Forming a new vehicle access under Part 2 Class B

Two separate approvals sit behind every dropped kerb, and getting them in the wrong order wastes money. The planning side asks whether forming the access is development that needs permission. The highway side asks whether the authority will let you drive across its footway. Class B of Part 2 of Schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 deals only with the first, and it is narrower than most householders expect: it permits the formation of a means of access to a highway that is not a trunk road or a classified road, and only where the access is required in connection with development permitted by another Class in the Schedule.

So dropped kerb planning permission depends on the road you are joining and on what the access serves. Neither is a matter of taste, and both can be checked before anyone measures a kerb line.

What Class B actually permits

Read the two conditions together. The highway must be unclassified, and the access must be needed for something else that is itself permitted development.

The second limb is the one people miss. Class B is a supporting right. If you are forming an access to serve a hardstanding laid under Class F of Part 1, the access is tied to that hardstanding and Class B can apply. If you are forming an access to serve a plot with no permitted development behind it, or to serve a use that itself needs permission, Class B gives you nothing.

Class A of Part 2, which covers gates, walls and fences, is expressly excluded as the supporting development, so you cannot bootstrap an access off a new boundary wall.

Where Class B does not apply, the answer is a planning application for the access. Householder applications for a crossover are routine, usually decided under delegated powers, and turn almost entirely on highway safety rather than on appearance.

Classified and trunk roads

Roads are classified by the highway authority as A, B or C routes. Unclassified roads carry no letter. A residential cul-de-sac is almost always unclassified. A through road with a bus route on it very often is not, whatever it looks like from the pavement.

Checking is straightforward and worth doing first. The highway authority holds the definitive record of classification and of adopted highway extent, and will confirm both on request. On an A or B road, and on any trunk road managed by the national highway operator, forming an access always needs planning permission, and the application will be consulted on by the highway authority with the strategic network operator engaged where relevant.

The crossover consent is separate

Whatever the planning position, crossing a footway or verge with a vehicle needs the highway authority's approval under section 184 of the Highways Act 1980. The authority specifies the construction, usually a full depth reconstruction of the footway over a defined width with dropped and tapered kerbs, and either carries out the work itself or approves a contractor from its own list.

Charges are set by each authority and published on its website, so check the current schedule rather than relying on a figure quoted elsewhere. Where the access needs work in the carriageway, a wider bellmouth, a road marking change or a relocated lighting column, the authority will use a section 278 agreement instead, which is a longer and more expensive process.

An approved crossover is also a condition of lawful use. Driving over a kerb that has not been dropped is an offence in relation to damage to the footway, and the authority can recover the cost of repair.

Visibility, gradients and where the car waits

Highway officers assess three things at a domestic access, and a layout that fails any of them tends to be refused whatever its planning merits.

Visibility is the first. The splay is measured from a set-back point in the access outward along the nearside channel line in each direction, and the distances derive from measured vehicle speeds rather than from the posted limit. Highway authorities publish the method they use, and the derivation from measured 85th percentile speeds is set out in national street design guidance rather than left to the applicant.

Second is the ability to turn within the plot. On any road where reversing out would be hazardous, officers expect a turning area so that vehicles leave in forward gear, and on a shallow front garden that requirement alone can defeat the scheme. Minimum dimensions differ by authority, and the local parking and access standards document is the place to look.

Third is gradient and the level difference across the footway. A steep rise from the channel line causes vehicles to ground and forces drivers to stop on the footway, so authorities set a maximum gradient over the first few metres inside the boundary.

Where a site has more than a single dwelling behind it, or where trip generation matters, the access case is set out in a Transport Statement rather than left to the drawings.

Trees, services and the things under the footway

The footway is full. Water, gas, electricity, telecoms and drainage all sit within it, and a chamber cover or a stop tap inside the crossing width is a reason for refusal or for a diversion at the applicant's cost. Statutory undertakers charge for diversions and take months, so an early enquiry is worth the effort.

Street trees are the harder problem. Many highway authorities will not permit a crossover that requires the removal of a street tree, and will not permit excavation within the rooting zone either. Where a tree stands in the verge or footway, the crossing usually has to move, and a tree survey prepared to the relevant British Standard supports the case for a no-dig construction if one is possible.

Inside the boundary, which for these purposes means the curtilage rather than the title extent described in our note on curtilage and the principal elevation, a protected tree brings the Tree Preservation Order regime into play, and cutting roots to lay a drive is damage whether or not the surfacing needs permission.

Sequencing to avoid abortive work

1. Confirm the road classification and the adopted highway boundary with the highway authority.
2. Ask the authority for its crossover policy, its charges and its view on the proposed position, before drawing anything.
3. Establish whether Class B applies, or whether a planning application is needed, and check for an article 4 direction removing the right.
4. Resolve visibility, turning and gradient on a measured plan of the frontage.
5. Apply for planning permission or a Lawful Development Certificate under section 192 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 if the position is uncertain.
6. Apply for the section 184 crossover only once the planning position is settled, then lay the hardstanding behind it.

Doing step 6 first is the classic mistake. A crossover approved on the highway side carries no weight in the planning decision, and an access built without planning permission on a classified road is straightforwardly unlawful.

Where an application is needed, the supporting case is short: a location plan, a frontage survey with the splay shown, and a Planning Statement explaining the access position and the turning provision. PlanScope can draft that statement from your site details and list the reports a larger scheme would need.

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

PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.