Dropped Kerbs Planning Permission Not
Required
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If planning permission is not required the following
design criteria applies:
Width
The dropped kerbs should be a minimum of 2.7m driveway width at
your boundary, together with the adjoining sloped (taper) kerbs
(4.6m overall).
Alignment
Accesses should emerge onto the highway at right angles, as far as
possible, to the road.
Gradient
Driveways should generally be no steeper than 1 in 12 (approx 8%)
and extend from the road to your boundary.
Turning Space
On busier roads or where driver's vision is limited, the applicant
should endeavour to provide on site turning space for vehicles.
Driver Visibility
When emerging from an access, the driver of a car is located
about 2m (X) back from the nearside carriageway edge and their eye
level is about 1m above the surface. From this point, the
driver needs to be able to see as far as possible along the road in
both directions. On through routes, the following distances
should be achieved in either direction, measured along the nearside
carriageway edge:
30mph - Y = 90m
40mph - Y = 120m
50mph - Y = 160m
60mph - Y = 215m
Where these distances cannot be achieved, the applicant should
clear their site frontage of all obstructions over 1m in height
(600mm in the case of vegetation) for as far as possible in either
direction from the access and ask the advice of this Authority.
Parking Spaces
Vehicles must be parked completely off the highway; no part of your
vehicle should overhang the footway. The minimum depth of
parking space shall be 5m and have a width of 2.7m.
Surfacing
Within the property, the driveway should be surfaced with a solid
bound material (i.e. not loose chippings) for a minimum of 1m
inside the property. This will avoid material being carried
out onto the highway.
Surface Water
Where a driveway slopes down towards the road, measures must be
taken to avoid surface water run-off from discharging across the
adjacent footway. If you satisfy the above requirements, you can
proceed to the next step.
Paving Your Front Garden
Planning permission
From 1 October 2008 new rules apply for householders wanting to
pave over their front gardens.
You will NOT need planning permission if a new driveway uses
permeable (or porous) surfacing which allows water to drain
through, such as gravel, permeable concrete block paving or porous
asphalt, or if the rainwater is directed to a lawn or border to
drain naturally.
If the surface to be covered is more than five square metres
planning permission will be needed for laying traditional,
impermeable driveways that do not control rainwater running off
onto roads.
How Permeable Surfaces Work
Loose Gravel
This is the simplest type of construction. The driveway sub-base
is covered by a surface layer of gravel or shingle.
Gravel with different shapes and colours is available to make
the surface more decorative.
A strip of block paving or asphalt at the entrance can limit the
loss and spread of gravel from the drive.
Hard Permeable and Porous Surfaces
Hard surfacing which allows water to soak into it can be built
with porous asphalt, porous concrete blocks, concrete or clay block
permeable paving.
The material has open voids across the surface of the material
or around the edges of blocks that allow water to soak through
To work effectively permeable surfaces should be laid over a
sub-base which differs from traditional hardcore which has a lot of
fine material in it (sand and silt) that stops water passing
through it easily.
For permeable and porous driveways different sub-base materials
are required that allow water to pass through and also store the
water for a while if it cannot soak into the ground as fast as the
rain falls.
Various materials are available and two examples are known as
4/20 and Type 3 sub-base.
Materials for permeable sub-base are described as open graded
and consist only of larger pieces of stone that have spaces between
to store water.
- Highways Agency
The Highways Agency is an
Executive Agency of the Department for Transport (DfT), and is
responsible for operating, maintaining and improving the strategic
road network in England on behalf of the Secretary of State for
Transport.
We are not responsible for the content of external sites.
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This page was last reviewed 28 June 2011 at 14:55.
The page is next due for review 24 December 2012.