Dropped kerb refusals on a classified road

A dropped kerb classified road application needs planning permission. On an unclassified street it usually does not, and that single difference explains why your neighbour two streets away got a crossing approved in a fortnight while yours has been refused.

The permitted development right for forming a new access covers highways that are not trunk roads and not classified roads. A, B and C roads are classified. So are trunk roads. If the road outside your house carries one of those numbers, the right does not apply and a planning application is the starting point.

Why a classified road changes the test

Classified roads carry more traffic, at higher speeds, with more through movement. A vehicle reversing out of a driveway onto one is a conflict the highway authority takes seriously, and the assessment is about highway safety rather than about your parking convenience.

That framing matters when you write the application. Arguments about how difficult it is to park on your street are understandable and carry very little weight. Arguments about visibility, vehicle speeds, the position of the crossing relative to a junction and whether a car can turn within the plot carry a great deal.

The highway authority is the consultee whose view usually decides the outcome. On a unitary authority that is a different team in the same building. In a two tier area it is the county council responding to a district council, which adds time.

Planning permission and the crossing licence

Two separate consents are needed, and getting one does not get you the other.

Planning permission comes from the local planning authority and deals with whether the access is acceptable in principle. The physical work of dropping the kerb and crossing the footway is authorised by the highway authority under section 184 of the Highways Act 1980, through a vehicle crossing application. The highway authority sets the specification, decides who may carry out the works, and charges for it on a published schedule.

Apply for planning permission first where permission is needed. A crossing approval granted on a classified road without permission does not make the access lawful in planning terms, and the authorities do talk to each other.

Visibility from the proposed access

Visibility is the technical heart of the case. It is expressed as a splay measured from a point set back from the carriageway edge, usually 2.4 m, extending left and right for a distance related to the traffic speed.

Manual for Streets relates that distance to stopping sight distance. At 30 mph the figure commonly applied is 43 m in each direction, reducing as speeds fall and increasing as they rise. The distance is measured to the nearside carriageway edge, and the splay has to be kept clear of obstructions above about 600 mm in height.

Three things routinely defeat a splay on a suburban classified road. A boundary wall or hedge on the neighbour's land, which you cannot remove. Parked cars along the kerb, which the authority may or may not accept as a permanent obstruction. And a bend or a crest that closes the sightline whatever you do on your own plot.

Measure the splay on site before applying, with a tape and a camera at driver eye height. If it does not work, the application will not work either, and it is far better to know that before paying the fee.

Parking space depth and turning

The authority will want the car to stand entirely clear of the footway. In practice that means a driveway deep enough for the vehicle plus a margin, and many authorities look for around 5 m or more from the back of the footway, with greater depth where gates are proposed so that a car can wait off the highway while they open.

On a classified road the authority will often also want vehicles to enter and leave in forward gear, which needs turning space on the plot. On a typical terraced frontage there is not enough depth for that, and this is the point where most applications for a crossing onto a busy road fail on the drawings rather than on the visibility.

Front garden surfacing has its own rule. A hard surface over 5 square metres within the curtilage of a house needs to be permeable, or to drain to a permeable area within the curtilage, if it is to remain permitted development. Paving the whole frontage in impermeable block and running the water to the street is not the answer.

Trees, utilities and street furniture in the way

The strip of land between your boundary and the carriageway is rarely empty. Street trees, lamp columns, telecommunications chambers, gas and water covers, gullies, bollards, bus stops and pedestrian crossing markings all sit in it, and moving any of them is the applicant's cost.

Street trees are the hardest. A highway tree cannot be removed to suit a private driveway in most authorities, and the crossing cannot pass within the root protection area without an arboricultural case. Where the tree is protected by a Tree Preservation Order the position tightens further.

Utility apparatus can usually be relocated, at a price quoted by the undertaker, and that price is often larger than the rest of the project. Ask early. Bus stop clearways, crossing zig-zag markings and the area close to a junction are generally off limits, and no amount of design work changes that.

Appealing or reapplying after refusal

A refusal of planning permission can be appealed to the Planning Inspectorate. For a householder application the deadline is twelve weeks from the date of the decision notice, and the appeal is decided on written representations under a faster procedure than the standard route.

Before appealing, read the refusal reasons carefully. If the reason is inadequate visibility caused by a bend, an appeal will not succeed. If the reason is a highway officer's assumption that turning within the plot is impossible, and you can show a swept path proving otherwise, an appeal or a revised application has real prospects.

Resubmitting is often quicker. Free go provisions allow a further application within twelve months of the refusal of a similar application on the same site in many cases, so check the fee position before paying again. Evidence that helps includes a measured survey of the frontage, a swept path drawing, photographs at driver eye height, speed data if you can obtain it, and where safety is disputed, collision records for the road.

A refusal of the separate crossing licence is not a planning appeal matter. Ask the highway authority to review its decision and to state the specification that would be acceptable.

Alternatives when the access cannot be made

Sometimes it cannot be done, and the sooner that is accepted the less it costs. Look for a rear access from a service lane, a shared crossing with a neighbour where both frontages together give the geometry that neither has alone, or an existing crossing nearby that could be widened rather than a new one formed.

Where off street parking is impossible, a resident permit and a well designed frontage are usually a better investment than a second application. And if the wider issue is accessible parking for a disabled resident, a dedicated on street bay is a separate process through the highway authority, which follows a different test from a private crossing. The same thinking applies to accessible arrival in new schemes.

For a larger proposal, such as several plots sharing an access, the authority may ask for a Transport Statement setting out trip generation and access design.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority and highway authority before relying on it.

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