New block paving - council not happy?

Clueless101

Been working from home last week or so - and sitting at my desk looks out across the houses in an adjacent street - and I confess it's encouraged nosy neighbour behaviour in me!

About 2 weeks ago one house had their front lawn paved, so they now have their existing Tarmac drive and new block paving twice the size of that again (and it's a big corner plot that could now fit 6 cars comfortably).

Middle of last week 2 men from the council in a highways van stopped and started inspecting the paving, prodding the edges with a stick, where it met the pavement. They knocked on the door, but no one was home.

On Saturday, one of the men returned, this time just in a car, and spoke to the man who lives in the house. Whatever he (the highways man) was saying looked like quite a stern telling off, by his body language he looked really annoyed.

Today, another man from the council in a highways van came and cut away a long strip of Tarmac all the way along the bottom of the old drive, as well as removing some of the newly laid block paving where it met the pavement (only about a metre or so of the 20m or so length). He took a long wound up length of what looked like a rubber hose out from under a nearby pavement man hole cover and began laying this in the gap he had created in the paving/drive. He also had 2 large buckets of something heavy, but not sure what he did with them as he carried them to a part of the drive out of my sight. I didn't see exactly what he did while he was working (as I had to get back to my own work!), but he was working over 3 hours in total.

Anyway, curiosity has got the best of me, does anyone know what he was doing? I'm assuming putting in some sort of retrofit drainage? Maybe the block paving hasn't been done properly - I know you have to get planning permission for certain types these days. With all the recent flooding troubles, I guess local councils are worried - normally councils seem to have a bad reputation for acting slowly, but this has all been done in about a week (including a Saturday visit on a bank holiday weekend) and the paving was only finished about 2 weeks ago. Although maybe they are just slow with things they have to pay to fix themselves, whereas presumably here the house owners could be facing a hefty bill.

adandem

No idea but at least your neighbours are at little risk of burglary with such a vigilant look out.;)

Plumber90

Can't you go other and ask the neighbour, I'm intrigued as to what was going on now myself as that does seen a bit odd

Clueless101

adandem wrote: »

No idea but at least your neighbours are at little risk of burglary with such a vigilant look out.;)

Plumber90 wrote: »

Can't you go other and ask the neighbour, I'm intrigued as to what was going on now myself as that does seen a bit odd

Not really, we don't know each other at all. They actually live on an adjacent street, round the back (I'm looking diagonally across back gardens) of my house where I've never even been (dead end and I leave in opposite direction) - sounds a bit weird, sorry hard to explain, but what I'm getting at is, it's not a nearby neighbour who I see occasionally to be friendly and just strike up random conversation with, I don't ever even go past their house.

Plumber90

Clueless101 wrote: »

Not really, we don't know each other at all. They actually live on an adjacent street, round the back (I'm looking diagonally across back gardens) of my house where I've never even been (dead end and I leave in opposite direction) - sounds a bit weird, sorry hard to explain, but what I'm getting at is, it's not a nearby neighbour who I see occasionally to be friendly and just strike up random conversation with, I don't ever even go past their house.

Now you just sound like a bit of a stalker

Clueless101

Plumber90 wrote: »

Now you just sound like a bit of a stalker

Haha just a bit of a daydreamer, easily distracted from my work, maybe I should turn my desk around and stare at the wall instead of out the window

pinkteapot

I think I've read on here before (?) that you have to apply to the council for permission (planning or building regs? not sure which) if you want to pave/tarmac over lawn. Something to do with drainage in the area. A lawn will soak up rain, paving won't....

force_ten

From 1 October 2008 new planning rules have applied for householders wanting to pave over their front gardens or resurface impermeable drives (such as tarmacadam and patterned concrete).

If the surface to be covered is more than five square metres, you will need planning permission for laying traditional, impermeable driveways that do not control rainwater running off onto roads.

the section at the bottom about water running over the pavement onto the raod may be what the council is concerned about

the long hose will be some form of weeping tile or perimeter tile that will collect run off water and direct it to the drain

looks like they have gone ahead with the work and not followed the rules and have fallen foul of the local authority

if you have a slope towards a pavement that allows water to run off over a public footpath it is dangerous, rain water runs onto the path and then freezes somebody falls and hurts them self is the home owner liable ?

Clueless101

force_ten wrote: »

the section at the bottom about water running over the pavement onto the raod may be what the council is concerned about

the long hose will be some form of weeping tile or perimeter tile that will collect run off water and direct it to the drain

looks like they have gone ahead with the work and not followed the rules and have fallen foul of the local authority

if you have a slope towards a pavement that allows water to run off over a public footpath it is dangerous, rain water runs onto the path and then freezes somebody falls and hurts them self is the home owner liable ?

Ah that makes sense, thanks. I thought it was just to do with flooding and they didn't want increased run off into the drains, but of course they need to stop all (or pretty much all) run off on to the pavement, as like you say very dangerous under foot if frozen. I suppose there are some people with existing paving that doesn't have proper drainage and are probably already causing this problem.

cyclonebri1

force_ten wrote: »

the section at the bottom about water running over the pavement onto the raod may be what the council is concerned about

the long hose will be some form of weeping tile or perimeter tile that will collect run off water and direct it to the drain

looks like they have gone ahead with the work and not followed the rules and have fallen foul of the local authority

if you have a slope towards a pavement that allows water to run off over a public footpath it is dangerous, rain water runs onto the path and then freezes somebody falls and hurts them self is the home owner liable ?

:TExactly right, they have installed a weeping drain, water running and freezing over on pavements is serious and the householder possibly liable.

Keep the same vigilant watch on his post,:D:D there will be a nicely sized brown envelope from the local authority with the bill for both the repair and the inspections

Clueless101

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

:TExactly right, they have installed a weeping drain, water running and freezing over on pavements is serious and the householder possibly liable.

Keep the same vigilant watch on his post,:D:D there will be a nicely sized brown envelope from the local authority with the bill for both the repair and the inspections

Oh dear...

It did cross my mind that the paving company might put in an appearance - I wondered if the home owner will try to get them to shoulder some of the blame/cost. I suppose it's the typical a professional should know how to do the job properly (including suitable drainage), but the householder is ultimately responsible for checking what does/doesn't need planning permission type of situation.

Anyway.....none of my business really.....must stop getting distracted....:)

Thanks for the info on the weeping drain, curiosity satisfied.