General principles of adoption of drainage
All highway drains should be located within land proposed for adoption by the water company or the council. Any adoptable highway drain outside the limits of the adoptable highway must be covered by an easement and accompanying legal agreement. This should be in place before, or be a condition of, the Section 38 or 278 agreement (Highways Act 1980).
The council will adopt drainage systems that accept highway runoff only. Highway drains are not designed to accept any private drainage (from individual properties, business, and developments) or discharges from private treatment plants/septic tanks and land drainage, and any such requests to connect into a highway drain would be refused.
Typically, water companies will adopt systems where they accept water from sources that include non-highway drainage from the general development. Where this drainage runs within the curtilage of adopted highway, evidence of signed agreement under the Water Industry Act 1991must be provided before the council will agree to sign a Section 38 agreement and adopt a road (Highways Act 1980). The council will not adopt the roads until the water company has issued a provisional certificate of adoption for the drainage system.
The council’s responsibility for highway drainage finishes at the point at which it discharges into a watercourse (including ditches) and beyond that point it becomes the liability of the landowner.