Is planning permission needed to widen a driveway over a shared access path?

[parkingtroubles]

I'll provide a diagram of course. I know the rules.

Small close of a handful of houses with parking/garages for the houses on the main road.

Two sets of 3 houses on the close, all with driveways.

The end house of the first set has a shared driveway with the middle house. At the end of the end house there is a shared access path to the rear of the houses where people keep their bins and access their gardens.

The end house has widened their driveway removing a big hedge, a tree, and the shared access path and have created one wide parking space that is around double the original space. Two houses now can't access the rest of their properties from the shared access path because there's cars parked over it. This also means that the new driveway is flush with the first house of the next set of three and that house's driveway gets used for access.

Should the house widening the drive have sought planning permission and can they just remove the shared access path?

They didn't inform the neighbours of their plans until it was in progress and feathers are ruffled.

Diagram coming...

I can't upload a photo from the app!

What do the other properties deeds say, and why didn’t anyone raise their concerns when work started?

Aha! It uploads from the non-app site.

If it’s a legal shared path then no, they can’t park on it. Check with the Council.

I don't know about the deeds. There's lots of renters. No one seems to know. The work was started without any warning when people had left for work and was almost done by the evening. There's no planning permission record on the council website.

The diagram is not very good and it's 4 houses in each set, sorry.

You need to know if it definitely is a shared path rather than land that belongs to that house I suppose then.
www.homebuilding.co.uk/advice/planning-permission-for-driveways

The owner of the house that's extended the drive has public liability insurance on the path. They own it but have to allow access as far as I know. That's what they have said but another neighbour says the council has said it's no man's land.

They need to check for any easements or rights of access under the deeds on Land Registry. It may specify that that area needs to be kept clear, for example. Unless they are/were council properties they are not the people to ask.

I would suggest going into the land registry website to get a copy of the deeds to the house that has built the extended driveway and also to the other houses - maybe the one on the other side of the path - to see what is written about ownership, access etc of that pathway.

There is a charge for the documents, can't recall how much.

You need to go back to the original planning layout for that group of houses to determine if that area was specifically put there for bin access. If yes then I a fairly confident that it needs planning permssion and I am equally confident that they would not get it seeing as people are now unable to move their bins.

Report them to your local planning department. I guess that can look into this for you.

Planning permission is not the same thing as the right to use a piece of land. If they are preventing you from using a route that you are legally entitled to use then you need a solicitor not the planning department. Consult the land registry documents for the properties to determine the situation.

Planning permission is not the same thing as the right to use a piece of land. If they are preventing you from using a route that you are legally entitled to use then you need a solicitor not the planning department

Not strictly true.
There might be a condition on the original planning permission that states the section of land in question is only to be used for pedestrian access.

Speaking generally because I’m not in the UK so take this with a pinch of salt but here planning permission is required for absolutely everything that doesn’t fall under exempted development.

People do stuff similar to what you are illustrating all the time here without applying for planning but technically it is required and enforcement proceedings could be taken by LA but they often don’t bother unless there are complaints from local residents. Get onto the local authority and see what the outcome is.

I would do 2 things, check the land registry deeds for the house that has done the work.

1. does the work completed fall outside of the original curtilage of the house? If so, I’d report to planning as they would have needed permission - we’ve been there recently!!!

if the land is technically part of their property, with a right of access over it, then they are fine to resurface in the same surface as the rest of their driveway without any planning permission needed, but they can't park any cars in such a way as to block the use of the shared access path.

get the deeds from the land registry for £3. highlight the relevant clause about access and drop it round to them with a polite letter saying that if they continue to block access then you will be talking with your solicitors to uphold your rights. ideally this should be signed by all the affected neighbours as a show of solidarity. you are unlikely to actually need to see a solicitor, as anyone with an ounce of sense will immediately start complying with their obligations.

Certainly a land registry issue, and if are working upon the shared access route then yeah it would need a planning app including a design and access statement. If you are working astride a party wall boundary you will likely need a party wall notice too.