Highway register

All roads in Lewisham are listed in the Highway register, including footpaths and cycle paths.

The main categories of road described in the Highway register are as follows:

• public highway: these are roads and footpaths which are listed in the Highway Register as public highway. These roads and paths are maintainable at public expense.
• highway: some roads and paths are listed as highway (not public highway). This means that the public has the right ‘to pass and repass’ over them, but the Council has no duty to maintain them. Any duty of maintenance lies with the land owner.
• private: roads and paths listed as private are the responsibility of the landowner or frontagers. Roads and paths listed in the Highway Register as the responsibility of Lewisham Housing are, to all intents and purposes, private. Lewisham Housing can limit access to them in any way they feel appropriate (i.e. gating etc), and as the owner of the land the division is responsible for maintaining them.

The Highway register also contains information on boundary roads and responsibility for their maintenance, on adoption dates (if these are available), and on which roads are classified.