the road is real;
the corporate office is fiction;
begin with the Secretary of State for Transport: a corporation sole; follow that continuing office-name through the company, the land, the directions, the money and the licence;
begin with the fiction
Secretary of State for Transport is a Corporation Sole; the woman using that name and the office attributed to her are distinct; see why corporation sole is fiction and the Crown examples;
source wording“shall be, by that name, a corporation sole”
in article 4(1) of the Secretary of State for Transport Order 1976, man kind wrote those words of the office-holder and successors;
man kind invented the Corporation Sole, with an atribute of immortality; it has no body, awareness, voice or deeds; this is the fiction examined here; a man signs, writes, instructs or does the work, and claims it was done on behalf of the fiction;
M6; A1; the company and its shareholder
as examples, for the main M6 and the English trunk sections of the A1 and A1(M), the highway-authority name is National Highways Limited, formerly Highways England; its strategic road network in England comprises more than 4,500 miles of motorways and major A roads; the network and roads managed;
all shares in that company are held in the name of the Secretary of State for Transport; the connection is to the Corporation Sole, rather than man kind; in the 2026 governance account, paragraph 1.20, the office is identified as sole shareholder;
- Secretary of State for Transportcorporation sole; the named holder of all company shares;
- National Highways Limitedcompany; the named highway authority for its appointed network;
- roads and highway propertyresponsibilities, interests and powers attributed through those names;
the company is an artificial person; its named shareholder is a corporation sole; two corporate descriptions, both artificial; man kind build, maintain and control access to the physical road;
the land: from office-name to company-name
in 2015, highway property previously held in the Secretary of State for Transport’s name was transferred to Highways England; in the published account of that transfer, man kind distinguish the former Crown land from the company’s land; in a 2025 submission, they again refer to the loss of Crown status; transfer sources;
the attributed holder changes from a corporation sole to a company; the land has not become a document or an artificial person; man kind have changed the written attribution; neither corporate name has a body with which to possess the land;
there is a further Crown connection in the English and Welsh tenure account: estates in land are held ultimately of Crown; that is a different attribution from the particular category called Crown land, and different again from ownership of company shares; see the registered estate, tenure and the Crown ownership premise;
the Secretary of State throughout the arrangement
the same office-name appears in several different capacities; these are the principal connections for the English strategic road network;
fiction appoints no one, funds nothing, gives no consent, transfers nothing and restricts no one; man kind do those deeds; putting “Secretary of State” on the paper does not make the fiction a doer; it hides the man behind the mask ;
A roads; B roads; streets and lanes
an A or B road number identifies a classification; it does not establish the land title or one authority from end to end; responsibility for the road and title to the land need to be followed separately;
publicly maintained local A, B, C and unclassified roads generally fall under the relevant council; these include residential streets and rural lanes; private and unadopted roads have separate arrangements; road types, authorities and sources;
in England and Wales, the highway surface can be vested in the authority while the underlying land remains in a separate title; B-road ownership and the evidence to check;
where the highway is vested in a council, the attributed holder is the corporate body; the connection here runs through that council-name; man kind decide, sign, spend, repair and restrict under it; the written body has no hands with which to lay a road; the underlying estate and title must still be followed on their own evidence;
the corporate and ministerial descriptions differ; the same question remains: which man made the decision or did the work attributed to the name? the named office or body is not another man; see office, council and mask;
the road; the licence; the same office-name
the Secretary of State name appears again in the grant of a driving licence and issue of a vehicle registration document; licensing and registration sources;
on one side: company shares, highway land and directions; on the other: licence and registration; the corporation-sole name connects the written arrangements; man kind make and use the road, vehicle, licence and records; fiction can not do a deed;
these are different legal relationships; registration of a keeper is not a transfer of the vehicle to Crown, and company shareholding is not itself title to every parcel of road land;
return to the man and the deed
a man wrote the document; a man signed; a man instructed; man kind laid the surface, erected the sign or placed the barrier; those are observable deeds;
the road is real; the corporate office is a construction devised by man kind; no paper gives that fiction an independent body, voice or deed; wherever the Secretary of State or company-name appears, there is a man who pretends to do deeds on it's behalf; man; deed; wrong; result; remedy;
the linked sources document corporate status, attributed holdings and statutory arrangements; the fiction analysis is the argument made on this page; it is distinct from the words quoted from those sources;
references and source detail
the corporate office and the man signing
“‘Secretary of State’ is a distinct legal concept, being a corporation sole” — Khan [2025] EWCA Civ 41, paragraph 138; the case concerns the Foreign Secretary; the Transport office is identified in the Order above;
in article 4(2)–(4), man kind wrote about signatures, authentication and instruments attributed to the office; the man doing the deed remains present beneath the corporate name; the Secretary of State and the office;
in article 4 of the 1976 Order, the Transport office-holder and successors are placed under a corporate name; paragraphs (2)–(4) concern authentication, execution and evidence; the continuing designation and the signature are separate parts of the written arrangement;
the passage at Khan, paragraph 138 is about knowledge attributed in a sanctions case; it is used here for the express corporation-sole description, not as a decision about road ownership;
for the historical classification of corporations as artificial persons, see Blackstone, Book I, chapter XVIII; the connected page analysis is at DVLA and Crown;
company, shareholder and ministerial administration
in section 1(2) of the Infrastructure Act 2015, the appointment conditions are “limited by shares” and “wholly owned by the Secretary of State”;
this shareholding is specific to National Highways; incorporation alone does not make every company Crown-owned; the M6 Toll is a separate arrangement, operated under the Midland Expressway Limited name; company shareholding; M6 Toll information;
in the ORR account effective from 1 April 2026, paragraphs 1.18–1.20 identify the Transport Secretary, departmental officials, investment strategy, directions, funding and sole shareholding; the operational administration by officials is expressly distinguished from ultimate ministerial accountability;
the National Highways network map identifies the roads within that network; it is not a complete land-title plan;
the 2015 property transfer and Crown land
in the government property standard, man kind describe title to government property as registered in the name of the relevant Secretary of State, as a corporation sole; much transport property is associated with the Transport office; GovS 004, sections 3.2–3.3;
in the A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down statement of reasons, paragraph 7.1.4, the writers record title acquired from the Secretary of State for Transport through a transfer dated 30 March 2015 under section 15 of the Infrastructure Act 2015; they distinguish the resulting company land from Crown land;
in the National Highways submission of 4 March 2025, response 6.1.45, items (iii)–(vi), the writers again distinguish the previous Crown holding, transfer and subsequent company status; this is evidence of the transfer arrangement, not an inspection of every M6 or A1 title;
the government property standard, sections 3.2–3.3, concerns ministerial property holdings and registered proprietorship; paragraphs 4 and 128 of the Land Registration Act 2002 explanatory notes concern the separate England-and-Wales tenure account;
appointment, funding, consent, transfer and restrictions
appointment and the roads assigned
in sections 1 and 2 of the Infrastructure Act 2015, man kind wrote of appointment by the Secretary of State and specification of the area and highways concerned; the highway-authority attribution is made through the corporate office-name; section 1; section 2;
in section 2(5)–(7), responsibility is attributed back to the Secretary of State when the appointment ends or specified highways are removed from it, subject to another strategic highways company’s appointment; the corporation sole appears again at the point of return;
objectives and money
in section 3, man kind wrote of a road investment strategy, objectives and financial resources attributed to the Secretary of State; man kind choose the programme and administer the money under the continuing office-name; section 3;
directions, consultation and consent
in section 6, man kind wrote of directions and guidance from the Secretary of State, including conditions concerning consultation or consent; man kind make and communicate those decisions; the fiction does not speak; section 6;
property, rights and liabilities
in section 15, man kind wrote of transfer schemes between the Secretary of State and a strategic highways company, and other specified transfers; the written arrangement connects one artificial office with another artificial person; section 15;
local highway land and compulsory purchase
the connection can extend to a local highway scheme: in government guidance, the Secretary of State for Transport is identified as confirming authority for the highway compulsory-purchase orders described there; confirmation concerns a statutory decision, not proof that the land belongs to that office; the man making or signing the decision remains distinct from the corporate name; compulsory-purchase guidance, highway schemes;
traffic restrictions
in section 121A(1AB) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, the strategic highways company is designated traffic authority for its highways; in section 14, man kind wrote of temporary restrictions by the relevant traffic authority; the company-name can therefore appear on a restriction without a fresh ministerial signature on each notice; section 121A; section 14;
the connection returns to the company and its corporation-sole shareholder; the man who decides, signs, places a sign or closes a lane does the deed;
A, B, C, unclassified and private roads: authorities and sources
| road or area | the named authority and connection |
|---|---|
| English trunk A1 / A1(M), main M6 and other roads on the National Highways network | National Highways Limited; the sole-shareholder connection is to the Secretary of State for Transport; company → corporation sole; |
| local A roads in England | generally the relevant council; in London, TfL for GLA roads and the borough or City authority for other roads, subject to the statutory exceptions; section 1 of the Highways Act 1980; see the council and corporate body; |
| publicly maintained B roads in Great Britain | the relevant local highway or roads authority, generally a council; these are part of the local road network; DfT road classifications; highway surface and underlying title; |
| publicly maintained C and unclassified roads in Great Britain | local-authority responsibility also extends to these smaller roads, including residential streets and rural lanes; the road’s size or lack of an A or B number does not make it ownerless; C and unclassified roads; the council name; |
| private or unadopted roads in England and Wales | these are not maintained at public expense; title must be traced through the register and deeds, and maintenance costs generally fall on the frontagers — the owners of adjoining properties; some still carry a public right of passage; Commons Library, private roads; |
| Scottish trunk A1 and other Scottish trunk roads | Scottish Ministers; administration through Transport Scotland; this is a different ministerial attribution from the English company’s shareholding; Scottish trunk-road arrangements; |
| Welsh trunk A roads and motorways | Welsh Ministers; local roads have separate local-authority arrangements; Welsh transport responsibilities; |
land title, highway responsibility and public passage
who is the legal owner of a B road?
for an adopted local B road in England or Wales, the highway surface is generally vested in the relevant council as highway authority; this is the attributed legal holding of the highway; in HM Land Registry guidance, section 11.1, surface vesting under section 263 is distinguished from ownership of the land beneath;
the underlying land may belong to an adjoining proprietor or another title-holder; there is a rebuttable presumption that adjoining ownership extends to the road’s middle line; contrary deeds or other evidence can displace it; adoption alone is therefore insufficient evidence that the council holds the whole freehold;
for a particular road, check the local authority’s record of highways maintained at public expense, then the title, deeds and any acquisition or transfer records; public passage, maintenance and the underlying estate are separate questions; see the ownership sources;
a highway-authority name alone is not a complete title investigation; highway vesting, the underlying estate and public passage can be distinct; a particular parcel requires its title and relevant transfer or vesting records; Highways Act 1980, section 263; Southwark v Transport for London [2018] UKSC 63;
in the DfT road-length definitions, updated 12 February 2026, B, C and unclassified roads are grouped as minor roads under local-authority maintenance; private minor roads are excluded from those statistics; the maintenance description should not be extended to every private lane;
in HM Land Registry practice guide 40, supplement 3, section 11.1, highway surface vesting and the presumptions concerning adjoining ownership and conveyances are explained separately; both presumptions can be rebutted;
in the Commons Library briefing dated 13 March 2026, the summary distinguishes unadopted roads from publicly maintained roads and notes that some retain public passage rights; section 3.1 covers maintenance costs and tracing the owner through registration and deeds;
in section 263 of the Highways Act 1980, man kind wrote of highway vesting, with exceptions and associated provisions in sections 265–267; at subsection (4), maintenance responsibility and property transfer are expressly distinguished in the circumstances there specified;
in Southwark v Transport for London [2018] UKSC 63, the extent of property transferred between highway authorities was examined; the underlying interests and particular statutory transfer matter; one cannot infer the whole land title merely from the road number or maintenance contractor;
driving licences and vehicle registration
the Secretary of State connection also appears on the vehicle and licensing side; in section 97 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, the grant of a driving licence is attributed to the Secretary of State, subject to the conditions there written; in regulation 10(4) of the 2002 registration regulations, issue of a registration document to the keeper is attributed to that office;
Road Traffic Act 1988, section 97; Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 2002, regulation 10(4); the DVLA source and analysis;
sources checked 20 September 2026;
