Building driveway on council owned verge

Simeonbl

Hello all,

I have been granted planning permission for a driveway. To access the drive I will need to build a hard standing on a grass verge up to my property. The grass verge is own by the council. I don’t want to buy the land from the council if I don’t need to. I have included the plan below. The smaller Verge between pavement and road is own by the highways.

I going to attempted to get dropped kerb permission to pave up to my boundary (over the council owned verge). Will I be able to do this?

or is the another solution. 

ItsComingRome

You might want to redact the addresses from that image.

Section62

Simeonbl said:

I going to attempted to get dropped kerb permission to pave up to my boundary (over the council owned verge). Will I be able to do this?

Contact the council's highways department and make an application for a dropped kerb extension.

If they agree they will either give you permission to employ an authorised contractor to carry out the work in the highway (up to your property boundary), or (usually more likely) give you a quote for them to get the work carried out.

You cannot pave over the grass verge without permission.

As you've already been given planning consent, presumably the highways department made a consultation response to the application, which should (hopefully) indicate they are likely to give permission.

The planning consent decision letter should also give you contact details for the highways department to discuss/arrange the work needed.

Edit: If the location is the one which comes up in a google search with a roughly matching layout, then you have a street lighting column next to the existing dropped kerb.  You may be charged the cost of moving this column to enable the crossover to be widened.  A site inspection might also result in your neighbours getting into trouble for driving over the verge to get onto their parking area and them having to get the crossover extended on their side as well, if it hasn't been done already.

Tokmon

Section62 said:

Simeonbl said:

I going to attempted to get dropped kerb permission to pave up to my boundary (over the council owned verge). Will I be able to do this?

Contact the council's highways department and make an application for a dropped kerb extension.

If they agree they will either give you permission to employ an authorised contractor to carry out the work in the highway (up to your property boundary), or (usually more likely) give you a quote for them to get the work carried out.

You cannot pave over the grass verge without permission.

As you've already been given planning consent, presumably the highways department made a consultation response to the application, which should (hopefully) indicate they are likely to give permission.

The planning consent decision letter should also give you contact details for the highways department to discuss/arrange the work needed.

Edit: If the location is the one which comes up in a google search with a roughly matching layout, then you have a street lighting column next to the existing dropped kerb.  You may be charged the cost of moving this column to enable the crossover to be widened.  A site inspection might also result in your neighbours getting into trouble for driving over the verge to get onto their parking area and them having to get the crossover extended on their side as well, if it hasn't been done already.

That street light is outside 195, the OP lives at 199 which is the house where there is a Seat and Citroen parked on the grass where they want their driveway. 

Simeonbl

Regarding permission to build on council land I have been give the following conditions:

n accordance with the conditions listed below: -

1. All works carried out in pursuance of this consent shall be and remain part of the Premises and shall be subject to the terms and conditions of the conveyance in all respects as if such works had at all times formed part of the Premises.

REASON: To comply with the requirements of the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 Estate Management Scheme for Welwyn Garden City.

2. This consent or copy hereof shall be annexed to the Conveyance.

REASON: To comply with the requirements of the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 Estate Management Scheme for Welwyn Garden City.

3. There shall be no encroachment over the boundary of the plot either above or below ground level, nor any interference with the foundations of the adjoining property without the agreement of the adjoining owner or lessee.

REASON: To comply with the requirements of the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 Estate Management Scheme for Welwyn Garden City.

4. This consent now issued is given by the Council only in accordance with the requirements of the Management Scheme/Conveyance or Leasehold Covenants.

REASON: To comply with the requirements of the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 Estate Management Scheme for Welwyn Garden City.

Page 2 of 7

Application No: 6/2021/1990/EM

Date of Approval: 24 August 2021

 5. Only that part of the hedge required for the access of the hard standing shall be removed and the remainder shall be retained.

REASON: To protect the visual amenity of the area in accordance with the requirements of the Estate Management Scheme and Policy EM3.

Simeonbl

A neighbor and the previous owner withdrew planning as the council had asked the to buy the land. However I’m under the impression that they did not apply for dropped kerb permission properly.

Simeonbl

Block plan for clarity

Section62

Tokmon said:

That street light is outside 195, the OP lives at 199 which is the house where there is a Seat and Citroen parked on the grass where they want their driveway. 

You are right, I should have checked the house number on the wall rather than relying on google.

Simeonbl

I’m believe the following condition means I will need to seek further permission for the council.

“There shall be no encroachment over the boundary of the plot either above or below ground level, nor any interference with the foundations of the adjoining property without the agreement of the adjoining owner or lessee.”

Apart from planning permission for a dropped kerb. Is there any other routes to get permission to build on the council’s grass verge for access.

benson1980

We had exactly the same scenario- I believe it is a Section 171 licence that we had for the 'verge' part of the works, in addition to the crossover access.

We did ask a few of our neighbours (identical plots) at the time, who had created driveways across the verge. I'm pretty sure we were the only people who bothered getting the 171 but we wanted it done properly/all above board as we did it to sell.

Simeonbl

benson1980 said:

We had exactly the same scenario- I believe it is a Section 171 licence that we had for the 'verge' part of the works, in addition to the crossover access.

We did ask a few of our neighbours (identical plots) at the time, who had created driveways across the verge. I'm pretty sure we were the only people who bothered getting the 171 but we wanted it done properly/all above board as we did it to sell.

I believe the 171 license is just permission to carry out works that will disrupt the highway such as a dropped kerb. So in this I would be using that anyway to have the kerb dropped by the council/ highways workers.

did you get any other permission to build on the council land as part of your driveway.