Dangerous access road on registered village green

crummymummy72

The road is the main access used by the residents as it was an actual made up road and is 1 metre away from our houses. back doors

There is another private road to the other side of the row of houses that is very rarely used as its grassed and gated!

G_M

crummymummy72 wrote: »

The road is the main access used by the residents as it was an actual made up road and is 1 metre away from our houses. back doors

There is another private road to the other side of the row of houses that is very rarely used as its grassed and gated!

How many houses?

Could you all get together and make up the private road (assuming you jointly own it in some way) and start using that?

moneyistooshorttomention

G_M wrote: »

How many houses?

Could you all get together and make up the private road (assuming you jointly own it in some way) and start using that?

But then they'd have the effort and expense of dealing with that private road.....

stepuptothepl8

Is the lane a public highway? Serve the Council with a section 56 notice - once they've acknowledged the lane is maintainable at public expense they have an obligation to keep it safe. If the lane is not a highway maintainable at public expense then it will be down to the residents to maintain.

Apodemus

Try to put yourself in the shoes of the roads manager...

He/She has a budget that has been reduced each year, while labour and tar costs have risen. The money is not enough to fix all the roads. So they have to prioritise, and are weighing up your small access road (and the risks of not fixing it) against high-volume, high-speed roads that see more cars in an hour than yours will in a year (and where the risks are much, much higher).

It may not be fair, it may not be right, it might not even be what the traffic acts say, but in their shoes, you would make the exact same choices and your road would probably remain in its current state.

crummymummy72

the 1864 ruling decided that the responsibility for the road lay with the council - it also concluded that all boundaries must be maintained from the local rates (the road being the boundary). I'm currently going through the complaints process with a view to going to the ombudsmen. Also its the pedestrian right of way for the green as it leads to a footpath on the side of the green. It's well used by school kids going to school and parents pushing prams. In term of liability if anyone has an accident the responsibility is the owner of the land - that being the council.

unforeseen

Are you sure that the owner is the council? The 1864 ruling, or at least the bits you have stated, made no ruling on ownership. I would thing ownership would have been vested in the parish council rather than the county council.

There is a difference between being the owner and being responsible for the upkeep.

stepuptothepl8

A lot depends on the classification; even if the Council does own the road, the duty to keep safe depends on whether it is classed as a footpath or a carriageway (A, B, C or U) or a BOAT. Find out if the Council owns the road first, then what classification it is. That will inform you as to your next steps.

Apodemus

Certain aspects of liability may remain with users. If users are aware of the poor state of the road and don't take adequate care to protect themselves from the risks, then it will be difficult for them to shift responsibility for an accident across to the owners.

marksoton

I'd forget the importance of a 150 odd year old ruling.