County Council/Private land?

stevire

Recently we got a short letter in the post stating that road works are due to start on x of July.

Background: We live on a country road, quite narrow, 10 houses along the road, approx 400m in length and is an alternative route in times of heavy traffic in the local town but otherwise quiet. The road is a regional road and there has never been to my knowledge a crash on the road, but cars constantly speeding on the road.

When we followed up on the query, the county council want to widen the road. They came out door to door and explained that 16" would be taken off our driveway and put a kerb at the edge of the road. The problem is our driveway is approximately 120" from our gate and surrounding wall. But we have four cars and whatever visitors come use the land outside our wall, it is our only means of parking on our road. We reckon we could sacrifice 16" and still be able to park.

The main problem came when the county council put down the road markings.
We measured it to be about 60"!! This will stop us from parking and also encourage the speeding thats already on the road and from another point of view if any kid runs out the gate they have less chance of survival, wider road = greater speed and a shorter distance to the road from the POV of the child.

6/10 of the neighbours are against the road going ahead. The other 4 are indifferent. We applied numerous times for speed ramps with the signatures of all the other houses but to no avail. From a legal point of view, I know its a shady area but who owns the land jsut outside our wall? We have maintained it and used it for 20years+ and I know there use to be an old perimeter law stating that the owner owned x amount of land around the perimeter.

Also, a real pain is that there is approx 18" on the far side of the road, which is next to a ditch that accompanies the road for about 300m. This is owned by one of the council workers and refuses to touch it but is trying to speed up the process of having the land we use shortened. Any help/suggestion/feedback on this is greatly appreciated.

pirelli

stevire wrote: »

Recently we got a short letter in the post stating that road works are due to start on x of July.

Background: We live on a country road, quite narrow, 10 houses along the road, approx 400m in length and is an alternative route in times of heavy traffic in the local town but otherwise quiet. The road is a regional road and there has never been to my knowledge a crash on the road, but cars constantly speeding on the road.

When we followed up on the query, the county council want to widen the road. They came out door to door and explained that 16" would be taken off our driveway and put a kerb at the edge of the road. The problem is our driveway is approximately 120" from our gate and surrounding wall. But we have four cars and whatever visitors come use the land outside our wall, it is our only means of parking on our road. We reckon we could sacrifice 16" and still be able to park.

The main problem came when the county council put down the road markings.
We measured it to be about 60"!! This will stop us from parking and also encourage the speeding thats already on the road and from another point of view if any kid runs out the gate they have less chance of survival, wider road = greater speed and a shorter distance to the road from the POV of the child.

6/10 of the neighbours are against the road going ahead. The other 4 are indifferent. We applied numerous times for speed ramps with the signatures of all the other houses but to no avail. From a legal point of view, I know its a shady area but who owns the land jsut outside our wall? We have maintained it and used it for 20years+ and I know there use to be an old perimeter law stating that the owner owned x amount of land around the perimeter.

Also, a real pain is that there is approx 18" on the far side of the road, which is next to a ditch that accompanies the road for about 300m. This is owned by one of the council workers and refuses to touch it but is trying to speed up the process of having the land we use shortened. Any help/suggestion/feedback on this is greatly appreciated.

I was readinng about landlaw and the law of adversial possesion etc.Technically if you have had "exclusive use" of land for over 12 years than you can claim it using adversial possesion or rather nobody can sue you over it.

One thing I discovered in irish law was that if the council for example leave wasteland abandoned with the intention, i.e they have already planned and decided that in 18 years they are going to build an electrical station there, then very few form's of adversial possesion would succeed.

The problem is that roads are planned well in advance and that land wouldn't be there unless it was left with the intention of exstending the road.
However this might not be the case. That land might have just been left there, and the council might never have planned to extend the road. Interestingly If they had planned or agreed to 16 inches then perhaps claim the remaining 46 inches as your own land.


They might then use both sides of the road. However adversial possession is all about the constitution and getting land to park your visitors cars over the right of the neighbours to have a foot pavement would probably be a factor if it came to court.

Victor

stevire wrote: »

When we followed up on the query, the county council want to widen the road. They came out door to door and explained that 16" would be taken off our driveway and put a kerb at the edge of the road. The problem is our driveway is approximately 120" from our gate and surrounding wall. But we have four cars and whatever visitors come use the land outside our wall, it is our only means of parking on our road. We reckon we could sacrifice 16" and still be able to park.

I presume you are talking about inches. All your references are rather confusing - you mention various distances, but don't say what the start and end points are.

The main problem came when the county council put down the road markings.
We measured it to be about 60"!!

Did someone confuse "sixty" and "sixteen"?

This will stop us from parking

You have no right to park at any particular spot.

and also encourage the speeding thats already on the road and from another point of view if any kid runs out the gate they have less chance of survival, wider road = greater speed and a shorter distance to the road from the POV of the child.

While wider roads do allow higher speeds, they allow allow longer sightlines.

We applied numerous times for speed ramps with the signatures of all the other houses but to no avail.

Well nows your chance. Get together, talk to your councillors an dcouncil managment and tell them what you want in exchange.

We have maintained it and used it for 20years+ and

Irrelevant. You would need to have excluded everyone from it.

From a legal point of view, I know its a shady area but who owns the land jsut outside our wall? .... I know there use to be an old perimeter law stating that the owner owned x amount of land around the perimeter.

Not quite. You have very few right to land outside your boundary. I would suggest you look at your title deeds and planning permission to see what they say. while you might own to the middle of the road, the council have charge of the road and you won't get the land back unless the road is closed.