Highway Adoptions

Leicestershire County Council is the highway authority for Leicestershire (excluding the City of Leicester).   The Council has powers under the Highways Act to enter agreements with developers to take over the future ownership and maintenance of new estate roads.  Most commonly this process happens under Section 38 of the Highways Act.  This process is called “adopting” a new road.

To find out whether a specific road is publicly maintained, subject to a Section 38 agreement or not publicly maintained please visit our Road Status Search.

For further information regarding private streets not maintained by Leicestershire County Council, follow the link below:

The County Council is not the authority for the City of Leicester or Rutland. For any information within these areas, please contact Leicester City Council or Rutland County Council respectively.

For any queries regarding land ownership, please contact the Land Registry – Leicester Office on 0116 265 4000.

Information about the highway adoptions process or technical information about Leicestershire County Council’s design standards can be found by following the link below:

When you move into your new house, the road fronting your house will be owned by the developer.  It is the developer's responsibility to construct and maintain the road.

You should have been made aware by the developer or solicitor whether the road fronting your house is proposed to be adopted or not. If your road is proposed to be adopted (i.e. it is under a Section 38 agreement) then this means that when the developer has completed the road to the Council’s satisfaction, it will be taken over by the Council, and they will be responsible for its future maintenance.

If the road is to remain private (i.e. it will not be adopted) then you will be responsible for maintaining part of it. This is often done by a management company on your behalf, and you will pay an annual fee towards this.

We would like your comments on how the roads in your estate function in practice as this will help us to improve the design of roads and housing layouts in the future.  Please provide your comments to roadadoptions@leics.gov.uk.

We hope that you will find the information you require on our web site. If not, please feel free to contact the Road Adoptions team on 0116 305 7198 or at roadadoptions@leics.gov.uk.