Dropped kerb refusals and how to answer them

A dropped kerb refusal is a highway decision, not a planning one, and that changes what you can do about it. The application to lower the kerb and construct a vehicle crossing is made to the highway authority under section 184 of the Highways Act 1980. There is no appeal to the Planning Inspectorate against a refusal, because the Inspectorate has no role in highway crossing decisions. What you have instead is a revised application, the authority's own review process, and in limited circumstances a complaint route.

So the useful response to a refusal letter is to read the reason closely and work out whether it is a fixable design point or a policy position.

Who decides a crossover application

The highway authority decides. In a two-tier area that is the county council, in a unitary area the council itself, and in London the borough, except on Transport for London's road network where Transport for London is the authority.

The decision is separate from planning permission, which is why people are refused a crossing after obtaining planning permission for a driveway, and why some people are refused planning permission after a crossing has been approved. The two processes do not talk to each other reliably.

Most authorities publish a vehicle crossing policy setting out their requirements: the depth of hardstanding, the crossing width, gradient limits, visibility requirements, and the situations in which they will not permit a crossing at all. Get that document before you do anything else. The refusal reason will almost always quote it.

The refusal reasons that come up most

Six reasons account for most refusals.

• Insufficient depth on the property, so a parked car would overhang the footway.
• Inadequate visibility when emerging, usually because of a wall, hedge or parked cars.
• Position too close to a junction, a pedestrian crossing, traffic signals or a bus stop.
• Loss of on-street parking in a street where parking is already under pressure.
• An obstruction in the verge or footway, typically a street tree, a lamp column, a utility chamber or a drainage gully.
• The road is classified, or the authority's policy prohibits crossings on that road.

Each has a different answer. Depth, visibility and obstructions are design problems that often have solutions. A policy prohibition on a particular road is not something a better drawing will fix.

Classified roads and when planning permission is needed

Forming an access onto an unclassified road, in connection with development that is itself permitted, can be permitted development under the General Permitted Development Order. Forming an access onto a classified road is not, so planning permission is needed as well as the highway consent.

The hardstanding itself has its own rule. A hard surface in the front garden of a house is permitted development where it is made of porous material, or where rainwater is directed to a permeable area within the curtilage, with that rule applying to front gardens above a modest area threshold. A non-porous drive discharging to the highway is not permitted development and needs an application.

Where you do need planning permission, you get an appeal right against refusal, which is worth knowing. A householder appeal is a shorter procedure than a full appeal, and a refusal based on highway grounds can be tested on appeal even where the crossing application has been refused separately. The crossing itself still has to be granted by the highway authority afterwards, so winning the appeal is necessary rather than sufficient.

This is general guidance rather than legal advice, and the position on your own frontage should be checked with the council before you commit to works.

Visibility, gradient and the length of a parked car

Three numbers decide most applications, and all three come from the local policy rather than from national guidance.

Depth is the one that catches people. Authorities typically require enough depth between the back of the footway and any obstruction for a car to stand entirely clear of the highway, and a figure around 4.8m to 5m is common. Measure from the actual back of footway, not from your gate, and measure to the nearest fixed obstruction, which is often a bay window or a step rather than the house wall.

Gradient matters in two directions. A steep drive can ground a vehicle at the footway crossing, and a drive falling towards the highway sends surface water onto it. Most policies require a level or near-level area immediately behind the crossing.

Visibility is measured from a point set back from the carriageway edge in each direction along the road. Walls, hedges and gate piers reduce it, and the fix is usually to reduce the height of a boundary rather than to argue. Where the obstruction is on neighbouring land, you cannot offer to remove it, and that is a genuine dead end.

Trees, lamp columns and what is under the verge

A street tree in front of the proposed crossing is the most common physical obstruction and the hardest to move. Authorities will rarely fell a healthy street tree to create a private access, and where they will consider it they charge the full cost of removal, replacement elsewhere and the lost amenity.

But utility apparatus is more negotiable, and more expensive. Chambers, stop taps, inspection covers, cabinets and gullies can often be adjusted or relocated, but the work is carried out by the undertaker at the applicant's cost, and the lead times are long. Ask for a quote before you commit, because the cost of moving a single chamber can exceed the cost of the crossing.

Drainage is the detail people forget. A crossing alters the footway profile and can interrupt the flow along a channel to a gully, which the authority will not accept. The principles are the same as for any highway drainage alteration, covered in highway drainage, gullies, connections and who maintains.

Revising the application

A refusal based on design is an invitation to revise, and a resubmission with the reason answered point by point is usually determined more quickly than the first application.

1. Get the refusal reason in full, with the policy clause it relies on.
2. Measure the frontage properly, including footway width, depth to the nearest obstruction, boundary heights and levels. A dimensioned sketch beats a photograph.
3. Deal with the reason directly. Reduce the boundary wall for visibility. Move the crossing along the frontage, away from the junction. Remove the step or planter that limits depth.
4. Where an obstruction has to be moved, obtain the undertaker's or the authority's quote and submit it with the application, so the decision is not held up by uncertainty about who pays.
5. Where parking loss is the reason, check whether the crossing can be positioned to span a point where parking is already prohibited, such as beside a junction protection marking.

Where the property is close to a school, expect additional restrictions around crossing patrols, keep clear markings and school street schemes, which we set out in school access, drop-off, school streets and restrictions. Accessibility is also relevant where the applicant is a disabled driver, and the dimensional requirements in that case differ, as covered in accessible parking, dimensions, numbers and distances.

If the refusal stands

Three routes remain and none is an appeal.

Ask for a review. Most authorities will reconsider a crossing decision where new information is provided, and a site meeting with the officer is often more productive than correspondence.

Use the complaints procedure where the authority has not followed its own policy, has taken an unreasonable time, or has failed to give reasons. If that is exhausted without resolution, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman considers maladministration, though it will not substitute its own decision on the merits.

Reconsider the project. On a constrained frontage the honest conclusion is sometimes that a compliant crossing is not achievable, and the alternatives are a shared crossing with a neighbour, a rear access where one exists, or a parking permit if the street is in a controlled zone.

Where a larger scheme is involved, for example several dwellings sharing an access, the highway case needs setting out properly in a Transport Statement rather than in a letter.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports a new access is likely to need.

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