Oh dear! Just had visit from council officer about not having dropped kerb...

Ellie007

So.....just had a knock at the door from a Council enforcement officer advising that I am committing an offence by parking on our drive which does not have a dropped kerb.

We bought the house last summer (described as having off street parking) and it came up on the survey that it had no dropped kerb. It may seem silly that we had not noticed, but the kerb is so shallow anyway that it was not obvious. My solicitor advised that the chances of ever having a problem was so minimal as not to worry about it....and as the sale was so far progressed and we had to exchange or lose our buyer, we went ahead.

Anyway, I've been advised that unless we have a dropped kerb put in the council will erect bollards in front of our house at £150/each (we would have to have four apparently and be liable for paying for them). I am happy to go ahead with the kerb but am worried that the application will be refused as the distance from the front of the house (i.e. front of bay windows) to the pavement is 4.66m and the council website states it needs to be 4.8m. The frontage of our property is 10.3m wide though so will common sense prevail as there is plenty of room for both cars to fit without protruding onto the pavement? How likely are the Council to refuse anyway, as it seems like a nice earner (apparently I am looking at approx £1,000 bill - ouch!)

Does anyone have any experience or advice?

Thanks

silvercar

I would suggest contacting your local councillor.

I can't see how the council would install bollards and charge you for them.

Ellie007

Thanks silvercar - my husband said exactly the same thing when I told him what had happened. Seems a bit harsh really!

~Beanie~

The council can put bollards up in front of your 'drive' and in fact have even done it when a car has been on the drive, blocking it in!

See this artice from the Dailty Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=524838&in_page_id=1770

mlz1413

i'm going back 10 years but i bought a house with a parking (to back of house) and no dropped kerbs, nothing on survery and council never had a problem with this, I ended up putting in drop kerbs as it gave me a right to access and I was having problems with the parking due to a local health and fitness centre.

I know times has moved on but I would be very interested to know the outcome of this please.

pinkshoes

I'm not sure what putting up bollards would achieve?!? And I don't see how they can ask you to pay for them?!

Dropping a kerb usually costs around £1000, and if other houses have had it done, then the application should be accepted.

This issue was pointed out by your solicitor, so it was something that COULD need doing at some point.

Ellie007

Thanks Beanie for the link - what a nightmare! Hopefully it won't come to that, although now I'm worrying about parking there in the interim - not sure how long an application takes to process, and on-street parking very limited where I live. Wondering whether keeping the cars parked on the drive for now will cause further problems?

Pinkshoes - yes we accepted there was always a possibility of getting 'caught', I guess we just hoped it would never become an issue! Apparently the council man who visited this morning has just started in the role after taking over from someone who had been doing it for years, so i guess he is just a bit more thorough than his predecessor, unfortunately for us...:cool:

Unfortunately as of 1st April the application fee is £80 and then £140/m2 for the works, (was £120/m2) so no wonder they are being extra vigilant!

mlz1413 - will keep you posted!

PasturesNew

As I understand it, from a totally unrelated instance involving planning permission for a loft extension, any sizes or approvals they give aren't based on what you will do (i.e. you have shorter cars), but what might potentially occur should a subsequent buyer use the same facility. So a new buyer with the right to park in a driveway might have a longer car which did stick out. Or even a visitor to your home.

I have no advice to offer I'm afraid, I just wanted to point out that this might be reason for a refusal even though your cars are sufficiently small enough to fit.

stinky_5000

I had one done about 4 years ago through lancaster city council , i don't remember the details but i don't remember it being a major hassle, the council came and fit the kerb and re-tarmaced the pavement, it cost a couple of hundred i think?

LillyJ

Interesting to know it costs 1000 pounds for the dropped kerb, I rang the council asking how much it would cost (I was only looking for approx figure ie was I looking at hundreds or thousands!) and they charge £35 just for a quote! Well until I knew the ball park I didn't know if it was even worth paying for a quote. They were really unhelpful.
By the way does a drive add value? (or stop it being lost at the moment!) Just out of interest as ours has a garage at the back you get to via an alleyway which has big gates on either end (only residents have the key) but I would quite like a drive so that I don't have to get out and unlock the gate in the dark.

Generali

A mate of mine got caught by his council (Essex somewhere) for much the same thing. It ended up costing him about £3k IIRC! It sounds like you've got a good deal.