Turn Cul de sac into a private road

Tom7879

Hi,

We live in the outskirts of London and there has been quite a few burglaries in our area recently (not our street), which has obviously got us concerned.

Our street is a cul de sac, and I was wondering does anyone know if the council would consider allowing us to turn the street into a private road, with a gate at the end? If yes, what would be the procedure to take this forward?

There is a small walking path to the side of our house which I see people walking down sometime, which they must use for a shortcut to somewhere, but I cant quite figure our where. There are no roads for vehicles behind the house. Personally we would be happy if we were able to just restrict cars.

Thanks in advance!

pinkteapot

Others will answer your question, but... Do you have a burglar alarm? It's still the biggest deterrent to burglars. There was a spate of burglaries by a career criminal in my last area. In my road, of 20 houses, two were burgled a few months apart. They were the only 2 out of the 20 that didn't have alarms.

Sadly, burglars will look for the easiest target on the street, so you need visibly more security than other people.

Re the path - walk/cycle down it to work out where it goes? Or look at google satellite view?

davidmcn

If there's still pedestrian access then to what extent is burglary going to be deterred?

There is a statutory method for public roads being "stopped up" (e.g. sometimes redevelopment requires it) but I've never heard of it being justified by this sort of thing.

stator

Extremely unlikely.
Council's don't like "Gated Communities" and quite right too. This isn't Hollywood.

hazyjo

They often enter through back doors and get away over fences.


Seems a bit extreme really, and I can't see all your neighbours agreeing to it. I certainly wouldn't.


Happens everywhere. Make your house as secure as possible, and set up CCTV and one of those doorbells that have a camera in. They're fantastic.

AdrianC

Simple answer is that it's massively unlikely.

This "walking path" is almost certainly a right of way, so where they're going to and from is irrelevant - they have a legal right to do so, and that would remain even after the road was closed off.

Even if they do, what do you propose to do about access to properties for couriers, binmen, ambulances etc? Who's going to pay for the installation and maintenance of the gates, the intercom, the road surface once it's unadopted, etc? Are all your neighbours of the same mind as you?

Burglaries are a habitual risk of living in cities. If you want to live in a gated environment, move. But don't be surprised if "just restrict(ing) cars" doesn't do the slightest thing to stop burglaries.

AndyTails

I've never heard of someone taking a public street and turning it into a private road. Most (all?) private roads are built as part of a development and, for whatever reason, not adopted by the local council.

There are also very few with gates. And considering it is currently a public road, I doubt you'd find it easy to remove the current right of way.

Plus, as others have said, I'm not sure how this is going to deter crime. Burglars are generally after small valuable items which they can pocket; they don't normally drive up in removals vans and nick large TVs.

p00hsticks

Even if you could do it it strikes me as using a sledgehammer to crush a nut. Once the road is private then presumably the residents would have to pick up the cost of maintaining and managing the private road, the gate, streetlighting, organising a place from which refuse can be collected, etc - money which be more effectively spent on individual home security measures.

TheTalkingDead

You Will never get this to happen, and the adverse repercussions if it did could affect you and all your neighbours.


You will ALL be footing bills for everything under that road, Water, Gas, Electricity, sewers, BT lines as once a road becomes private it becomes the owners responsibility to upkeep what's laying under it if there is no individual contract with utilities to state otherwise.

Having to put your bins at the end of the road as some councils wont come onto private roads to empty bins your expected to put it end of the road.

Resurfacing is costly and it could affect your house prices as not every buyer wants that responsibility, its a put off.

Adereterial

My grandparents live on a private, gated (but large) cup de sac in London. The council requires that the gate be left open at all times, and it is only closed once a year to ‘ceremoniously’ remind people its a private road. That was the condition the council insisted on before allowing the gate to be installed.

Even if you were to get it to happen, which you won’t, you can bet the council will impose something similar as a condition.

danlewi2

You will no doubt have a trades man button/code for the gate anyway - which allows access regardless.
Pretty pointless and overkill - invest in a good alarm & cameras.