For lots of people, parking outside their own house can be both a cause of stress and come at a monetary cost if you need to pay for a resident’s permit.
In certain urban areas, it can continue to be tricky to find a place to leave your car close to home.
A dropped kerb is a legal necessity if you wish to drive over the pavement onto your property.
Any access onto a public highway from a residential or commercial driveway area should 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 accessing your property as well as helping to ensure people do not park across your driveway.
The law regarding 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 might be taken to stop such practice.
The pavement may require to be reinforced 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 Mansfield
Dropped kerbs also called vehicle access crossovers, are an adaptation 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 provider with Street Works Accreditation, and who have the required Public Liability insurance to comply with the local authorities regulations.
Vehicle access cross overs comprise 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).
Our team have several years experience in putting in drop kerbs and applying for the appropriate planning permission. We are able to work in partnership with your local county council to install a dropped kerb while abiding by all essential 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 on your behalf.
We are members of the Streetworks Qualifications Register (SWQR). The SWQR holds information of qualified providers who have gained the proper qualifications in relation to the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, which is essential for any contractor excavating a highway.
We focus on delivering a product that gets it right the first time. By investing in high quality materials, equipment and processes, we ensure that we deliver sustainable and affordable solutions that will last.
We pride ourselves on our outstanding workmanship and client care and we ensure that each and every job is carried out to the finest quality standards.
Our staff can visit your site to perform a free no-obligation survey. This allows our surfacing contractors to fully understand your requirements and provide an accurate and affordable quote.
Local Kerb Dropping Contractors
The massive growth in interest for off-street parking has seen more and more people drop kerbs to establish car standing at the front of their homes.
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 many residential areas, has resulted in planning applications for dropped kerbs increase massively over recent years.
However while adding car standing space to the front of your home can add market value to your property, there are many things to consider, not least environmental consequences, and flooding is a major concern.
When you switch out a front garden with hard standing, rain can no longer absorb into the ground. As more and more households take this step, the cumulative effect seriously increases the risk of flooding, so it’s important to include drainage in your plans.
Planning permission is usually required 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 help prevent them from damaging the surface or any pipes or cables below. It is in addition to ensure the new access will not be a safety risk to other highway users.
You can learn if you need planning permission by contacting your local council (you can identify the relevant council at the government website). How much it costs to apply will depend upon your specific location.
If permission is given, you then you need to find a local specialist to do the work for you.
It’s definitely not a DIY job as the council will have criteria 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, provided that 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.
Mansfield Vehicle Crossover Experts
However first it’s worth verifying 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 probably to be declined:
- 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 area is in front of a door 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 must be at least 1.5 m away from street lamps and other street furniture.
- It must meet visibility standards; this is dependent on the type of road.
- Appropriate drainage needs to be provided to remove the excess surface water.
The extraction of tree roots should be avoided. - The incline from your home to the road must not be too steep.
- Lastly, you as the property owner must agree to the kerb being dropped; for example, a tenant can not apply on their landlord’s behalf.