Land ownership
If you don’t solely own the land to be used for parking, you must provide evidence that you have consent from the owner to use the land.
If your access will cross private land between your property and the highway, you need to provide evidence of a right to cross this land in perpetuity. You may need planning permission for change of use of any private land before applying for a dropped kerb.
Tenant
You need to provide written confirmation from your landlord granting permission to allow a vehicle to park on the land concerned. If you are a tenant of a housing association, such as Abri, permission must be given by your housing association in writing. Your landlord may charge a fee for this service.
Owner of an ex-council house
Your property is likely to be the subject to a condition (called a restrictive covenant) which currently prevents cars being parked on the property. You need to contact Abri to have the restrictive covenant relaxed. We need a copy of the letter to be provided to us before your application can be finalised. Abri normally charge a fee for lifting restrictive covenants.
We will tell you whether we need you to get this permission when we get your application.
You may want to delay applying for your relaxation of the covenant until you have received approval of your vehicle access application from the highway authority. This approval will include a drawing and a quote which will tell you how much the construction will cost.
Once you have received your quote, you should contact Abri and get your restrictive covenant letter before agreeing to the quote and paying us. This is in case there is an issue getting the covenant letter. This will add a short period of time to the process but does reduce your financial risk should your covenant application not be successful.
We cannot issue instructions to our contractor before receipt of proof that the covenant has been lifted.
Owner of an ex-council house but not the garden
In some cases, when a council house was sold, the council kept ownership of the land forming the front garden. Usually this was only the soft landscaped areas (original lawn area).
If your deeds are written in this way, you need to contact Abri who may need you to buy the land. You will also need to apply for planning permission for change of use. This involves extra charges and delays. Such conditions need to be satisfied before your application for a dropped kerb can be approved.
Walls, fences and hedges
If you have a wall, fence or hedgerow where you want a dropped kerb, you need to remove these before our contractor can drop the kerb. This includes any other planting or structure as well as footings, foundations and roots.
The dropped kerb requires installation of concrete edging between your driveway and the footway. This involves the contractor needing to excavate into your driveway by approximately 300mm beyond the highway edge. We recommend not installing your driveway until the dropped kerb has been constructed.
If you do not prepare your land and clear the boundary before the dropped kerb works, it could result in our contractor leaving the site and you being charged an abortive visit fee of £300.
Trees
Make sure you check if there are any trees on either your property, your neighbour’s or on the public highway which may be near the proposed works.
This is because the excavation for the dropped kerbs or driveway could undermine the stability and health of the trees by removing some of their root systems. In addition, the works could cause compaction of the surrounding soil and prevent water getting to the remaining root system.
We will reject an application for a dropped kerb if the excavation is required within the root protection zone of a mature tree unless the applicant also provides a tree root protection plan from a qualified arboriculturist. The radius of the root protection zone can be estimated as to be an area 12 times the diameter of the tree trunk measured 1 meter from the ground.
If there are trees nearby, check whether:
- any of the trees are protected by a tree preservation order
- your property is in a conservation area
If either of these apply, you need to make an application or notify the planning authority under the Town and Country Planning Act. See our householders making a planning application guide for more details.
Once you have a decision from the planning authority about the tree, you may be able to proceed with your dropped kerb application.
If there are trees in the area of your application, we recommend that you get professional arboricultural advice before making your application to make sure that any works would not endanger you or the public by increasing the risk of the tree falling. You can find a list of consultant arborists on the Arboricultural Association website.
If construction works to install a dropped kerb are likely to damage or adversely impact trees within the highway, we will seek advice from the council's Tree Service, before making our decision.
If there is a potential for damage to the trees, your application will not be approved.
Street furniture
Street furniture includes items such as:
- street lighting columns (lamp posts)
- road signs
- street nameplates
If any street furniture needs to be relocated because of the dropped kerb, there will be a cost to you for this job. If these items are essential to the highway network and cannot be relocated, your application may be refused. Any required works may also cause delays in the process.
Utility company plant
Utility company plant includes:
- cabinets
- poles
- posts
- covers
- chambers
- underground pipes and cables
Utility company plant is sometimes visible, such as service covers. In other cases, the underground services are not visible as they are underneath the surface. If these need moving, lowering or strengthening to allow a vehicle to drive over them safely, the utility company may charge for diversionary works. This includes but is not limited to lowering of covers, ducts, cables and pipes and the reconstruction of chambers to the new footway levels.
Where possible, we will work with the utility company on your behalf to arrange these works. Costs for utility company works are your responsibility. Where these are needed, they may be significant. We will request payment of such fees in advance of the works being carried out. Where diversionary works are needed, there may also be extensive delays in the process.
Once we start the works on site, if we find unexpected utility company plant, any costs incurred will be your responsibility. This may cause significant delays.
On-street parking
We help with dropped kerbs to alleviate parking problems. We will not consider double yellow lines on the highway which would remove parking for all so that a private driveway can be built.
You need to consider your ability to manoeuvre on and off your driveway before making your application.
The council’s parking team do have powers to enforce parking across a dropped kerb, although their resource is limited. More information about on-street parking and enforcement is available on our on-street parking page.