Walls, and Chinese walls
Yesterday morning Mrs P spotted part of the wall in front of a house, seeming to be in some danger of collapse onto the pavement on Stanstead Road.
The 'boundaries' between "our" (Lewisham Council's) roads, and someone else's roads (in this case, Transport for London's, as it's the South Circular) ....and the 'boundaries' between public property (like the pavement) and private property (like someone's front garden wall) can generate nightmares of bureaucracy. With everything crossed I tried sending the details to Darien Goodwin, our Head of Highways, and he came up trumps! Having been around TfL ("not us, guv!"), I think it's now got the attention of one of our Environmental Health inspectors, who can decide if it's an immediate risk, and if necessary start the right proceedings to compel whoever owns the wall to make it safe.
1 Comments:
I've always thought our Highways officers were pretty good, and a follow-up answer this morning proves it again:
"I have forwarded the issue on making the wall safe to David Xxxx in Housing. [It did indeed turn out to be a Council-owned house]
My first response did not fully answer your query.
Issues on walls, rather than buildings, has to be dealt with by the Highways Act, 1980. Walls are covered by s.165 which deals with an unfenced danger on land adjoining the Highway; in this case the unfenced danger is the wall. However, as the wall is owned by the Council it would not be appropriate for one Council service to serve notice on another.
There was a Transport for London Bill raised in 2005. This was to permit certain powers available to the Local Authority to be transferred to TfL on the TfL system. From TfL's response this has not yet become law. When it has suited TfL in the past it has sought a waiver from the Council to act directly."
Thanks, Malcolm!
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