Can I ask what the protocol is if I wish to delete a non-existent street that someone else drew from the NPE - an example is the unnamed street crossing the middle of this view. Should I notify the person who put it there first or what?
Also, if I’m editing someone else’s entry to correct or improve it should I inform them?
The road was removed since NPE came out? In that case I would first put a note on the way to that effect. Then save that, and then delete it. That way, the note will still appear in the db for people to find. If they go out looking, like using Undelete in Potlatch for example.
You’re always running the risk someone traces it again from NPE, so I would also drop a note to the mapper that added it in the first place. That way both of you know what happened, and if another mapper still adds it, it might be noticed by more people.
This issue is the same as tracing features from Yahoo or other WMS sources, that have since been changed.
Looking at the NPE map, it doesn’t seem to show a road there anyway. There is a dashed line, but checking the key I think that’s some sort of path or maybe a parish boundary, with a stream along part of it.
Is there anything present on the ground there now? If there’s any sort of path, then tag it as highway=path etc. I notice that someone has mapped a couple of gates on it a bit further west, which suggests there’s something there.
Or if there’s nothing there, then you could just delete it. It’s not necessary to contact the mapper, but you might want to do say to ask why they mapped it as they did.
And it not necessary to inform people who mapped something that you are editing / improving. Just fill in a helpful changeset comment to say what and why you are changing, and what sources you are using.
Many thanks - what a helpful forum. 
Sorry I should have added that I know from local knowledge that the line on the old map is a border between 2 parish councils that still exists, I don’t think it was ever a road - there’s nothing there now.
If its a parish boundary, then you can tag it as boundary=administrative, admin_level=10 (and remove the highway tag etc).
Agreed, but as it’s only a very tiny portion of the boundary (I guess much less than 1%) I would think it’s best to delete it?