For many people, parking outside their own home can be both a reason for stress and come at a monetary cost if you need to pay for a resident’s permit.
In particular urban areas, it can continue to be difficult to find a spot to leave your car close to home.
A dropped kerb is a legal requirement if you wish to drive over the pavement onto your residential or commercial property.
Any entry onto a public highway from a residential or commercial driveway area must have a dropped kerb.
A dropped kerb enables vehicles to cross the pavement from the road to a driveway and it is a legal requirement to have a dropped kerb if you intend to drive across the pavement onto your property.
Installing a dropped kerb can make a huge improvement to easy access your property as well as helping to ensure people do not park in front of your driveway.
The law regarding dropped kerbs states: If you plan to drive a vehicle over the footway in to your driveway off a highway, then you will need a dropped kerb.
If you do not have dropped kerb, you must not drive over the footway. If you do so, you are breaking the law and enforcement action could be taken to prevent such practice.
The pavement may need to be reinforced in front of the building, and sometimes, it may be necessary for lampposts, manhole covers and various other street furniture to be relocated.
Drop Kerb Specialists in Hucknall
Dropped kerbs also known as vehicle access crossovers, are an adaptation to the footpath. It involves lowering the kerb and laying new foundations to the paving to make it possible for a car to be driven onto the front area of a property.
The work includes lowering the kerbstones and bolstering the pavement to create a ramp, and must only be performed by an authorised provider with Street Works Accreditation, and who have the necessary Public Liability insurance to comply with the local authorities requirements.
Vehicle access cross overs comprise normally of 3 or 4 dropped kerbs with a tapered or transition kerb on either side. The standard maximum total width at road level of dropped kerbs for a VAC is 3.6 metres (i.e. normally 4 dropped kerbs).
We have many years experience in installing drop kerbs and making an application for the relevant planning permission. We can work in conjunction with your local county council to install a dropped kerb while abiding by all necessary regulations.
You can either apply to your local council for approval for a dropped kerb outside your building or we can apply to your local authority on your behalf.
We are members of the Streetworks Qualifications Register (SWQR). The SWQR holds information of qualified operators who have gained the proper qualifications in regard to the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, which is necessary for any contractor excavating a highway.
We focus on delivering a service that gets it correct the first time. By buying high quality components, equipment and processes, we ensure that we deliver lasting and affordable solutions that will last.
We pride ourselves on our exceptional workmanship and client care and we ensure that each and every job is carried out to the finest quality standards.
Our staff can check out your site to carry out a free no-obligation survey. This enables our surfacing contractors to fully understand your requirements and provide an accurate and competitive quote.
Local Kerb Dropping Contractors
The huge growth in demand for off-street parking has seen a growing number of people drop kerbs to establish car standing at the front of their properties.
Research by home insurer Direct Line shows that off-street parking is regarded by estate agents as a beneficial feature which adds value to a property. This, coupled with escalating parking limitations in many residential areas, has brought about planning applications for dropped kerbs increase greatly over recent years.
But while putting in car standing space to the front of your home might add value to your property, there are numerous things to take into consideration, not least environmental issues, and flooding is a major worry.
When you switch out a front garden with hard standing, rain can no longer soak into the ground. As increasingly more households take this step, the cumulative effect seriously increases the risk of flooding, so it’s important to incorporate drainage in your plans.
Planning permission is generally needed if you wish to drop the kerb outside your building to enable a car to cross the pavement. This is due to the fact that the pavement may need to be reinforced to take the weight of vehicles and prevent them from damaging the surface or any water pipes or cables below. It is also to ensure the new access will not be a safety hazard to other highway users.
You can find out if you need planning permission by getting in touch with your local council (you can identify the relevant council at the government website). How much it costs to apply will be dependent on your specific location.
If permission is given, you then you need to locate a local contractor to perform the work for you.
It’s certainly not a DIY job as the council will have criteria that service providers must meet. Some will only allow you to use their approved contractors, while others make it possible for you to use your own, so long as they are accredited to the requirements of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, and carry public liability insurance. For this case, there may be an added fee for highway inspections by the council.
Hucknall Vehicle Crossover Experts
But first it’s worth establishing if consent is likely to be granted. Below is a checklist of considerations. If any among these criteria is not met, planning permission is likely to be turned down:
- Your front garden needs to be large enough for you to park your vehicle fully on your property.
- The kerb needs to be at minimum 4.8 m from the front of your house; or 6m if the parking spot is in front of an entrance or garage.
- The parking area should be at least 2.4 m wide.
- The suggested access to your property should be more than 10m away from a road junction; 15m away from busy junctions or on primary roads.
- It must be at least 1.5 m away from street lamps and various other street furniture.
- It must meet visibility guidelines; this depends upon the type of road.
- Suitable drainage needs to be provided to remove the excess surface water.
The removal of tree roots should be avoided. - The incline from your home to the road must not be too steep.
- Lastly, you as the homeowner must agree to the kerb being dropped; for instance, a tenant can not apply on their landlord’s behalf.