Driveway with no dropped kerb..

[MadgeHarvyy]

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

@ShutUpAlex

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

No, because you have no special rights to that part of the road because you don't have a dropped kerb!

You do not have a drive and your car shouldn't go in the garage as you are not allowed to drive over the pavement to get to it. You can be fined if someone from the council sees it and can be bothered enough to do something about it, because you're not allowed to park there.

I wouldn't block some one in Who was parked on their patio, but I'd park over it if it was empty.

We pay the council for our private drive way and garage so no, you’re wrong.

@ShutUpAlex

We pay the council for our private drive way and garage so no, you’re wrong.

I am not. You don't own a house with a drive and anyone can park there.

No they can’t and they don’t, because I’m luckily not surrounded by idiots.

@ShutUpAlex

No they can’t and they don’t, because I’m luckily not surrounded by idiots.

You seem very angry about this. People who park legally are dickheads and now anyone who disagrees is an idiot.

We just paid over 2k for the width of the house amount of kerb to be dropped ( as front garden drive) this is in greater Manchester. The council outsource it to private companies. We didn’t pay to apply as in this area you don’t. Just for the works done. And the company got the permit etc. It’s a ridiculous amount of money though the job was well done.

I dont understand why people are saying most applications are declined because of lack of on-street parking? Surely dropping kerbs and creating driveways helps with lack of on-street parking so why would the council decline the application?

It’s using your common sense. I know legally I can park accross a kerb but if it meant blocking somebody in I wouldn’t, because I’m not an asshole.

@SoupDragon

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

A council I know was prone to plant bollards blocking patios with aspirations. Shame more councils don’t do the same.

Our vendors thought they could claim the front of our house as a 'drive' because they would use the neighbour's dropped kerb to drive up and park their car at an angle ... Our solicitor was quick to point out that it wasn't a drive, merely a patio with aspirations. It didn't bother us at all, we had no intention of using it as a drive (we got a disabled bay painted on the road instead) and have now enclosed it fully so we have a bricked front garden.

I have a dropped kerb but its very narrow, and neighbours park on street opposite us whihc means we nearly always have to drive our back wheel off the not-dropped part. Can we apply to get it extended? Always a little annoying you can park opposite as its still restricting access due to the road being so narrow

Couple on this street have done dropped kerbs and paved gardens - I have no idea why as you physically can only fit a car ON the paved front if you drive over your neighbour's paved front to do this (one guy a couple of houses down does this way but rarely takes his car out). You can only actually USE the dropped kerb/garden combo if you park your car half on your front garden and half with its arse hanging out into the pavement. Police have been out to have a chat with a couple of the worst car-arse offenders but nothing ever changes.

Guy next door the other way (not a car-arse one) has his garden all set out like a beautiful drive - paved, double gates etc. He doesn't use it for parking but figured since he was getting it all landscaped he would do it so he had the option of applying for dropping the kerb if he ever needed to. He's got lovely plants out there - looks nice but if you walked by and looked you'd think 'oooh another guy who doesn't want to pay for the dropped kerb chancing it' - but he never uses it as such.

As for damaging pipes... we bought this house 12 years ago - a week or two after we did, the water board came knocking to check a leak and see if it was our side of the boundary or theirs. It was theirs - so the terror of us having to pay to fix it abated, and they wandered off. They periodically showed up every year to knock on the door and tell us they were going to check where this leak was - and every year it still hadn't moved, and still was their problem and not ours. They finally fixed the damn thing last year... 11 years later. I ain't stressing about pipes cos they blooming well don't!

@Fandangoes

I dont understand why people are saying most applications are declined because of lack of on-street parking? Surely dropping kerbs and creating driveways helps with lack of on-street parking so why would the council decline the application?

How does it help? There will still be a length of street that isn’t available for parking. It could also be in an area where the street is particularly narrow so making drive access tricky, or where there is reduced visibility because a road isn’t straight. Or even near a school where cars coming into or exiting driveways could be hazardous to pedestrians whose safety should always be paramount.

@ShutUpAlex

No they can’t and they don’t, because I’m luckily not surrounded by idiots.

Christ, sweetheart, listen to me for the love of fucking god.

By law, you are not allowed to drive over the pavement to get to your front garden.
That's all you have, a front garden, as it can't legally be used as a driveway.
You can be fined and more if you continue doing it after being told you can't.
Anyone is allowed to park infront of your garden, because there's no dropped kerb.
If there was a dropped kerb, they could not park there, and neither could you as dropped kerbs are meant to be available for prams and wheelchairs, but overall, this is ignored as long as it's the owner of the drive parked over the drive, but a cranky enough traffic warden could do you on that one too.

You do not own a drive and I can park there as much as I want. I am not an idiot, I am following the law.
The main reason people aren't parking there is because they do not know the law and do not realise that the lack of a dropped kerb means it's fair game. Anyone who realises this and can't find elsewhere to park will likely park there if they feel the need and you can't say a word about it. Not one.

Well this has got me a bit worried as I had no idea about this. We've been in our house 17 years and our driveway (or 3/4 of a driveway now) was obviously a single driveway with dropped kerb and the previous owners changed it to a double - so two cars can park side by side. about half of the 'second' space doesn't have the kerb dropped and I drive over it twice a day to get in and out.

We did have someone out from the council to check it out for us a few years ago but they said that it would cost £4k which we didn't have and that the measurements meant we would have to take away half of our front garden even though the driveway was already there (I actually don't understand why that is) as it was 30cm out.

I better look into it all again now.

It’s nowhere near our front garden, our private driveway is across the road in a row of drives and garages that we all pay for privately to the council.

Our driveway is L shaped and only one side of the L has a dropped kerb. We drive in and out at a diagonal angle via the dropped kerb to access the bit that hasn't been dropped.

We looked into getting the dropped section extended but it would be £2400 and we can't afford that right now. We may do it in future. Only the council can legally do it.

I'm not sure if legally it means only the original one section of the drive is an official drive and the other half that was extended later is a 'patio' that we park on... I'm not sure how that even makes any difference. The only way we'd be blocked in would be if someone parked over the dropped section.

@Fandangoes

I dont understand why people are saying most applications are declined because of lack of on-street parking? Surely dropping kerbs and creating driveways helps with lack of on-street parking so why would the council decline the application?

Because many houses don't have drives and they need access to the road. They can't park infront of drives, so it makes it fairer for all. Some areas also have shops and schools and I think they want to leave on-street parking to make these places more accessible, especially the shops.

I wish the chap who came out from the council had told us we weren't allowed to drive onto our driveway/space to park the cars. I know someone will be along shortly to call me an idiot that I didn't know (and perhaps they're right) but I really didn't.

@Stovetopespresso

You paid for a drive to be done but couldn't afford a few hundred pounds extra for the dropped kerb?

Legally it's not a driveway and anyone can park infront of it

@Fandangoes

I dont understand why people are saying most applications are declined because of lack of on-street parking? Surely dropping kerbs and creating driveways helps with lack of on-street parking so why would the council decline the application?

Because in a road like the one where my inlaws live it is terraced housing so there is only a couple of feet - if that - between one dropped kerb and the next, certainly not enough space for someone to park.

Around here, Surrey. You can apply to the council, it costs a few hundred quid to apply, and £1500 to get it done. However there’s a minimum length of drive requirement to meet, in most councils this has lengthen, to factor larger cars, you may find that even if houses either side have a dropped kerb you could get turned down.

If this is a house you are considering purchasing then check with local council planning first.

@ShutUpAlex

It’s nowhere near our front garden, our private driveway is across the road in a row of drives and garages that we all pay for privately to the council.

How can you have a drive way that's across the road from your house? Surely it's just an allocated parking space you rent from the council?

@MadgeHarvyy

Thanks everyone, this is what I thought. To explain further, this is the way a couple of doors down has his "driveway". Our road is so tight for parking, and on easter sunday it was impossible to get a space (families visiting or whatever). We have a disabled ds (in the process of getting a disabled space in front of our house) and I chapped on this neighbours door and politely asked if we could park in front of his drive (this was about 9pm but I knew he was awake I saw him moving about) I said dh would move the car first thing it was just because ds had fallen asleep in the car and it would be so much easier to get him into the house if he let us park there. Anyway he kind of hummed and hawed, like well.. I dont know... I might need out... and finally said no. Fine. But I now realise it is not even a dropped kerb. We have had issues with this neighbour before where he has asked me to move my car because it is blocking his gate. Not the "driveway" one btw just a normal gate that is next to it. I felt a bit pissed off.because we would let anybody do this overnight as long as we didnt need out, or we would swap places so they could be at the back if we had a driveway. I was just a bit annoyed and dh has helped him out in the past (hes elderly and dh helps him with his bins, carrying things for him etc, I go his shopping for him sometimes) but I feel like not going our my way to help again. I really want to tell him that legally he does not have a drive way anyway but i wont be that petty lol.

I’m petty - when he parks there and you’re reasonably certain will be there for awhile, I’d report it to whoever can issue parking fines.