Permission for dropping the kerb likely to be declined if less than 6 meters from another? is this really right?

[CrapBag]

I am looking into getting a driveway put in at the front, we have ample space for a double driveway and I'm not bothered about a front garden anyway.

I have been looking online and on the checklist for my LA, it states that domestic vehicle crossings have to be a minimum of 6 meters from a neighbours one?

This makes no sense to me, I can go anywhere and find loads that are less than 6 meters apart, many are right next to each other with both neighbours having driveways.

Is this really correct? I have never heard of this before and will be pretty pissed off if it prevents us from having off road parking. Even having a single space at the far end of our front garden wouldnt be far enough away.

I've just replied to your other post. Are you sure you're reading it right? Our council insisted that you needed to have at least 6 m length available for parking from the house to the beginning of the pavement, but didn't specify a distance from the neighbours. I currently live in a house with a semi-detached garage with the neighbours, so we share a dropped kerb entirely!

I thought that but I went through the checklist and when it said about it being less than 6 meters from a neighbours and I answered yes, it said permission was likely to be refused as it had to be more. Across it can't be more than 4.8 meters wide.

It just doesn't make sense to me, there are loads of dropped kerbs around here that are either joining or a very short space apart. I have emailed them but I wondered if anyone else has come across this.

"An additional dropped crossing will only be granted if there is a minimum of 6m between any existing access and the proposed crossing. Driveways, junctions and service lanes are all considered accesses.
If the distance is below 6m, permission for the additional crossing will not be given."

The council's answer to "Will your vehicle crossing be an acceptable distance from any neighbouring crossings?
Yes No "

Hmmm, I'm guessing it's either to do with visibility for cars pulling out of existing drives, or to ensure that on-road parking is still available between dropped kerbs.

If there's a precedent set in the local area, then the council may be prepared to implement different standards. However, councils can come up with a 'standard' and then impose that for all development going forward. For example, our council insists that all 4-bed homes have at least 3 off road parking spaces. This standard came in during 2000, so planning permission for extensions may be refused now when they would have been allowed before.

I think it is to do wit on road parking still being available. Bugger, likely to mean we can't do it.

Could you ask to simply extend a neighbour's existing dropped kerb onto your side IYSWIM?

I don't think they would as we have (shared) steps and a path between so our dropped kerb wouldn't be directly next to theirs, just a short distance away.

I have no life just had a look at that for you as my mate had her kerb dropped like many others have in her street. They are all semi-detached houses and there is no way you can have 6m between neighbours of the next set of semi-detached houses. Hers in fact is the width of an old tree (just looked on google maps!)

I managed to find your council by googling your quoted sentence, and cross referenced it with 2 other councils. Yours is the only one that stipulates 6m. The others merely referred to each case being looked at based on splay, visibility, trees, hedges etc etc.

I would ring them. Very strange.

Ah, crap, maybe it is for on-road parking.

I wouldn't worry to much what the website says, get the application form and fill it it, they will then survey and produce a quote if possible, we wanted to widen our existing dropped kerb to double a couple of years ago and we are by a junction and by their rules would of not been alowed but bloke came out and it's down to their descretion, as you say if there are other driveways in the area similar good chance you will be fine. We didn't go for it as it was something like £3000 to drop 3 kerbs.... Just continued to use the single area bit

Wow Contented are you bored this evening?

Thank you anyway. Interesting that ours is the only council. I certainly will look into it as it makes no sense to keep more on road parking as we would be taking 2 cars off the road which takes up more space than the dropped kerb would.

Agree with thunderbolt kid. It's if you're wanting an in-out driveway - to make sure that your frontage isn't dominated by multiple driveways.

Ah I get it now! Duh!

I thought they were talking about a next door neighbours dropped kerb, not one that someone may already have.

That makes more sense.

I got an email back and it stated "the distance between 2 crossings of 6 is to allow for off street parking"

Am I being dim again because I don't actually understand this?

I thought that quote from your council's website was about horseshoe-shaped drives too. Their email sounds as if it could mean that, too, ie they don't want so much of the kerb outside to be dropped that there's no space left for on street parking. Have you asked the council to spell out unambiguously what they mean?

I must say I have a lot of sympathy with the preserving on street parking argument. I live in an area of predominantly Victorian housing stock. Many of the front gardens are too shallow to create off street parking but, where people do so, the narrowness of the plots means there's nothing left for off street parking, so visitors, tradespeople, deliveries etc have nowhere to park.

Gah. Nothing left for on street parking ...

No - I think it refers to any other access, as it mentions junctions etc. 6m is the standard length for a parallel parking space, so I think it definitely means that there should be enough space between any dropped kerb/access point to allow a car to park. I have never heard of such a thing before though, and would be doubtful as to the safety of entering/leaving any driveway if each one has a car parked either side of it. I agree, make an application and see what happens.

Seeline - I agree it could mean that but everything is expressed so ambiguously that (as the ThunderboltKid says) a conversation is needed, to clarify what is and what isn't intended.

I had another reply as he had asked for more details which I had provided.

It does appear they are talking about 6m between neighbouring drives as he has said it appears our neighbours drive is the full 4.7m width you are allowed for single access and there isn't enough space for 6m between for us to have a single driveway. He said we could add on to the neighbours up to the double max allowed which is 5.6. This would never work because an extra 90cm is going to drop the kerb in front of the shared path and that's it so completely pointless!

From me and DH stretching the tape measure out in our living room last night, there is no way neighbours dropped kerb is 4.7m. We got to 3.2m across our room and its definitely not wider than our living room. When the weather is better i'm going to go out and measure properly.

I am also going to phone and clarify why there are many drives around that are clearly no where near 6m apart. Unless this is some new rule they have recently bought in. Our 2 cars being on the road takes up more space than our dropped kerb would so doesn't make sense.