Tickets on unadopted road

[Mandi Barton]

I live on a private road, well it is unadopted.

I also live near a football ground. There are restrictions to parking on match days and there is a sign at the bottom of my street to say that it is an offence to park on match days if you do not have a permit.

I say the bottom of my street because the Council own that part and they have also tarmacced it. Half way up my street, the tarmac stops and it is left up the residents to restore the road as they say they wont because they do not own it.

Get this one!! I have to buy a permit so that I can park on my own street on match days. Fair enough it is only £15 per year but that isn't the point. They Council have nothing to do with the top half of the road when it suits them but as soon as match days are on, I get a ticket for parking outside my own home!

I have actually (and presume the rest of the residents) had to take out insurance in case of any accidents etc that happens on the road. It covers me from my home, the pavement and then the unadopted road and then the Council own the grass on the other side.

I actually myself work in a solicitors office and have checked this out thoroughly with law books and the Council. They say that even though the road is unadopted it is still a public road. But my argument is why the hell are we responsible for it then and not them and why do we have to maintain and insure it if they have overall say over it?

I have got colleagues to do letters to the Council and Police over this matter and the reason they gave (after a long fight) was that years and years ago, even though it is unadopted, the Council were granted an Order from the Court to say that they could still penalise people and basically have control over it (in the legal sense) contrary to the Road Traffic Act. I actually researched this, found the Order but couldn't really understand it so gave up in the end because I was getting nowhere with them.

This is just my story, I still refuse to buy a permit and play hell with the police when I see them sticking a ticket on my car. I argue with them and they can't even give me a proper answer.

I will stand my ground on this matter until I die but just thought I would put my story in.

I know other people are hard done by but I think that my story takes the mikey to say the least.

[cumbria123]

I`m surprised the police do it, round here the police have nothing to do with parking, only the wardens deal with that, and they don`t deal with double yellows, double parking etc etc, only marked bays.

[Michael Browne]

Originally Posted by Mandi Barton

I live on a private road, well it is unadopted.

.

Just because it is unadopted (ie not tarmacked) doesn't mean it a private road.

If it is a private road:

(a) it's not part of the public highway, so any tickets would be invalid

(b) it follows it must be owned by someone, usually the residents and would be mentioned in their deeds. A search at the Land Registry Online of any adjoining properties might help establish this.

[pcr1]

It will be a "public road" though for the purposes of the Road Traffic Act; this means you can be prosecuted for driving offences committed on it (such as driving without due care, no insurance and so on). This commonly catches people out in supermarket car parks where they think the law doesn't apply (usually they nip off after damaging a car thinking they don't have to report it).

However, I can see no right for the council to issue penalties or require permits whatsoever. This would all lie in the court order, so I'd suggest going back to that and seeing if someone at work perhaps could help you understand it.

Or post it on here and see if anyone can help. Also consider posting it on Traffic Answers or PePiPoo.

[kev.s]

having done this job myself for 2 years in scotland ( left the job now) we had a few unadopted/un-named etc roads, the council have their own codes to deal with these types of offences which have been passed by the scottish exec. therefore you will probably find yourself with a ticket if you park there.

I live in such a road and have just written to the council regarding the lack of policing and ruthless and dangerous parking on the road by commuters (the road is a 2 minutes walk from a train which takes you in 20 minutes to Liverpool Street in London). From what I understand, the police can only give a valid parking ticket if there are markings on the road, which is obviously not the case on an unadopted road.

[DrLance]

I have another query re unadopted roads. I live very near one, in fact the public road in fornt of my house turns into an unadopted road at the end. There is a cul de sac of 4 homes on the unadopted road. Our section of the road has 8 houses without ample parking for 2 cards each house (which is the norm giving the demands of modern work/life)...

Some of us park out cars on the unadopted road and move them on the day the dustmen come, and have been obliging when other HGVs and deliveries are made.

However, recently, the residents on the unadopted road have started to harass us and our visitors claiming that the raod is private and that they cannot park there. I think technically and legally, this argument is not correct.

They also claim that the HGV deliveries that do come sometimes drive up on the curb and cause some damage. I have offered to pay for the damage, but this has been dismissed.

They are now claiming that they are seeking to make the road totally private and to bar any access to the road unless cleared by them. Again, I think this action will be difficult to sustain legally.

In the interest of the community and in the absence of the willingness of the council to adopt the road, I am willing to pay an annual maintenance fee.

Instead, it looks like we are headed toward an impasse in which the only recourse is police involvement, which sounds extreme given that a possible soution could be found if we work together.

The only other alternative is that we displace our cars to a narrow section of our street and reduce accessibility to the people on the cul de sac.