A Section 38 Agreement is completed to secure the development of new estate roads on private land owned by a developer.
Planning permission is initially obtained in respect of an indicative layout. Following this the developer prepares detailed technical drawings which are forwarded to us for approval.
Once satisfactory, these drawings are added to the completed Section 38 Agreement and used to supervise the construction works, which are carried out by the developer.
This is a legal agreement. Any anomalies encountered, whilst construction is ongoing, require a formal amendment to the plans.
Once the roads have been completed to the necessary standard, and the compulsory maintenance period successfully completed, we will adopt them as public highway.
There are more agreements where land can be dedicated as highway. Two of these are agreements made under Section 278 of the Highways Act 1980 which are known as Highway Authority Design and Build Agreements and Developer Design and Build Agreements.
In addition, for small scale works Norfolk County Council may allow the use of a Small Highway Works Permit, which can also include the dedication of land for highway purposes. These types of legal agreements and permits affect existing county roads.