Price for dropping a kerb (in Kent)

[Another John]

I'm asking this on behalf of my son, who lives in north Kent (I myself live a long way away from there).

What's a reasonable price for "dropping" a kerb? My son and his wife need to have theirs dropped. You have to go through the council, and you have to employ one of their recommended firms to do the job. He has tried a few, most have said "we ain't doin that at the moment" (mate), and the only one to come back with a price so far has quoted ?1400 -- which seems very excessive both to my son and to me.

Any ideas of what a fair quote might be? (And also, what he can do next, if the Council's recommendees "ain't doin that at the moment"?

Cheers John

[Bert Coules]

I had a quote from Shepway council which was only slightly less than that.

[Harry Bloomfield]

It happens that Bert Coules formulated :

Get some pikeys in to do it :')

[Andy Burns]

Last year my council was relaying the footpaths, you could have dropped kerbs widened at a 'special' price while they were doing it, £66/kerbstone. clearly you would expect to pay more than that for a one-off job.

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

Why 'need'? I've seen a fair number of houses with car run-ins, but without dropped kerbs. It's not uncommon to have a piece of timber in the gutter just in front of the kerb, about half the height of the kerb, making the transition easier to drive, and probably protecting the kerb itself a bit.

Perhaps if the council don't like that, they could suggest contractors who ARE willing to do the job at a sensible price...?

[Bob Eager]

Because it's illegal to drive across the pavement if there isn't a dropped kerb.

[sm_jamieson]

It might well be but it is so widespread it will never be enforced. The best way would be for the council to fit nice high sharp kerbs when they resurface the road but they never do (round here anyway).

Its also illegal to park half on the pavement half on the road, but without people doing that there would be total gridlock.

I think these type of things get enforced on major roads were safety would be an issue, but not on the side roads. London may be different with its parking permits, etc.

I think this lady could have avoided her problems if she had applied for a dropped kerb (link to news story follows):

Simon.

[Andrew Gabriel]

And anyone can park across your entrance (if there isn't another parking restriction prohibiting it).

[Another John]

That's the one.

We live in Tynedale. Everywhere else in the country (even Newcastle, never mind the entire South-East) seems like hell on earth for parking, and traffic. When does saturation come? I can think of no reason at all why the steady increase in the number of cars on the road will ever slow down. (Not helped by developers not being required to provide *adequate* parking - never mind garaging - for the number of dwellings they build.)

John

[Malcolm G]

As far as I can tell round here it is more

"Not helped by developers being required not to provide more more than a limited amount of parking - never mind garaging - for the number of dwellings they build."

[sm_jamieson]

That is true. I'm not sure if it is mitigated by the requirement to not block someone in, if their car is already parked on a drive without a dropped kerb.

But round here there are so many drives like that, that if someone parked across your drive, you would generally park across theirs, so it kind of works out OK. If a stranger parks who doesn't know the local "rules" then that can cause problems.

Simon.

[Chris J Dixon]

Sadly not, the issue is that road access to her property is now permanently lost as a result of a new road scheme, that she should have been made aware of when she bought the house. I'm not quite sure how emergency vehicles or removals vans will cope.

Chris

[Chris J Dixon]

Like to have another shot at that?

Chris

[Tim+]

It's an odd one. You wouldn't think that the council would be allowed to deprive a property of an existing road access point without providing alternative vehicular access.

Tim

[charles]

Certainly here, when a complex of "affordable housing " was built the Planning Authority would only allow 1 parking space per dwelling and 1 for visitors to be shared amongst the 7 dwellings. As we're in a rural(ish) area we don't have a decent public transport servce (although there is railwsy station 30 minutes walk away).

[sm_jamieson]

I believe the house did not originally have a drive, just a front garden. S he added the drive, and did not apply for a dropped kerb. If she had applie d, it would probably have been disallowed as the plans for the road were kn own for several years. And since the authorities had no record of the acces s they have done nothing wrong (well, you could say their site surveys were lacking). The point is, she had no legal right to access, so she has no legal recours e. That is one reason to have a proper dropped kerb. Apparently they have allo cated her parking nearby.

Simon.

[Syd Rumpo]

Oddly, it's not, other than in London and a small number of designated areas, unless there are restrictions (eg double yellows) on the road.

Obstruction may be an issue, but that's not strict liability.

Cheers

[Tim+]

Yep, I had a look at Google satellite view which doesn't show any driveway so it would seem that she's converted the front garden into off-road parking.

Tim

[Bob Eager]

I wonder what the situation would be here.

Our house had a dropped kerb leading into an archway through the house to the back garden. Years ago (30 or so) the then owner bricked up the archway and converted the space to a living room. He also built a garden wall in front.

The dropped kerb was removed last year when they re-did the pavements. If I wanted a dropped kerb now, I would not expect to have to pay. No permission was asked.

[sm_jamieson]

Oh, you should have done what my mum did. Go out to the workmen with tea an d biscuits, and have a little chat (all innocent of course !). Mind you tha t was extending an existing dropped kerb across the whole frontage.

Despite any issues of legal access, the practical reason stated on our coun cil's website is that the pavement that is to be crossed may not be strong enough for vehicles. When they do a pavement crossing here, they put in a p roper MOT1 base and protect services (cable TV etc) at the same time.

We don't have a dropped kerb, but the cracked paving slabs are from the ski p lorry, not from our cars (honest !).

Simon.