Who owns grass verges

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Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article. North Shropshire 5 hours ago. Donnington 14 hours ago. North Shropshire 15 hours ago. Shrewsbury 15 hours ago. Wellington 15 hours ago. In such cases they may or may not be subject to rights of common, but in either event they may be held to have been dedicated to public passage, in which case also they are part of the highway.

It is important that strips of roadside verge should be safeguarded from any illegal attempts to inclose them for the following reasons. In cases where no footway has been constructed alongside the metalled road, the verge enables pedestrians to proceed with greater safety than they would on the metalled road. Verges often provide a soft turf surface of value to equestrians who would otherwise be limited to using a metalled road which is often unsafe and sometimes of a character unsuitable for horses.

With the loss of most of our traditional meadow land through agricultural change, our largest nature reserve is now represented by roadside verges, an important habitat which extends to perhaps half a million acres. They are a vital reservoir of wildlife, especially of wild flowers.

Soil Association If the inclosure of roadside verges is permitted, any necessary widening of the metalled highway will be more costly by reason of the consequent compensation to the owners of the adjoining lands, and perhaps some much-needed road improvement may thereby be prevented. The increased popularity of walking and riding and the increasing need for wide traffic-routes make it especially important that the public should not lose the advantages to be obtained from keeping such strips free from any illegal inclosure.

Ownership of the soil. The general principle of law relating to the ownership of the soil of such strips was stated by Gibbs CJ in Grose v West 7 Taunt 39 , in the following words: Prima facie, the presumption is, that a strip of land lying between a highway and the adjoining close, belongs to the owner of the close; as the presumption also is that the highway itself to the centre line of the road does.

But the presumption is to be confined to that extent; for if the narrow strip be contiguous to or communicate with open commons, or larger portions of land, the presumption is either done away or considerably narrowed; for the evidence of ownership which applies to the larger portions, applies also to the narrow strip which communicates with them.

It is to be borne in mind that the questions who owns the soil of the roadside verge, and whether it is part of the highway, are quite distinct. Regardless of who owns the soil, the public may have a right of passage over it, ie it may be part of the highway. Where the highway authority acquired the site of the road by purchase, but has only metalled the centre, it has the same legal interest in the verges as any other freeholder has in his own land.

It owns the surface and all the soil beneath. Roads taken over by highway authorities vest in them together with the verges. This results in the appropriate authority becoming the fee-simple estate owners in respect of the surface of the road and so much of the subsoil as is essential to the maintenance of the highway for the public use.

Width of Highway. The general rule of law relating to the extent of the space subject to the public right of passage was stated in Regina v United Kingdom Electric Telegraph Co Ltd 26 JP , by Martin B, as follows: In the case of an ordinary highway, although it may be of a varying and unequal width, running between fences on each side, the right of passage or way prima facie, unless there be evidence to the contrary, extends to the whole space between the fences, and the public are entitled to the use of the entire of it as a highway, and are not confined to the part which may be metalled This presumption that a highway extends over the whole space between fences may however be rebutted by proof of facts from which it may be inferred that the fences were not put up as boundaries of the highway; thus they may be part of the original boundary of a close of land through which the highway had been made.

Or they may be the boundary between the inclosed land and a strip of manorial waste alongside the highway which has not been dedicated as part of it. Thus the presumption of dedication arising from the public user of greens along the side of a highway between the fences was rebutted in one instance by evidence of an entry in the court rolls of the manor that the greens were waste belonging to the manor, and of the greens being treated by the lord of the manor as his private property.

The question as to the extent of the space subject to the public right of passage depends upon the evidence in each particular case as to the nature of the district, the width and level of the margins, the regularity of the lines of the fences and other relevant circumstances.

Sometimes a road does not run between fences, but across open common or manorial waste; and in that case the presumption of dedication between fences does not apply. The cases cited above were considered in Harvey v Truro Rural Council [] 2 Ch by Joyce J who in his judgment said: In the case of an ordinary highway running between fences, although it may be of a varying and unequal width, the right of passage or way prima facie, and unless there be evidence to the contrary, extends to the whole space between the fences, and the public are entitled to the entire of it as a highway, and are not confined to the part which may be metalled.