Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Holborn Street alleygate

Residents have asked for help with problems on Holborn Street which they would like to see resolved with an alleygate blocking entrance to the whole street (It only goes to back gates, there are no houses on it).

So I had a site visit with Mr Alleygate himself, Jim, in the rain the other day, but it was not good news. Jim phoned the Rights of Way officer while we huddled under his umbrella and was told that it is illegal to gate highways so that was no good. Then we discussed the possibility of a stopping-up order, but there were complications there too.

If you get a stopping order then the land behind the "stop" becomes private property. And the utilities would then want to move their stuff out. Although this road is only about 100 feet long, it contains an electricity sub-station, a telegraph pole and a street light, all of which would need moving and the residents would not want to lose their light!. And they would also become liable for future cleaning/tarmaccing etc, so I cannot see this as a suitable resolution. I shall have to go back to plan A2v3.i which was to get double yellow lines, another street light and CCTV, but knowing how expensive all this is, and how long the waiting lists are on our council, I am not holding my breath.

I shall be letting all the residents have the news this week.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

plenty of other towns have alleygates. Liase with your colleagues in Barrow in Furness and see how they did it legally .