Planting On Public Land

[stevewright24]

As the main road and the road entering our village meet there is a V shaped area of grass that has long been used to park while buying chips from the mobile van and other such reasons, it's also used to allow cars to pass easily as the road entering the village is quite narrow.

The property neighbouring this land has planted a row of bushes (no idea what they are - rose bushes perhaps) down the land to prevent access and hired someone to install trees to make parking there difficult.

We also neighbour this land and found the area very useful for parking when we had visitors, quite liked chips from the van which may now have trouble parking, and are not very amused.

Are they allowed to do this? If not, what can be done?

Thanks

[buildersmate]

You can understand why he might have done that.

As to the law, it sounds from your description that the land is part of the verge that forms part of the public right of way, and (as far as I know) it is only an offence to take a motor vehicle off the carriageway (provided it does not go onto private land, which is then another issue) if it goes more than 10 yards off the carriageway (it might be 15 yards - its a small nominal figure anyway - part of one of the various Road Traffic Acts).
On that basis, I don't think anyone is breaking a law by parking there.

[bookbinder]

It's probably up to the Highways Agency or maybe the local authority to do something about the planting. Maybe someone should drop them a line.

[EDDIE51]

You say 'Parking on public land' do you actually know it is 'public land ' someone must own it .
It is very possible that the land is owned by the local council or by the Highways authority and they do not mind or even want it planted .
How do you know who is paying for the trees to be planted ?
If , as is possible, it is the highways or councilthat own the land they may want to stop parking there as they consider it a hazard to oncoming traffic.
To recap, the 1st thing to do is find out who owns the land and if the owners have given permission . There is no such thing as 'Pubilc Land' it could be common land but not 'public land'.
Buildersmate, I think you have misread the question , it is not about parking it is about no longer being able to park there as it has been planted.

[stevewright24]

I have made the assumption (perhaps incorrectly) that as the neighbour's gardeners were working at both their property and this patch of land at the same time, the neighbour was seen directly them where to install on this land, and as the bushes / trees installed are the same type as those the neighbour is having in their garden that the work was organised and paid for by the neighbour.

How can I find who owns the land? I've tried to get information from the land registry but the online report showed no details of an owner and only detailed an interest registered in any mining rights. I could ring the district, county, or parish councils on Monday. Would you advise this?

If the owners have given permission I guess there is little that can be done, is this correct?
Is the situation the same if the owners had not given permission but aren't interested? I'd imagine (again perhaps incorrectly) the council would be very interested in the installation of a few trees and bushes on their land, it would only be the people who made use of that land who were interested.

The land registry information surprised me. For some reason I'd imaged that it would be a village green or similar. I'm not sure why I thought this - possibly because it's been in continuous use for long than anyone I know can remember.

[stevewright24]

sorry.. typo
I'd imagine (again perhaps incorrectly) the council would *not* be very interested in the installation of a few trees

[bednobs]

i think your parish council is your best bet - ours are great at sorting out stuff like this - can you go to their next meeting?

[buildersmate]

In most cases the public highway is not 'owned' by anyone (the exception is where land has been bought in recent times for a bypass etc.). To understand that, you have to understand how highways were first created - by people, animals etc. moving across the land to get from village to village. Those claiming ownership adjoining these established routes put up hedges and fences to stop people and animals encroaching - they would have wandered freely across the whole of the established track in the middle ages.

Only rarely can a Council show title to land now forming the highway because these roads pre-date the creation of the County Councils. So Councils are responsible for maintenance but they have no ownership rights - this is why you cannot find any title information.

Legally, highway rights (public rights of way by carriage) can become established once the land has been used in this manner for > 20 years. The verge is part of an original track that became established as a highway but which was never black-topped.

So as a general rule, it is the boundary fence that demarks the boundary between the current highway and the private ownership of adjoining land. However a ditch, if one exists, running alongside the established fence on the highway is actually part of the private land - not part of the highway (don't ask why - its an even longer story than this one).

Getting to the crux of your question, if a verge is fenced off the adjoining owner is guilty of an encroachment. It is not possible to claim adverse possession on the highway after the passage of time of

[buildersmate]

.......20 years.

[buildersmate]

Oops! or even 12 years.

[dzug2]

But isn't parking on a footpath (which this sounds as though it could effectively be) illegal anyway - though often condoned.

[buildersmate]

A good supplementary, Dzug.

Footpaths next to blacktopped parts of the public highway are not footpaths, Dzug - they are more correctly called pavement. A footpath is a public right of way for people on feet - but you knew that, of course.

A pavement (if one exists next to a carriageway) is part of the public highway - but which has been designated for humans. Not sure I know enough to explain it any better.

The reason why you get nabbed for leaving your car on a pavement is because the police do you for obstruction - in the same way as the police could do you for obstruction if parked wholly on the public highway but in a silly place. I guess it's a judgement call by the individual officer in the case of wholly on the highway - easier if on the pavement - obstracting the passage of peds.