Highway Extinguishments

An ‘Extinguishment’ is a procedure which enables a landowner to legally acquire an area of public highway which can then be included within their property boundary as private land.

The definition of public highway is a “way over which all members of the public have a right to pass and repass”.  There are various types of public highway - the most common are footpaths, bridleways and full vehicular use highways.

Generally, the public highway extends over the whole width of a road, path, verge and other land up to the boundaries of adjoining properties and fields.

There are various reasons why a landowner would want to extinguish the highway rights over some of the adjoining highway:

Before the start of the formal extinguishment process, there are two conditions that must be met:

If the Council agrees to progress an extinguishment on behalf of a landowner, the procedure is carried out in an Order made under Section 116 of the Highways Act 1980. The application would be made to the relevant Magistrates Court which if granted, removes the public highway rights from over the land making it private.

The procedure and costs to the applicant can vary depending on who owns the 'subsoil' of the land in question. Subsoil is the land over which the highway has been laid.

To find out who owns the subsoil, you can e-mail us at extinguishments@leics.gov.uk.

Once you know who owns the subsoil, you can view the relevant leaflet from the list below for further information on the procedures and costs.

The County Council does not own the subsoil to the majority of historical roadways or the adjacent highway land throughout the County. The land used to create these historical roadways was dedicated as a right of way for public use by the owner of the land in question at the time. In most cases, the landowner is not known.

The leaflet below explains how it is possible to register ‘ancient highway’ with the Land Registry following the extinguishment procedure by applying for a Vesting Order.

The normal presumption is that when highway rights are removed from an area of land following an extinguishment, ownership of this land automatically reverts to the adjoining landowner. However, procedures for registering land have changed and Land Registry now require the applicant to be able to show either ownership of the land or enter into a 'Vesting Order'.

Further information can be found in the leaflet below.

Property developers often dedicate the roadways that serve properties built by them as public highway. In this case, the developer is still the owner of the subsoil. Therefore to own such land following an extinguishment, it will be necessary to buy the subsoil from the developer to be able to register the land with the Land Registry.

Further information can be found in the leaflet below.

Some areas of land have been purchased by the County Council for highway purposes. In this case, to own the land following an extinguishment, the subsoil must be purchased from the County Council before the land can be registered with the Land Registry.

Further information can be found in the leaflet below.

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If you have any further enquiries regarding extinguishments, please feel free to contact us by ringing 0116 305 7189, e-mailing extinguishments@leics.gov.uk, or by writing to us at the following address: