Planning Issue - Housing Development

[Santiago102]

Hello All,
I live in a rural cul-de-sac which has 15 houses in it, built at various times but none recently. The road is privately owned with each house having control over the piece of road adjacent to it. We now have a planning application from a local landowner for several houses down a wide track leading out of our road. Is the fact that the road is privately owned sufficient in itself to block this application? I need hardly add that all residents are strongly opposed to this, which has value only to the applicants. We are in an area not scheduled for local government development.

[des8]

Although a private road is it classed as public highway on your council's definitive map and statements?

[Santiago102]

Although a private road is it classed as public highway on your council's definitive map and statements?

I am not sure how to find this out (having spent some time on a Google search) but think that our road is on the map. Does that remove any rights to prevent heavy construction vehicles driving over our road?

[des8]

To discover if your road is on the definitive map some councils put it on line, for others you need to view it at their offices.

You say the various existing houses have control of this cul-de-sac.
Are they the owners, ie do the title deeds of the houses show they own the land?

If they do you might be able to refuse the developer access rights, although if the track to which you refer is already in existence this would be doubtful.

It might be worth existing householders combining to obtain advice from a solicitor specialising in land access

[Santiago102]

This has taken a while to resolve. The nearby landowner who wants to develop the land has had, for a long time, a right of access over the road to the gate to his field. There is no restriction of the public at large in using the road. Our solicitor supported our surmise that we had no right to stop access of the developer, having been given permission by the landowner. However, the width of the road with a right-angled bend in it has created problems for the developer - (1) it is nigh impossible for fire-engines and other public vehicles to gain entry around the bend into the proposed housing site, (2) the end of the road runs very close (2m) to the top of an old quarry, presumably originally subjected to explosives and potentially unstable, and (3) the end of the road runs by a line of trees in a neighbouring property, all these being covered by TPOs and with roots extending well under the proposed access road. In the end the issue was solved for the residents in that the Highways Department said that the access into the main road at the end was dangerous and that the development could therefore not proceed. In addition, this land has now been marked as 'protected' in our District Local Plan. So we should be OK (fingers crossed). Many thanks to those who replied to my first post.

[des8]

thanks for the update