Request for a private road to be adopted by the council for future maintenance
If you live on a private road, you are usually responsible for maintaining it.
You can ask us to adopt your road. If we adopt it, we will maintain it at public expense.
We will only adopt roads that meet our adoptable standards.
Before you submit your request
Before you apply, you must:
- check whether there is an existing road adoption agreement
- make sure all owners and residents agree to the road being adopted
- confirm that the road connects to the existing public highway network
- accept the cost of any work needed to bring the road up to our adoption standards
- contact our Highways Development Management team to check whether the road layout is suitable for adoption
If you are unsure whether there is an existing adoption agreement or whether the road connects to the public highway network, email [email protected].
Funding the work
You also need to consider the expense of road construction. We will check that you have enough funding to complete the works before it begins.
View the other tasks you need to complete before we will adopt a road below and contact us if you want to start the process or have any questions.
Setup a Street Management Committee (SMC)
Residents can setup a Street Management Committee (SMC) to ensure a street is upgraded to our adoptable specifications (including the layout and geometry of the road).
All construction for the road would need to be paid for by the SMC, including:
- design
- planning
- legal costs
View our technical approval pages which include our adoptable standards.
You would need to send us engineering drawings for the layout and construction works.
We will charge for the process of checking and approving the drawings.
We will tell you about any problems that need to be resolved for draining and street lighting.
Send this to our Highways Development Management team.
Planning permission may be required for any change in layout of the road.
Check if planning permission is required by contacting the Local Planning Authority.
You need to contact all of the relevant Statutory Undertakers (for example, utility companies) and get quotes for all the construction. This could include:
- changes to utility company plants and assets, for example:
- telephone lines
- electric cables
- sewers
- fibre optics
- equipment they use
You would need to pay for these services.
Following approval, you need to give one month’s notice of intention to start works on site.
You must pay us a transportation fee, calculated by our Highways Development Management team for approving the drawings and inspecting the work.
View more about the transportation fee.
After construction, the road must be satisfactorily maintained for 1 year before we will adopt it.
Any necessary remedial works must be completed before we adopt it.
We'll post notices about the anticipated road adoption. If no objections are received after 1 month, we can adopt the road.
Contact us to request a road adoption
After you've reviewed all the requirements on this page, contact our Highways Development Management team to request a road adoption on [email protected].