Drop kerb/vehicle access/planning regs etc.

kaiowas

kaiowas

kaiowas

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Vix and I are currently looking to buy a house. We've found one we like that has a fair bit of land around it but it currently has no vehicular access. The house is semi detached and on a corner and there is an access road across the back so there is actually access to the property on 3 sides but there are no drop kerbs and a hedge on all 3 sides.

Ideally we'd like to have a drop kerb put in at the front of the house to give us access down the side of the house but my guess is that there will be some restriction preventing us from having the driveway access too close to the corner. Has anyone got any experience of having this sort of thing done or who knows what sort of guidelines are in place to determine where a driveway entrance can be installed?
 
My house has a dropped kerb out front. I think the previous owner went to the council (who maintain the path and road) and they put it in for a fee of around £250.
 
You have to contact the council to get the drop curb put in, they will also check if it can actually be added (closeness to corner etc) and you will be allowed to cross the pavement. Its worth noting that the drop doesn't give you automatic right of access, someone can park in such a way that you cannot access your drive, though you cannot be parked in.
 
Prepare yourself for the cost. I had a kerb dropped two years ago and it cost £900 from the council. :eek:
 
cost depends on council, and work involved. £300 is a rough guess, but as previous post said it could be much more.

You can agree to buy prop on basis of the grant of the right to do this. This may give the sellers a kick up the behind and they may sort out the planning right.

You could also go to the local council office, and simply ask on the liklihood and see what similar properties in the area have.

Also may be worthwhile to check whether that access way is actually allowed to have cars driven on it. I presume you are allowed to use it.
 
In our last house the council wanted £1300 to put a dropped kerb in. :eek:

Just give em a ring and they'll send you a form out and then come back with a quote.
 
Eesh, some of those prices sound scary! I have e mailed the council but so far not got a reply (I work during the day so can't phone them). I dunno if they are going to put me to the bottom of the pile as I don't own the property yet so its all hypothetical.

As regards the access over the footpath bit, I think we are ok as other houses further down have driveways - whether they had to apply to get the kerbs dropped I don't know.

Thanks for all your replies, I would be interested in any other advice from people who have had to have this done.
 
:eek: wow i didnt realise it would be so expensive, i will be needing a drop kerb soon. Im really anoyed with myself tho as they were re tarmacing the path last year and i could have got them to put me one in while it was all dug up, i just didnt think and got home and it was done :mad: .
 
Vix said:
As regards the access over the footpath bit, I think we are ok as other houses further down have driveways - whether they had to apply to get the kerbs dropped I don't know.

.
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I'm no expert but absolutely you have to get council permission to do this, unfortunately council departments are often vague,slow and usually downright incompetent
 
Mark A said:
:eek: wow i didnt realise it would be so expensive, i will be needing a drop kerb soon. Im really anoyed with myself tho as they were re tarmacing the path last year and i could have got them to put me one in while it was all dug up, i just didnt think and got home and it was done :mad: .
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you couldn't have just done that anyway , you need council permission which involves a survey and lots of red tape
 
If you do it yourself, you run the risk of the council finding out and getting their own contractors to rip it out, and recharge you for the work.
They can be that petty.
 
emailiscrap said:
If you do it yourself, you run the risk of the council finding out and getting their own contractors to rip it out, and recharge you for the work.
They can be that petty.
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Yep my uncle has ripped out a fair few fitted kitchens in council houses and replaced with the low cost rubbish they put in then charged the tennant for ripping it out.

@Rotty ahh cheers, i didnt think about that.
 
The council recently replaced all the kerbs in my parent's road, as they were starting to crumble.

As part of that wherever it looked like someone parked a car on their front garden/drive, they stuck dropped kerbs in. They also extended the size of the drops for everyone to match the gaps in their walls/fences. All for free.

The £1400 I mentioned above involved the relocation of an old unused bus stop pole for us. We couldn't afford the money and had to put up with the pole blocking part of our access.......well, until our friendly neighbour with an angle grinder sorted it for us :)
 
You need permission because you are basically and literally altering the Highway. You will need your council's permisssion, and may be some drawings done, it must seem like a lot of red tape since you are not building anything but making the drive way (your drive way lower). But compare to a lot of other stuff, this is one of the easy ones.
 
i use to work for a council in the highways section when i first left uni and did design these amongst other stuff.

You will need the councils permission to add a dropped vehicular crossing because anything past your outer wall at the front is the councils land (thats from the kerb to the back of the footpath).

Depending on how the local council operates, you will either need to issue drawings to them of the design for them to authorise before you can progress further OR you ask them to to put one in and they put the vehicular access in and then you pay them (use to be £350 in 2003). The price also depends on if the council need to alter any 3rds party services that may hamper the works but this is normally unlikely (check to see if there are any service boxes where you want the crossing to go in)

The design is fairly simple. 2x transition kerbs and ussually 2x dropped kerbs with 4-6mm kerb check/face. Im assuming from experience the existing kerbs will either be bullnosed or half-battered. Bullnosed have a straight vertical face and half-battered are at a slight angle. The transition kerbs will need to be specific to those.

Also is the footpath/access at the moment concrete or dense bitumen macadam (aka tarmac)? Normally if its concrete it will require 50x150mm edging kerb around the sides and sometimes the back. If its tarmac then it wount require them.

Regards

BTW im a highways engineer


PS. if you want you can send me a simple drawing of the existing layout i can comment on your situation
 
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sledgehammer in the dead of night

wasnt me sir .


seems an expensive do for what it is :( obviously needs to be done properly though
 
photoshop said:
i use to work for a council in the highways section when i first left uni and did design these amongst other stuff.

You will need the councils permission to add a dropped vehicular crossing because anything past your outer wall at the front is the councils land (thats from the kerb to the back of the footpath).

Depending on how the local council operates, you will either need to issue drawings to them of the design for them to authorise before you can progress further OR you ask them to to put one in and they put the vehicular access in and then you pay them (use to be £350 in 2003). The price also depends on if the council need to alter any 3rds party services that may hamper the works but this is normally unlikely (check to see if there are any service boxes where you want the crossing to go in)

The design is fairly simple. 2x transition kerbs and ussually 2x dropped kerbs with 4-6mm kerb check/face. Im assuming from experience the existing kerbs will either be bullnosed or half-battered. Bullnosed have a straight vertical face and half-battered are at a slight angle. The transition kerbs will need to be specific to those.

Also is the footpath/access at the moment concrete or dense bitumen macadam (aka tarmac)? Normally if its concrete it will require 50x150mm edging kerb around the sides and sometimes the back. If its tarmac then it wount require them.

Regards

BTW im a highways engineer


PS. if you want you can send me a simple drawing of the existing layout i can comment on your situation
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Excellent, cheers.

I fully understand that we'll need to get permission and pay for the kerb to be put in. My main concern is how close to the junction we'll be allowed to have it and how long the process takes as we currently have a couple of cars that cannot be kept on the road which I'll need to find alternative storage for during any period in between moving in and getting access.

I'll try and sort out some drawings/photographs for you to look at.
 
kaiowas said:
Excellent, cheers.

I fully understand that we'll need to get permission and pay for the kerb to be put in. My main concern is how close to the junction we'll be allowed to have it and how long the process takes as we currently have a couple of cars that cannot be kept on the road which I'll need to find alternative storage for during any period in between moving in and getting access.

I'll try and sort out some drawings/photographs for you to look at.
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no idea where I get this figure from but something but 15yds/metres rings a bell from somewhere
 
Managed to get a pic from local.live

http://www.picbinz.com/viewer.php?id=681113Image1.png

I've outlined the property's border in blue. You can see where a path currently runs from the front. Ideally we'd like to enlarge the existing opening in the hedge and have straight access to the whole of the grassed area south of the path (which would probably be gravelled in the short term). Although we do have back-up plans in order of preference:

1) Access from north corner of front edge (as far from the junction as possible) with the whole of the front and side garden as a gravelled drive.

2) Access from side of property - allows us to get further from the junction but I'd have to rethink my future plans for building a garage.

3) Access from road across the bottom of the garden, some of the neighbouring properties have done this although I'm not sure if we'd be able to as again it's close to the start of the road plus there is a telegraph pole at the bottom of the garden which we'd have to find a way around. On the plus side I could have a huge workshop at the bottom of the garden (should I ever find myself with the cash to build it).

Although the road at the front looks like a dual carriageway on the picture it's not. The road directly in front of the house is purely for access to the houses whereas the road to the right of the picture is the 'main' road for passing traffic.
 
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