MOTOR SPEED

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 54, 5 March 1927, Page 14

MOTOR SPEED

IN EASTBOURNE BOROUGH

The case in which the reasonableness of the Eastbourne Borough Council's bylaw, which limits motor speed along Muritai road to 15 miles per hour, is being challenged was continued in the Magistrate's Court yesterday afternoon before Mr. J. H. Salmon,

Addressing tho JK .ich, Mr. J. O'Donovan, representing two of the motorists charged with speeding under the bylaw > subnuttea that it had been clearly established on the prosecution's own evidence that the bylaw was not commonly observed, ,nd that fact, he contended, was proof of unreasonableness. It had also been proved, he said, that the council did not prosecute in cases of speeding up to 20 miles per hour. Counsel quoted several authorities in support of his argument Mr. Evan Parry, for the council, pointed out that in almost every case where Courts of law had upset bylaws the reasons were that the latter were manifestly unreasonable and interfered with the rights of thepublic, or weretoo old for existing conditions. He contend- •

Ed that the case of Wellington's speed limits could not bo used for purposes of comparison. He relied, he said, upon the principle that a bylaw framed by a local authority should not be upset unless it was so unreasonable as to find no justification in the mind of a reasonable man. The Court then adjourned to enable the Magistrate to view the road. Mr. Salmon said that he would give his decision in writing at an early date.