The 2026 Annual General Meeting will be held on 22nd September at 7:00pm at St Andrews Church, Box Hill
If you are a regular contributor, thank you for your continued support. If you do not contribute then please join us in making your annual payment to contribute to the community fund for road maintenance for your road. The subscription for 2026 is £100 per property. By choosing to pay your annual subscription you are helping to ensure safe and easy access to your property and help meet your legal responsibilities (please scroll down for details) to maintain the road/highway outside your house as well as acting in the interest of the whole road community.
Update on the last year and plans for 2026.
The pumped sewage main leaks in Headley Heath Approach in late 2024/early 2025 resulting in damage of the roads from heavy vehicles involved in the repairs. The Association negotiated repairs to the roads. This is estimated to have saved the residents £10000-£15000 for repairs which were carried out by Thames Water at their expense.
This year Headley Heath Approach requires local patching and we will also look into gaining pricing for surface dressing to protect the road surface.
Ashurst Drive is showing damage to the surface and in areas has multiple patches. Local repairs will be carried out where potholes are present and we will look into gaining pricing for surface dressing some worn areas.
2026 AGM
The AGM is a great opportunity to have your say and hear about this year’s maintenance work. We are keen to hear your ideas about how we can foster a sense of community and increase engagement so please do come along.
You are responsible for ensuring the quality of the road surface outside of your property.
Ashurst Drive and Headley Heath Approach are unadopted roads, which means neither Surrey County Council nor Mole Valley District Council have responsibility to carry out ongoing road surface maintenance. The land the roads sit on is privately owned by the owners of the properties that front the road. In most cases, a home owner’s title deeds include ownership of the road across the width of the property and out to the middle of the road. We would encourage you to look at your own deeds to check the part of the road you are responsible for.
Even where a road is private, if it has been used openly by the public for a long period it can still carry public rights of way and be treated in law as a highway for access purposes. That means members of the public may lawfully use it, and the owners of the land it runs over may have responsibilities to take reasonable care to keep it in a safe condition. This applies to the property owners of both Ashurst Drive and Headley Heath Approach.
As a result, the responsibility for the condition of the road outside of your property sits firmly with you, as a property owner. If the surface of the road outside of your property falls into disrepair (for example potholes, uneven surfaces, obstructions, or other hazards) and someone trips, falls or is otherwise injured because of a defect or hazard, you, as that property owner, could potentially face:
· a civil claim for negligence alleging that reasonable steps were not taken to address a foreseeable risk.
· Potential financial consequences, including significant legal costs and compensation/damages if liability is established.
Even if a claim is ultimately defended, it can still be extremely time-consuming and stressful to deal with.
In certain situations, highways legislation can also allow repairs to be required—either through a court process or by the highways authority in urgent cases—with the costs potentially recoverable from the owners of properties fronting the road.
The benefits of paying your subscription to the Roads Association
The Roads Association helps residents reduce these risks by providing a coordinated, practical and cost effective way to keep the roads in good order. In particular, it can:
Organise and fund repairs and maintenance to the road surface, helping prevent hazards from developing;
Provide a consistent approach to identifying issues and prioritising works, rather than leaving each property owner to manage problems alone;
Helps to demonstrate that residents are taking reasonable, responsible steps to maintain the road, which may be important if any incident is later scrutinised; and
In short, membership is a straightforward way to help keep the road safe, protect you as a property owner from avoidable exposure, and share the cost and effort of maintaining the road properly.
The subscription of £100 per property is a relatively modest amount which has not increased for many years, and with the inflation of road maintenance costs in recent years (which has been even higher than for many day to day household costs) this means the funds collected from residents are only able to go so far. Where residents do not pay, and funds are not sufficient to address all areas of the road that need attention, there will be a need for the committee to prioritise work in the areas of the road outside properties who have paid the subscription that year.
If you choose not to pay and be a member of the Roads Association then the area of road outside of your property may deteriorate and become unsafe for road users, and you may then be exposed to the risk of someone injuring themselves.
It is expected that all residents carry out general low impact maintenance of the roadway outside of their property e.g. cutting back over-hanging vegetation and keeping the road surface and edges clear. Please ensure leaves/garden waste etc is not blown out from properties and into the road. If you have a gardener, please also make them aware that, unlike other roads in the village, our roads are not swept by the council, so all garden waste should be collected up and disposed of responsibly.
If you are not able to carry out this general tidying work, a group of volunteers may be available to help you. Please email contact@adhhara.com and we can arrange a suitable time to assist you with this.