Planning permission for driveway???

[BatCrapCrazy]

I have fallen in love with a house. Its very close to work and DDs school and close to work base for DP. However, the street can get quite congested (particularly at school times) and parking can be a nightmare. There is no driveway, only street parking. There is a garden at the front that I would turn into a drive way but i don't know if we would need planning permission for this and if we do, if its likely to be approved.
If it helps, heres the link to the house www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-45185348.html

You definitely need to get council permission (and pay them a fee) for a dropped kerb, which would be necessary if you have front-garden parking. I'm not sure about general planning permission - why not try calling or emailing the planning department for advice? If other houses on the street have front garden parking I would tend to assume it would be possible.

Lovely house :)

I would ring the council and ask someone in Planning. Have any other houses on the street turned their front gardens into drives?

government guidance here
Looks like if you use a porous substance you won't need PP.
If you are on a classified road, you will need PP for a new access onto the road.
You will need permission from highways to create a new dropped curb - costs vary from Council to Councl.

I don't think any other houses on the street have a driveway. Ive just checked on google maps satellite view and i can't see any. Unfortunately this is a deal breaker for us. The house is well below our budget (so would leave more money to give the kids a holiday this year, not to mention a lovely small mortgage we could pay off in 15 years) and gives us all the space we need but having lived with crap parking before, we couldn't do it again.

Yes I believe you do.

I went poking about in the planning office before buying this house asking if any planning permissions were pending near by.

All she could find was a drive request for next door that had been refused as it was too near the junction.

Thus for the last 15 years (and probably many many years before that), next door have a gap in the hedge and two sometimes three cars and several motor bikes on their lawn.

Fortunately no one gives a damn as we are deep in the country. Single track lanes, no pavements or street lights, There is no where else to park and no way of having a job without a car. If anyone in officialdom ever said anything. I'd be appealing in their favour.

(Of course all the better off houses in the area, who don't have sons who can't afford to move out have yards and drives and room for three cars, horse boxes, lorries and tractors).

Nocomet - sounds as though your road may be classified, and it was the actual access that required PP rather than the creation of off street parking area. The restrictions for paving over front gardens are relatively recent.

Ive just looked on street view and some of the houses do have a drive :)
If i phone planning permission, can they tell me how likely it is to be approved?

They may do - check whether you actually need it first though. I think it unlikely that you will if you use the right surfacing.

You can put in a request for planning permission without owning the property I believe, you would have to pay the fee, and it would introduce a delay of 8 weeks but might be worth doing. Alternatively ask the vendor to..

I don't know about planning permission for a drive way but phone planning department for advice.

But main query would about the back garden, it appears the neighbour has use of part of the garden belonging to the house your looking at.

The planners at our local council are usually more than happy to have an informal discussion about planning requirements. I have bothered them frequently of late and they are always very nice. Give them a ring.

Clutterbugsmum, what do you mean? I know that there is a shared path down the side of the house but would that mean they have access to my back garden?

Ive just phoned the estate agent. Only the path is shared. The garden isn't shared at all. Booked a viewing for Monday. Fingers crossed! DP isn't as keen as i am. He wants a "doer upper". But we are living with MIL at the moment which is less than ideal and i want to move NOW lol. Hopefully i can twist his arm.

What I mean if you look at picture 18 all the fences run straight down from the house to the fence at the bottom. But if look at the right hand fence it look like you would lose 2 fence widths of the bottom of the garden. So the bottom of your garden is 12/13 foot narrower at the bottom then the top.

Looks like the house is set down from road level? My house is too, I wanted a drive at the front and the council came to look at it free of charge but said it would not be permitted, due to the drainage of rain water from the road running down onto my land. I also think they considered the road too busy.

I still bought because there is a garage at the rear and room to put a hard stand beside it if I wanted to.

I would speak to the council to see where you stand.