New vehicle accesses and why the dropped kerb is separate
A new driveway needs two separate permissions from two separate parts of the council. Getting them in the wrong order is how people end up with a drive they cannot legally drive onto.
Forming a new driveway involves two consents from two different parts of the council, and they are granted under different legislation. Planning deals with the access within your boundary. The highway authority deals with the crossing over the footway or verge, under section 184 of the Highways Act 1980. A planning permission does not authorise you to drive across a footway, and a dropped kerb approval does not authorise the access if planning permission was needed and never obtained.
People discover this in the wrong order. The drive is laid, the kerb application goes in, and the highway authority refuses it on visibility grounds. The drive then sits behind a full height kerb with no lawful way onto it.
What Part 2 Class B actually permits
Class B of Part 2 of Schedule 2 to the General Permitted Development Order 2015 permits the formation, laying out and construction of a means of access to a highway, where the highway is not a trunk road or a classified road, and where the access is required in connection with development permitted by another class in the Schedule.
That second limb is the one people miss. Class B is not a free standing right to make an access wherever you like. The access has to be needed for some other permitted development, which for a typical house means the hard surface laid under Class F of Part 1. Lay the hardstanding under Class F, and the access serving it comes within Class B.
Where the other works are not themselves permitted development, for instance because the property is a flat, because permitted development rights were removed by condition when the dwelling was created, or because an Article 4 direction applies, Class B gives you nothing. The position for converted dwellings is set out in permitted development rights on a converted dwelling.
Class F has its own condition worth noting. A hard surface between a dwellinghouse and a highway is only permitted where it is made of porous material, or where provision is made to direct run off to a permeable or porous area within the curtilage.
Classified roads, trunk roads and the permission you will need
If the road outside the house is a trunk road or a classified road, Class B does not apply and you need planning permission for the access. Classified roads are A, B and C roads. C roads are the trap, because they look like ordinary residential streets and carry no distinguishing signs.
Do not guess. Ask the highway authority to confirm the classification of the road in writing, or check the authority's published road classification mapping. The answer takes a day and changes the whole route.
Where permission is needed, the application is a householder application with a site plan showing the access, visibility splays, levels, the surfacing and the drainage. The highway authority is consulted and its response usually decides the outcome. A short Planning Statement setting out the visibility achieved, the parking gained and the effect on the street scene is worth the hour it takes, particularly where a front boundary wall is being removed.
A Lawful Development Certificate under section 192 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is the only formal way to confirm that works are lawful without permission. On a borderline road classification or a property with a complicated history, it is the sensible precaution before anyone digs.
The crossing itself is a highways consent
Section 184 of the Highways Act 1980 governs vehicle crossings over a footway or verge. The highway authority controls the construction, and in practice it either carries out the work itself or requires an approved contractor to do it, with the cost falling on the applicant.
The application is made to the highway authority, which in a two tier area is the county council rather than the district that handles planning. In a unitary authority it is the same council but a different team, and the two teams do not routinely talk to each other about your application.
The assessment covers visibility in both directions, the gradient of the crossing, the width, the depth of construction needed for the expected vehicle loading, the proximity to a junction or a pedestrian crossing, the position of street furniture and trees, and whether the footway construction can take vehicles at all.
Refusals cluster around a few causes: insufficient visibility, a crossing too close to a junction, a verge tree in the way, utility apparatus under the proposed crossing, and a carriageway where parked cars mean a vehicle would have to reverse onto the road.
Visibility, and the standards the highway authority applies
Visibility splays are expressed as an x distance back from the carriageway edge and a y distance along it in each direction. The y distance is set by the speed of traffic on the road, and the authority will apply its own standards derived from national guidance such as Manual for Streets.
Two practical points. The splay has to be within land you control or within the highway, because a splay that depends on a neighbour's hedge is not deliverable. And the splay has to be kept clear permanently, which usually means a condition or an informative requiring boundary planting and walls within it to be kept below around 0.6 metres.
Measure from the correct point. The x distance is normally measured back from the nearside carriageway edge, not from the property boundary, and on a narrow footway those are different places. Draw it properly on a scaled plan with the dimensions annotated.
Where achieving the splay means removing a length of front wall or hedge, check first whether the wall is curtilage listed, whether the property is in a conservation area where demolition controls apply, and whether any hedge or tree is protected. Boundary removal is also the point at which the 50 per cent curtilage calculation discussed in the Class E curtilage test can shift, if outbuildings are being added at the same time.
Services, verges and reinstatement
Under the footway sit water, gas, electricity, telecoms and sometimes drainage. Where apparatus lies within the proposed crossing, it may need protecting, lowering or diverting, and that work is carried out by the undertaker at the applicant's cost under the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 framework.
Diversion costs are not small and lead times are measured in months rather than weeks. Ask the highway authority for a records search before you fix the position of the drive. Moving a proposed crossing two metres along the frontage at design stage costs nothing.
Verges raise their own issues: drainage channels, highway trees, lighting columns and the cost of constructing a crossing to take vehicle loading over soft ground. A verge crossing is usually more expensive than a footway crossing.
Keeping surface water off the carriageway
Allowing water to discharge from private land onto the highway is a problem both for the highway authority and, in freezing conditions, for your neighbours. The usual solutions are falls away from the carriageway, a drainage channel across the threshold connected to a soakaway, permeable paving over a stone sub base, or a gravel margin.
Permeable surfacing is also what Class F requires for a front hard surface, so the two requirements pull the same way. Where ground conditions make infiltration unworkable, show the alternative on the plan rather than leaving it blank.
The construction detail matters to building control in some cases and to the highway authority in all of them. The differences between the two regimes are set out in permitted development and building regulations compared.
Sequencing the two applications
- Confirm the road classification in writing with the highway authority.
- Ask for an informal view on whether a crossing is achievable at your preferred position, and request a utility records check.
- Settle the position, width, visibility splays and drainage on a scaled plan.
- Apply for planning permission if the road is classified, or for a certificate of lawfulness if you want the permitted development position confirmed.
- Apply under section 184 for the vehicle crossing once the planning position is settled.
- Lay the hard surface in porous material or with run off directed to a permeable area within the curtilage.
Step two is the one that saves money. A highway officer will often tell you in a single email that the crossing cannot go where you want it, and that answer is worth more than a drawing package.
Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which supporting documents your project is likely to need. 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, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need planning permission for a dropped kerb?
You need permission for the access where the road is a trunk road or a classified road, which covers A, B and C roads. On an unclassified road the access can fall within Part 2 Class B of the General Permitted Development Order, provided it is required in connection with other permitted development such as a hard surface. The kerb crossing itself always needs highways consent.
How do I find out whether my road is classified?
Ask the highway authority to confirm it in writing, or check the authority's published road classification mapping. C roads look like ordinary residential streets and carry no distinguishing signage, so visual inspection is unreliable. The answer usually arrives within a day or two and determines whether a planning application is needed at all.
Who builds the vehicle crossing?
The highway authority controls the work under section 184 of the Highways Act 1980 and will either carry it out itself or require an approved contractor to do so, with the cost falling on the applicant. The authority also sets the construction specification, which depends on the expected vehicle loading and the existing footway or verge build up.
What usually causes a dropped kerb application to be refused?
Insufficient visibility in one or both directions, a position too close to a junction or pedestrian crossing, a highway tree or lighting column in the way, statutory undertakers' apparatus under the proposed crossing, and situations where parked cars would force a vehicle to reverse onto the carriageway. Most of these are identifiable before any drawing is produced.
Does the front garden surfacing need to be permeable?
Class F permits a hard surface between a dwellinghouse and a highway where it is made of porous material, or where provision is made to direct run off to a permeable or porous area within the curtilage. Permeable paving over a stone sub base, a drainage channel to a soakaway, or falls back into a planted margin all satisfy that.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.