£2k just to get the curb dropped!

[MeowthThatsRight]

I had a builder round this morning to price up a quote for a new drive. Current drive consists of a gap in the boundary wall straight onto a very narrow road. Parking is a nightmare in our town so there’s quite often cars parked right up to the gap meaning it’s impossible to get on/ off the drive.

Where I want it moved to crosses the pavement so we’d need to get a dropped curb put in. These can only be done through the council and cost around £2k, if they need to move the road sign it would be another £1k.

Is this the normal cost? It seems ridiculously high and pretty much doubles the cost of the entire driveway.

I think it is, sadly.

Oh bollocks.

Yeah it is, it has to be done through the council and it is expensive

Yup, in fact, that’s not a million miles from what I paid 10 years ago.

It is. Took me by surprise too. I have no drive, because I refuse to pay for it. Someone would park on it anyway🤷‍♀️

Standard rate here

The builder actually recommended we didn’t do it. Just put the drive in and then drove over the curb. I think he probably just suggested that when he realised that I probably wouldn’t want it done if it costs that much.

It would probably add £2k to the value of your property though...

It varies a lot depending on area, but there's not a lot you can do about that unfortunately. Ours was £600 a few years ago, a friend who lived in a different authority paid about £1800 at the same time.

It only cost me about £300 when I had it done, 9 yrs ago. I must have had a very generous council!

What good is a drive you can’t access.

We looked into it this time last year, we had to apply for authorisation through the council, which was about £150, and then the cost from the workman was approx £800/900 depending on the size.

So we didn’t bother. Too much money.

Just put the drive in and then drove over the curb

Fair enough, but it's illegal to drive over a not dropped kerb and the council can instruct you not to do it - this happened to my dad.

I've just had ours extended (already had a dropped kerb) paid council £75 for permission. Had to do some negotiation as they initially said no, but a private contractor did it. The council don't do it in our area.

We havent had our kerb dropped for this very reason.
How big is the bump up?

Be warned that if you don't have the dropped curb people can just park right over your "driveway " and you can't do a thing about it.

Our council charges £183.

Someone about 8 years ago was telling me it's a grand a metre or something silly, so it sounds right.

Just be careful about not getting it done and just driving over the pavement; a dropped kerb will also be strengthened to protect utility stuff underneath. Also it'll affect the house when you come to sell as it won't be considered a proper driveway.

Amazon - dropped curb ramps

Our council puts bollards on the pavement if you have a drive without a dropdown to stop you driving over the kerb.

I thought you meant a horse bridle part when I read the title- i thought bloody hell dropped curbs have gone up a bit since I was riding!

I always thought the road thing was a kerb?

Although having googles it appears kerb is the british/australian usage, americans use curb.

It's a kerb. Curb is to restrain something (curb your enthusiasm for example)

Speak to the council. We had ours done about five years ago and it was £750. They can also arrange payment plans.

Yep, that’s what it costs unfortunately. A friend of ours who’s a builder offered to just do it for us without permission and we refused, and it’s a good job we did because one of our neighbours complained about ours and the council came out to check it had been done to an appropriate standard.

I work in this field, loosely.

One thing you must ask your council is if the charge they have suggested covers the cost of lowering all other utility services, not just dropping the kerb. All utilities (water, gas, elec,
BT, etc) are buried at different depths in the footpath to the road. Footpath is far shallower, and they may well need lowering to accommodate the kerb drop. This is all usual work under legislation known as the ‘new roads and street works act, 1991’ (NRSWA). Under this act, should you have your kerb lowered you are liable for lowering not just the kerb but the costs of lowering these services to an acceptable depth too. Should you have any manholes/chambers/water service points etc in the lowering area then the costs will be higher.

Please check with your council that these costs are covered otherwise you could have additional nasty bills later on....

Amazon - dropped curb ramps

That won't solve anything. You still won't be legally allowed to drive over the pavement and people can park there with no issues.

They don't just drop the kerb, they change the whole pavement from what I've seen, reinforcing the underneath. At least they always seem to put a solid concrete base under when I've seen them do it here.