Dropped kerb / driveway contractor - contract?

districtnine

moonpenny said:

I applied to the local council a few years ago for a dropped kerb and it was the council who sorted where any utilities/services were and provided me with 4 or 5 ?named contractors to do the job.

I had to choose one of their contractors and couldn't employ my own.
I can't remember if they gave me a price or not but, I knew that they were quite a bit more expensive than getting my own to do the work.

My point being that there is no way I would employ a Council contractor (unless hired as a private job) to do my drive just on cost alone let alone the issues on no plan of works that have been voiced.

Hi - thanks for this. The local council here provide a list of contractors for doing a dropped kerb, and one must be chosen from that. Only a name and email were provided for each contractor on their list, and I had to look up every single one as no indication of where they were was given. Only two were anywhere close to me, and one of those was ill and not currently working. A couple of others further afield whom I tried were willing to come and look, but both turned out not have up to date paperwork with the council, who didn't seem to update their list. The council system is incredibly unhelpful and makes it very difficult actually to get this job done under their own requirements. Their information on contractors is beyond poor.

You and others are right in pointing out that the dropped kerb / crossover and driveway are two different jobs - though one of the council-listed contractors told me he wouldn't consider my job unless the driveway was included too, as he was just too far away for it to be worth it. The council does offer an opportunity for contractors to register with them, though, and be checked and approved. That's the route I'm going to look at now, therefore; looking firstly for dropped kerb contractors who can do that, and then more widely at driveway contractors.