Dropped kerb applications: planning and highways together

A dropped kerb, or vehicle crossover, needs consent from the local highway authority under section 184 of the Highways Act 1980. Dropped kerb planning permission is a separate question, and for most front gardens on an ordinary unclassified residential street the answer is no: the access and the hardstanding are permitted development. Permission is needed when the access is onto a classified or trunk road, or when permitted development rights have been removed or never applied to your property. Get the sequence wrong and you can either pay for an application you never needed, or lay a driveway that the highway engineer then declines to connect.

Two consents doing two different jobs

The planning system looks at whether forming the access and surfacing the front garden is acceptable in land-use and amenity terms: highway safety, the character of the street, loss of front boundary walls and hedges, surface water. The highway authority looks at something narrower and more physical. Can the footway be rebuilt to carry vehicle loads, is there a gully, a lamp column, a fire hydrant or a street tree in the way, are the sightlines adequate, and can a car stand clear of the footway once it is off the road.

Two different teams, often in two different buildings, sometimes in two different councils.

In a two-tier area the borough or district handles planning and the county handles the crossover. Ask both. Neither will tell you about the other's requirements unprompted.

When a crossover needs planning permission

The formation of a means of access to a highway sits in Schedule 2 Part 2 Class B of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015. It permits the access only where the highway is not a trunk road or a classified road, and only where the access is required in connection with development permitted by another Class in the Schedule. The usual partner class is Part 1 Class F, which covers hard surfaces within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse.

So you will normally need a planning application if any of the following applies:

• the road is classified (A, B or C) or a trunk road
• the property is a flat or maisonette, because Part 1 Class F applies to dwellinghouses only, and without the hardstanding right there is nothing for Class B to attach to
• an Article 4 direction has withdrawn the relevant rights, which is common in conservation areas and on some estates
• a planning condition on the original permission removed permitted development rights for the plot
• the works involve a boundary wall or fence within the curtilage of a listed building, which is excluded by Part 2 Class A.1
• you are in a conservation area and taking down more than a small section of a boundary wall over 1m high adjoining the highway, which counts as relevant demolition and needs permission in its own right

That last one catches people. The kerb itself may be fine and the wall is the problem. Listed building consent may also be needed where gate piers or railings are part of the listing or its curtilage.

If you want certainty rather than a view, a Lawful Development Certificate under section 192 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is the only formal way to confirm that proposed works are lawful without permission. This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

Classified roads catch more streets than people expect

Road classification has nothing to do with the speed limit, the width of the carriageway or how busy the street feels. A quiet 30mph road through a housing estate can be a C road, and a C road is classified. Bus routes and old high streets very often are.

Check with the highway authority rather than guessing from a map colour. Many councils will confirm classification by email within a few days, and some publish a street gazetteer.

Where permission is needed, it is a householder application with an eight-week determination target. The drawing pack is small: a location plan at 1:1250, a site or block plan showing the crossing width, the driveway and the parking space, existing and proposed street elevations if a wall is being altered, and a note on surface water. Highway safety is the main material consideration, so a short Planning Statement that sets out visibility, the depth of the standing area and the reason the access is safe is worth having on a classified road or in a conservation area. A Design and Access Statement is generally not required for works of this scale; the statutory triggers are major development and, in a conservation area, one or more dwellings or 100 m² or more of floorspace.

Applying under section 184

The highway authority controls the works themselves. You cannot lawfully break out a kerb line, and a contractor cannot do it for you unless the authority has approved them for street works.

1. Find the highway authority for that street. County council in two-tier areas, the unitary or London borough otherwise, and Transport for London for the red routes on the Transport for London Road Network.
2. Submit the council's vehicle crossover application, usually with a plan showing the proposed width and the driveway behind it, plus photographs.
3. The authority inspects and assesses the request against its own crossover standards.
4. If it is acceptable, you receive a quotation for the construction works, and in some areas a list of approved contractors instead.
5. Pay, book the works, and have the driveway ready behind the kerb line first.
6. The authority builds or signs off the crossing and the footway reinstatement.

Section 184 also gives the authority the power to carry out the works and recover its expenses, which is why the quotation route is standard. Refusals at this stage are usually about sightlines, junction proximity, a street tree, or a driveway too shallow to hold a car.

Hardstanding, permeability and where the water goes

Part 1 Class F permits hard surfaces incidental to the enjoyment of the dwellinghouse. Where the surface is on land between the principal elevation and the highway and exceeds 5 m², it is permitted only if it is made of porous material, or run-off is directed to a permeable or porous area or surface within the curtilage. Draining a new driveway straight onto the footway or into the road gully is not permitted development.

In practice that means permeable block paving, gravel, or an impermeable surface falling to a soakaway, a French drain or a planted border inside your own boundary. The same logic applies to any other paved area you add at the same time, which is where this overlaps with the curtilage rules that also govern a garden office or outbuilding.

Illustrative example: a 1930s semi with a 24 m² front garden lays 18 m² of block paving. Permeable blocks with a sub-base reservoir satisfy the condition on their own. Impermeable slabs would need the whole area to fall towards a 1.5m planted strip along the boundary, sized so it does not overflow onto the footway. Both routes are permitted development; only one of them will survive a complaint to the enforcement team.

Visibility, street trees and parking bays

Highway authorities set their own crossover standards, and they vary. Common requirements include a minimum crossing width around 2.4m to 3m, a driveway deep enough that a car stands clear of the footway (frequently expressed as about 5m from the back of the footway), a gradient the vehicle can climb without grounding, and a visibility splay in each direction based on stopping sight distance. The methodology behind those splays comes from Manual for Streets, where sight distance is derived from the observed speed of traffic rather than the posted limit.

Street trees in the verge or footway belong to the highway authority, not to you, and are usually protected by policy or by a Tree Preservation Order. Root protection areas often make an otherwise sensible crossing position undeliverable, and moving the crossing two metres along the frontage is normally cheaper than arguing.

Losing a resident permit bay or a length of double yellow line means a traffic regulation order, with its own advertisement, objection period and cost. Utility apparatus is a separate risk: a stopcock or a telecoms chamber in the footway may need diverting at your expense.

Sequencing the two applications

Run the highways enquiry first, or at worst in parallel. There is little point spending eight weeks on a planning application for a crossing position the highway engineer will reject.

1. Confirm road classification and check for an Article 4 direction, a conservation area or a listing.
2. Submit the section 184 crossover application and get the authority's in-principle view on position, width and splays.
3. If planning permission is needed, apply with the crossing position the highway team has indicated it can accept.
4. Build the driveway and the drainage inside your boundary.
5. Book the crossover works and, where a wall is coming down, do that first so the footway reinstatement is done once.

On a corner plot, near a signalised junction or on a bus route, ask for pre-application advice from both teams before you commit. The same instinct applies to any frontage change that reads as a wider alteration to the house, such as building over the driveway in a two-storey side extension.

What it costs and where the fees are published

The householder planning application fee is set nationally by the fee regulations and has been indexed annually from 1 April, so quote the current figure from the Planning Portal fee calculator rather than an older number. Crossover charges are local: most highway authorities publish an application or assessment fee and then a construction quotation based on frontage width, footway build-up and any apparatus in the way. Check that council's published schedule, because the quotation, not the application fee, is the real cost.

Budget separately for a traffic regulation order if a bay is affected, for utility diversions, and for the driveway and drainage on your own land.

Where a planning application is needed, a drafted Planning Statement dealing with highway safety and surface water is usually the only narrative document the council will look for. Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports your site needs before you fill in the form.

PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.