For lots of people, parking outside their own house can be both a cause of stress and come at a monetary cost if you need to pay for a resident’s permit.
In certain urban regions, it can continue to be difficult to find a spot to leave your car close to home.
A dropped kerb is a legal necessity if you wish to drive across the pavement onto your residential or commercial property.
Any entry onto a public highway from a residential or commercial driveway area should have a dropped kerb.
A dropped kerb allows vehicles to cross the pavement from the road to a driveway and it is a legal necessity to have a dropped kerb if you want to drive across the pavement onto your property.
Installing a dropped kerb can make a significant improvement to easy access your property along with helping to ensure people do not park across your driveway.
The law pertaining to dropped kerbs states: If you plan to drive a vehicle over the footway in to your driveway off a highway, then you will need to have a dropped kerb.
If you do not have dropped kerb, you must never drive over the footway. If you do this, you are breaking the law and enforcement action might be taken to stop such practice.
The pavement may require to be reinforced in front of the property, and sometimes, it may be essential for lampposts, manhole covers and other street furniture to be moved.
Drop Kerb Specialists in Nottingham
Dropped kerbs also called vehicle access crossovers, are an alteration to the footpath. It entails lowering the kerb and laying new foundations to the paving to enable a car to be driven onto the front area of a property.
The work involves lowering the kerbstones and strengthening the pavement to create a ramp, and must only be performed by an authorised provider with Street Works Accreditation, and who have the necessary Public Liability insurance to fulfill the local authorities regulations.
Vehicle access cross overs consist normally of 3 or 4 dropped kerbs with a tapered or transition kerb on either side. The standard maximum total width at road level of dropped kerbs for a VAC is 3.6 metres (i.e. normally 4 dropped kerbs).
We have many years experience in installing drop kerbs and applying for the appropriate planning permission. We are able to work in conjunction with your local county council to install a dropped kerb whilst complying with all essential regulations.
You can either apply to your local council for permission for a dropped kerb outside your property or we are able to apply to your local authority in your place.
We are members of the Streetworks Qualifications Register (SWQR). The SWQR holds details of qualified operators who have gained the proper qualifications in regard to the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, which is essential for any provider excavating a highway.
We concentrate on delivering a product that gets it right the first time. By buying high quality materials, equipment and processes, we ensure that we deliver sustainable and cost effective solutions that will last.
We pride ourselves on our exceptional workmanship and client care and we ensure that each and every job is carried out to the highest quality standards.
Our staff can visit your site to perform a free no-obligation survey. This allows our surfacing contractors to completely understand your needs and offer an accurate and affordable quote.
Local Kerb Dropping Contractors
The massive growth in interest for off-street parking has seen more and more people drop kerbs to establish car standing at the front of their properties.
Study by home insurer Direct Line shows that off-street parking is seen by estate agents as a beneficial feature which adds value to a property. This, combined with escalating parking limitations in lots of residential locations, has resulted in planning applications for dropped kerbs increase massively over recent years.
However while putting in car standing space to the front of your home can add value to your property, there are numerous things to think about, not least environmental issues, and flooding is a major worry.
When you switch out a front garden with hard standing, rain can no longer soak into the ground. As increasingly more households take this step, the collective effect seriously increases the threat of flooding, so it’s essential to include drainage in your plans.
Planning permission is normally required if you wish to drop the kerb outside your property to permit a car to cross the pavement. This is due to the fact that the pavement might need to be reinforced to take the weight of vehicles and prevent them from damaging the surface or any pipes or cables beneath. It is also to ensure the new access will never be a safety hazard to other highway users.
You can find out if you require planning permission by getting in touch with your local council (you can find the relevant council at the government website). How much it costs to apply will be dependent on your specific location.
If permission is granted, you then you need to locate a local specialist to perform the work for you.
It’s certainly not a DIY job as the council will have criteria that contractors must meet. Several will only permit you to use their endorsed contractors, while others make it possible for you to use your own, so long as they are accredited to the requirements of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, and hold public liability insurance. For this case, there might be an added fee for highway assessments by the council.
Nottingham Vehicle Crossover Experts
However first it’s worth establishing if consent is likely to be granted. Below is a checklist of points to consider. If any among these criteria is not met, planning permission is probably to be rejected:
- Your front garden needs to be big enough for you to park your vehicle entirely on your property.
- The kerb needs to be at least 4.8 m from the front of your house; or 6m if the parking spot is in front of an entrance or garage.
- The parking area should be at least 2.4 m wide.
- The suggested access to your property should be more than 10m away from a road junction; 15m away from busy junctions or on major roads.
- It must be at least 1.5 m away from street lamps and other street furniture.
- It must meet visibility guidelines; this depends upon the type of road.
- Appropriate drainage needs to be provided to take the excess surface water.
The removal of tree roots should be avoided. - The slope from your home to the road must not be too steep.
- Finally, you as the home owner must agree to the kerb being dropped; as an example, a tenant can not apply on their landlord’s behalf.