Which reports a dropped kerb and hardstanding needs

Dropped kerb planning documents are usually shorter than people fear, because most domestic crossovers need no planning application at all. What they do need is a highway authority licence, a drainage arrangement that keeps water off the public road, and a front garden surface that either lets water through or drains to somewhere that does. Two separate bodies, two separate applications, and the order matters.

The exception that turns a simple job into a planning application is a classified road. If your house fronts an A, B or C road, forming a new access is not permitted development and you need permission before the highway authority will do anything.

When a hardstanding needs planning permission

Class F of Part 1 of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 permits a hard surface within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse where it is incidental to the enjoyment of the house, including replacing an existing surface.

The restriction applies to the front. A hard surface on land between the principal elevation and a highway is not permitted unless it is made of porous materials, or provision is made to direct run-off from the surface to a permeable or porous area within the curtilage. Planning Portal guidance describes this as the rule for new front garden surfaces above about five square metres, and that is a workable rule of thumb, though the legal test in the Order turns on the location and the drainage rather than on an area figure.

So a gravel drive draining to a border is permitted development. A sealed tarmac drive falling towards the road is not, and building one without permission is a breach.

Rear and side hard surfaces are not caught by the drainage restriction, though they are still limited by the general requirement that the surface be incidental to the enjoyment of the dwellinghouse. Hardstanding for a commercial vehicle or for trade parking is a different proposition and may amount to a material change of use.

The separate highway authority crossover process

The kerb itself belongs to the highway authority, which is the county council in two tier areas and the unitary or borough council elsewhere. Lowering it requires consent under section 184 of the Highways Act 1980, and this is a licence rather than a planning permission.

The process is broadly:

1. Apply to the highway authority using its vehicle crossing application form, with a plan showing the proposed crossing position and width.
2. An inspector visits and assesses visibility, the position of street furniture, drainage gullies, trees and statutory undertakers' apparatus.
3. The authority either refuses, approves with conditions, or approves subject to works it will carry out or to a contractor from its approved list.
4. You pay the authority's published charge, which covers inspection and in most cases the construction.

Charges are set locally and published on each authority's website, and they change, so check the current figure rather than budgeting from a neighbour's invoice. Where a gully, a lamp column or a telecoms chamber has to move, the cost of that diversion falls to the applicant and can be several times the cost of the crossing itself.

Highway authorities refuse crossovers for reasons that have nothing to do with planning: substandard visibility, a position too close to a junction, loss of on-street parking capacity, or a verge the authority will not allow to be crossed. A refusal here cannot be appealed to the Planning Inspectorate.

Permeable surfacing and where the water goes

The drainage requirement exists because front garden paving was contributing to surface water flooding. The Order gives two compliant routes: a porous surface, or a sealed surface that drains to a permeable area within your own curtilage.

Porous options include gravel, permeable block paving laid on a suitable sub-base, porous asphalt and reinforced grass. The sub-base matters as much as the surface, since permeable blocks laid on compacted clay with no storage void will pond and then overflow to the road.

Draining to a border, a soakaway or a rain garden is the alternative, and it needs to be drawn rather than assumed. A soakaway needs infiltration capacity, which means testing on clay sites, and it needs to sit clear of foundations.

Water must not discharge onto the highway. Section 163 of the Highways Act 1980 makes it an offence to allow water to fall or flow onto a road from adjoining premises, so a drive that sheds water across the footway is a problem whatever the planning position says.

Visibility at the access and what the officer checks

Where planning permission is needed, visibility is the technical point that decides it. The highway officer will want a visibility splay drawn on the plan: a setback distance from the carriageway edge, usually taken at 2.4 metres for a domestic access on a street, and a sight distance along the road in each direction derived from the speed of traffic rather than the posted limit.

The splay must be kept clear of obstructions above a stated height, typically 0.6 metres, which means the front hedge and the boundary wall come into it. Where the splay crosses a neighbour's land, you cannot control it and the officer will say so.

Other items on the officer's list are the gradient of the drive, whether a vehicle can stand clear of the footway while a gate opens, and whether there is space to turn so that vehicles leave in forward gear. On a busy road, a turning area is often the condition that decides the application.

A short Planning Statement covering the access geometry, the surfacing and the drainage answers most of this on a householder application.

Trees in the verge or the front garden

Trees are the most common reason a crossover application fails outright.

A tree in the verge belongs to the highway authority, and authorities are reluctant to remove street trees for private access. Some will consider it where a replacement is planted and the applicant pays for both the removal and the amenity value, which can be calculated by a published valuation method and is often substantial.

A tree in your own front garden may be protected by a Tree Preservation Order or by conservation area status. Work to a protected tree needs consent, and work to a tree in a conservation area needs six weeks notice to the council under section 211 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Constructing a drive over the root protection area is itself damage, even where no branches are cut.

Where a retained tree sits close to the works, an arboricultural method statement with no-dig construction detail to BS 5837:2012 is the evidence that gets the scheme through. A Tree Survey covers that work, and our note on which reports apply when a site has a Tree Preservation Order sets out the wider position.

Conservation areas and article 4 complications

Class F is not restricted on article 2(3) land in the way extensions are, so a permeable front drive in a conservation area is usually still permitted development. The complication is article 4 directions, which many authorities have made over front boundary treatment and forecourt paving in conservation areas precisely because of the cumulative loss of front gardens.

Inside such a direction, the hard surface needs planning permission, and no application fee is payable because the permission is required only as a result of the direction. Councils in those areas usually publish a design guide setting out acceptable materials, and following it is the shortest route to approval.

Listed buildings are a separate matter again. A drive within the curtilage of a listed building may need planning permission, and removing a historic railing or gate pier to form the access will need listed building consent.

The two applications and the order to make them

Apply to the highway authority first, or at least talk to it first. There is no point obtaining planning permission for an access the highway authority will not licence, and the inspector's view on position and visibility will shape the drawing you submit to planning.

Where both are needed, the sequence is: highway authority pre-check, then the planning application with the crossover position fixed, then the formal section 184 application once permission is granted, then the works.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which documents an access or hardstanding proposal at your address is likely to need, or browse the full report index.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. A lawful development certificate is the only formal way to confirm that works are lawful, so check the position with your local planning authority 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.