Applying for a vehicle crossover or dropped kerb

Two different permissions sit behind one piece of kerb, and the dropped kerb application process starts with working out which of them you need. The crossover itself, meaning the physical works to lower the kerb and strengthen the footway, is authorised by the highway authority under section 184 of the Highways Act 1980. Planning permission is a separate question that depends on what road you are joining.

Get them in the wrong order and you can end up with planning permission for a driveway the highway authority will never let you reach.

Why planning permission and the crossover are separate

The highway authority owns and maintains the footway and the verge. Taking a vehicle across them needs its authorisation, and section 184 is the mechanism. That authority is the county council in two tier areas, the unitary or borough council elsewhere, and National Highways on trunk roads.

Planning permission deals with the formation of the access onto the highway as a matter of land use. Forming a means of access to a road that is not a trunk road or a classified road is generally permitted development where it is needed in connection with other permitted development, which covers most ordinary front garden driveways on residential streets.

Where the road is classified, meaning an A, B or C road, or where it is a trunk road, that permitted development right does not apply and planning permission is needed for the access.

The hard surface is a third question. Laying a hard surface in the front garden of a house is permitted development, but a surface larger than 5 square metres has to be porous or permeable, or arranged to drain to a permeable area within the curtilage. A solid surface draining to the road needs planning permission.

The highway authority application

The process is administrative rather than quasi-judicial, and it runs roughly as follows.

1. Check the authority's online guidance and its published charges, since both the fee and the works cost vary by authority.
2. Submit the application with a plan showing the property, the proposed crossing position, its width and the depth of the parking area behind it.
3. A highways officer inspects the site, usually within a few weeks, and checks visibility, depth, street furniture and the position relative to junctions.
4. The authority either approves, approves subject to changes such as a different position or width, or refuses with reasons.
5. On approval you pay for the works, which the authority carries out itself or allows an approved contractor to carry out under its supervision and inspection.
6. The works are inspected on completion and the crossing becomes part of the maintained highway.

You cannot do the works yourself. Construction on the public highway without authorisation is an offence, and a crossing built privately will be dug up and reinstated at your cost.

Visibility and the sightline check

Visibility is the most frequent reason a crossover is refused, and it is assessed against the stopping sight distance for the road's speed.

The approach follows Manual for Streets, which relates visibility to actual vehicle speeds rather than to the posted limit. A commonly applied figure is 2.4 metres back from the carriageway edge, with a clear sightline of about 43 metres in each direction on a road where traffic travels at around 30mph, reducing on slower streets and increasing on faster ones.

What obstructs it is usually fixed: a bend, a high boundary wall belonging to a neighbour, a parked car in a permanent bay, or a hedge on land you do not control. The way the calculation works, and why the x-distance and the speed assumption matter so much, is set out in visibility splays and the stopping sight distance calculation.

Depth matters as much as visibility. The parking area behind the crossing needs to be deep enough that a car stands clear of the footway, which usually means around 4.8 to 5 metres from the back of the footway to the nearest obstruction. A 3 metre forecourt produces a car overhanging the pavement, and authorities refuse on that basis alone.

Street furniture, trees and utility covers

The things in the way are often more decisive than the geometry.

Street trees generate the most disappointment. A council with a tree strategy will not fell a mature street tree to allow off-street parking, and a tree protected by a tree preservation order is protected whoever owns it.

Drainage is the quiet problem. Water must not run from your driveway onto the footway or carriageway, and the authority will check the falls. Where a gully is affected, the question of who maintains what becomes relevant, and highway drainage, gullies, connections and who maintains them covers the division of responsibility.

Classified roads and when permission is needed

On a classified or trunk road you need planning permission as well as the section 184 approval, and the planning application is the harder of the two.

The authority will consider highway safety, the loss of on-street parking where the crossing removes a space, the effect on the street scene, and any loss of front boundary walls, railings or planting. In a conservation area the loss of a front garden wall and hedge to hardstanding is a design and character issue, and an Article 4 direction may have removed the hard surfacing right entirely.

Two further situations need permission even on an unclassified road. Where the property is a flat or maisonette rather than a house, since the householder permitted development rights do not apply. And where an earlier planning permission carries a condition restricting access, which overrides the permitted development right.

For an application of this kind a short Planning Statement addressing safety, visibility, parking and character does more than a longer document, because the issues are narrow and the officer wants them answered directly.

Costs and who carries out the works

Three costs, and only one of them is fixed.

The application or inspection fee, set by each authority and published on its website. The construction cost, quoted by the authority or its contractor and dependent on the width, the depth of construction and any strengthening needed. And the cost of relocating street furniture or diverting services, quoted separately by the owner of the apparatus.

Figures change annually and vary widely between authorities, so take them from the current published schedule rather than from a neighbour's experience three years ago. Ask specifically whether the quote includes reinstatement of the footway surfacing across the full width, because a partial reinstatement looks poor and sometimes has to be redone.

Where planning permission is also needed, add the householder planning fee and the drawings.

Refusal reasons and how to respond

The common reasons, in rough order of frequency, are inadequate visibility, insufficient depth behind the crossing, proximity to a junction or a crossing point, an immovable utility cover or street tree, loss of on-street parking in a street already under pressure, and drainage falls that would discharge onto the highway.

Responses that sometimes work: moving the crossing a metre or two along the frontage, reducing the width, setting back a boundary wall to improve the splay, redesigning the driveway to increase depth, or offering permeable construction where drainage was the objection.

What does not work is arguing that neighbours have crossings. Many were approved under earlier standards or predate the current guidance, and authorities are not bound by their own historic decisions.

There is a procedural point worth knowing. A refusal under section 184 is not a planning decision, so there is no appeal to the Planning Inspectorate against it. Your options are to ask for a review, to escalate through the authority's complaints procedure, or to involve your local councillor. Where planning permission has been refused, a householder appeal to the Planning Inspectorate is available and is usually decided within about 12 weeks.

Check which consents your project needs before you commission any drawings. Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which documents an application at your property is likely to need.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. A lawful development certificate is the only formal way to confirm that works are lawful. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.