The comment below is not a definitive statement of law but it is my appraisal of the situation based upon many years working collating legal evidence and writing the legal documents used to recommend the change of the legal status of a highway in reports presented to Councillor Area Committees.
In my opinion , a land search through the Land Registry could give you details of land ownership. It is very unusual for ownership of a strip of land which is used as a road and which is adjacent to and providing access to immediately adjacent properties to be owned by a specific landowner. The most likely situation is that the adjacent houses own the subsurface (and surface but more details to follow) of the road to halfway across the road and the field owner the other half. Construction of road surfaces appropriate for usage by vehicles gaining access for all vehicles by the housebuilder has been a condition for granting planning permission for the last fifty or sixty years. If the road was built to an appropriate standard the Council would assume responsibility for maintenance of the road as an 'adopted highway'. The houses look to me as if they were built in the 1930s(?) and the builder did not agree to build a road surface for use by all vehicles (including vehicles which are not accessing adjacent properties), the residents have not agreed to club together pay to build a road which is of a standard appropriate for adoption by the Council. There could be the added complication of responsibility for the bridge across the canal. This would not only be the road surface it would also incorporate grids and drainage of the road. This route therefore seems to me to have the legal status of a 'private road': there will be a statement in the deeds of each adjacent property that residents can use this route for vehicular access, as can bona-fide visitors to these properties. Other vehicular users (ie those using it as a through route from Lockside to Brickbridge Road are trespassing).
As for access for pedestrians and horse-riders wishing to use the route the legal situation is very different. If there have not been signs at each end of Suttons Lane stating that the road was private and that all public access was prohibited and the route has been used on foot and/or by horses for a continuous period of twenty years the route could be deemed to be an unrecorded public right of way if used in good faith by pedestrians/horse riders who used the route 'in good faith' believing access to the route to be legitimate. The surface of this route can become a public footpath or bridleway if someone is prepared to make a claim to the Public Rights of Way section of Stockport MBC for the route to be added to the Definitive Map and Statement of Public Rights of Way. The surface would become 'Queen's Highway' but the subsurface is in the ownership of the adjacent property.
Topic: Suttons Lane (Read 1758 times)