The majority of the roads in Southampton are public highways maintainable at the public expense. These roads are maintained (that is cleaned, lit and repaired) by Southampton City Council and are referred to as adopted roads.
The remaining roads are private streets or private roads. These roads are not maintained by Southampton City Council. Maintenance of these roads is the responsibility of the adjacent land owners whose property fronts onto the private streets or private roads. The public has the right to use private streets even though they are not maintained by the Council.
The process of changing the legal status of a road to that of public highway maintainable at the public expense is referred to as Road adoption.
New roads that have been constructed in accordance with the Council’s guidelines are normally adopted by way of an agreement between the Developer and the Council under Section 38 of the Highways Act 1980 although in some cases Section 278 of that Act may be used. Existing roads will not be adopted unless they are first brought up to current standards by the owner of the road.
Southampton City Council
