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Road adoption is a process where a privately owned road becomes a public road that we then manage and maintain as part of the public highway.
As a highways authority, we're consulted on planning applications for developments which:
Planning applications for large developments are encouraged to enter a Section 38 Agreement - we can enter a legal agreement with a developer for the adoption of a new road, if the highway's constructed to a specified standard and to our satisfaction.
Existing roads are not normally adopted until the road owner brings the road up to standard. For example, a road may be:
A private street is a road that's not maintained at public expense. This means we (as the highway authority) do not have to carry out repairs or clean the street, even though it could be a public right of way where highway and traffic laws apply.
We must publish a list of all streets that are: