Drink Driving Laws and Private Land
The drink driving offence under section 5 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 applies to driving on a road or other public place. It does not apply to genuinely private land that the public does not have access to. This distinction is critical but often misunderstood.
The key question is not who owns the land, but whether it is a public place. A private car park that is open to the public, such as a supermarket car park, is likely to be treated as a public place. A locked private driveway that only the homeowner can access is not.
Courts have considered this issue extensively. The test is whether members of the public have access to the land, whether by permission, invitation or toleration. If the public can and do access the land, it will usually be classified as a public place.
What Counts as a Road or Public Place
Roads
A road is defined as any highway to which the public has access and includes bridges. This covers all public roads, including minor residential streets, motorways and any adopted road maintained at public expense.
It also includes roads on housing estates, industrial estates and other developments that have been adopted as public highways. If in doubt, the road is likely to be classified as a road for the purposes of the drink driving legislation.
Public Places
A public place is any place to which the public has access, whether on payment or otherwise. This includes pub car parks, hospital car parks, supermarket car parks, petrol station forecourts and car parks at leisure facilities.
The public does not need to have a legal right of access. If the public is tolerated on the land and does in fact use it, that is sufficient. Even a private car park with a sign saying private parking may be treated as a public place if the public regularly uses it.
Genuinely Private Land
Genuinely private land where the public has no access is outside the scope of the drink driving legislation. This includes private driveways behind locked gates, farmland with no public access and private airfields.
However, the threshold for what constitutes genuinely private is high. If there is any possibility that members of the public could access the land, the prosecution may argue it is a public place. The burden of proving that the land is private falls on the defence.
Court Decisions on Private Land
The courts have consistently interpreted public place broadly. In DPP v Coulman, a car park at a block of flats that was open and unfenced was held to be a public place. In Pugh v Kneen, a field used as a temporary car park at an event was treated as a public place.
Conversely, in R v Waters, a private yard behind locked gates was held not to be a public place because the public could not access it. The fact that the defendant had a key did not make it a public place.
If you believe you were driving on private land, this could be a complete defence to the charge. However, the definition is narrow and the prosecution will argue for the broadest possible interpretation. Expert legal advice is essential.