Advice

The legal process which allows us to gate an alleyway is quite complex and it can take quite a long time from the initial receipt of an application to seeing the gates in place. We are required, by law, to take a number of legislative requirements into consideration before deciding whether or not gates can be fitted on an alleyway. These legal requirements are something over which we have no control and sometimes we will not be able to grant an alley gating request as a result.

Step 1

Discuss the problem with your ward manager, local councillor or ward committee neighbourhood co-ordinator. Your ward manager is your local community beat officer and can be contacted through your local police station. Your neighbourhood co-ordinator attends residents' meetings and queries can be put to them.

Step 2

Contact your ward committee and lodge your application with the co-ordinator for your neighbourhood. The ward committee will complete a request form that will be forwarded on to the Public Rights of Way (PROW) team.  All requests for alley gating must go through the ward committee, they cannot go direct to the PROW team.

The application will then be processed by the PROW team following the key stages below:

Stage 1

The PROW team will carry out an assessment of the request against the requirements of the legislation. This will involve, for example, investigating the levels of crime and anti-social behaviour which can be attributed to the alleyway, whether the alleyway serves as a principle means of access to any adjacent property and the availability of a reasonably convenient alternative route.

Stage 2

If the above requirements can be met, all property owners who may be affected by the proposed alley gating scheme will be informally consulted.  Other 'prescribed' bodies, such as utility companies, user groups and emergency services will also be informally consulted. 

If the majority of residents and the emergency services are in support of the scheme, the ward committee will then decide whether to progress with it.  If it is decided to go ahead we will publish a notice of our intention to make a gating order and will re-consult with all residents and prescribed bodies again. This is a formal consultation and is required by law. 

A report will then be compiled and considered by the appropriate decision making body within the council. This will be a public meeting and anyone may register to speak in favour of, or in objection to, the scheme.

Stage 3

If we decide that the scheme should progress, the gates will be manufactured, the required legal orders sealed and the gates fitted. This last stage may take some time due to the fact that schemes are batched together in order to keep costs to a minimum.  By doing this the council is able to implement as many requests as possible, within the resources it has available.

For further information regarding alley gating, please contact the PROW team