Australian Capital Territory Consolidated Acts

PUBLIC ROADS ACT 1902 - SECT 20

    (1)     If, after considering all objections (if any) made in accordance with the notice given under section 19 about the closing of a road, the Minister is satisfied that the road should be completely or partly closed, the Minister may, after the month mentioned in the notice, declare, in writing, that the road is completely or partly closed.

    (2)     However, subsection (1) does not apply if—

        (a)     the Minister is satisfied that it is necessary to partly close the road; and

        (b)     the closure of the road is to give effect only to a variation of a lease under the Planning and Development Act 2007 , chapter 7 (Development approvals); and

        (c)     the variation is only to incorporate into an existing lease an envelope of land that contains an encroachment onto, over or under unleased territory land; and

        (d)     the closure of the road would not—

              (i)     impede the flow of vehicle or pedestrian traffic; or

              (ii)     otherwise present a risk to public safety; and

        (e)     because of the size, location or configuration of the area of road to be closed, granting a separate territory lease over the land would not be reasonable or appropriate.

Example—par (d)

If the road to be closed allows vehicle traffic in 2 directions, then part of the road cannot be closed if traffic flow in either direction would be impeded.

Example—par (e)

It would not be reasonable or appropriate to grant a lease over a parcel of land with an area of 0.05m x 50m located between an existing lease and a public road as it is unlikely that the parcel of land could be separately leased.

Note     An example is part of the Act, is not exhaustive and may extend, but does not limit, the meaning of the provision in which it appears (see Legislation Act, s 126 and s 132).

    (3)     On the making of a declaration completely or partly closing a road, the land included in the closed road, or closed part of the road, is freed from any rights of the public or anyone to the land as a highway.

    (4)     A declaration under this section is a notifiable instrument.

Note      A notifiable instrument must be notified under the Legislation Act.