For many people, parking outside their own house can be both a reason for stress and come at a monetary cost if you need to pay for a resident’s permit.
In certain urban regions, it can still be difficult to find a spot to leave your car near to home.
A dropped kerb is a legal necessity if you want to drive across the pavement onto your residential or commercial property.
Any access onto a public highway from a residential or commercial driveway area should have a dropped kerb.
A dropped kerb permits vehicles to cross the pavement from the road to a driveway and it is a legal necessity 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 accessing your property as well as helping to make sure people do not park across your driveway.
The law pertaining to dropped kerbs states: If you plan to drive a vehicle over the footway into your driveway off a highway, then you will need a dropped kerb.
If you do not have dropped kerb, you must never drive over the footway. If you do so, you are breaking the law and enforcement action might be taken to prevent such practice.
The pavement may need to be reinforced in front of the property, and sometimes, it may be essential 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 involves lowering the kerbstones and strengthening 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 fulfill the local authorities regulations.
Vehicle access cross overs consist normally of 3 or 4 dropped kerbs with a tapered or transition kerb on either side. The conventional maximum total width at road level of dropped kerbs for a VAC is 3.6 metres (i.e. normally 4 dropped kerbs).
We have several years experience in putting in drop kerbs and making an application for the relevant planning permission. We are able to work in partnership with your local county council to install a dropped kerb whilst abiding by all essential regulations.
You can either apply to your local council for approval for a dropped kerb outside your property or we are able to apply to your local authority in your place.
We are members of the Streetworks Qualifications Register (SWQR). The SWQR holds details of qualified providers who have gained the proper qualifications in relation to the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, which is necessary for any provider 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 make sure that we deliver sustainable and cost effective solutions that will last.
We pride ourselves on our exceptional workmanship and client care and we make sure that every job is carried out to the finest quality standards.
Our staff can visit your site to perform a free no-obligation survey. This enables our surfacing contractors to fully understand your requirements and provide an accurate and affordable quote.
Local Kerb Dropping Contractors
The massive growth in demand for off-street parking has seen more and more people drop kerbs to create car standing at the front of their homes.
Study by home insurer Direct Line shows that off-street parking is seen by estate agents as a desirable feature which adds value to a property. This, combined with increasing parking restrictions in lots of residential locations, has brought about planning applications for dropped kerbs increase massively over recent years.
However 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 consequences, and flooding is a big worry.
When you switch out a front lawn with hard standing, rainwater can no longer absorb into the ground. As increasingly more households take this action, the collective effect severely increases the threat of flooding, so it’s important to incorporate drainage in your plans.
Planning permission is usually required if you wish to drop the kerb outside your property to enable a car to cross the pavement. This is because the pavement might need to be reinforced to take the weight of motor vehicles and help prevent them from damaging the surface or any water pipes or cables below. It is also to ensure the new access will never be a safety hazard to other highway users.
You can learn if you require planning permission by getting in touch with your local council (you can find the relevant council at the government website). How much it costs to apply will be dependent on your location.
If permission is given, you then you need to find a local contractor to perform the work for you.
It’s certainly not a DIY job as the council will have requirements that contractors must meet. Some will only allow you to use their approved contractors, while others make it possible for you to use your own, as long as they are accredited to the requirements of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, and hold public liability insurance. In this case, there might be an added fee for highway assessments by the council.
Hucknall Vehicle Crossover Experts
However first it’s worth establishing if consent is likely to be given. Below is a list of considerations. If any one of these criteria is not met, planning permission is probably to be declined:
- Your front garden must be large enough for you to park your vehicle fully on your property.
- The kerb must be at least 4.8 m from the front of your house; or 6m if the parking spot is in front of a door 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 has to be at least 1.5 m away from street lights and various other street furniture.
- It must meet visibility guidelines; this is dependent on the type of road.
- Suitable drainage must be provided to take the surplus surface water.
The removal of tree roots should be avoided. - The incline from your property to the road must not be too steep.
- Lastly, you as the homeowner must consent to the kerb being dropped; as an example, a renter can not apply on their landlord’s behalf.