[OSM-talk] Gated Communities
Keith Sharp
kms at passback.co.uk
Thu Nov 8 20:12:12 GMT 2007
On Thu, 2007-11-08 at 09:54 +0000, David Earl wrote:
> In the UK, "Private Road" doesn't usually mean you can't go down it -
> it
> usually means "unadopted", that is the local authority doesn't have
> responsibility for maintaining it. If it has a name or serves several
> houses, I generally map it, and I haven't had any problems with
> objecting residents so far - after all, for all they know, I might be
> visiting someone in one of the properties.
>
> In any case, again UK only, the worst that can happen is that someone
> orders you off - you'd have to do some damage to be susceptible to
> any
> kind of legal action (assuming you're not trying to map a military
> base
> or somewhere that is covered by additional law, where it will always
> say
> so).
In Scotland your access rights are now clearly defined in law (unless
you live near Miss Gloag). The Land Reform Act and Scottish Outdoor
Access Code govern access rights. In the main if you act responsibly
you can go pretty much anywhere on private land. On a large private
piece of land you can be excluded from going within 200 meters of the
house (with the exception of the aforementioned Miss Gloags house).
councils can make additional restrictions through bylaws for example
military bases, airports, etc.
The impact of this is that you probably have no right of access to gated
communities (unless there is a route you can take that keeps you 200
meters from the houses). The same is true of unadopted roads, they are
not the public highway so the same 200 meter exclusion rule can apply.
In reality you can probably map both, if someone asks you to leave you
should.
I've always fancied trying mapping in a hi-vis bib with "Surveyor"
printed on the shoulders and a clipboard - I reckon you could go pretty
much anywhere unchallenged!
As for gated communities I find myself torn, part of me wants to say
stuff them for removing themselves from the wider community, but another
part of me wants the most complete map possible.
Keith.
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