Dropped kerb s171 hampshire

Moogirl

Hello
I’m looking for some advice and hopefully for info of anyone who been in this situation .
Our property is located in a cul de sac without a footpath in front of the house so a dropped kerb should be fairly simple . Our local council which falls under hampshire fareham states for any road opening ( digging up highway ) we would need a S171 licence which will cost 430£ . We had a few contractor now come out and giving us different opinions and a fair few stated they can install the kerb from our site of the garden so wouldn’t actually touch the highway at all. In my opinion that means we don’t have to pay the council and get the licence since we technically digging up our own front garden only . Sadly the council is closed currently and i can’t find any information about this anywhere . Has anyone made a drive way with dropped kerb without an s171 licence due similar reasons ?

Apologies for the long post I hope it made sense if not I will try to explain more

Moogirl

Carrot007

You are misunderstanding the term highway in this situation.


The footpath and the kerb are all part of the highway.


Unless of course yo uare dropping a kerb on your property!

Moogirl

Thanks , I’m not sure really if they are on our property I thought so but now I’m in doubt . Going to look at the land deeds and the measurements for it to make sure they are indeed on our property then .

Turned into a mess quickly

bris

Any kerb that steps out into the highway can't be dropped without permission from the council.


So if you need to drop a kerb to drive onto the road you are going to have to pay.

Aylesbury_Duck

As above, there will be no escaping the charge I'm afraid. Do you meet all the other requirements? Some councils insist on minimum dimensions of any hard standing you create, so as to prevent people parking cars on their property but which overhang the highway (which includes the pavement and in your case, the kerb itself).

Section106

Moogirl wrote: »

Thanks , I’m not sure really if they are on our property I thought so but now I’m in doubt . Going to look at the land deeds and the measurements for it to make sure they are indeed on our property then .

The deeds are unlikely to help you very much. The measurements probably won't be accurate enough to conclusively prove where the boundary is, and even if you do own the land, it is still possible for it to be a public highway.

Just to be clear, is there already a kerb in place (which needs dropping) or is the road currently unkerbed? If it is kerbed then the council will claim as highway up to the rear of the kerb, meaning the kerbs are highway and a licence will definitely be required to work on them.

Also, can you give us an idea of how old the house is? The lack of a footway suggests either very old, or post-1980. In the latter case, the lack of a footway often means services like phones, water, electric are laid in the grass verge which is part of the highway, even though it looks like part of the front garden. You mentioned that being verge rather than footway would make the job easier, but often that isn't the case. If there are utilities in the verge then these may need to be lowered to protect them from damage caused by vehicles. If so, then your budget for the job could be several times as much as you had in mind.

I'd also cross the contractors who said they would avoid the charge by doing the job on your side off the list of people to consider for doing the job if you do go ahead. If they are willing to bend the rules on something like that then you have no way of knowing what other rules and requirements they are willing to ignore. That might include things that directly affect you such as the thickness of materials they lay on your new driveway.

robatwork

You didn't explain well.

So as you drive up the council adopted (taking an assumption here) cul-de-sac you have to cross a raised kerb to get onto your front garden?

Or is there already a dropped kerb but another raised kerb to get onto your garden?