For many people, parking outside their own house can be both a cause of stress and come at a financial cost if you need to pay for a resident’s permit.
In particular urban areas, it can still be difficult to find a place to leave your car near to home.
A dropped kerb is a legal necessity if you wish to drive over the pavement onto your residential or commercial property.
Any entry onto a public highway from a domestic or commercial driveway area should have a dropped kerb.
A dropped kerb enables 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.
Putting in a dropped kerb can make a significant improvement to accessing your property as well as helping to ensure people do not park across 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 to have 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 could be taken to prevent such practice.
The pavement may need to be strengthened in front of the building, and sometimes, it may be necessary for lampposts, manhole covers and other street furniture to be moved.
Drop Kerb Specialists in Bingham
Dropped kerbs also known as vehicle access crossovers, are an alteration to the footpath. It entails 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 solely be performed by an authorised company with Street Works Accreditation, and who have the necessary 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 several years experience in installing drop kerbs and applying for the relevant planning permission. We are able to work in conjunction with your local county council to install a dropped kerb whilst complying with all necessary regulations.
You can either apply to your local council for permission 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 providers who have gained the proper qualifications in regard to the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, which is essential for any provider excavating a highway.
We focus on delivering a service that gets it right the first time. By investing in high quality materials, equipment and processes, we ensure that we deliver lasting and affordable solutions that will last.
We pride ourselves on our outstanding workmanship and client care and we ensure that every job is performed to the finest quality standards.
Our team can check out your site to carry out a free no-obligation survey. This enables our surfacing contractors to completely understand your needs and provide an accurate and affordable quote.
Local Kerb Dropping Contractors
The huge growth in demand for off-street parking has seen more and more people drop kerbs to create car standing at the front of their properties.
Study by home insurer Direct Line shows that off-street parking is seen by estate agents as a beneficial feature which adds value to a property. This, coupled with increasing parking restrictions in lots of residential locations, has brought about planning applications for dropped kerbs increase greatly over recent years.
But while adding car standing space to the front of your home may add value to your property, there are many things to think about, not least environmental issues, and flooding is a major issue.
When you switch out a front lawn with hard standing, rainwater can no longer soak into the ground. As increasingly more households take this step, the cumulative effect severely increases the risk of flooding, so it’s essential to incorporate drainage in your plans.
Planning permission is normally 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 strengthened to take the weight of vehicles and prevent them from damaging the surface or any water pipes or cables beneath. It is also to ensure the new access will never be a safety hazard to other highway users.
You can find out if you require 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 approved, you then you need to find a local professional to do the work for you.
It’s certainly not a DIY job as the council will have criteria that contractors must meet. Some will only permit you to use their endorsed 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 carry public liability insurance. In this case, there may be an additional charge for highway assessments by the council.
Bingham Vehicle Crossover Experts
But first it’s worth establishing if consent is likely to be given. Below is a checklist of considerations. If any one of these criteria is not met, planning permission is most likely to be rejected:
- Your front garden needs to be large enough for you to park your vehicle completely on your property.
- The kerb needs to be at least 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 must be at least 2.4 m wide.
- The proposed access to your property must be more than 10m away from a road junction; 15m away from busy junctions or on major roads.
- It must be at least 1.5 m away from street lights and other street furniture.
- It must meet visibility standards; this depends upon the type of road.
- Suitable drainage needs to be provided to take the surplus surface water.
The removal of tree roots must be avoided. - The incline from your property to the road must not be too steep.
- Finally, you as the homeowner must consent to the kerb being dropped; for instance, a renter can not apply on their landlord’s behalf.