In simple terms, a Highway Maintainable at Public Expense is a highway where the local authority is responsible for the maintenance of the route. In the article What is a Highway? we look at highways more broadly, not just those which are Maintainable at Public Expense.
Finding out if a particular highway is Maintainable at Public Expense is relatively simple, thanks to the Highways Act 1980. s36 of that Act requires every highway authority to keep a list of such highways (often referred to as the List of Streets). This list must be inspectable by the public. Most authorities make this available online. Of course, there is no way to easily determine if a route has been quietly removed from the list, but that is a different topic.
How does a highway become Maintainable at Public Expense?
This is less straightforward and we need to go back in time. The Highways Act 1980 only talks about highways that were already Maintainable at Public Expense. So to find out which these were, we need to look at the Highways Act 1959. This removes an old description: "Maintainable by the Inhabitants at Large" - in other words, the people living in the parish through which the highway runs.
So highways which were Maintainable by the Inhabitants at Large in 1959 became Maintainable at Public Expense and remain so. But, which highways were Maintainable by the Inhabitants at Large?
For this, we need to go right back to 1835! Before the Highways Act 1835, every highway (for practical purposes) was Maintainable by the Inhabitants at Large. So if a highway existed before 1835, it is now Maintainable at Public Expense. These are known as Ancient Highways.
What about later highways?
Of course, there are many highways today that didn't exist in 1835. The 1835 Act talks about new "roads and occupation ways" not becoming publically maintainable unless properly adopted. The courts have ruled that an authority maintaining a way can be evidence of adoption. So, from 1835 onwards, new highways are not maintainable unless they are adopted.
The Highways Act 1980 further complicates matters as all highways created by the highway authority and adopted as part of the process. But this only applies when the authority is using its highway powers. If it builds a park for example, this will not lead to publicly maintainable paths.
Does this apply to all highways?
No! When the Definitive Map was created by the 1949 Act, maintenance of footpaths, bridleways and restricted byways was excluded from new routes. Those that existed before 1949 were still included. But, like any highway, footpaths, bridleways, etc can be adopted.
Also, some public path diversion orders cause the newly created way to become Maintainable at Public Expense.
Can an authority maintain other ways?
Sometimes a highway authority will maintain a route that is not Maintainable at Public Expense. If this goes on for an extended time, then the consensus seems to be that the route becomes publicly maintainable even if the maintenance was the result of a mistake.
What about dead ends?
There are lots and lots of dead ends that are Maintainable at Public Expense. There are even a surprising number that are completely isolated and not connected at either end. In most cases, it can be assumed that something was once there. Perhaps a building or maybe there was a through route that has been stopped up leaving just the dead end.
Another cause of dead ends comes from the 1960s. The government wanted to end the use of milk churns. So a subsidy scheme was put in place to raise the standard of farm access roads and make them suitable for milk tankers. This usually involved tarmacking the road and adopting it to remain Maintainable at Public Expense.
Can I use all Highways Maintainable at Public Expense?
Yes. If the public is maintaining the highway, then the public can expect to be able to use the highway.
There is a presumption that every Highway Maintainable at Public Expense is a carriageway unless there is evidence otherwise. An example of such evidence would be it also being included on the Definitive Map as a footpath or bridleway.
Rights of Wayfinder obtains information about the current status of ways from the List of Streets held by every council. This is used in conjunction with other records to work out which ways can be used by which modes of transport.