Advice - rights of way/indemnity insurance

Section62

smcqis said:

Grass verge, technically not in ownership. Manhole within the verge that serves pipe from site from treatment tank overspill and storm water. So technically access required over it and to manhole. Indemnity insurance has been put forward to deal with right of way for access and for right of way to manhole. The deeds refer to manhole but doesn’t refer to its location on map

What does this mean?  A package treatment 'tank' is designed to produce effluent which can be discharged into watercourses, the same as rainwater/stormwater.  A system like that wouldn't have an 'overspill' because it would mean untreated sewage being discharged into a watercourse.

It sounds more like the treatment plant discharge plus rain/stormwater is being piped into either a surface water sewer or watercourse.  Is that the case?

Where is the treatment plant/tank relative to the road?

Also, the road the picture is taken from looks like highway, and it is unusual for google to go onto private roads for streetview type data.

So is the road (and possibly verge) public, and the track/driveway running off to the side of the property the private bit?

Is the house we can see the property in question, or is it somewhere behind that one?

Section62

smcqis said:

You are correct, discharge. Treatment plan is in property boundary and pipe runs along inside the property and connects to pipe along road (outside ownership) and discharge in watercourse opposite.

Does that pipe do anything more that accept discharge from the treatment plant and rainwater from the property.... in other words are there any ditches or other watercourses that drain into the pipe at the upstream end?

smcqis said:

House is roadside and the verge is not adopted as part of roads, in third party ownership

An old road in a rural area is unlikely to be adopted, and neither are the verges.  They tend to be 'highways maintainable at public expense' which means that adjacent landowners own the subsoil of the road, but the surface is public.  So a verge can be in third party ownership, but also public highway.  The boundary between them and the adjacent freehold is 'fuzzy'.

If there are highway rights over the verge then there would also be rights of access to your manhole.  But whether there was a right to lay a pipe and put a manhole there in the first place is a different matter.

If there is a pipe running along the road then that could be a highway drain, a watercourse, or a sewer.  There are (various) rights to connect to any of those for adjacent landowners.

Have you had the results of a drainage search?

Edit: Also, have you seen the planning application documents?  Those should give important information about the proposed drainage system.