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STATES OF JERSEY
DRAFT HIGHWAYS LAW (JERSEY) AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 202- (P.31/2025): COMMENTS
Presented to the States on 29th May 2025
by the Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel
STATES GREFFE
2025 P.31 Com.
COMMENTS
Background
The Minister for Infrastructure lodged the Draft Highways Law (Jersey) Amendment Regulations 202-1 on 11th April 2025 in line with his Ministry's legislative programme
for 2025.
The draft Regulations, if adopted, will introduce the ability for the Minister for Infrastructure to exempt anyone placing or removing advertising materials relating to a candidate, political party, or a view, below, on, or above a highway (including a footpath) from requiring a licence under the Law, provided there is compliance with a published set of conditions.
The Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Panel has briefly reviewed the amendment and welcomes the intention to effectively provide legislative backing for guidelines which were sensibly introduced ahead of the 2022 general election to mitigate the risks to either those involved in the putting out or removing of advertising, as well as the general public.
In seeking to ensure that the amendment achieves its goal, the Panel wrote to the Comité des Connétable s on 2nd May 2025 to better understand the consultation process which
was undertaken and seeking the view of the Parish Constables and Roads Committees.
The response from the Comité was received on 20th May 20252 and provides both detail of the role of the Parishes in enforcement of the new regulations and its support of them.
Conclusion
The Panel understands and is supportive of the need for legislative support for the guidelines which have previously been used.
It has noted the comments made by the Comité on the guidelines to be employed and agrees with their conclusion that:
The draft Regulations, if approved, will therefore exempt election advertising from requiring approval of the highway authority (the Roads Committees in relation to by-roads). However, advertising that doesn't accord with the guidelines which will be set out in the Order will be subject to removal and constitute an offence under Article 5 of the Highways Law. This would seem to address the enforcement powers of the Roads Committees and to provide for the recovery of costs.
2 Letter from the Comité des Connétable s
Page - 2
P.31/2025 Com.