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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Driveway with no dropped kerb..

255 replies

MadgeHarvyy · 09/04/2021 08:50

Does this mean it is not legally a driveway..?

OP posts:
TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 09/04/2021 10:36

@JesusIsAnyNameFree @SoupDragon

Helium balloons.

Attach hundreds of helium balloons to the car and float over the pavement.

Is that allowed? Confused

Billben · 09/04/2021 10:37

Near me in Worcester I’ve even seen people put a slanted piece of wood by the kerb to make it easier to drive over it to get the car on their paved front garden. Needless to say, if there is nowhere else for me to park, I park in front of this house. If they won’t want me to, they can pay to have their kerb dropped I’m afraid.

poppycat10 · 09/04/2021 10:37

@BrieAndChilli

The council don’t just drop the kerb, they strengthen the pavement to protect the pipes underneath. I think it’s a few thousand fine if you drive over a pavement that hasn’t been adjusted
And yet people can park on them with impunity Angry
ShutUpAlex · 09/04/2021 10:39

We don’t have a dropped kerb but anyone with a brain can see that it’s where we have to park our car outside our house and if you parked there you would be a total dickhead. Thankfully no one in real life is as anal with these “laws” as a lot of posters on mumsnet and no one had ever blocked us in.

SoupDragon · 09/04/2021 10:40

Many country roads have no pavement, so no kerb to drop.

So, completely irrelevant as there is also no pavement to drive over 😂😂

starfishmummy · 09/04/2021 10:40

@Mistressinthetulips

Near where I live every other "drive" has those plastic ramp things in the road to facilitate driving onto the pavement. It is very, very widespread.
Or chunky planks of wood where my in laws live. There is hardly anywhere to park if we are visiting them and end up having to park across their (official) dropped kerb.
mumwon · 09/04/2021 10:41

& aren't you suppose to have special paving which allows drainage now?

Itwasjustresting · 09/04/2021 10:41

Paved front garden, but most people round me play along and treat them like “proper” drives. In my road it’s about 50/50 between “patios with aspirations” (love that!) and actual drop kerbs. Every now and then the council mutter about taking enforcement action but I think the challenge is too great!

JesusIsAnyNameFree · 09/04/2021 10:41

Our old neighbours built a maaaassive drive. Well I say that, they just had a single drive as the dropped kerb was the same as if had been for probably about 50 years. The twats would tell people not to park in front of their "drive" but often parked part in front of our dropped kerb or had their many many guests do it. We couldn't get out at all at times.
The absolute bastards.

SoupDragon · 09/04/2021 10:41

Why do some people think they are too special to have to pay for the dropped kerb and pavement modifications?

AaronPurr · 09/04/2021 10:41

@ShutUpAlex

We don’t have a dropped kerb but anyone with a brain can see that it’s where we have to park our car outside our house and if you parked there you would be a total dickhead. Thankfully no one in real life is as anal with these “laws” as a lot of posters on mumsnet and no one had ever blocked us in.
Why would they be a dickhead? You may park your car there but without a dropped kerb it's not a legal driveway. Do you realise how much damage driving over the pavement can do to the kerb, pavement and utilities that are underneath?
JesusIsAnyNameFree · 09/04/2021 10:44

[quote TwoLeftSocksWithHoles]**@JesusIsAnyNameFree* @SoupDragon*

Helium balloons.

Attach hundreds of helium balloons to the car and float over the pavement.

Is that allowed? Confused[/quote]
It could be, but what if you hover into someone's head? You would need to fly up at least 2.5 meters, to take into account any NBA players that may be passing.

amatsip · 09/04/2021 10:45

To drop the kerb cost us £600 a special approved firm did it separate to our driveway firm.

BrieAndChilli · 09/04/2021 10:45

This is an (extreme) example of what happens when you don’t have permission! It’s not a dropped kerb situation but equally if you don’t have a dropped kerb arranged with the council they could legally come along and let utilities erect a telepgraph pole or a junction box or a bus stop on the pavement on front of your ‘drive’ and there’s nothing you could do about it

BrieAndChilli · 09/04/2021 10:47

Just because lots of people have put in unofficial ramps etc doesn’t make it right, and I assume councils don’t have the money or manpower to prosecute everyone that does this but if you are the unlucky one who has he pavement infront collapse as it isn’t strong enough then it is likely you would be procedured and heavily fined and made to pay for the remedial work to the utilities that have been damaged/work to the pavement road etc

Isabella70 · 09/04/2021 10:48

@BrieAndChilli

The council don’t just drop the kerb, they strengthen the pavement to protect the pipes underneath. I think it’s a few thousand fine if you drive over a pavement that hasn’t been adjusted
I wish they would enforce that...

You have to push the pushchair out into the roads here as they're littered with cars whose owners think it's perfectly acceptable to park on the pavement.

JesusIsAnyNameFree · 09/04/2021 10:48

@ShutUpAlex

We don’t have a dropped kerb but anyone with a brain can see that it’s where we have to park our car outside our house and if you parked there you would be a total dickhead. Thankfully no one in real life is as anal with these “laws” as a lot of posters on mumsnet and no one had ever blocked us in.
You don't have a drive and you have literally no more right to claim it as your space than someone has to park on the pavement infront of their own house.

If anyone parked there, they wouldn't be a dickhead but I would argue someone who says people can't park infront of their glorified patio, is.

Stovetopespresso · 09/04/2021 10:48

op what a crap neighbour!

@Rillington what I call our parking space but you might call paved side garden does have planning for a 'parking space' as debated and granted and noted by our parish council etc. the dropping if the kerb was an optional extra, I promise!
maybe a parking space you drive in to is different from a driveway in some terminology?

Billben · 09/04/2021 10:49

@ShutUpAlex

We don’t have a dropped kerb but anyone with a brain can see that it’s where we have to park our car outside our house and if you parked there you would be a total dickhead. Thankfully no one in real life is as anal with these “laws” as a lot of posters on mumsnet and no one had ever blocked us in.
If you don’t have a dropped kerb, you don’t have a drive. If I saw your cars on your “wannabe” drive, my first thought would be that you are either too cheap or too poor to pay for a dropped kerb. But that’s not my problem. I had to pay for one. If I have nowhere to park, I will have to park in front of your house I’m afraid (as I am legally allowed to do so). Dickhead or no dickhead 😂 And no, you don’t HAVE to park your cars on your “drive”. If some dickhead could block you in, that means you should be parking your cars on the road yourselves.
Original poster
MadgeHarvyy · 09/04/2021 10:49

I have to admit, I would find it so funny if they put a bus stop there Grin I would purposely get the bus there every morning so I could wave to him.

OP posts:
Rockbird · 09/04/2021 10:50

We're just starting the process of this now. £338 to the local council for the application and inspections. £103 for a Lawful Development Certificate (not entirely sure what this is) and however much to drop the kerb and transform the front of the house. I'm expecting it to come in at about £4K.

JesusIsAnyNameFree · 09/04/2021 10:52

@Stovetopespresso

op what a crap neighbour!

@Rillington what I call our parking space but you might call paved side garden does have planning for a 'parking space' as debated and granted and noted by our parish council etc. the dropping if the kerb was an optional extra, I promise!
maybe a parking space you drive in to is different from a driveway in some terminology?

Hmm

I wish you good luck if and when you try to sell!

starfishmummy · 09/04/2021 10:52

@ShutUpAlex

We don’t have a dropped kerb but anyone with a brain can see that it’s where we have to park our car outside our house and if you parked there you would be a total dickhead. Thankfully no one in real life is as anal with these “laws” as a lot of posters on mumsnet and no one had ever blocked us in.
I wouldn’t block you in but I might block you out if there is nowhere else to park my car. Sure complain - but there's no law to stop me parking in front of someone's garden.

Its not just a case of asking for the council to drop the kerb, they also have to check that the proposed parking space is big enough. Which is why most people in my street don't have dropped kerbs. They have to drive in at strange angles and still their cars stick out across the pavement.

ShutUpAlex · 09/04/2021 10:52

It’s a drive I front of a garage. Yes you would be a dick head if you parked across it.

purplemunkey · 09/04/2021 10:55

My whole road has this sort of set up. Some have dropped kerbs, most don’t. We have double yellows outside our house so no one can park there anyway and we park our cars out front with no dropped kerb. We have traffic wardens on our and surrounding roads. Cars parked on the yellows get tickets but no one has ever said anything about the residents parking without dropped kerbs.

Just saying. So many people saying it’s illegal, which it probably technically is, but it’s clearly not enforced everywhere.

Our house wasn’t sold to us as having a drive, but the previous owners parked in front too. With the double yellows we know no one will block us in. If the road markings changed, or the council suddenly started making a thing about it I’m sure we’d have to either get the kerb dropped or park elsewhere. But there are so many residents who’d suddenly have to park elsewhere that it’d be a major headache all round. I guess that’s why they just leave it.