Cost for dropping kerb?

jetblack61 · 8 October 2012 at 8:35AM

Hi all,
Wondering if anyone has any idea how much it costs to have a kerb lowered in front of your house? I know the council charge around £150 for their inspection and report, but having asked them for a broad figure of the actual job, they said they couldn't give me one.

I don't want to fork out £150 to then find the job is like £3000 and then I'm never going to do it and have lost £150 for the privilege! I'm in the South Glos council area.

Thanks

jackieb · 8 October 2012 at 8:39AM

I got it done a few years ago. I had to use a council approved contractor and it cost £450. My cousin was quoted £800 from another council approved contractor at the same time, so prices do vary.

HelpMeMove · 8 October 2012 at 2:17PM

Hi,

We had our dropped kerb widened from a single to a double and it cost £1100 but that also included tarmacing the entire pavement between the kerb and the drive as it was damaged during building work.

blossomhill_2 · 8 October 2012 at 5:42PM

£900 for my London borough, as long as no servcies need to be rerouted or trees dug out

PS - why not ask a FOI question on Whatdotheyknow - should be free! Just ask the average cost charged in the last 12 months, or the highest and lowest int he last 12 months

bosseyed · 10 October 2012 at 1:27PM

I've just started this process myself in South Gloucestershire.

The council want £77.70 for the planning department to confirm whether or not you can have a dropped kerb (ie no restrictions on your area), assuming that comes back ok then as you know its an additional £150 for the application, inspection and report. The £77.70 is a new step and frankly a bit of a rip off. Generally the only restriction they're checking for is conservation areas, which you can find out for free on the website. And as the majority of driveways don't need planning assuming an area less than 25sqm (eg 5m x 5m) and a permeable finish then the additional £77.70 is even more galling. But hey ho.

So once you've stumped up your £240 odd quid and assuming you've been approved, having got a few quotes I'm finding that the going rate to actually get a council approved contractor to do the work (in Bristol) seems to be around £100 per kerbstone to be replaced. If I do my driveyway then I can just about get away with replacing only 5 stones (2 sloped, 3 flat) for a single vehicle access so circa £500 to whip out the old kerbs, pop in the new ones and grade the pavement.

So about £740 in total, depending on the length of the drop kerb required.

jackieb · 10 October 2012 at 2:45PM

HelpMeMove wrote: »

Hi,

We had our dropped kerb widened from a single to a double and it cost £1100 but that also included tarmacing the entire pavement between the kerb and the drive as it was damaged during building work.

Mine was just a single width, but it also included the pavement getting tarmaced.

jetblack61 · 11 October 2012 at 8:54AM

bosseyed wrote: »

So about £740 in total, depending on the length of the drop kerb required.

This is really helpful - thanks.
I have also got a provisional idea of the cost from a local company for actually doing the work, and they too said approx £100 per kerbstone.

Wasn't aware of the additional cost from the council RE: planning though - is it coincidence they haven't mentioned that to me yet?! Something they'll perhaps hit me with once I've entered an application...

Drivewaysessex · 12 January 2013 at 11:06PM

The council pays for the utility drawings and send a inspector out to review the site. The drawings from gas electric telephone cable water and sewers obtained privately are over £50 each. The charge from Essex highways is £100. A standard 2 drops and 4 flats installed should cost between £800 to £1200.

Drop kerbs crossovers are simply to install but risky insurance is a must to at least 10 million damage to utiltys could bankrupt a company. The drawings are not always correct and damage to cables especially fibre optics not shown could cost thousands.