Had Drop Kerb done without planning permission

Ezzbis2023

Is it worth me applying for retrospective planning permission, or keep quiet until I hear from council regarding the breach?

WIAWSNB

I'd personally let it run for as long as possible. The longer the status quo remains, the more unreasonable any action they might take would be, and hence less likely it is to occur.
That is a basic rool in statutory and legal law

MeadowsVale

I had my kerb dropped unofficially a few years ago when I had my back garden redone.

100+ year old property and in the original paper deeds it actually states that I own the front and back footpath outside my property and upto the centre of the back street. I would like to see what the council would do in court.

Alas nothing has ever come of it.

Section62

MeadowsVale said:

I had my kerb dropped unofficially a few years ago when I had my back garden redone.

100+ year old property and in the original paper deeds it actually states that I own the front and back footpath outside my property and upto the centre of the back street. I would like to see what the council would do in court.

Alas nothing has ever come of it.

They probably wouldn't bother with court, they'd just reinstate the kerb and if you kept driving over it then put a bollard in the way.  They might send you the bill for the work.  The legality of them blocking the access might be questionable (if you don't live in London), but unless you've got deep pockets to apply for a judicial review, there's not much you can do about it.

If the kerb dropping did go to court - probably for one of the 'unlawful interference' offences - then legally you wouldn't have much of a defence.  The ownership status of the land is irrelevant.  If the back street is highway then highway law applies to it, regardless of who owns the land.  It is common for the adjacent landowners to own the freehold of land up to the centre of the highway - more so in rural areas, but also in towns and cities where the road has been there long enough, or if the highway authority didn't take ownership of the land when the road was adopted.

Highway rights (and law) exist and apply over and above ownership of the land.  If your defence was that you owned the land and were therefore entitled to drop the kerb because it was on your land then the magistrate would likely roll their eyes and place you in the 'Freeman on the land' category of defendant.

Lucky the council hasn't done anything yet.

Ezzbis2023

I have decided that I will wait for the council correspondence, when it comes I will accept my mistake of misunderstanding and will be co-operative with the council to gain retrospective permission. I have terraced house with clear visibility, no obstructions street furniture etc. The refusal states the distance being greater than 3m is a local rule not set by the law, I hope council would be willing to re-asses the matter since its already done. 

Swipe

I doubt you'll hear from them again.

Grumpy_chap

Ezzbis2023 said:

i had the drop kerb done without further applications to the council. I am worried if they find out what will be the worst case scenario, I paid almost £2k to get it done,

Who actually did the work?
Was it a Council-Approved contractor with all the necessary authority to work on the public highway?

It seems as though you applied for Planning Permission, which was refused?
Did you also apply for Highways Consent?  What was the outcome in that regard?

Section62

Grumpy_chap said:

Ezzbis2023 said:

i had the drop kerb done without further applications to the council. I am worried if they find out what will be the worst case scenario, I paid almost £2k to get it done,

Who actually did the work?
Was it a Council-Approved contractor with all the necessary authority to work on the public highway?

Even if the contractor was on the council's approved list, they wouldn't have authority to do work the council hadn't asked them to do, or otherwise given consent for them to carry out.

Being on the approved list usually means the contractor has to have public liability insurance - which should protect the client if something bad happens. However, I wonder whether that insurance would pay out if the contractor was engaged in work they didn't have the legal authority to do.

Grumpy_chap said:

It seems as though you applied for Planning Permission, which was refused?
Did you also apply for Highways Consent?  What was the outcome in that regard?

The refusal appears to be from the highways department based on their published criteria.  It doesn't sound like the OP applied for planning permission at all.

WIAWSNB

You say yours is the only one in the 'hood that hadn't been lowered before, Ezzbis? That's good news, as the most likely way this would ever get to the council's attention is if another neighbour also wanted to do this, applied for permission, got snubbed, and then cited yours as a recent example.
What are the chances? Minimal.
Put it out of your mind. 

MeadowsVale

Section62 said:

MeadowsVale said:

I had my kerb dropped unofficially a few years ago when I had my back garden redone.

100+ year old property and in the original paper deeds it actually states that I own the front and back footpath outside my property and upto the centre of the back street. I would like to see what the council would do in court.

Alas nothing has ever come of it.

They probably wouldn't bother with court, they'd just reinstate the kerb and if you kept driving over it then put a bollard in the way.  They might send you the bill for the work.  The legality of them blocking the access might be questionable (if you don't live in London), but unless you've got deep pockets to apply for a judicial review, there's not much you can do about it.

If the kerb dropping did go to court - probably for one of the 'unlawful interference' offences - then legally you wouldn't have much of a defence.  The ownership status of the land is irrelevant.  If the back street is highway then highway law applies to it, regardless of who owns the land.  It is common for the adjacent landowners to own the freehold of land up to the centre of the highway - more so in rural areas, but also in towns and cities where the road has been there long enough, or if the highway authority didn't take ownership of the land when the road was adopted.

Highway rights (and law) exist and apply over and above ownership of the land.  If your defence was that you owned the land and were therefore entitled to drop the kerb because it was on your land then the magistrate would likely roll their eyes and place you in the 'Freeman on the land' category of defendant.

Lucky the council hasn't done anything yet.

There's no proof how long it's been there, it's all weathered in now. Could have been there 50 years like some of the others on the street which I doubt the council would still have records for.

We're talking about a back street where loads of properties already have garages built on their property and the footpath is the width of one old school paving slab. It's not the front on a busy road.

I'll take my chances. :-)