A private street can include a road, highway, lane, footway, alley, passage, square or court not maintainable at public expense. As such we are not responsible for its repair, maintenance and cleansing.
The 2 most common methods through which a private street becomes publicly maintainable are:
- Where new streets have been constructed by a developer in accordance with our specification and the developer wishes them to become maintainable at public expense, an agreement under Section 38 of the Highways Act 1980 can be entered into between the developer and us which provides for their construction, maintenance and adoption.
- In the case of existing private streets, these will not be considered for adoption by us as publicly maintainable highway unless works have been carried out on them to bring them up to our standards. Once the necessary works have been completed, the local highway authority should then be able to adopt it. However, all the costs in bringing the street to an adoptable standard must be met by the owners or occupiers of the premises which front it.
For further information, please contact: