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Public and private roads

The following types of road are recorded:

  • maintainable at a public expense
  • not maintainable at a public expense
  • mixed maintenance responsibility.

Publicly maintainable highway

Maintainable at public expense is land maintained by your district council or Kent County Council.

Private street

A private street is land not maintainable at public expense irrespective of any access rights to the public.

You will not receive a reduction in Council Tax if you live in a property on a private street. Council Tax is used to pay for all the services provided, not just for maintaining roads and footpaths.

We do not carry out repairs in streets we do not maintain. If urgent repairs are needed to make the street safe, we may ask you and the other residents to carry them out.

Part private, part publicly maintainable

A part private, part publicly maintainable street has mixed maintenance responsibility land along its length.

Boundary enquiries

You can make a highway boundary enquiry (note charges will apply) to find out the extent of publicly maintainable highway and receive a plan.

Naming your road

Your district council is responsible for naming and numbering all new developments (roads and homes) where you live. Contact them to find out how to rename your road.

Find the status of a road

To find out if a road is public or private search the national database use:

If a road is not on the database, we may not have been made aware of the development, or the street might not be listed in our gazetteer. Email gazetteer@kent.gov.uk with the details.