Adoption of Roads

Roads on new housing and industrial estates are designed and constructed to standards set out in the County Council's manual. To avoid long term maintenance problems, the practice is to try to persuade developers, wherever possible, to have these roads adopted as public highways, maintained by the County Council. This process is secured through legal agreements with developers.

If you wish to know whether your road is adopted please contact Hampshire County Council (this is an external hyperlink) or use Hampshire County Council's search engine (this is an external hyperlink).

Responsibility

In general terms, the Council has no responsibility for maintaining private streets. These may be streets which the owners wish to remain private or more recently-constructed streets to serve developments. In the latter case, the developer may apply for the street to be adopted by the Council. Once adopted, the Council acquires responsibility. Until that time, the developer is responsible.

Potentially-adoptable Highways

A developer, or group of individuals, may enter into a legally binding agreement with the Highway Authority for the construction of a new road.

For further information please visit Hampshire Highways (this is an external hyperlink).