Driveway Vehicle Crossover Access £££ Robbery Help/Questions ?

Lopo

Hello there,

Thanks in advance for any help....

- - Was wondering, how much does it cost these days to construct a driveway crossover ramp for vehicle access to your own property ?

My situation is this:-

Our entire street is to be reconstructed soon - this will involve roads being resurfaced and footpath repaved.

The local council/highways agency notified people the works are due to begin soon, and indicated to property owners that if they wished to request or change vehicle access for their property to contact them as now would be the obvious time to do so and also gain from paying a reduced fee for any extra work needed...fair enough it seems!

I did this, was sent an Application form, completed it and returned it with reasons justifying the request, along with an £80 cheque survey fee (yet to clear!)

I then received a covering note along with receipt indicating they had received the above.

5 days later, I receive a letter indicating the work will cost a staggering £570 !

This really seems excessive in my humble opinion - bearing in mind they will be working on all this anyway !! - Totalling £650 - I already have a single access ramp in place, just need it widening for easier access and safety of others.....All I require in this endeavour is for one large straight length Kerb edge to be removed, resulting in the corner rounded section and the ramp to be adjusted accordingly - all in all, about 70cm I reckon.

- - Has any other MSE'er out there recently had a Driveway constructed or perhaps possibly have been through a similar situation as above ?

- - Are there any obvious way for me to approach them on getting this adjusted to be more reasonable ?

Highways Agency = Highway Robbery ....more like it I think !!

Would deeply appreciate any assistance on this as I need to make a decision on whether to proceed very soon....

Thanks again, Lopo

suki1964

Sounds pretty cheap to me. My last council were charging upwards from £1500 to have the curb done

KathrynPenguin

It is cheap. Would probably cost you double if they were not doing the work in your road already. Lucky for you its easy, my Mum had her crossover widenend to allow us to park 2 cars on the front and had to pay to have a lamp post moved!

nelly_2

suki1964 wrote:

Sounds pretty cheap to me. My last council were charging upwards from £1500 to have the curb done

CHEAP???

Not when their redoing it any way its not cheap at all in anyway.

Its like going to tesco for a tin of beans picking up 2 tins of beans isnt anymore hassel is it.

The only difference will be digging a bit more ground out by a jcb (that will be there any way)

it will involve the exact same amount of tarmac/paving. 2 drop kerbs ( the angled ones) which it would anyway and the same number or normal kerbs the low ones are exacly the same as the high ones they just use either shalower ones which are cheaper or they sink them deeper.

Ive done this type of work and I know what I'm on about.

If I was the op it tell them where to stick it

Heres what to do.

When they come to do the job go out and say "fancy a brew lads?"

(by the way these lads wont work direct for the councill they will probably a seprate firm)

When you go back out with a tray full of tea, tell them what happened and how much, mention it was £650 they will be just as disgusted cos they know how little work will be involved.

then

offer them £100 quid in cash to do it anyway and tell them to
say there must have been a mix up, thats if anyone spots it which I doubt they will.

and cancell the £80 cheque too. Their cheeky gets.

They had a surveyer there anyway it must have taken 6 seconds longer to way up you request.

If they tried to pull a stunt like this in France the entire country would have gone on strike for a week, and quite rightly too.

Too many people in this country sit back and let people rip them off.

Its no wonder this web site exists

BobProperty

nelly wrote:

...Ive done this type of work and I know what I'm on about....

And how much is the public liability insurance to work on public roads, pavements and highways? This regularly gets asked on some of the building forums I go on and the only way to get it done properly is to let the council subcontractor do it. It may be expensive but any work like this is because of the risks, hence the insurance question.
These days the contractors won't be as "open" to a bit of extra "cash" work as it's checked up on more frequently and there's too much publicity when you get found out http://www.24dash.com/content/news/viewNews.php?navID=2&newsID=5186 .
There is also the possibility that when you come to sell it, the purchaser's solicitor is sharp enough to ask to see the details and the bill.

nelly_2

Its not worth 650 quid

the isurance is imaterial they will be working there anyway.

Dora_the_Explorer_5

Sounds like a normal council fee to me, and the same amount that as I was quoted two years ago.

julesgr

most pavements have services running underneath, this all has to be taken in to account, personally i'dlike to be able to have the chance for a crossover at that cost. Sounds like your council has done the sensible thing unlike my mum's where they just laid the new pavement and cars without crossovers still used it and it's already cracked! the workmen will be round soon to repair the pavement ....but they aren't dealing with the problem of those that ignore the rules for crossovers! another kick in the guts for the coucil tax payer!

oh and you will probably find that the new crossover will be bricked rather than a standard tarmac one which will be better all round.

calleyw

We are just about to have a drop curb put in place. It will cost £600 for the company to come and put in the curb and to put in an extra bit of tarmac 1 meter in to the property.

Because we are going down the gravel route and unless it is cemented in you can't have gravel with in a meter of the boundary because of it getting on the path or something like it..

Also for the people to be allowed to do the dropped curbs they have to be registered with the council. As the council gave us a list of suppliers.

To us it is going to be worth every penny there is not enough parking and way to many cars down my round. And if you don't get back by a certain time you can't park outside your house and have to park it half way up the road.

Yours

Calley

Lopo

Wow! - - good old reliable mse'ers - Lots of responses ! :cool:

Thank you all - Differing opinions though too it seems.

I would really like the work done for the sake of improved safety, easeir access and minor personal improved street parking - but totalling £650 really hurts !

Its annoying knowing it is just one kerb roughly 70cm wide,....considering they will be there anyway with all the appropriate kit for the job. Does is not make sense for them to adjust it for the sake of safety anyway since they have allowed the proposal anyway.

I'm trying to add a pic to show you the madness of it but having little luck at the moment - will retry soon.

£650 for one kerb - is it worth it ?

What I would really like to gain from you all is any smart ideas or of any known tactics for making the highway [strike]robbers[/strike] agency perhaps lower this (seemingly insane!) cost ?

Thanks, Lopo

-

nelly_2

A picture would be excellent actually.

Just because some people say £650 is the norm doesnt mean its cheap.

Ive seen cavier on a menu at £350 per serving and its still tastes like crap
(no I didnt buy any had it before- overated haddock imo)


Councills dont say oh how much will it cost? they say how much can we screw out of them.?

If you get it done privately the will make you jump through planning and regulation hoops and suprise suprise charge the earth too.

It dissapoints me that people just accept £650 for a 70 cm kerb