can i get veichcle right of access over common land?

colinbloke

I live on a former MOD estate i have a
good size front garden which would ideally suit a driveway unfortunatly
an area of common land (aprox 15 metres wide) and a footpath seperate
my property from the road.
The common land at present is owned by annington homes in the past i
have enquired about rights of access over the common land. they were
not interested as the council will eventually adopt the land.
I also enquired with the councils highways agency wether they would
allow rights of access when they finaly adopt the land. The response i
got was no as a drive way made to councils road regulations would have
to be built (which he said would be very expensive for me to have
built) and would not be in keeping with the area. This to me does not
make sense as many houses in other areas have driveways over common
land/ grass verges. also on the common land in question is an electric
substation with its own driveway??

In the next year annington homes intend to hand over ownership of the
estates land to the residents association to which i along with
all the residents of the estate am a shareholder. i see this as an
opertunity to apply for grant of easement of right of way to the
directors of residents association before thecouncil adopt the
land.

My question to you is this sort of thing viable? is it highly likely
of success (i don't want to throw money at it if it's likely to fail)
and how much will the legal and planning side cost me. my house is a 3
bedroom semi aprox value £160,000 i believe veichle access to my
property would add some value but also would make our life much easier. any advice would be appriciated

usignuolo

Have you read this? Defra guidance from 2007.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/rural/documents/countryside/crow/veh-cl-guid.pdf

takoo

Do you mean "common land" in the sense of it being registered as such under an Act of Parliament. If it is then the last post may help. If you mean area of land generally used in common by local people, I would not expect the last post to apply.

colinbloke

i used the name common land but it may actually be a town green basically a strip of grassed land aprox 15 meteres wide along the length of our road. The defra guidance is unclear about veicular access over town greens.
At present i along with my neighbours drive over the green to get to our property which has been ok for the past 5 years but it would be nice to know i had a legal right to do so.

olias

If the houses in your particular road or estate don't have driveways, then it could indeed be seen as not in keeping with the area. In addition, you would have to apply for planning, which for the same reason is unlikely to be granted.

If you did pass that hurdle then the cost would be expensive. You would be highly unlikely to be able to DIY the job, or even hire your own contractors. You would instead have to either pay the council, or hire council approved contractors to do the work and that would be very expensive for a 45'+ driveway built to their standards.

There may be other issues as well, such as shallow services, gas/electric/water/drainage that run under this land which would have to be taken into account. I would also hazzard a guess that a glance at your deeds would show no right of vehicular access to the properties.

If you battled your way past all these obstacles, I would guess that you would be looking at a cost that would far outweigh any increase in the value to your house.

Olias