Driveway new rules

[locomoco19]

So we bought the house thinking we convert the front garden in to a drive, we found out that the council has changed the rules, the width of the drive has to be 7.5 metres, our is 6.5m, so short by a metre! Really really disappointed!
Is thEre any way of getting round that stupid rule? I think it only came in last year

[GoatyGoatyMingeMinge]

Diagram

[locomoco19]

Didn't think it required a diagram. But here is my rubbish attempt of one lol. Am using phone so don't know if it will upload

[GoatyGoatyMingeMinge]

Hi loco, I can't really see any way at all of widening the space. Can you post a link to the planning policy which governs this? Is is anything to do with a disabled space?

[TheListeners]

Are you sure? Loads of terraced houses near me have done exactly this and there is no way the width of the houses is as much as 7.5m. All I can find suggests a minimum of around 3m.

[LizB62A]

Do you mean the length has to be 7.5m?

7.5m = c. 22ft - that's more like the length of a car, not the width....

I'm pretty sure my drive is only about 3-4m wide - the width of the garage door and a tiny bit more....

[ThreeFish]

Are you sure? 7 metres wide is big.

[Iseethesilverlining]

That’s very unusual. Have the Council definitely confirmed this? 7.5m is usually the standard requirement for a garage rather than drive. Would you need the Council to drop the kerb - just watch as that can add quite a bit of expense as well.

[Squirreltamer]

The OP may be correct

If the road is classified A or B majority of councils want the minimum parking area to be 7-8m wide this is to allow you to reverse into your drive safely or not said but implied but able to get your car half turned before entering the road so you’re not spanning 2 lanes. Some want the space to be 8m square so you can turn the car around in the space.

There is away around this with some councils. You can get a turntable installed. For this you’d need around a 5.5m square space to accommodate most cars with some room for error

[Squirreltamer]

The above is to drop the kerb, allow a cross over. You can usually do what the hell you like with your front garden providing you use a permeable material. And you’re not in a conservation area.

[Squirreltamer]

Typical council guidance attached. I’d enquire about a turntable but it will cost you about 7k on top of your driveway costs once you’ve factored in table and getting electric etc.

[Wheresthebiffer2]

I've seen those turntables, look really cool. You have to have quite a small car for it to work though. No volvo estates. lol.

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

That sounds bonkers. A VW Transporter van/minibus is less than 5m long, so there can't be many cars except Hummers that wouldn't fit on 6.5m.

Is there anything stopping you from taking down any wall or fence, swapping the grass for low-maintenance gravel or similar and just parking on your open-plan front 'garden'? Obviously, you couldn't legally advertise it as a drive if you sold the house, but most buyers would still see the potential uses of the 'garden' and adjust their interest in the property accordingly.

Lots of people have very stylish carpeted and painted loft areas which can technically and legally only be designated as storage, but there's nobody out there checking up on them to make sure that they don't just 'store' a few items of furniture and sometimes sit up there.

[Squirreltamer]

@Wheresthebiffer2 it’s about having the space around it! Without scratching your car! The length between axles on cars don’t differ that much. They even do versions to spin 2 Range Rovers side by side with space to spare....

[Mskatonic]

We had the same problem, when we bought the house our council regulations would have allowed us to get a dropped kerb and convert the garden to a drive. Shortly after they changed the requirements and our space was now not big enough! We talked to our MP about parking issues, and not sure if it was coincidence or not but not long after the regulations changed again and we did meet the requirements, so we got it done quickly before they changed their minds again!

Could you contact your MP? With ours I talked about possibly introducing permit parking, we are the first unrestricted street away from a station and walking distance to the high street, so lots of workers parked and made it impossible for residents to find a space on street. If you have a similar situation you may find you can use that for leverage. Happy we could get a drive, but a permit would have been acceptable too.

[locomoco19]

@Mskatonic ahh that sounds promising!!! Glad you were able to get round it. Will try to see if it works for me!!

Thankfully we don't have the issue of commuters parking on our road (we only live 5mins walk from the train station) but it's other households next to us that have 2-3cars per house. My neighbour in particular loves to park her car in front of ours, as soon as we move she will go into her car and move it to infront of our house, as she likes to have both her cars next to each other! Honestly her entire day revolves around moving her car from one spot to another. Could make a complete other thread about her. They don't have a drive either, they could've got theirs done years ago but didn't.

There's nothing stopping us from the breaking the wall down in our front garden, however without the dropped kerb, anyone can still park in front right? I don't want the nightmare of parking my car inside my makeshift drive to only then have the issue of someone parking infront and thus blocking me in

[locomoco19]

@Squirreltamer that's interesting never heard of turntable or seen one. Maybe I have and didn't realise. But that's quite intrrstering and sounds expensive

[Myimaginarycathasfleas]

If you don't have a dropped kerb then yes, people could park and block you in.

How are you planning to park? If parallel to the road then it looks like you might need a minimum width. If at right angles like most driveways, you should be able to get away with less. I'd say a word with the planning department might be in order.

[PhoneLock]

There's nothing stopping us from the breaking the wall down in our front garden, however without the dropped kerb, anyone can still park in front right?

It's also an offence to drive over the pavement to get to your drive without a dropped kerb.

[Khione]

Mine is a self build new house.

I had to have sufficient room to turn the car on the drive so that reversing onto or off the road is not needed. I'm at the bottom of a cul de sac with only 5 houses down here.

[TeaAndHobnob]

Councils should ban people from converting their front gardens into drives.

They are bad for the environment and they look awful.

[Kastanien]

They are bad for the environment and they look awful.

Depends what they are made of, if it is something to let the rain drain through then it is not causing extra flooding. How they look is down to individual taste.

[MissCharleyP]

TeaAndHobnob we have a stupidly massive open-plan front garden in a new build property (moved in about 3 years ago). We only have one driveway space (as do most of us here) and a garage. The garages are small and like many people, we use it for storage. There is nowhere for visitors to park and the roads are narrow; the councils idea for speed limits to be ‘self-policing’. We don’t have pavements on our road either, though some streets do.

Most people these days have 2 cars, the neighbours have a car each and 4 teens who will no doubt be learning to drive soon (I think they are all between 16-19). Councils should also ban developers from building houses/estates without adequate parking facilities for residents. If we converted all of our front garden we could get at least another 4 cars on there. I lived in a bungalow previously that was much smaller than my current house but it had a large garage and the driveway would have fitted at least 3 cars. How I wish we hadn’t been in such a rush to move.

[LtJudyHopps]

The council could come and make you put your walk back up or they could put a post up so you can’t drive over the curb.

[user1487194234]

I don't think they look very nice
Can they cause drainage problems ,am sure I read about that once

[locomoco19]

I obviously wouldn't be driving over the kerb, lady next door would be the first person reporting me 😂 i only mentioned it as someone in the comments asked couldn't we just do that.

Most driveways are built with drainage system.

It's just annoying when I come home in the evenings and there's not a single parking spot!