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Unadopted streets are ones which are not maintained at public expense by the highway authority (Lancashire County Council). They may or may not be classed as highways with full rights of access over them. There are no records to indicate whether an unadopted street is highway or not (legal case history is that the status of each must taken on its merits).

There are approximately 57km of unadopted streets in Pendle (approximately 11 per cent of the road network), although no official list of unadopted streets is kept.

An unadopted street can be made up to an adoptable standard using the Private Street Works Code (external link) contained in the Highways Act 1980. This power is delegated to Pendle Council as part of its Street Services Agreement with Lancashire County Council. The cost of the works would be divided between the residents having a frontage onto the street. The works would only be carried out if a majority of residents were in favour of such a scheme and if Lancashire County Council considered the road to be of "sufficient public utility" in order to adopt it afterwards.

Lancashire County Council will not carry out any maintenance works on unadopted streets.

For further information, please see our main Unadopted streets pages.

To find out if your street is adopted, or how to get your street adopted, please see our main Adopted roads pages.