Unauthorised vehicle crossing on our drive

laurenlepage

Hello everyone!
Asking for a little advice. My husband and I have just been issued an 'Unauthorised Vehicle Crossing' notice by our local council. To get to our drive you need to cross the pavement, but it's been like this as long as we've owned the house (8 years). We have spoken to one of our neighbours and they have said that, not the owners before us but the owners before that who were disabled, applied to drop the curb but had it refused due to a lamppost which can't be moved (this lamppost is a bit in the way of our drive but we can park both cars in our drive without dinging it). The council have asked that we don't use our drive as a drive until the necessary work has been done and approved, but that this won't necessarily even be approved! Even so, we have to apply for permission to do the work, but permission for an authorised crossing won't be permitted until that's completed - then if that's not approved we'll have to rip it up and pay to have the normal pavement restored.

We need our drive, but cannot afford to go through this box ticking for it to be rejected. We have a small child, dog, large garden so there are always heavy items in the back of the car/van which need offloading at the drive. The letter doesn't suggest that there will be a fine for continuing to use our drive (it says "we respectfully ask that you refrain from crossing the unauthorised vehicle crossing"), but only if there is damage to the pavement.

It's a double drive, with a lamppost to one side and I think a metre reader to the other.
Any suggestions or advice? 

Anthony147

Unfortunately there’s not a way to get what you want from this especially if the crossover has already been refused.
To park off street requires consent from the local authority that the crossover is strong enough for cars and that parking for all road users isn’t badly affected.
increasing they refuse crossovers and are sending cease and desist letters to situation where no crossover exists but parking is still being conducted - They do have the power to issue escalating fines once they’ve issued warnings.

In terms of suggestions or advice:
Have you checked what classification of road your council has your road as? This directly affects how likely approval for crossover will be or if they will never allow it
You can also check what other specifications for crossovers are required now - For example they can state you must be able to drive in forwards and turn around off road to drive off forwards (that’s what my council demand for new crossovers which makes it in effect impossible to get)
One very small chance is if you asked about it when purchasing and where given incorrect information regarding parking but that would require legal advice.

Its all about what your council want and unfortunately the cost - not just of planning permission but the crossover work if permitted will have to be borne by you and typically it will total around £500 in planning, £1500 street works although less is some places.

You could continue to park as is but the council can enforce as they see fit as you’ve neither the right or permission to use the crossover until they say so.

neilmcl

I'm guessing the council thinks it's unsafe whilst the lamp post is there.

greyteam1959

Sounds to me as though one of your neighbours has made a complaint & brought this to the attention of the council.
You will probably be need to be very careful what you do now unfortunately.

laurenlepage

@Anthony147 it's a classified road, I should have said that in my initial post.
You're confirming what I already suspected that we won't get permission as it's already been refused. Thanks for replying!

TELLIT01

There was a similar situation reported in our local press a year or two back.  A number of people had paved their front gardens and were driving over pavement and a small grassed area to access them.  The council ordered them to stop doing so and then installed bollards to ensure they couldn't.  It's better to try to work with the council than to defy them as there is only likely to be one winner.

twopenny

What Anthony says is comprehensive.

Did the two previous owners use it to take their vehicles over? Is there some sort of established use you could work with?

Wonder why this has happened now rather than with the two previous owners?

Very remiss of your solicitor not to have asked about permission to park but with it being already established and two previous owners it probably wouldn't cross their mind. I had to dig back 15yrs (well the builders did) for the certificate for my dropped kerb and permission when I sold my house but the buyers were looking for an excuse to drop the asking price.

laurenlepage

Hi twopenny,

Yes, two previous owners used to drive over the pavement to the drive. I assume the drive has been there as long as cars have been used, and the house is 100+ years old. Time to look through our records and see what we can find in terms of legalities and house buying etc.

Thanks all. 

Grumpy_chap

laurenlepage said:

@Anthony147 it's a classified road, I should have said that in my initial post.
You're confirming what I already suspected that we won't get permission as it's already been refused. Thanks for replying!

I understand that, as it is a classified road, you will need planning permission in addition to the permission for a vehicle crossover.  That is the case in my Council area, though I am unsure whether the requirements for planning permission is a national rule or a local by-law.  I suspect it is a national requirements for the planning permission.

The process, when you need planning permission is that you need the planning permission first and then submit that (granted planning permission) as part of the application information when making the application to Highways Dept for the vehicle crossover dropper kerb.

I also understand that our Council do have a process for moving or adjusting lampposts, telegraph poles etc to facilitate a dropped kerb, though the costs all fall to the householder.  I doubt it is cheap.

DiamondLil

TELLIT01 said:

There was a similar situation reported in our local press a year or two back.  A number of people had paved their front gardens and were driving over pavement and a small grassed area to access them.  The council ordered them to stop doing so and then installed bollards to ensure they couldn't.  It's better to try to work with the council than to defy them as there is only likely to be one winner.

Same where I am. To the extent that a great many bollards appeared on the pavements here almost overnight.

Davesnave

Grumpy_chap said:

laurenlepage said:

@Anthony147 it's a classified road, I should have said that in my initial post.
You're confirming what I already suspected that we won't get permission as it's already been refused. Thanks for replying!

I also understand that our Council do have a process for moving or adjusting lampposts, telegraph poles etc to facilitate a dropped kerb, though the costs all fall to the householder.  I doubt it is cheap.

In the long term it might be cheaper than selling a house with no off road parking though!