The Saga of Knob Hall Lane

The Cambridge Ward Canvassers were out in force on Friday evening on Knob Hall Lane - listening and talking to residents about various local and national issues of concern.  

One key issue which comes up regularlly is the absolutely appalling state of Knob Hall Lane which as an unadopted highway is not maintained by Sefton Council.  
 
When I was first elected to the Council, I requested a report on the history of Knob Hall Lane together with details of all past attempts to get a resolution.  I have detailed below the text of this report which I have to say makes interesting reading.


1.0      Background

Knob Hall lane runs between Radnor Drive and Marshside Road. It was constructed after 1835 and is therefore not an ancient highway. This means that it is not maintained by the highway authority (adopted) as of right, It is one of a number of roads that were first dedicated as public highways by agreement between Anna Maria Hesketh and Edward Hesketh, the owners, and the Southport Corporation.  This agreement was enacted into statute under the Southport Improvement Act 1885.  

In the Agreement the road is not referred to by name but is described as the "road leading out of the last named road to Marshside Lane". The last named road being "road from Baker's Lane to the shore" ie Radnor Drive. Under the terms of the Agreement it is agreed that that the roads described in the Agreement would be "temporarily made fit for traffic to the now existing widths and maintained in good order by and at the expense of the Corporation" The Council, along with all previous authorities, interpret "in good order" as keeping it safe and fit for purpose and not necessarily to the usual standard expected of an adopted road. The Agreement sets out when and how the roads should be made up to adoptable standards and how the works should be paid for. In brief it is to be made up when the Council and the owners mutually agree that it necessary and desirable that it should be done.  The cost is to be agreed and apportioned according to the length of the property frontage to the road and is to be paid for by the property lessees.  The Council has tried, without success, on a number of occasions going back as far as 1938 to reach agreement with the owners/occupiers to have the road made up and adopted.  The proposal has always fallen because the majority of owners/occupiers have been opposed to having to pay their proportion of the costs.

 
Legal Issues
 
Under the terms of the Highways Act 1980 and earlier Highways Acts an unadopted road would be subject to the provisions of the Advanced Payments Code and the Private Streetworks Scheme requirements.  The Advanced Payments Code provisions require anyone erecting a new property fronting on to an unadopted road to deposit with the authority or to secure for the benefit of the authority sufficient payment to cover the cost of making up that part of the road in front of property.  Under the Private Streetworks requirements, if a deposit has been made in accordance with the Advanced Payments Code and more than 50% of the owners or occupiers of properties fronting on to an unadopted road wish the road to be made up and they are willing to pay their portion of the costs of doing so, the authority must make up the road and adopt it.  Those owners who are unwilling or unable to pay their portion of the costs will have a 'Charge' placed upon their property and the authority may collect this Charge when the property is next sold. In some circumstances, owners of properties that don't front onto the road but gain some benefit from the road being made up must pay a proportion of the costs involved. The Highways Act allows the authority to borrow money to cover that portion of the cost of the works that would normally be due from those who are unwilling or unable to pay their proportion of the costs.  The authority is able, as referred to above, to place a Charge on the property but it should be noted that the Charge will rise by the addition of any interest due on the money borrowed.  The owner or occupier can if they wish pay off the Charge by regular payments to the authority or leave it to be paid when the property is sold.   

The Private Streetworks Scheme requirements of the Highways Act are therefore similar in terms of the method of payment for the works as the terms of the Agreement within the Southport Improvement Act but there appear to be some anomalies between to two Acts when fully considering the liabilities of them various parties involved and the conditions to be fulfilled to progress the construction and adoption of Knob Hall Lane.  Any action by the authority to progress a scheme must therefore be carefully considered at each stage by the  Councils Legal Department to ensure that it is not open to challenge.

 
3.0         Previous Consultation

 
The last consultation exercise was undertaken in 1998 when the owners of 33 properties were contacted.  These 33 properties were those that the records indicated had not made a deposit or secured a payment under the Advanced Payments Code and were therefore considered as those likely to have to make the biggest financial contribution towards the cost of making up the road.  Of these 29 owners responded and only 4 of these indicated a willingness to make a payment subject of course to the amount of the payment required.  At the time of that consultation there were 50 properties fronting Knob Hall Lane that would be required to contribute to the cost of the road works.  Of these 17 had either made a deposit or through the builder of the property had secured a sum towards the cost of highway works. There are now 53 fronting the road that would be liable to pay towards to cost of the works.

The fact that 25 were negative in their response meant that the conditions of both the 1885 Act and the Highways Act could not be met.

In February 2001 a petition was received requesting the adoption of the road. The petition read: "We the undersigned note with grave concern the deteriorating condition of Knob Hall Lane and the Council's lack of willingness to come to an agreement for the adoption of the road by the Council. In view of the large sums of money now held by the Council for the adoption of the road we feel that there is a moral obligation for them to proceed." 

This petition was signed by 41 of the owners of properties fronting onto Knob Hall Lane.  It was apparent that the residents were of the view that the Council had received large sums of money by way of Advanced Payments Code deposits when in actual fact only £1178.00 had been received.  With accrued interest this sum at May 2000 increased to £5183.00.  In addition to this sum the Council held a bond the value of which was £27457 towards any costs payable by the owners of properties 5 to 25 and 39 to 47 Knob Hall Lane. At that time it was estimated that the cost would be in the region of £120000 to £150000 assuming that it would only be necessary to overlay the road. A report was considered by the Technical Services Ratification Committee and it was resolved to seek immediate payment of the Bond so that it could be deposited in an interest bearing account.

The current value of the money held as Advanced Payment Code deposits has not been calculated but given the interest levels compared to the inflation costs of construction works it is certain that the deposits are falling behind.


4.0   Scheme Options

The Council Design Services Section has since carried out a survey of the road and investigated to existing ground conditions.  This has revealed that much more works than originally envisaged would be required.  The road would in fact require a total reconstruction to bring it up to adoption standards.  Two design options have been produced. These differ only in the fact that one provides for a high kerb on the south side of the road to avoid vehicle override and maintain a clear footway and the other providing a lower kerb.  Both include traffic calming to reduce possible rat running. The cost of these schemes, based on prices at February 2005, are £302,066.00 for the option with a low kerb and £304,565 with the higher kerb.  These costs do not include the cost of the relocation of statutory undertakers equipment.  The statutory undertakers cannot provide an estimate of their costs unless they are first paid to undertake investigations.  We are unable to pay the required fee until there is a commitment to proceed with a scheme. In addition these estimates do not include for the design, contract administration, site supervision and legal costs of undertaking a Private Streetworks Scheme. These costs could add a further £30,000.

 
5.0      Apportionment   

 The usual method of apportioning the costs is according to the length of the frontage that each property has to the road.  The Council as the highway authority would be responsible for the payment of any frontage that is already adopted highway.  In this case the authority would pay for the section fronting Granby Close, that fronting part of 61 Knob Hall Lane and the frontage to Croston's Brow and 72/74 Knob Hall Lane.  This can possibly be better understood by referring to the attached extract from the adoption records.  The cost apportionment for the frontage to Cotty's Brow and Knob Hall Gardens would be shared between the owners of the properties in those roads.  It is also  possible that some further portion of the costs could be charged to these
properties based on the degree of benefit that these properties enjoy as a result of the making up of the road.  It is extremely difficult to say what the degree of benefit would be. It would probably be necessary to seek the opinion of a land property value consultant. The overall frontage to Knob Hall Lane is about 860 metres.  The apportionment of the cost would therefore be approximately £389.00 per metre of property frontage. The shortest frontage is that to number 26 which is approximately 5.0 metres.  The owner of this property could therefore be expected to have to pay about £1945.00 towards the cost of making up the road.  The longest frontage is to number 62. This frontage is approximately 63 metres long.  This equates to an apportionment of some £25,074.00.  The Council does not hold any deposits in favour of these properties.  Properties numbered 5 to 47 (odds only) will benefit by approximately £150.00 per metre from the deposit held as a result of the payment of the Bond referred to above.  The apportionment to the owners of these properties would therefore be about £239.00 per metre of frontage. .In the case of number 41 the cost would be around £8,604.00 and for number 43 about £3,107.00. The only other properties that have the advantage of having had a deposit paid are I understand, Nos. 30, 54 and 56.  The value of these deposits would need to be updated if a scheme were to be progressed. The frontage length for which the Council would be responsible is 52 metres.  A scheme based on the above costs would therefore require a contribution from the Council of some £20,230.00

6.0   Final Comment

Attempts have been made on 5 or 6 occasions to progress a scheme for the adoption of this road.  Detailed schemes have been produced every 10 to 15 years during the last 50 years. All have failed because the owners of the properties are not willing to fund the cost of the works. The survey and design referred to above is the latest and probably most detailed. Each request for a scheme has involved the Council in considerable expense.  These costs can
only be recovered if the scheme goes ahead. It should be noted that the above figures and subsequent calculations are based on estimated costs as of February 2005. Construction and materials costs are continually rising between 5% and 7% per year.  If any of the above figures are to be quoted to any 3rd party they should be made aware of this point and that these figure are quoted without prejudice.