Highway status and road adoption

A Stopping Up Order is the legal process for closing a public street and making it a private one.
These orders are usually made to allow development to take place or because that public highway is no longer necessary.

Public highway can include roads, streets, footpaths, public car parks, grass verges and footways. Not all roads, streets or footpaths are public highways.

The term 'stopping up' means that once such an order is made, the highway land ceases to be a highway, which means that the highway rights are extinguished in law. The land is then free of any Highway Authority control and the Council are under no obligation to clean it or carry out repairs.

Stopping Up Orders are usually created as part of a Planning Application under Section 247 of the Town & Country Planning Act 1990. As part of the planning application process, the applicant (who should be the landowner) would apply to the Department for Transport for the Stopping Up Order. Further details are available on their website.

The Council (the Highway Authority) will not normally make a Stopping Up Order themselves, unless there is a greater public interest and the planning process is unavailable. We will not Stop Up a highway for private resident reasons - you should persue a Planning Application. We can though, offer advice on your application in order to minimise the possibility of us objecting to it.

Public notices of recent Stopping up orders