Roads on new developments, highway adoptions and changes to the highway network

As Local Highways Authority, we are responsible for all publicly maintained roads in the Borough with the exception of motorways and trunk roads.

Adopted and un-adopted roads

Publicly maintained roads are often referred to as adopted roads. An adopted road is under the control and management of the Council and we are therefore responsible for their maintenance and safety issues.

If a road is not publicly maintained it is referred to as an un-adopted road. These are typically private or new roads that have not yet been completed to the appropriate standard required by us for adoption, therefore all the required maintenance and safety issues are the responsibility of the developer or owner.

The Council maintains a record of all highways in the borough which are maintainable at public expense. This is known as the List of Streets and will be updated on a quarterly basis. The List of Streets is is available for public inspection at our Solihull Connect Walk in Centres

Adopting new and making changes to existing highway

The Council is responsible for overseeing the processes to adopt new highways, and to modify existing highways, constructed by developers.

These are more commonly known as Section 38 and Section 278 agreement highway works.

We check that submitted details are in accordance with both the approved highway layout (from the planning application) and technical specifications in relation to the construction of the roads. During the construction phase we inspect site operations liaising with the developers, consultants and contractors.

Once the highway has been adopted we will be responsible for its maintenance.

Developer guide

The Council have, in order to assist developers, prepared a guide setting out the key stages of the Section 38 and Section 278 processes.

As a working document it is intended that the guide will be regularly reviewed and built upon to create a comprehensive step-by-step guide to highway adoption and associated processes.

Further supporting documents