Gating Orders

As a resident you can fill in the application form and the local authority will process the information and complete the necessary enquiries and paperwork on your behalf.

Completion of the application form will enable you to identify all the information required to progress your request. The Local Authority will then make enquires of other agencies (i.e. the police to support your application.)

A 'relevant highway' for the purposes of a gating order can be an alleyway, footpath, bridleway or carriageway (road) and any other path or track over which the public has a right of way, The Council will be able to advise you if you are unsure whether the route that relates to this application is a public right of way.

The order can run for as long as it is deemed necessary to prohibit the return of the use for which it was granted. The order will be reviewed annually.

The restriction may be full time or part time, for example, a highway may be gated only at night but open during the day. A gating order may be subsequently revoked or varied and does not enable the highway to be used for other purposes e.g. for a building to be erected on the highway. A highway does not cease to be a highway because a gating order is in place.

Local authorities have to be satisfied that residents and members of the public who use the relevant highway would not be inappropriately inconvenienced by its gating, and should be satisfied that alternative routes exist. The health implications of the order have to be considered as gating orders could potentially encourage the use of cars if the alternative routes are too long or lack pedestrianised sections. This has to be balanced against the health impacts facing pedestrians from the ongoing crime or anti-social behaviour.

Special consideration has to be given to the impact a potential order might have on disabled users of the highway to ensure that alternative routes are free from obstructions and are suitably paved.

a) Premises adjoining or adjacent to the highway are affected by crime or anti-social behaviour;

b) The existence of the highway is facilitating the persistent commission of criminal offences or anti-social behaviour; and

c) It is in all the circumstances expedient to make the order for the purposes of reducing crime or anti-social behaviour.

d) The likely effect of making the order on the occupiers of premises adjoining or adjacent to the highway;

e) The likely effect of making the order on other persons in the locality; and

f) In a case where the highway constitutes a through route, the availability of a reasonably convenient alternative route.

Details of guidance, current existing and proposed gating orders in Southampton can be found by following the links in the left hand navigation bar.