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Gravelling front garden for occasional parking without drop kerb

8 replies

Galaxygirl93 · 06/10/2019 09:07

So our house is on a road where there is a large triangular grass outside the front, between the house and the road
It is smaller at the bottom (by us, probably 8ft, away from the road) and larger at the top (about 20-25ft away from the road). Theres probably 10 houses on the row. Outside of our house is- front garden, path, grass verge, path, road.

So partner and I were thinking of gravelling our front garden and putting wooden driveway gates on, and using our front garden to park for occasional use, ie when he wants to do work on the car for example. It would not be a regular arrangement. We would not be applying for a drop kerb and have no idea about the process if I am entirely honest. I think where we live we have to get plans drawn up etc, it is not a simple enquiry process.

For extra information, plenty of cars further up the road with the larger grass verge have parked their cars on the grass, and have continued to do since 2011 at least, according to google maps. Aswell, the Council have actually installed around 8 parking bays at the very top of the grass (off the road) however they will not be proceeding with this all the way down the grass unfortunately.

Has anyone changed their front garden into parking without a drop kerb, and were you fine doing so, what were the implications when you sold your property?

OP posts:
Ifihadapoundd · 06/10/2019 09:11

We gravelled our drive way about two years ago and honestly it was the worst mistake. It turned into a cat litter tray. Try and concrete if possible.

OneThreadOnly0101 · 06/10/2019 09:15

You can turn your front garden into a drive if you wish. Your issue is that without a drop kerb, it's illegal for you to drive across the pavement to park on it...

SallyLovesCheese · 06/10/2019 09:17

When you come to sell you won't be able to describe it as a driveway or off-road parking if there is no dropped kerb.

Galaxygirl93 · 06/10/2019 09:18

Okay, so regarding being illegal to drive across the pavement- I would assume that as almost all houses in the road did this to park on the grass verge, if it was an issue it would have come up before??

I guess if the Council did tell us to stop, then we would do so and therefore not be acting illegally again

OP posts:
OneThreadOnly0101 · 06/10/2019 09:25

My family member drove across illegally for quite some time. Then fell out with someone and they reported him to the council. I think they can fine you. Anyway, he had to stop using it so ended up with an ugly and useless "drive".

Eventually ended up paying for the drop kerb anyway.

If you're planning to sell, buyers will be annoyed by the prospect of a fake drive, so I'd just pay to get it done properly.

Magstermay · 06/10/2019 10:22

If it’s very occasional to work on the car why not just keep the grass? That way it will look nice most of the time. Gravel can’t be the easiest surface for car work anyway.

Galaxygirl93 · 06/10/2019 10:27

We figure gravel is also lower maintenance than grass :-)

OP posts:
BubblesBuddy · 06/10/2019 10:28

Concrete? Yuk! That would devalue the house! Just use the grass available to you.

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