Highway status and road adoption

Road adoption

Road adoption means the council taking ownership of a 'private street'. When a street is adopted, the council maintains it at the public’s expense.

A private street is a street which is not maintained at public expense, which means we are under no obligation to clean it or carry out repairs, even if it is a public right of way.

New roads constructed in accordance with our guidelines are normally adopted by way of an agreement between us and the developer.

For further information about the adoption of a new or existing road, or to order a copy of our Roads for Adoption guidelines, please contact us.

Stopping up

Stopping up orders are usually made to allow development to take place or because the public highway is no longer necessary.

Public highway can include roads, streets, footpaths, public car parks, grass verges and footways. Not all roads, streets or footpaths are public highways.

The term 'stopping up' means that once such an order is made, the highway land ceases to be a highway, road or footpath, which means that the highway rights are extinguished in law.

If an order is successfully made on the public highway, then the land is free of any Highway Authority control.