28 June 2007
R (Godmanchester Town Council) v Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [2007] UKHL 28, [2007] All ER (D) 201 (Jun)
In s 31(1) of the Highways Act 1980 (deemed dedication of land as a highway) “intention” means what the relevant audience, namely the users of the way, would reasonably have understood the landowner’s intention to be.
The test is objective: not what the owner subjectively intended nor what particular users of the way subjectively assumed, but whether a reasonable user would have understood that the owner was intending to disabuse him of the notion that the way was a public highway.
