Before you apply

If you’re building new roads and paths as part of a development to be offered for adoption, then a section 38 agreement will be required. This means the council can adopt your roads as public highways.

You must have planning permission before you can apply for a section 38 agreement.

You should also think about:

What the council will adopt

We will only adopt:

  • roads serving more than 5 residential properties
  • roads and paths within large industrial or commercial developments
  • parts of the accesses to large, individual properties, such as factories, supermarkets, or blocks of flats

Design and drawing standards

We will only adopt new roads and paths if they have been designed and constructed to our standards.

You can find our standards for colours and details in the Leeds Transport SPD (PDF, 12.7MB) and our planning guidance documents.

Check our colour requirements

All approved drawings for the section 38 agreement must be coloured as follows:              

  • site boundary coloured in red (including all section 38 or 278 works)
  • macadam carriageways coloured in grey
  • macadam vehicular crossings over footpaths coloured in grey with yellow cross hatching
  • macadam footpaths, footways and margins coloured in yellow
  • macadam cycleway, shared use footway and cycleway coloured in yellow with zig zag grey hatching
  • traffic calming features on macadam surface coloured in light grey
  • block paved shared surface roads coloured in brown
  • block paved hard margins and footways coloured in orange
  • block paved traffic calming features including ramps and tables coloured in brown
  • adoptable verges coloured in green
  • highway adoptable drainage coloured in blue
  • highway adoptable gullies and connections coloured in blue
  • pedestrian crossing coloured in black outline
  • drainage easement highways coloured in blue
  • drainage easement Yorkshire Water coloured in black hatch
  • highway structures or retaining walls coloured in black
  • special surfacing, feature or bollards coloured in purple
  • adoptable Leeds City Council street lighting columns coloured in red
  • Yorkshire Water information coloured in light grey
  • section 278 works coloured in grey hatching

Drawings must include cross sections showing typical construction details at 50m intervals, where adjoining site levels or adjacent cross section varies by more or less than 0.3m.              

Sections should extend 2m from the back of the adoptable highway and show:              

  • kerbing
  • edgings
  • footways
  • verges

How much it costs

Section 38 fees

What it covers

Our fees are a percentage of the estimated construction cost of your works and cover things like technical approval, inspections and administration costs.         

How it's calculated

We calculate these during the pre-agreement stage. They may be revised if the works are not completed within 12 months.                                               

We charge 10% if construction has not started. If construction has already started, higher fees of 12.5% to 15% will apply. For example, if earthworks have already been completed without our inspection.                                               

You need to pay an initial £3,000 non-refundable deposit at the application stage. This will be deducted from the total section 38 fees on completion of the agreement.
Section 38 bond

What it covers

We also require a bond to cover the council against the possibility that the works are not completed, for example if the developer became insolvent.         

How much it is

The bond is the same amount as our estimate for the cost of your works.                                               

When you get invoiced

We will invoice you during the pre-agreement stage and the bond can be paid to us directly or via a surety company.

When you get it back

Your bond will be returned in 3 stages as your works progress, including:                                                       

  1. 50% after part 1 of the provisional certificate stage
  2. 25% after part 2 of the provisional certificate stage
  3. 25% when the road is adopted in the final certificate stage
Legal fees

The legal fees cover the council’s legal work of drawing up the agreement. This is £2,120 per agreement.                                               

Other fees

Street lighting design

You may need to construct street lighting on the road or path you're creating. This will come at an additional cost. We will discuss this with you at contact stage.               

Traffic Regulation Order

If there are any Traffic Regulation Orders associated with your application further fees will be required.               

Commuted sums

Extra assets to the highway that are over and above a normal construction of a road may incur a commuted sum to maintain this asset for its design life.               

Structures

If there are structures included in your submission for example retaining walls there will be a fee to design check these structures. Please highlight these within your application.               

Geotechnical services

Once your application has been received, it will automatically be sent to our Geotechnical Section who will need to review the application, and any supporting documentation sent. They will then categorise the project into one of three geotechnical risk categories:               

Fees
Geotechnical risk Additional fee
Low risk No fee
Medium risk £2,500
High risk £6,000
If your project is categorised as either medium or high risk, a member of the Geotechnical Section will contact you directly to advise the next course of action. A specification of what is included in each category can be made available on request.                

Once the work has commenced, if the site is identified as needing subsequent work, the Geotechnical Section will make contact to discuss any additional fees.