Anyone know anything about boundaries of stream banks?


I am slowly coming to the conclusion that i may be what they call a "Riperian owner" of a small stream that runs to the back of my property. It's only 8 inches deep, and there is no way public can get access to it, or use it in any way. Many people who back on to this stream, have opened their gardens up onto it, and it's quite a nice feature of their gardens, but myself and closest neighbours have a fence at the top of the bank (Mine is highlighted in white below and is only a few metres from the actual stream,). The banks behind mine are just covered in brambles. No one is really sure whether we are the riperian owner, or that the banks are owned by someone else. I would hate to start asking the environment agency about this, and it end up with people who have started to use the banks getting grief, hence trying to find out first.

Stream is blue

Does anyone have any ideas, or can gleam anything from the OS sitemap (my house has red X and it shows exactly the posiution of the current fence as a boundary between me and the stream.)







I guess possibly, if i am the riperian owner, then i actually have a responsibility to look after it. There are a few small trees etc that have fallen over into the stream.

Any advice appreciated. I'd love to incorporate it into my garden if poss.

thanks

Andy

Thanks mark, I've had a look, but when I click the piece of land it just picks up mine and the surrounding properties, no separate entry for the banks.

Andy, are you sure you are using the locator on their site? Only say because, it will defo give individual properties and land, it wont show them all at once.

Yes, pretty sure. I'm using the map locator. I have clicked on random bits of land near me, and they seem to have an entry, but nothing for the stream. Only the houses either side of it.

Is your boundary the top of the bank? It doesn't look like it to me. If it isn't the top of the bank, then in my experience you are not the riparian owner.

The land and stream probably lies with whoever owned the land before the development took place. This land is almost certainly unregistered and is a problem to trace. My guess is that it belongs to a farmer or an estate.

If I was you I would try and avoid Riparian rights, they are normally among the first things I try and off load on a site

In some parts of the country you have drainage authorities that tend to carry the riparian responsibilities (south Gloucestershire is a prime example)

Edited to add

Looking again at your title plan, I don't think you own the top of the bank (shown by the series of triangles)

You try contacting the Environment Agency. They normally require an 8m wide route clear of buildings alongside a watercourse. If the stream floods on that side you also need to beware of enclosures like fences which can disturb the flow and cause flooding elsewhere.

Sounds like un-registered land to me. Most council owned land also tends to be un-registered. The description land to the south of.... is a description of registered land, but the only way to tell what land it is, is to pay £4 and look at the plan

Nothing to down load if its un-registered.

Normally, if there is a descrription even just a loose one like "land to the south of....." there is normally something. t could be that the land in question has all been sold by dividing it up into parcels that now form your estate. If this is the case then the stream would be outside of that.

If you can pm me the address I can look at the Business version of Land Registry and try and flush out any title numbers and see what is available. (I can't do that until tomorrow though as I have meetings all day today)