Want to move our back garden fence panels out closer to our boundary line

[salsamad]

Hi. Am new on here and was hoping i could get some advice.
We live in a detached property next to a T junction (its to the right of our property so no neighbour just pavement then road). Our garden at the front is enclosed with a small brick wall and we have a front driveway. There is a side garden which joins the back garden, this is all enclosed with fence panels.
At the bottom of the back garden is our detached garage (sideways on) with a back driveway leading out on the pavement/road. 3/4 way down this rear drive are large garden gates and one of these is fixed to the back fence which runs alongside the boundary with our back neighbours. The other is fixed to a small brick column built in our garden which is where the side fence panels end. This leaves a small area outside of the fencing/gates which is not actually inside our back garden but is part of our property, it is the remainder of the driveway and a small triangular piece of land that is covered in shingle. This area is triangular as the side panels curve into our garden on this right hand side. This area and the driveway are ours and inside our boundary.
Basically my husband has a van (in which he keeps expensive work tools) which wont fit onto our back drive with the gates shut - thus making our back garden open insecure. My hubby wants to move the back gates to the end of the driveway but not on to the pavement obviously and they will open inwards towards the garage. Whilst doing this he wants also to move the side fence panels out to line up with the new gates - it will affect 2 panels which are gravel boards and fences. This will effectively then include the triangular bit of land into our back garden and our last two side fence panels (nxt to the gates) will run alongside the pavement (the same as the rest of the back garden panels). Can anyone see any issues with us making these alterations?
We have great neighbours but the estate has many people who like to know your business and make a fuss about things on the estate itself - people having caravans on drives etc. The estate is nearly 40 yrs old now but we have only lived here for 4 yrs. Would really appreciate any advice as cannot understand /emo/te/11.gif why the gates/fencing didnt enclose the whole rear garden initially - am worried it maybe to do with pulling out onto pavement then road from enclosed garden - possible visibilty issue.

planning permission for dropped curbs and new driveways usually specifies that the opening has to be set back so that you don't run into many pedestrians and other traffic. You have to be able to see before you poke your nose out.

You can probably look up the planning permission for your house on the council's website.

consider a sliding gate, which will not need much opening clearance.

I can sort of understand the position of your house and the one thing you may need to be aware of is the 1m fence height rule for "adjacent" to a highway which includes pavement. It is probably the reason for the shingle triangle to sweep the fence line away from the drive.

It is to do with visibility when coming off a driveway or near to a road junction so that you don't come to a T junction and have 2m fences either side of you blocking the view.

Now there is a big debate as to what "adjacent" to is, ie some councils would interpret it differently to others. So if you left a small buffer between your new fence and the pavement this may be classed as acceptable but other councils would regard the fence as being adjacent to the highway even if the fence isn't right next to it.

I know this personally because of the estate I live on and the way boundary walls suddenly drop down from 2m to 1m to allow cars to see across someone's front garden when pulling out of either a drive or a road junction.

The only way to deal with it is to talk to planning as you wouldn't want to spend the money doing it only to be then told to put it back to what it was.

Thanks for your comments everyone. Unfortunately we couldnt accommodate a sliding gate without ruining the garden.
Even though i have expressed my concerns my Hubby says he is going to go ahead with work and see if anything happens! We already have no visibility to the left of the back drive as the neighbours behind us planted leylandi which are now 6 ft tall, and many neighbours have large shrubs/fences that obstruct visibility out of their drives onto the road. We only use the back drive for hubbys transit van and as he sits up high he generally has good vision up/down the road as he pulls out (he always reverses in). One of the reasons we are moving the gates is to keep the van on the drive more and not parked on the road. The 8 fence panels that already run alongside the right of our property next to the pavement are gravel boards and 6ft x 5ft panels and no one can see over them - its the last two panels (one full and one half) that are affected ie the ones we want to move out to match the rest of the panels. Anyway thanks again....