Extend Dropped Kerb

looking_forward

Morning everyone ,


We have lived in our house for approx. 20 years now , the house has a double driveway and dropped kerb , the dropped kerb doesn't quite get to the edge of the driveway and if 2 cars are on the drive it can be a bit awkward - more so since we have recently got a bigger car . On one side of the driveway is our front garden on the other a section of grass approx. 6ft wide . What I am hoping to do is extend the drop kerb section by about 1 stones width on either side . Can anyone offer any advice about permissions and possible costs ?


thanks

EachPenny

You need to contact your local council's highways department (or look on their website) to find out what their process is.

Most councils will want to carry out an inspection first to make sure the changes would comply with their policies and to identify any problems with street furniture. They often charge for this, so you could expect to pay in the region of £200 just for that.

Then, depending on their policy, you'll either need to use an approved contractor or the council will give you a quote for getting the work done. This is a 'how long is a piece of string' question as the costs vary widely between contractors and councils. It could be anything from 'free' to £1000 or above.

Don't be tempted to get any old builder to do the work without getting the council involved as some people might suggest. Doing the work without permission is illegal, and the consequences if something goes wrong could be very expensive.

Ant555

Is the difficulty getting on and off due to the fact that other cars are parked on the road 'up to' the dropped kerb or simply that you have to drive over the kerb/grass?

My council are quite particular about not reducing on street parking space so if the extra bit will impact on whether a car can park on the road then you may have see them resist (ie if the change would make the kerbed area so small that a car would not subsequently be able to park there). If your request doesn't ultimately reduce the available parking then you should be fine albeit with the associated approval and costs.

d0nkeyk0ng

We had this done a month ago. £100 for an assessment, £700 to extend. Paid the council to do it. Our driveway had a dropped kerb that was three kerbstones long. The maximum length was four kerbstones. It wasn't a huge change but enough that it made it easier to reverse on to the driveway, especially if a neighbour had parked opposite the driveway, making it awkward to get in (very narrow roads).

As above, look at your council website.

looking_forward

yes it was purely due to the fact of driving over the raised sections especially if reversing at night , as stated above it would be a minor change and shouldn't affect anything else

longwalks1

We have pretty much the same as you, had the !!!8216;approved!!!8217; contractor out to quote before we applied, said council charge £200 for the application and for him to widen it by 2 kerbstones it!!!8217;s cost about £1,300 (max 2 days work)

As the kerb is pretty worn anyway we decided against it ~ it was more to stop the occasional idiot parking slightly across the driveway more than access for us