, even if you ignore the ones who claim
to have arrived there through no fault of their own.
[Hint: the answer is either "none" or so close to "none" as makes
no practical differnce.]
Maybe you should look it up?
"The local law in the UK"?
Where would one look that up?
And how, come to think of it, would looking up a piece of law - whether
"local" or otherwise - tell us how how many pedestrian injuries are caused by
drivers of motor vehicles drivinmg along the footway?

In this case, you could try
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/RevisedStatut..._18470089_en_1
Section 28
Which tells us that:
"Every person who causes any public carriage, sledge, truck, or
barrow, with or without horses, or any beast of burden, to stand
longer than is necessary for loading or unloading goods, or for taking
up or setting down passengers (except hackney carriages, and horses
and other beasts of draught or burthen, standing for hire in any place
appointed for that purpose by the commissioners or other lawful
authority), and every person who, by means of any cart, carriage,
sledge, truck, or barrow, or any animal, or other means, wilfully
interrupts any public crossing, or wilfully causes any obstruction in
any public footpath or other public thoroughfa"

and

"Every person who leads or rides any horse or other animal, or draws
or drives any cart or carriage, sledge, truck, or barrow upon any
footway of any street, or fastens any horse or other animal so that it
stands across or upon any footway:"

"shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding [F1level 3 on the standard
scale] for each offence, or, in the discretion of the justice before
whom he is convicted, may be committed to prison, there to remain for
a period not exceeding fourteen days,"
That is NOT (got it? ***NOT***) "local law", unless "local law" means
"local to England and Wales".
Wher is this "local law" you tried to cite?
Perhaps I was being a little unkind to you there.

The Town Police Clauses Act 1847 is national (and certainly not "local") law,
but it is not law which actually applies anywhere unless a council which
administers a town or borough adopts it, piecemeal. They don't have to have
the whole menu. They can adopt á la carte.

That's not what The Act says.

Nevertheless it's the way the Act operates.

Even dating from 163 years ago as it does, it is still the main source of
some important permissive powers for local authorities (ie, district councils).

1 Extent of Act

This Act shall extend only to such towns or districts in England or
Ireland as shall be comprised in any Act of Parliament hereafter to be
passed

There's you answer.

which shall declare that this Act shall be incorporated
therewith; and all the clauses of this Act, save so far as they shall
be expressly varied or excepted by any such Act, shall apply to the
town or district which shall be comprised in such Act, and to the
commissioners appointed for improving and regulating the same, so far
as such clauses shall be applicable thereto respectively, and shall,
with the clauses of every other Act which shall be incorporated
therewith, form part of such Act, and be construed therewith as
forming one Act.

It is because not every council has adopted it - and because not every
council which has adopted some of of it has adopted all of it - that the
legal position is different from place to place.

Well, it's the exact piece of legislation that is used against
cyclists on the footway, so are you claiming that is variable in it's
application?

It is. Moreover, it is variable in its relevance. Remember the remark about
"á la carte"?

In order for placing a vehicle on a footway to be illegal, the council has to
have adopted that part of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 which relates to
such activities and which creates the "offence" (where none otherwise applies).

So you are saying that it is legal to cycle on the footway, unless
(and apparently there need be no sign warning of this) the local
council has adopted the power to prohibit them.

No.

I am telling you how the TPCA 1847 operates.

Which part of it operates in a particular place is a matter for the local
authority. Its application is not geographically uniform, not even as between
authorities which have adopted powers under it.

So it is national law which may - or may not - apply locally.
You cannot quote it and say "It applies everywhere". And that is because it
simply doesn't.

Well, as you pointed out, it doesn't apply outside England and Wales
(although it claims Ireland as well, it also says later that the NI
has the powers applied slightly differently).

That came later (the NI bit). You may have heard about the changes in
arrangements in Ireland not long after WW1.

The fact that it doesn't apply outside England and Wales is a red herring
(rthere is similar legislation for Scotland). The more important fact is that
it doesn't apply everywhere *in* England and Wales, and where it does apply,
not all of it need apply. Only the local authority and the police can tell
you which bits - if any - apply in a particular location.

Did you really not know that?