Battle to find road owner may finally be won after 30 years

[dutchman]

Residents have been trying to find out who owns the road since 1990



A peculiar 30-year battle by baffled residents to find the owner of the road they live on may finally be won.

Residents on Sutton Stop, which leads to the Hawkesbury Canal Junction, have been trying to find who owns their road since 1990.

The road was initially put down by residents in 1978 after they raised £6,000 to surface it and install 'sleeping policemen'.

But the speed bumps were taken down and painted over by Coventry City Council in 1998 as part of a £160,000 renovation.

Calls have been made for speeding measures to return ever since, but the council said it is unable to do anything because it cannot find the road owners.

That is despite residents being told by a council officer in 1998 that the authority would 'adopt' the road and maintain it after works were completed.

Ward councillor Linda Bingham said the road was a "danger for residents" trying to walk past speeding cars and needed work.

Speaking at a meeting of the Cabinet Member for City Services on Monday, she said: "It would seem at this point [in 1998] someone took responsibility for the roadway and logic would suggest that once having assumed responsibility it would remain with whoever did that work."

But records and land registry checks found the road was never adopted, the meeting heard.

Sutton Stop resident Lonnie Downes urged the council to "honour the agreement".

Council officer Rachel Goodyer said: "I appreciate the fact you have had a letter in 1998 saying they would look at doing the adoption but as it stands at the moment we cannot do any work while it is not adopted."

Cllr Tim Sawdon questioned: "How has this been done in the past if it can't be done now?"

Cabinet Member for City Services Councillor Jayne Innes said the council had "inherited a 20-year situation", but promised steps would be made to resolve the issue.

She added: "What I propose is that we go through all the records again, see if we can identify who owns this road and if we can't, start the work to adopt the road, at which point we will look at measures you are requesting.

"I'm sorry I can't wave the magic wand and I don't know why it wasn't done 20 years ago.

"I promise you we will be working now to move forward for you."

[rebbonk]

IIRC, that road was last repaired on behalf of the brewery owning the Greyhound. The road was an absolute disgrace before it was repaired.

[Melisandre]

When I lived close to the Dog as we called it in the early 1970s it was like a dirt track but back then not many cars went down there as it was mainly locals that used it which were mainly the boat people families who moved into the houses and they walked to it. This was when Grange hurst school was on the corner of Grange Road at the bottom even the Chingford estate was nt built let alone all of the other estates that have been built here now it was just fields.

[dutchman]

This was the road in 1985:

[rebbonk]

Great view that clearly shows the two canals and where the left one was stopped and filled in once common sense prevailed. (The left branch ran in parallel to the right one up as far as Longford Rd.)