Covered driveway

[Moomookangaroo]

Sorry for intruding - I'm not disabled myself but I am trying to help my MIL who is.

She has MS which has severely impacted her ability to walk or even stand. She can't really lift her legs but is able to very, very slowly move around her house using walkers. If she ever leaves her house she needs to be in a wheelchair. But here's the problem - to get to the car to go out she has to walk to the car with her walker and then someone has to basically lift her into the car. The whole process can take anything from 10 minutes to over an hour depending on how she's doing that day.

Because of how long it takes to get her in and out of a car, she can only go out if the weather is nice as otherwise she'll get wet / freezing cold. This means she only leaves her house once every few months and only if she really needs to. She even occasionally cancels medical appointments because she genuinely just can't make it to them.

So we are looking at options for maybe covering her driveway to enable her to go out even when it's raining. However, this doesn't seem to be legal as it would have to be in front of the house, and you aren't allowed to put anything in front of your house. It can't go on the side as it's shared access with the neighbour. Is there any way around this whole not-building-out-front thing if it's purely done to assist someone with a disability? Does she have any extra rights that maybe don't apply to others?

She is refusing to move house so that's currently not an option. She lives alone and works from home so can go weeks without even seeing anyone if we're out of town and unable to visit 😔 I just want to help make her life a bit more fun by enabling her to have a social life. She has great friends who are wanting to take her out (helping her into car etc) but they're unable to do so unless it's one of those rare days where the weather is guaranteed to be good enough. It's really sad.

Any advice regarding this would be much appreciated.

(She is unable to drive, so not sure getting her a wheelchair accessible car would work as it would be different people driving it every time, which I assume would make insurance impossible to obtain)

Would a gazebo work? As a “temporary” fixture it might avoid planning etc?

It can't go on the side as it's shared access with the neighbour.

Speak to the neighbours. I would have been delighted to have a neighbour pay for a covered side drive where my parcels would stay dry, or could pot up my early spring veg/flowers out of the non stop March rain.

Building at the front isn't illegal it's just not permitted development - that means you'd need to apply to the council for planning permission. Many councils don't support front extensions because of the impact on the character of the area, disrupts the building line but it does depend on what your area is like. You could speak to a local architect for advice.
As part of the application you could put forward your MIL's case.

I agree with @LittleGreenDragons - in fact me and my next door neighbour are doing exactly this next month. She wanted a porch (our front doors open directly into living areas, no hallway) and so did I, then we were discussing our drives, and before you knew it we had redesigned (and saved ourselves a fortune) by having a canopy fitted between the houses.

If that isn't practicable, depending on what the frontage is like, what about one of those pull down canopies that only comes down when in use? Something similar to this...https://www.diy.com/departments/retractable-patio-canopy-awning-door-awning-garden-sun-shade-manual-shelter-outdoor-grey-3-m-x-2-5-m/0735940289153_BQ.prd?&&&&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20997981305&gbraid=0AAAAADt-XHlSbc6-Kd9ArOrBaKAaxhz0R&gclid=Cj0KCQjwxo_CBhDbARIsADWpDH5lYYXN1IWEnVI9btqiwclvBcTe2WY8OBxXX4330HS5YataaKr2aWoaAsFoEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

I live in a listed Georgian house in a conservation area. The Council Disability team just completely ploughed through whatever red tape there was and put in a very unsightly ramp so I could get my scooter in and out over the front step. Our Council have had to deal with DH over a number of issues - we’ve been here 20+ years - and always been unhelpful. Everyone in this area sympathises when you have to have dealings with any department of the Council. Lo and behold, the Disability lot are AMAZING and the rest of the Council seem to WANT to help them.

Talk to your Council Disability team and see what happens. Good luck.