The Grit Has Run Out - A Defence To Highway Claims?

Section 41(1A) of the Highways Act 1980 provides that a highway authority is "under a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that safe passage along a highway is not endangered by snow and ice". There is therefore, in effect, a qualified duty to grit the highway network for which each authority is responsible.

So, the statutory duty to keep a safe passage on a highway may well be breached if grit is not applied but does this give rise to compensation in the event of an accident? In Stovin vWise (1996) the House of Lords made it clear liability in damages for breach of statutory duty is far from automatic and there has to be an examination of the policy of the statute to decide whether it was intended to confer a right to compensation. Given Parliament legislated specifically to reverse the decision in Goodes v East Sussex County Council (1999) and conferred a qualified duty on the highway authorities to grit, there can be little doubt it intended for a