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Q&A: Could We Apply for a Disabled Parking Bay?

Question

My husband and daughter are disabled but outside our terraced house is a grass road and down the bottom of the street where all the residents park is an unadopted road. We have asked the residents to please let us have access to park the car near to the end of the terraces so that my husband and daughter can get her wheelchair out and if necessary carry her from the car to the house.

However people are still parking there and it is becoming very difficult for us to cope. Is there anyway we can get a disabled bay put in at the top of the unadopted road?

Answer

Unadopted roads are often roads that do not reach the acceptable standard that a road needs to reach before it will be adopted by the local council. As such, they don't receive any council maintenance, are often devoid of drainage and street lights and usually are made up of dirt and rubble.

As unadopted roads are often public throughways, and as such cannot be blocked/fenced off or obstructed, they often cause lots of problems regarding ownership and legal responsibility for maintenance. As in your case it can be really difficult to get anyone to take responsibility for the road and also for you to figure out who you need to contact or what you need to do to alleviate your current situation.

As the road you are wanting to reserve a disabled bay upon is unadopted road, the council will not and cannot take responsibility for agreeing the request, carrying out any work upon it or maintaining the bay if it is agreed by the landowner.

So what do you do?

First of all you would need to find out who owns the land. You can do this by asking around, contacting the council or by checking the Land Registry.

Once you have the details of the landowner, you would need to contact them and ask for their permission to have a disabled bay put on their land, and also for their assistance in doing so. They would have to agree to let you have the disabled bay and they would also need to fund and arrange it for you.

Depending on how willing they are to help you out at their own expense will be the major deciding factor in this and it may be tempting to offer to pay for the work. Please bear in mind that if you were to offer to assist with the funding, you should make sure you are legally covered should there be a dispute between you and the landowner in the future, and also be aware that the council will not be able to enforce restrictions on the bay, or become involved in future disputes over it.

If you get the landowner to agree to your request you will also need to get the agreement of anyone who lives along the unadopted road. If you have an active residents association then this is often a good place to start. If not, then you might have to do a bit of knocking door to door, as anyone who lives along the unadopted road is responsible for the maintenance of the area in front of their house.

 


Disclaimer: The information in the article is for general purpose information only and should not be constituted as legal advice. This article has been produced by a third party and Jardine Motors does not take any responsibility for the completeness, accuracy, or reliability with respect to the website or the information provided. Article last updated March 2013.