Hard surfaces and driveways under Class F

Class F of Schedule 2 Part 1 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 permits a hard surface within the curtilage of a house for any purpose incidental to its enjoyment, and the replacement of an existing one. Behind or beside the house there is no area limit. In front of the house, between a wall forming the principal elevation and a highway, one of three things must be true: the new or replaced surface is no more than 5 square metres, or it is made of porous materials, or run-off is directed to a permeable or porous area within the curtilage.

That is the whole rule. Almost every front garden driveway in England is built under the second or third limb, and a surprising number of them are built under neither.

What Class F permits around a house

Class F covers hard surfaces, meaning paving, tarmac, concrete, gravel bound or loose, block paving and resin-bound surfaces, where they are incidental to the enjoyment of the dwellinghouse. Parking a car is an incidental purpose. So is a patio, a path or a bin standing.

Two points that catch people. Hard surfaces are not buildings, so they do not count towards the 50 per cent curtilage limit that applies to outbuildings under Class E, which is explained in the piece on the 50 per cent curtilage rule. And a hard surface used for something other than an incidental purpose, such as parking a commercial vehicle as part of a business, is not covered, because the purpose test fails before the area test is reached.

A raised terrace is a different matter. A platform raised above ground level can be a building operation rather than a hard surface, and raised platforms are excluded from several classes in Part 1, so a deck or terrace at height needs separate consideration.

The front garden restriction and the 5 square metre figure

The restriction applies to land between a wall forming the principal elevation and a highway. Identifying the principal elevation is usually obvious and occasionally not, and highway includes a footpath, a bridleway and an adopted unmade road.

If you are in that zone, you have three routes:

The 5 square metre figure applies to the area covered, or the area replaced, so repaving 20 square metres of an existing impermeable drive with more impermeable material needs the second or third route even though nothing is being added.

The third route is the one most often misunderstood. Directing run-off into a soakaway counts. Directing it onto a lawn or a planted bed within your own curtilage counts. Running it into the gutter and down the road does not, and discharging water onto the highway creates a separate problem with the highway authority quite apart from the planning position.

Porous surfacing and the drainage alternative

Porous means water passes through the surface rather than over it. The government's guidance on the permeable surfacing of front gardens sets out the options and how they are built, and the detail matters more than the product name.

Permeable block paving relies on the jointing material and an open-graded sub-base, so a permeable block laid on a sand bed over compacted clay with no sub-base storage is not a permeable construction. Gravel is porous provided it has somewhere to drain to. Porous asphalt and resin-bound gravel both work, and resin-bonded, which is scattered aggregate on an impermeable binder, does not.

Infiltration depends on the ground. On clay a soakaway may fail, which is why the third route exists: an impermeable surface crossfalled to a permeable border or a lawn is a legitimate design and often the only workable one. Size any soakaway properly, and where infiltration is poor, say so in the design rather than discovering it in the first heavy autumn.

Where the drive discharges to a lawn, make sure the levels actually work. A drive falling 1 in 60 towards the house with a 50 millimetre kerb upstand at the border does not direct anything anywhere.

Dropped kerbs are a separate consent

Class F says nothing about getting a vehicle across the footway.

A vehicle crossing over a footway or verge needs the highway authority's consent under section 184 of the Highways Act 1980, applied for separately and usually built by the authority or its approved contractor at your cost. That consent can be refused on visibility, proximity to a junction, street furniture, trees or because the road is unsuitable.

Where the access is onto a trunk road or a classified road, planning permission for the access is also needed, because the permitted development right for forming a means of access in Part 2 does not extend to those roads. So a driveway on a classified road can need a planning application for the access, a section 184 consent for the crossing, and compliance with Class F for the surface, which is three separate matters with three separate answers.

Order them properly. Applying for the kerb first tells you whether the project is possible at all.

Designated land and article 4 directions

Class F is not excluded on designated land in the way that side extensions and roof enlargements are, so a front driveway in a conservation area can in principle be permitted development.

In practice check for an article 4 direction. Front boundary treatments and front garden hard surfacing are among the most commonly withdrawn householder rights in conservation areas, precisely because the cumulative loss of front gardens and boundary walls changes a street's character. Where a direction applies, you need permission, and no planning fee is payable because the application is required only by reason of the direction.

Removing a front boundary wall is a separate question from the surfacing, and in a conservation area the wall may be protected whether or not the surface is. Where the house is listed, the curtilage and any boundary structure may be included in the listing, and listed building consent is a different consent again.

Evidence that the surface complies

Permitted development gives you no document. If a neighbour complains or a buyer's solicitor asks, you need to be able to show how the surface was built.

Keep the following:

1. Photographs of the excavation, the sub-base and the laid surface, dated.
2. The product data sheet showing the permeability of the paving or the binder.
3. The sub-base specification and depth, with the delivery tickets.
4. Infiltration test results where a soakaway was used, and the soakaway design.
5. A simple drawing showing the area in square metres, the falls, and where run-off goes.
6. The section 184 consent for the crossing.

For anything marginal, a lawful development certificate for proposed development under section 192 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is the only formal way to confirm that works are lawful, and the companion article on front garden paving and permeable surfaces covers the design choices in more detail.

When a full application is needed

Apply where an article 4 direction withdraws the right, where the surface serves a purpose that is not incidental to the house, where a raised platform is involved, where the access is onto a classified road, or where the surface will be impermeable with no workable route for run-off within the curtilage.

A householder application for a driveway is a modest exercise and a Planning Statement explaining the drainage strategy and the effect on the street scene usually settles it.

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

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