Access to driveway blocked

Cakeguts

This house is cheap because it doesn't have any private parking and is not likely to ever have any. If you want private parking this is not the house for you. Find a different one.

moneyistooshorttomention

gcoopermax wrote: »

I have added another image for clarity. Yes I do understand it is a public property, but how frequently would the grassed area be used by the public (it's not a park)? What difference would it make to the public if the road is extended to shorten the grassed pavement?

(Obvious) purpose served = visual amenity.

"Visual amenity" means = it makes the area look nicer

Had you noticed the tree on it? Makes the area look nicer.

:wall::wall:

sheramber

You need to check if you need planning permission to convert your garden to a driveway/ parking area.

From your drawing you will be taking away 2 public parking places. There are requirements for the number of parking places in an estate.

We had a similar arrangement at the back of our house.

Where your house is shown was our back fence.
The area of your front garden was grass and shrubs looked after by the council and then the road which provided access to the back gardens of the houses on the row along the back, where their garages were.

the owner of the house equivalent to the right most house along the top got agreement from the developer to buy the grass/shrub area and asked for permission to make a driveway into his back garden. He did have access to his garage which was in the back garden but there was no parking space in front of the garage. They had two cars and wanted to be able to park one on the proposed driveway.

His submission was that the area was just 'scrub' and nobody would be affected by losing it.

He was refused permission.

Aylesbury_Duck

Absolutely no chance, and rightly so.

MysteryMe

There is not a driveway to block, there is no driveway. That property has a front garden, nothing else,.

Having what could be perceived as small useless areas of grass is often vital for drainage as anything else.

You will have zero chance of getting what you have suggested approved for reasons others have already stated.

EachPenny

In slightly different circumstances the council might be willing to sell you the land as they would be able to get a cash receipt for it (helps with the capital budget) and lose an ongoing maintenance liability (helps with the revenue budget). One council I know of are very happy to get rid of little bits of land like this.

The problem in this case is there is a public path crossing between your intended front garden and the piece of land. This would need to be diverted to enable a sale of land to you, and there is not obvious safe way of doing that.

The path is really the biggest problem, because even a lower cost solution of grasscrete allowing you to get in and out of 'your' driveway without significantly altering the appearance of this area would involve you reversing on (or off) the driveway across the path. From a safety point of view that would be unacceptable.

From a community benefit point of view, it looks like at most you would only be able to park one car on 'your' driveway, at a loss of one public parking space. A one-for-one replacement doesn't achieve a positive outcome for anyone but yourself, so there would be no advantage for the council to agree this.

In terms of cost, if the land remains public but the 'road' is extended then it would need to be constructed to a suitable standard. I would expect an area like that to have at least some buried services (water/gas pipes and phone/cable TV/electric cables) and these would need to be moved or lowered to protect them. The cost of protecting a single phone duct could be in the order of £20k.

If the road was extended up to the fence at the 'end' of the road - which would allow you access to the drive and retain two parking spaces (about the only way I could see the council agreeing to it) - then the cost of doing the work (assuming some minor service alterations only) is likely to be in the £50k to £100k range.

The question is whether the house would be worth (at least) £50k more with its own driveway? (the cost of constructing the driveway itself is not included in this figure)

teddysmum

Green spaces are to prevent areas becoming concrete and brick eyesores.

G_M

As othrs have said:

* loss of green amenity land
* loss of newly planted tree
* loss of 2 existing public parking spaces (which if retained in the extended road would block your access)

By all means apply. You'll need

* consent from valuation and estates dept for agreement to sell and price negotiation
* consent from legal department for sale of land
* consent from highways for a new dropped curb
* consent from Planning Dept for conversion of garden to drive (probably)
* consent (separate) from Planning for change of use of amenity land to highway
* consent (separate) from Planning for loss of public parking

Each of the above will be at your cost, whether you succeed (unlikely) or not.

Smodlet

If you really have so little imagination or consideration for anyone other than yourself, OP, I suggest you would be better advised to buy a detached house within its own grounds with its own private road.

gcoopermax

Hi all, thanks for your thoughts. We did a viewing for this house and apparently there is a garage on the road near the house. Yes I didn't realise that by having a driveway, two parking spaces that are available now would be gone. And I didn't grow up in this country so I am not very much familiar with (understandable) sentiments about the green spaces :-)