For many people, parking outside their own house can be both a reason for stress and come at a financial cost if you need to buy a resident’s permit.
In certain urban regions, it can continue to be tricky to find a spot to leave your car near to home.
A dropped kerb is a legal necessity if you wish to drive over the pavement onto your property.
Any entry onto a public highway from a domestic or commercial driveway area must have a dropped kerb.
A dropped kerb allows 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 significant improvement to easy access your property as well as helping to ensure people do not park in front of your driveway.
The law pertaining to dropped kerbs states: If you intend to drive a vehicle over the footway in to your driveway off a highway, then you will need to have a dropped kerb.
If you do not have dropped kerb, you must not drive over the footway. If you do this, you are breaking the law and enforcement action could be taken to stop such practice.
The pavement may need to be strengthened in front of the building, and sometimes, it may be essential for lampposts, manhole covers and other street furniture to be moved.
Drop Kerb Specialists in Retford
Dropped kerbs also called vehicle access crossovers, are an alteration to the footpath. It entails lowering the kerb and laying new foundations to the paving to enable a car to be driven onto the front area of a property.
The work involves lowering the kerbstones and bolstering the pavement to create a ramp, and must solely be performed by an authorised provider with Street Works Accreditation, and who have the required Public Liability insurance to fulfill 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 putting in drop kerbs and making an application for the appropriate planning permission. We are able to work in partnership with your local county council to install a dropped kerb whilst complying with all essential regulations.
You can either apply to your local council for approval for a dropped kerb outside your building 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 information of qualified operators 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 product that gets it right the first time. By buying high quality materials, 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 team can visit your site to carry out a free no-obligation survey. This enables our surfacing contractors to completely understand your needs and offer an accurate and competitive quote.
Local Kerb Dropping Contractors
The huge growth in demand for off-street parking has seen more and more 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 seen by estate agents as a desirable feature which adds market value to a residential or commercial property. This, coupled with escalating parking restrictions in lots of residential locations, has resulted in planning applications for dropped kerbs increase greatly over recent years.
But while adding car standing space to the front of your home may well add market value to your property, there are numerous things to think about, not least environmental issues, and flooding is a big problem.
When you switch out a front garden with hard standing, rainwater can no longer soak into the ground. As increasingly more households take this action, the cumulative effect severely increases the threat of flooding, so it’s important to incorporate drainage in your plans.
Planning permission is generally called for if you wish to drop the kerb outside your building to permit a car to cross the pavement. This is because the pavement may need to be strengthened to take the weight of vehicles and prevent them from damaging the surface or any pipes or cables underneath. It is also to ensure the new access will not 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 granted, you then you need to locate a local specialist to perform the work for you.
It’s definitely not a DIY job as the council will have requirements that contractors must meet. Several will only permit you to use their approved contractors, while others make it possible for you to use your own, as long as they are certified to the requirements of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, and hold public liability insurance. In this case, there may be an additional charge for highway inspections by the council.
Retford Vehicle Crossover Experts
But first it’s worth establishing if consent is likely to be granted. Below is a list of points to consider. If any one of these criteria is not met, planning permission is most likely to be rejected:
- Your front garden must be large enough for you to park your vehicle entirely on your property.
- The kerb must be at minimum 4.8 m from the front of your house; or 6m if the parking area is in front of an entrance or garage.
- The parking area should be at least 2.4 m wide.
- The proposed 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 other street furniture.
- It must meet visibility guidelines; this depends upon the type of road.
- Appropriate drainage must be provided to remove the surplus surface water.
The extraction of tree roots should be avoided. - The slope from your home to the road must not be too steep.
- Lastly, you as the homeowner must agree to the kerb being dropped; as an example, a tenant can not apply on their landlord’s behalf.