crossing footpath to access driveway?

burnsguitarman

Maybe I was lucky, but we were in the same position a few years ago, we had lovely old wide stone kerbstones, that were very low, but not dropped. In their wisdom our council decided to change them to ugly concrete ones and replace the paving with tarmac. Fortunately for us we got the dropped kerbs free of charge.

sajjed

Thanks everyone much appreciated. posted for advice as it is MSE.
no price mentioned in letter but phoned council they are going to pay me a visit Friday and give me a quote.
I understand rules etc are different now than 30+ years ago when we bought the house,but we have been accessing the driveway now for all these years without damaging pavement and no mention of it being a problem until now, we also were given planning permission to build a double garage 25+ years ago without mention of how we access the garage with our cars.
we live in a private residential area, all houses have their own garages, friend who lives a few mile away was quoted £2000 from same council as mine for same job so hoping it is going to be a whole lot cheaper than that

sajjed

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Good point.

The other thing here being that as pavement parking isn't allowed, then why would driving across pavements be allowed (unless they had been altered/strengthened to allow for that).

Newsflash = pavements are designed for pedestrians.

very helpful post!
this is a moneysaving site.
I wasnt asking for advice on pavement parking. even strengthened pavements are still for pedestrians to walk on.
many paving slabs are cracked on my road outside houses that have lowered kerbs already

Furts

sajjed wrote: »

hope I am posting in the correct section.
I have lived in my property for 32 year, in all that time I have accessed my driveway across the footpath, I live in a long road of semi detached houses that all have driveways, some have lowered kerbs some not but everyone accesses their driveways with vehicles.

sajjed wrote: »

council they are going to pay me a visit Friday and give me a quote.
I understand rules etc are different now than 30+ years ago when we bought the house,but we have been accessing the driveway now for all these years without damaging pavement and no mention of it being a problem until now, we also were given planning permission to build a double garage 25+ years ago without mention of how we access the garage with our cars.

Be diplomatic at your meeting with the council. By your own admission you have been travelling across the footpath for 32 years. This is not your land and it could be deemed akin to trespass. Were it your land would you be allowing people to drive over it and risk damage, plus wear and tear, at your expense?

The fact that the garage had planning permission 25 years ago is irrelevant. It may not get planning permission today - only a fresh application would determine this. But in conjunction with this application you have a duty to liaise with the highways authority regarding access over the footpath. This means footpath strengthening, reallignment, and a dropped kerb. Your post suggests that you did not do this 25 years ago.

All councils are short of funding, so it is entirely reasonable to request a contribution from those who will benefit from the proposed works, particularly when there is an additional cost being borne by council tax payers - as is occurring in this case. Basically, why should those in the surrounding community be subsidising your strengthened footpath?

sajjed

Will do Furts. appreciate your input
I was thinking more if I had a right to access after all these years, along with about at least another 100+ houses on this same road alone(as well as from nearby roads as well) when I first posted.
person from the council was very approachable when I spoke to them.
The council person was very vague and stated I was not forced to have a drop kerb but I would be responsible if my car damaged pavement, not really sure how that would be enforced as my neighbours pavement was cracked by a northumbrian water wagon years ago that decided to turn round in the road that is not very wide and bumped up the pavement.
just to add I do understand council funding (I worked for council for 25 year) the surrounding community are not subsidising my footpath I subsidised theirs a few years ago they got their footpath widened and drop kerbs free, it did cross my mind if it was because local councillors lived on that road!

globalds

I think you gain something out of this though.

Imagine if I parked my car outside your house blocking your drive ..Without a dropped curb there is nothing you can do as I have just parked on the road side ..Not parked over an official driveway.

sajjed

globalds wrote: »

I think you gain something out of this though.

Imagine if I parked my car outside your house blocking your drive ..Without a dropped curb there is nothing you can do as I have just parked on the road side ..Not parked over an official driveway.

I get what u say globalds, I am lucky there isnt a problem with car parking where I live. the odd time a neighbours friends/family parks across the drive(they usually ask anyway) it isnt a problem they are only there temporary and if I need to get car out they move no problem.
anyway thanks to most for your input much appreciated will see what Friday
brings
it turns out after speaking to neighbours they are only doing the pavement outside the first 20 houses, which don't seem to be in that bad condition to me, but I am no expert

sajjed

Furts not sure if I explained my post very well, I had planning/building permission and the garage built and signed off 25+ year ago.

missprice

sajjed wrote: »

I get what u say globalds, I am lucky there isnt a problem with car parking where I live. the odd time a neighbours friends/family parks across the drive(they usually ask anyway) it isnt a problem they are only there temporary and if I need to get car out they move no problem.
anyway thanks to most for your input much appreciated will see what Friday
brings
it turns out after speaking to neighbours they are only doing the pavement outside the first 20 houses, which don't seem to be in that bad condition to me, but I am no expert

I get what your saying,but over time things change. A street over from me when I moved here had all of 4 cars ever parked overnight.
Now its a free for all, and on any given night there will be cars parked anywhere nearby.
Granted they have no drives and its on street only, but still its change.

Plus think of ever selling your house, you will have the proper permission to cross the path, sells better than a house on the same street that does not have the same permission.

force_ten

I would say if it is a reasonable quote then accept it and pay it and then it will all be official and you will have the correct permission to cross the pavement

there are a couple of problems if you dont want to go ahead and pay for the work on drop kerbs, worst case is they install a 100 mm/ four inch high standard kerb when the redo the pavement and that would make your access difficult

you also say that many slabs are cracked where people have got drop kerbs, do you have any cracked slabs outside your house?

if you do have cracked or damaged slabs and you refuse to pay for drop kerbs, the council could potentially bill you for repairs to the pavement saying the damage was caused by crossing the pavements with a vehicle

I hope it goes well for you on friday and they come up with a reasonable figure for the proposed works