Under the Freedom of Information Act, I want to request information on how the highways status of the road outside of the properties at the top of Court Road prior to the private drive in front of and opposite number 97. How did this status change without the need to go through a formal Stopping Up process? How did they achieve the change in status when they did not own the land – what process did they use?
The grass area alongside the highway outside of number 104 Court Road was claimed by adverse possession in 2017. Devon County Council did not contest the claim as it appeared from our highway records that the surfaced road area was part of the public highway network but the grass verge area was not. This is in contrast to the situation to the east of the
junction with Lower Court Road and Middle Leigh where our records show that the footway and grass verges are part of the highway network.
In 2007, a claim was made to register land along the frontage of number 97 and 97A Court Road (the latter has also been recorded as ‘The Cottage’). Devon County Council did not object to this registration, but did note that the area directly in front of The Cottage formed part of the highway and must be maintained as such. This decision was based on an investigation by our County Solicitor and examination of our historic land charges records, which shows this area of land as part of the highway.