Legal Advice Needed! Land / Alley / Ad Medium Filum

DumbMuscle

If the council are saying that there's no right of way, and all the people who have property accessed via the lane agree to a gate and have a key to it, then it seems like a complaint would either be thrown out, or result in a declaration that there *is* a public right of way, so you can go back to the council and push for it to be made their problem.

AnotherJoe

Dpw15 wrote: »

I'm going through a Solicitor to be on the safe side I think.
Thanks for your thoughts though!

Dont poke a tiger with a stick. A solicitors job is to come up with lots of reasons why you cant do something.

Just fit gates and everyone gets a key.

Dpw15

Guest101 wrote: »

The H&S issue isn't anything to do with the council (perhaps the fire service), you may need planning permission, but just double check.


Complaints aren't an issue, its legal challenges you need to consider.

Wouldn't need planning permission so long as the gate is 5 meters back from a public highway which it would be.

The only reason I wanted the council to agree on the health & safety side is so that if someone was to complain about the closure they would have already agreed that it was a hazard to the public so therefore agree to the closure.

I just can't see who would have the right to say we couldn't close it off as it belongs to nobody haha!.

I'd just hope the council wouldn't turn it into a public right of way due to how dangerous it is down there.

They also wouldn't adopt the passage unless it's to their standard which we can't afford to do.

Dpw15

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Dont poke a tiger with a stick. A solicitors job is to come up with lots of reasons why you cant do something.

Just fit gates and everyone gets a key.

To fit gates and fences would be at a cost of around £3000. If someone complains and the council then declare it as a public right of way it would be a waste of money as we'd have to open it up.

I just want legal paperwork to allow us to do it but that seems impossible to achieve.

G_M

Dpw15 wrote: »

The land is listed as un-adopted and has two primary purposes.

1 - Allow exit from terraced houses in the event of a fire
2 - Allow access to rear of properties in general.

1st time I've ever heard of the Land Registry describing land this way.

Have you really done a LR search for the owner?

molerat

Unlikely the council will tell you what you can do as that would put some comeback on them, most likely only what you can't. A planning application to turn community land into garden land and erect a fence is something I have seen a few times and may be the way to go.

davidmcn

Dpw15 wrote: »

To fit gates and fences would be at a cost of around £3000. If someone complains and the council then declare it as a public right of way it would be a waste of money as we'd have to open it up.

Put up some cheap temporary blockage and see what happens.

G_M

Dpw15 wrote: »

I'm going to try and get confirmation from the council that they agree it should be closed due to H&S reasons. If I achieve this I think we will be fine.

Hmmm...

Now you are contemplating poking a second tiger with a stick!

lbeadl

I would do as a few others have suggested an put a barrier of some sort up in conjunction with the other houses and see if anyone complains.


I'm surprised at the cost of £3,000 though - we have a similar sounding layout and successfully gated off our alleyway for around 10% of that.


We're end of a terrace of 4 with an alleyway running to the open side and back of our garden (house 1), then across the backs of the 2 mid terrace houses. The difference with our alley is that the end point is the garden of house 3 so it doesn't lead to another road. We think we *might* actually own the alleyway as it suggests in the deeds of 2 & 3 that we do & they have right of access, but nothing in our deeds to suggest the same.


We had a few issues with 'yoofs' using it to hang out, drink, play music etc, so the 3 of us clubbed together and put a 7ft high padlocked wooden gate up to close the alleyway off. The padlock is a number coded one so no-one needs to worry about forgetting keys (just numbers!!) and the only use the alley has now is what it was intended for - houses 2 and 3 getting garden stuff etc in & out.

CYF

We live in an area with terraced houses, and most of the nearby roads have side/rear access alleys. The local council and community policing team are supportive of alleyway gating and have a useful guide which may be helpful for you.
Sorry I can't post a link as a new user, but if you Google "Merton Alley Gate scheme" you'll be able to look at their guidance as to how to set up/run it.