Ah yes. I must apologise for referring to England and Wales in a way that might be construed as the whole of the UK. You are right that the RTA 1988 defines a road in Scotland so as to include the definition in the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984.
However I am not sure of the relevance of the quoted case to the definition of a road (although I have not been able to find the judgement itself).
As an insurance person (micaheal769) you may have heard of the House of Lords case of
Cutter v Eagle Star?As far as I know this is the authority for defining a road. (The Court of Appeal cannot change the authority of these opinions).
Lord Clyde wrote:
It is important to observe that the consideration of access by the public only arises if the place is a road. It may well be that the public has access to it but that is not enough…..In the present case the question is raised whether one or other or both of the car parks qualifies as a road. In the generality of the matter it seems to me that in the ordinary use of language a car park does not so qualify. In character and more especially in function they are distinct. It is of course possible to park on a road, but that does not mean that the road is a car park. Correspondingly one can drive from one point to another over a car park, but that does not mean that the route which has been taken is a road. It is here that the distinction in function between road and car park is of importance. The proper function of a road is to enable movement along it to a destination. Incidentally a vehicle on it may be stationary. One can use a road for parking. The proper function of a car park is to enable vehicles to stand and wait. A car may be driven across it; but that is only incidental to the principal function of parking. A hard shoulder may be seen to form part of a road. A more delicate question could arise with regard to a lay-by, but where it is designed to serve only as a temporary stopping place incidental to the function of the road it may well be correct to treat it as part of the road. While I would accept that circumstances can occur where an area of land which can be reasonably described as a car park could qualify as a road for the purposes of the legislation I consider that such circumstances would be somewhat exceptional.
Reading onto the more boring bits their Lordships were agreed that the definition should not be interpreted widely.
For the purposes of insurance cover the legislation has been amended so as to include roads "or other public place". However the legislation on licences, as far as I can see, has not been changed. (I will have a look on an up-to-date database to confirm).