Ananova:

A retired engineer has lost his battle for a High Court ruling which could have declared almost every road hump in the country illegal.

Keen motorist David Pryor, 62, who has also worked as a taxi driver, asked a judge to rule that the humps he hates breached government regulations designed to prevent damage to underground "culverts" carrying water, effluent, or electricity and telephone cables and other services under roads.

Appearing in person, Mr Pryor was challenging a refusal last January by Sheffield City Council to remove the humps they had constructed and which he condemned as a road hazard which were dismal failures as an environmentally friendly means of slowing traffic in built-up areas.

Mr Justice Collins, sitting in London, rejected his application for judicial review and made a £3,000 legal costs order against the pensioner, a bill he said he could not afford to pay.

Mr Pryor, of Gresley Road, Lowedges, Sheffield, told the court he and several other million people thought the humps environmentally wrong.

The judge described how at the heart of Mr Pryor's legal challenge were highways regulations which prohibited the building of humps within 25 metres of bridges or tunnels or underground structures including "culverts" to prevent damage.

He said the case turned on whether the word "culvert" should be defined in a narrow sense, or the broader one for which Mr Pryor contended. Mr Pryor said the term applied to pipes for electricity cables, telephone cables and also those carrying water, effluent or any similar matter or service under a road.

The judge cut the original costs order applied for by the city council by £1,850 to reach a final bill of £3.000.