Fly-tipping factsheet

Southampton Clean City: Fly Tipping Prevention and Removal

As the local highways authority, the council only has a statutory duty to maintain areas of adopted highway. The council has no statutory responsibility to maintain areas of unadopted highway, and there are no resources currently allocated within the street cleansing service to remove litter or fly tipping from such areas.

The Highways Act 1980 defines unadopted highways as areas' not maintainable at public expense'. Responsibility for the cost of maintaining an unadopted or private road, alley or cutway generally rests with the ‘frontagers’ (i.e. the owners of properties that front directly onto the area). The fact that an area is publicly accessible and may have in the past been tarmacked and / or supplied with street lamps does not necessarily mean that it has been added to the highways register and adopted by the council for ongoing upkeep and maintenance.