How often do you look at a curb when you walk along the street? You are far more likely to notice the driveway on the opposite side of the path.
I think the problem people have with paying the council to lower the pavement is not that they have to pay the council, it's that they are charged an extortionate amount to do it. A few years ago it was perfectly legal for any builder to do kerb dropping, they charged FAR less than the council and did just as good a job. Then the councils decided they should be in charge of it, thats when the price skyrocketed. In many cases the same people would be doing the work as before but the cost had miraculously increased exponentially because the council now had a monopoly.
And isn't there some law about blocking a public right of way? I assume even councils have to abide by it. As for removing the offending item, 4x4 and a rope "oops I accidently reversed into it..." Works every time..
I suspect a few years ago the number of people willing to sue the council because they tripped over was a lot lower
Hence the requirement for the work to be covered by someone with suitable insurance.
As for blocking the access, I beleive the law is that you cannot block access to the Queens highway, with the implicit suggestion that they meant access from recognised access points or pathways etc.
The bollards aren't placed in front of such a recognised access point (check the highway code, you're not meant to park in front of access way, it doesn't say driveway).
Highway Code: Rule 248 said:
in front of an entrance to a property
A raised kerb isn't generally accepted as such a vehicular entrance for obvious reasons (namely that the raised kerb signifies a definite change from road to pavement)
And even if it did state driveway the law behind it is for access
to not from the road, so the council would be fine if they waited until there wasn't a car on the drive.
The funniest bit to me about this whole thing is that one of the advantages of the (legally) dropped kerb is that it gives you recourse to get the police involved if someone is blocking it.
A driveway without the dropped kerb doesn't and as such isn't worth much.
A final thought that does occur to me, with the "buyers" packs that the government introduced that are meant to detail things about the property up for sale, I suspect that parking rights/access would be one of the things listed and checked.
I know when we got planning permission for our double garage we also had it legally changed so that we could park 2 cars on our drive rather than one (and changing it from a single car carport to double car drive), as well as the garage parking, and that was 15-20 years ago (my dad is a stickler for getting things like that done correctly, as it can and has saved a lot of hassle if everything is correctly listed on the council records and deeds etc for the house).
[edit]
A quick google tells me that one of the things that the councils have to do before lowering the kerb/dropping the pavement (as is normally required) is to contact all the local utilities to get details of anything under the pavement, which no doubt costs them money to do (especially if the records are not necessarily on computer or they have to contact a number of different companies).
It also suggests that most councils will do a site check to see if a lowered kerb is safe and suitable, and provide specifications, and a final inspection of the work (as carried out by accredited contractors) for a fairly low fee if you wish to use a third party other than the council's inhouse teams (under £100 seems to be the general fee)..
So the cost certainly isn't that outrageous to get it done properly (and legally), given the work involved and the people that will need to be involved to do it with safety in mind.
Pathetic and idiotic.
