Dropped kerb approval or permission for a front hardstanding

Asking whether you need a dropped kerb or planning permission hardstanding misses that these are two separate approvals from two different parts of the council, and a driveway usually needs both. The vehicle crossing over the footway is licensed by the local highway authority under section 184 of the Highways Act 1980. The hard surface inside your boundary is either permitted development under Class F of Part 1, Schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, or it needs planning permission because it fails the permeability condition.

Doing one without the other is the common failure. A permitted hardstanding with no crossover leaves you driving over a kerb, which is an offence. A crossover with an impermeable driveway behind it leaves you with an unauthorised hard surface.

Two approvals for one driveway

The split follows the boundary line. Everything on the public highway, including the footway and the verge, belongs to the highway authority. Everything inside your title is a planning matter.

That matters because the two decisions use different tests. The highway authority asks whether a vehicle can enter and leave safely, whether visibility is adequate, and whether the footway construction can take the loading. The planning authority asks whether the surface is permeable, whether the front garden loss harms the character of the street, and in a conservation area whether anything historic is being removed.

Neither authority will tell you about the other one as a matter of course. On a unitary council both functions sit in the same organisation and still do not talk to each other reliably.

What the highway authority grants

A vehicle crossing application under section 184 is made to the highway authority, which is the county council in two-tier areas, the unitary or London borough elsewhere, and National Highways for the strategic road network. Our comparison of National Highways and the local highway authority sets out which body holds which road.

What the application involves:

• A plan showing the proposed crossing position and width, and the parking space behind it.
• An inspection, usually on site, to check visibility, sight lines, the position of street furniture and any statutory apparatus.
• A quotation for the works, which the authority normally carries out itself or through an approved contractor.
• Payment in advance, with fees set locally and reviewed, so check the current schedule.
• Relocation of anything in the way, such as a lamp column, a telecoms cabinet, a gully or a street tree, each at the applicant's cost and each with its own approval.

The authority will refuse where visibility is inadequate, where the crossing would be too close to a junction or a pedestrian crossing, where the space behind cannot accommodate a vehicle clear of the footway, or where the road is a classified road requiring planning permission that has not been obtained.

The space behind matters more than people expect. A driveway shorter than about 5m means a parked car overhangs the footway, and most authorities refuse on that basis alone. Measure from the back of the footway to the front wall of the house before you apply.

Street trees are the other frequent obstacle. Removing or working near a street tree needs the authority's tree officer to agree, and where the tree is in a conservation area or covered by an Order, the position tightens considerably. A tree survey establishing the root protection area is sometimes required before the crossover works are approved.

Permitted development for a hard surface

Class F of Part 1 permits the provision within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse of a hard surface for any purpose incidental to the enjoyment of the dwellinghouse, or the replacement in whole or in part of such a surface.

The conditions attached to Class F are short and strict. Where the hard surface would be situated on land between a wall forming the principal elevation of the dwellinghouse and a highway, either:

• the hard surface must be made of porous materials, or
• provision must be made to direct run-off from the hard surface to a permeable or porous area or surface within the curtilage of the dwellinghouse.

Note the geography. The condition bites only on land between the principal elevation and a highway, which in practice means the front garden. A patio or a hardstanding at the rear is not caught by the permeability condition at all, though it still has to be incidental to the enjoyment of the dwellinghouse.

There is no area threshold in Class F. The old five square metre figure that circulates online relates to guidance about when permission becomes necessary for impermeable surfaces, not to a limit in the Order itself. The test is permeability and position, not size.

The permeable surfacing condition

Two routes satisfy the condition, and they differ sharply in cost.

A porous surface means the material itself lets water through: permeable block paving laid on a permeable sub-base, gravel, resin-bound gravel laid on a permeable build-up, or porous asphalt. The sub-base matters as much as the surface, because permeable blocks on a sealed concrete base do not drain.

Directing run-off to a permeable area means keeping an impermeable surface, such as standard asphalt or conventional blocks, and falling it towards a lawn, a border, a soakaway or a rain garden inside your boundary. The receiving area has to be able to take the water, which on a small front garden with heavy clay is often not realistic.

What fails:

1. An impermeable driveway falling towards the footway and the road, which is the classic unauthorised front garden.
2. A permeable surface with a gully connected to the foul or surface water sewer, which defeats the purpose.
3. Permeable blocks on an impermeable base with no outlet.
4. A soakaway sized without regard to the infiltration rate, which then surcharges onto the highway.

Where run-off reaches the highway, the highway authority has its own interest, because water from private land onto the carriageway is a nuisance and a winter ice risk. A Drainage Strategy is rarely needed for a single driveway, but the same principles apply at that scale.

Classified roads and the access exception

Class B of Part 2 permits the formation, laying out and construction of a means of access to a highway, but expressly not where the highway is a trunk road or a classified road.

So on an A, B or C road, forming the access needs planning permission, and the highway authority will usually decline to process the section 184 application until that permission exists. On an unclassified road, Class B covers the access itself, and the hard surface is dealt with under Class F.

Checking the classification is worth doing before anything else. The highway authority holds the definitive record, and a road that looks residential can still be classified. Local plan policies on access to classified roads are often restrictive, and a planning refusal on highway safety grounds is the most common reason these applications fail.

Article 4 directions can also remove Class F or Class B, most often in conservation areas, so check the designations and the direction before assuming a permitted development route.

Conservation areas and front boundary walls

A conservation area changes the picture in three ways.

Class F survives in a conservation area unless an Article 4 direction removes it, so a permeable front driveway can still be permitted development. But the character consideration becomes real, and where the council has made an Article 4 direction over front gardens, permission is needed and is frequently refused.

Demolishing the front boundary wall to form the opening is the serious point. Removing a wall over 1m high adjoining a highway in a conservation area is relevant demolition requiring planning permission, and doing it without permission is an offence under section 196D of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

And where the property is listed, Class F does not apply within the curtilage at all, the boundary wall is likely to be listed as part of the building, and listed building consent is needed for the opening.

Order of applications

The sequence that avoids abortive fees:

1. Check the road classification with the highway authority, and check for a conservation area, an Article 4 direction or a listing on planning.data.gov.uk.
2. Measure the depth from the back of the footway to the house wall, to confirm a vehicle will stand clear.
3. If the road is classified, or an Article 4 direction applies, or the property is listed or the wall needs demolishing in a conservation area, apply for planning permission first.
4. Decide the surfacing strategy, porous material or run-off to a permeable area, and record it.
5. Apply to the highway authority for the section 184 crossing once any planning permission is in place.
6. Pay, book the works and have the crossover constructed by the authority or its approved contractor.
7. Lay the driveway behind it to the surfacing strategy you declared.

A Lawful Development Certificate under section 192 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is the only formal way to confirm that the hardstanding is lawful, and it is worth the fee where the property is likely to be sold. The report index shows which documents a householder application needs where permission turns out to be required.

PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval. This is general guidance rather than legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority and highway authority before relying on it.