Dropped kerb without permission

bouicca21

But the rules and regulations are about 1. Crossing a public path - which is the bit that the council usually mandate has to be by their contractors. And 2. Ensuring there is no run off to the public road/drains.

1 doesn't apply as it seems the land was privately owned, no public path.
2 does apply, but we have no information about it.

If done properly with no run off to the road then all that has been done that might be of interest to the council is to alter the curb. Is that really worth worrying about?

scottyb84

bouicca21 wrote: »

But the rules and regulations are about 1. Crossing a public path - which is the bit that the council usually mandate has to be by their contractors. And 2. Ensuring there is no run off to the public road/drains.

1 doesn't apply as it seems the land was privately owned, no public path.
2 does apply, but we have no information about it.

If done properly with no run off to the road then all that has been done that might be of interest to the council is to alter the curb. Is that really worth worrying about?

By "run off" are you talking about rain water?
There has been no aco drains put on the drive due to the slope of the road. It has a fall from the front of house to the road.

If she wasn't thinking about selling and these issues wasn't brought up by an estate agent she spoke to, then she wouldn't be worrying about anything. Many houses in the street have dropped kerbs and the chances of it ever being reported are zero and also the likely hood of the council spotting it are low. She is just worried about it being brought up if decides to sell and I wanted to ask on here, if there was any solution or way around it. I haven't really got that, just people saying this is absurd etc when it's not really. Who doesn't want to save a few quid?? The job is far better then all of the drives in her street too

unforeseen

The kerb (not curb) is part of the public highway. As such permission is required to make any alterations to it. In fact the law is pretty clear that the public highway extends to the first boundary I.E. the garden wall not to the road side of the kerbstone

The relevant legislation mentions paths and verges. The kerbstone may only be 4 inches wide but is still a verge albeit very narrow. If you want to argue that it is not a verge then by default it must be part of the road and permission would still be needed

Furts

unforeseen wrote: »

The kerb (not curb) is part of the public highway. As such permission is required to make any alterations to it. In fact the law is pretty clear that the public highway extends to the first boundary I.E. the garden wall not to the road side of the kerbstone

The relevant legislation mentions paths and verges. The kerbstone may only be 4 inches wide but is still a verge albeit very narrow. If you want to argue that it is not a verge then by default it must be part of the road and permission would still be needed

To this I add:

The kerbs should be laid on a prescribed bed, of a minimum depth, with a prescribed concrete mix, to a minimum specified strength, , backed up with a haunching detail that is specified for size and strength, and for allowing a topping detail. A splay detail should also considered extending for a specified distance each side of the drive.

All of this is part of getting dropped kerbs installed, and coming back to my earlier point, I doubt the friend of the mum is qualified to comment on all this. Scottyb84 also does not sound greatly concerned by any of this. I say this because of the comment "who doesn't want to save a few quid"?

To this one adds a scenario which often occurs and is common where I live. Here countless gardens extend to the kerb, but under the garden is an adopted area for services. It is fine to have a garden over the top of this, but not fine to put a drive over it without approval being sought.

Cisco001

Council own a liability to everyone using their footpath to be safe.

For example, it could be a tripping hazard drop kerb did not lay correctly.

So it is not the matter the person who carry out works has done it for years.

That's why council will appoint a contractor to do the work as they will ensure they follow the standard

If the drop kerbs is within her own land, no argument.

Furts

Cisco001 wrote: »

Council own a liability to everyone using their footpath to be safe.

For example, it could be a tripping hazard drop kerb did not lay correctly.

So it is not the matter the person who carry out works has done it for years.

That's why council will appoint a contractor to do the work as they will ensure they follow the standard

If the drop kerbs is within her own land, no argument.

All these are good points, and there is also the elephant in the room not seen by many. Getting drop kerbs put in and a new access includes a verdict on the road design, the speed limit and the visibility.

OP refers to a U shape road, and if the new access is on the bend without adequate visibility, or on a fast road, then permission could be refused on road safety grounds.

Did the friend of the friend take this into consideration before forming the new access? Only OP knows the answer to this one.

jingles8384

From personal experience, getting permission from the council for a dropped kerb is not easy - there are loads of restrictions in place (as mentioned by other) and whilst I can understand wanting to save some money and time (in terms of the red tape etc) if the council decide the work isn't acceptable, there is no coming back from there - my local council charged a neighbour over £2k to 'fix' the dropped kerb that had been installed correctly, but by an 'unauthorised' contractor...

Up to OP as to whether you want to take the risk of passing on a risk to the new homebuyer/owner (personally I wouldn't) or trying to fix it beforehand (by getting the work corrected/OK'd by the council)...

scottyb84

unforeseen wrote: »

The kerb (not curb) is part of the public highway. As such permission is required to make any alterations to it. In fact the law is pretty clear that the public highway extends to the first boundary I.E. the garden wall not to the road side of the kerbstone

The relevant legislation mentions paths and verges. The kerbstone may only be 4 inches wide but is still a verge albeit very narrow. If you want to argue that it is not a verge then by default it must be part of the road and permission would still be needed

Don't know who said 'curb' but thanks for letting me know information I know 👍

scottyb84

Furts wrote: »

All these are good points, and there is also the elephant in the room not seen by many. Getting drop kerbs put in and a new access includes a verdict on the road design, the speed limit and the visibility.

OP refers to a U shape road, and if the new access is on the bend without adequate visibility, or on a fast road, then permission could be refused on road safety grounds.

Did the friend of the friend take this into consideration before forming the new access? Only OP knows the answer to this one.

As he has done MANY of driveways and dropped kerbs, his family own a groundwork company, yes he tool this in to consideration and it was not needed as on a very slow road and not on the bend

scottyb84

Furts wrote: »

To this I add:

The kerbs should be laid on a prescribed bed, of a minimum depth, with a prescribed concrete mix, to a minimum specified strength, , backed up with a haunching detail that is specified for size and strength, and for allowing a topping detail. A splay detail should also considered extending for a specified distance each side of the drive.

All of this is part of getting dropped kerbs installed, and coming back to my earlier point, I doubt the friend of the mum is qualified to comment on all this. Scottyb84 also does not sound greatly concerned by any of this. I say this because of the comment "who doesn't want to save a few quid"?

To this one adds a scenario which often occurs and is common where I live. Here countless gardens extend to the kerb, but under the garden is an adopted area for services. It is fine to have a garden over the top of this, but not fine to put a drive over it without approval being sought.

Thanks for enlightening me with that knowledge of a dropped kerb. The friend of a friend that did the kerb, also did one in my street about 10-12 years ago and that driveway hasn't sunk and no kerbs have moved etc 👍