Planning permission

Please ensure you read this information with Highways advice, who will also need to give separate consent for any works.

What is a dropped kerb?   

A dropped kerb allows vehicles to cross the pavement or footway to and from a driveway.

A standard width crossing is 2.75m at the property boundary and 4.5m at the kerb edge.

Your front garden will need to be a minimum of 4.0 metres deep at its shortest point by 2.4 metres wide, and set out at 90 degrees to the carriageway. 

Kerbs can only be dropped by applying through us - you must not carry out the work yourself. You may need planning permission if you are surfacing over your front garden or your property is on a classified or a trunk road.

Applying for a dropped kerb

Applying for a dropped kerb is a two-part process.

Permission for a dropped kerb application is not granted immediately.

The Planning department and the Highways department work to satisfy different criteria.

This means that your application for Planning must first be completed before the Highways team can address the application and give their own separate approval or refusal for the works to create a dropped kerb.

Part 1

To make the process of finding out which kind of planning permission you require easier, begin by using our guidance form.

Apply for dropped kerb (Part 1)

The form will guide you through the initial part of the process and will redirect you to the Planning Portal in order to make your application using the correct form, based on the answers you provide.

Part 2 - returning customers

If you are a returning customer, having now received a Planning Decision Letter, a Lawful Development certificate OR you have completed the online self-assessment, please continue to the second half of the process.

Apply for dropped kerb (Part 2)

Please note that you will have had to complete the first half of the process by applying to Planning in order to complete the second form.

Further guidance

Hard surfacing in the front garden

Further guidance on hard surfacing of front gardens from the Planning Portal.