Private Roads 6th ed. updates

This page will contain updates to the text of Private Roads:  The Legal Framework, 6th edition, cross-referenced to paragraph numbers.  We welcome comments from users of the book.  Please note that the list is not intended to be exhaustive: entries merely reflect some important legal developments.

1-36  The TW Logistics case has been considered by the Supreme Court ([2021] UKSC 4, [2021] 2 WLR 383).  The Court upheld the status as a “village green” of a dockside area of concrete measuring about 2,000 square metres.  But the public’s use of the land must be reasonable, and the owners of the land must remain able to carry on their business.

2-28  See Dowse v Bradford MBC, [2020] UKUT 202 (LC).  In this case the boundary of land was unclear.  The Upper Tribunal held that the land which could be aquired adverse possession was limited to the area within which the position of the boundary was unclear.  The landowner’s claim to have acquired a much larger area was unsuccessful, although he had been in possession of it.

3-8  See now DPP z Ziegler and Others, [2021] UKSC 23.  The Supreme Court has allowed the appeal of the protesters, who were demonstating aghainst an arms fair at a centre in East London.  In doing so they had obstructed the highway for a certain period of time, and had allegedly committed an offence under s. 137 of the Highways Act 1980.  The Supreme Court (by a majority) felt that the protest, which was peaceful and not disorderly, had not gone so far as to exceed the protesters’ rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression under the human rights legislation.

7-67  The Alexander Devine case has been considered by the Supreme Court [2020] UKSC 45, [2020] 1 WLR 46783.  The Supreme Court found fault with the the reasoning of the Court of Appeal, but nonetheless upheld their decision. Thirteen “affordable homes” had been built on land in breach of a restrictive covenant.   It is not yet clear whether the thirteen homes will have to be demolished.

9-14  With effect from 1 September 2020, the Use Classes Order has been amended by the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2020, SI 2020/757.  These are significant changes, giving rise to a more complex pattern of use classes.

12-16  See Gibbons v Smith [2020] EWHC 1727 (Ch) on the court’s orders in relation to an unincorporated association which had in effect been dissolved some years before.