Fences, gates and electric gates on a boundary

Electric gates planning permission questions usually come down to one number. A gate, fence or wall next to a highway used by vehicular traffic is limited to 1 metre above ground level under permitted development. Anywhere else on the boundary the limit is 2 metres. The motor, the intercom and the automation make no difference to those figures, though they bring a separate set of safety rules that matter more than the planning ones.

Most front gardens are next to a road. So most front gates above a metre need planning permission, and a good number of installed gates do not have it.

Height limits for means of enclosure

Class A of Part 2 of Schedule 2 to the GPDO 2015 covers the erection, construction, maintenance, improvement or alteration of a gate, fence, wall or other means of enclosure. The limits:

• 1 metre above ground level where the enclosure is adjacent to a highway used by vehicular traffic, or adjacent to the footway of such a highway
• 2 metres above ground level in any other position
• where an existing enclosure is maintained, improved or altered, the greater of its former height or the relevant figure above
• nothing at all within the curtilage of a listed building, or to a wall, fence or gate surrounding a listed building

Height is measured above ground level, and on sloping ground the measurement is taken at each point rather than averaged. A fence that is 1.9 metres at the top of a garden and 2.3 metres where the ground falls away exceeds the limit at the lower end, and that is where an enforcement officer will stand with a tape.

Rear and side boundaries away from the road therefore give you 2 metres, which is what a standard close-boarded fence panel plus gravel board usually comes to. Check the actual assembled height rather than the panel height.

What counts as adjacent to a highway

Two words do the work here, and both are read broadly.

Highway includes the footway as well as the carriageway, so a front boundary separated from the road by a pavement is still adjacent to the highway. It also includes an unmade public road and a highway maintainable at public expense that nobody thinks of as a road.

Used by vehicular traffic is the qualifier that occasionally helps. A public footpath or an alley with no vehicular use is not a highway used by vehicular traffic, so a boundary onto it falls under the 2 metre limit. Verify the status before relying on it, because a lane that looks pedestrian may carry vehicular rights, and the definitive map and the highway authority's records are where the answer lives.

Adjacent has no fixed distance. A boundary set back a few metres behind a verge that is itself highway land is still adjacent. A boundary at the far end of a long front garden, well away from the road, has been treated as not adjacent in some cases, but it is a question of fact and it is not a point to build on without advice.

Corner plots deserve particular care. A boundary that runs along two highways is limited to 1 metre on both, and the stretch around the corner is often where a scheme fails.

Repairs, replacement and the existing height

The third limb of Class A is the one that saves most projects and the one least often understood.

If an enclosure already exists, you may maintain, improve or alter it up to the greater of its former height or the standard limit. So a 1.8 metre Victorian front wall can be repaired, repointed and rebuilt to 1.8 metres even though a new wall there would be capped at 1 metre.

The limit is on the height, not on the materials or the design, though two cautions apply. Replacing a wall entirely, rather than repairing it, can be argued to be erection of a new enclosure rather than alteration of an existing one, and officers differ on where that line sits. And demolition in a conservation area has its own controls, separate from Class A, where the enclosure is above the relevant height.

Photograph and measure the existing boundary before touching it. A dated photograph with a tape in shot is the evidence that establishes the former height, and without it you are arguing from memory against an officer with a planning history and an aerial photograph.

Electric gates and the safety rules that apply

Planning sets the height. A separate regime sets everything else, and it has far sharper teeth.

Powered gates are machinery. The installer has duties to assess the risks the gate creates, to fit protection against crushing, shearing and entrapment, and to provide documentation including a declaration of conformity and a maintenance schedule. The Health and Safety Executive has published guidance on powered gate safety following deaths of children trapped by automatic gates, and enforcement action has followed poor installations.

What a compliant installation generally includes:

1. Force limitation, so the gate stops and reverses on contact
2. Photocells or safety edges covering the crushing and shearing points, including the hinge side
3. Protection at the point where the gate passes a fixed post or wall
4. A manual release that works in a power cut
5. Clear instructions and a schedule for periodic inspection
6. A risk assessment specific to this gate in this location

Three practical consequences for a householder. Ask for the documentation at handover and keep it, because it is the record that the gate was installed properly. Budget for annual servicing, which the documentation will specify. And be wary of adding automation to an existing manual gate, because retrofitting a motor creates a new machine and brings the same duties, which a general builder may not be equipped to discharge.

None of that is a planning matter. All of it is more likely to cause harm than the planning position is.

Visibility for vehicles leaving the drive

The 1 metre limit next to a road exists partly so that drivers can see out and pedestrians can be seen. Where you apply for a taller gate, visibility is the issue the highway authority will raise.

Three things it looks at. A clear sight line in each direction from a driver sitting back from the carriageway edge, with nothing solid above roughly 0.6 metres inside that triangle. Whether a pedestrian on the footway, particularly a child, is visible to an emerging driver. And whether the gate opens over the highway, which it must not, because highway legislation gives the authority power to require alteration of a gate that opens outwards onto a street.

Design answers that work: inward-opening or sliding gates, a setback so the car stands clear of the footway while the gate opens, open railings or vertical bars rather than solid infill at the ends of the boundary, and a splay where the boundary meets the access. A sliding gate on a setback is usually the easiest proposal to get agreed.

Forming or widening a vehicle access across a footway is a separate consent from the highway authority, under its own procedure, and it is not covered by any planning permission for the gate. Apply for both.

Pillars, trellis and what counts towards the height

Everything structural counts. Piers, pillars, caps, lintels and finials are part of the enclosure, so a 1 metre wall with 1.3 metre piers exceeds the limit at the piers.

Trellis fixed on top of a fence counts too. The common belief that trellis is exempt is wrong, and a 1.8 metre fence with 0.3 metres of trellis is a 2.1 metre enclosure.

Hedges are different. Planting a hedge is not development and no height limit applies under planning law, though an evergreen hedge over 2 metres can be the subject of a complaint to the council under the high hedges legislation. A hedge is therefore often the simplest answer to a front boundary where a 2 metre fence would need permission, with the obvious cost in time.

Gates themselves are measured to their highest point, including any arched top and any overhead frame carrying a light or a sign.

Where a condition or direction removes the right

Class A can be taken away in three ways, and all three are easy to miss.

An Article 4 direction, made by the council over a defined area, usually a conservation area or a well-preserved estate. The direction names the classes it removes, so read it rather than assuming it covers everything.

A condition on the original planning permission for the house. New estates frequently carry a condition requiring that no fence, wall or other means of enclosure be erected forward of the front elevation without permission, and that condition survives whoever owns the house now. Find the permission on the council's online register and read the conditions before you order anything.

And listed building status, which removes Class A entirely within the curtilage. A gate or railing at a listed building needs listed building consent as well as any planning permission, and the application benefits from a short Heritage Statement explaining the design and the materials.

Where you need to apply, a householder application with a site plan, elevations of the gate and boundary, and a short covering note is usually enough. A Planning Statement is worth preparing where visibility or street character is likely to be contested. Other garden projects have their own separate limits, as our note on outbuildings with a shower room or kitchenette shows.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to check which constraints apply to your boundary, or browse the report types if the application needs supporting documents.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it, and remember that a lawful development certificate is the 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.