Unadopted streets

Adopted and unadopted streets

Lancashire County Council (as highway authority) will maintain streets that are recorded as "highways maintainable at public expense" as defined by the Highways Act 1980. Publicly maintained streets are referred to as "adopted" and streets that are not maintained by Lancashire County Council are referred to as "unadopted".

Adopted streets are generally those that existed as highways before 31 August 1835, or highways that have been adopted since 1835 following one of a number of formal legal processes. Lancashire County Council maintains a list of adopted streets and information regarding highway status can be obtained by calling Lancashire County Council's Customer Service Centre on 0845 053 0011.

Many of the older streets in our towns were laid out by industrialists who, when constructing homes for their workers, may not have wished to dedicate them as public highways. Other streets may have been constructed by developers who, on the grounds of expense or for other reasons, were unable to build their streets to the highway authority's adoption standards. Other streets may have developed over time through long usage as unmade tracks without being formally constructed and dedicated as adopted highways.

Some streets may be recorded as maintainable only as a footpath or a bridleway. Even though such streets may also carry vehicular traffic, Lancashire County Council would only maintain such a street to a standard appropriate to its use as a public right of way for pedestrians, horses and the like.

Even though most streets in Pendle are adopted, there are approximately 57km of unadopted streets in the borough (11 per cent of the highway network) and it is recognised that this causes problems for many residents and the local authority.

There are no comprehensive lists of unadopted streets.