Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department expects unadopted roads to be maintained to a certain standard; and whether local authorities can be required to adopt those roads in the event that they fail to reach that standard.

The responsibility for the management of unadopted roads rests with the owner, or more usually the frontagers, those who own property that fronts, or abuts, the road concerned. Neither the Government nor the local highway authority has any obligation over works on unadopted roads.

Statutory provision does exist for unadopted roads to be adopted and thus become highways maintainable at public expense. This requires a formal adoption by a resolution of the local authority. It is typically the case that any local highway authority considering adopting a road will require that it is elevated to an acceptable standard before doing so.