High costs to lower kerb - Cheap but official methods?

[nry]

Hi all,

We've been arranging quotes to get the kerb lowered outside our house so that we have a smooth run onto our new driveway. We expected to have to use Council approved contractors, but were not expecting the job to cost around £1500 plus the £90 fee to the Council for planning applications etc..

Is anyone aware of ways such work can be done free by the Council or get the costs reduced? The main point of the drive is so that we actually have decent parking facilities as parking in the area (an enclosed close) is difficult and usually busy. I am slightly confused as to why such a small job (in comparison with the actual driveway installation) is costing us over 50% of the money we spent on the driveway itself!

Comments welcome!

[Tony McC]

This has come up several times in the past - use the Search facility to read of others' experiences.

You can ONLY have this work done with approval from your council. You must use their DLO or an approved contractor, otherwise it is an offence because the highway does not belong to you. It's the equivalent of you going digging up your neighbour's garden: it's not your land!

Further, there are all sorts of insurance complications, and the work has to meet certain standards. This is why the councils don't normally allow any old contractor or builder to do the work.

However, 1500 quid is a bit steep, unless you're having a 10m wide croissing installed and there's a 5m wide path at the rear of the kerb. A typical 2.7m wide single crosasing with a pair of dropper kerbs and strengthening of a 2m wide p[ath at the rear costs around 800-1000 quid, normally.

[nry]

Searching, there's a novel thought

There is something in the Council spec about a 5 metre width, maybe that's where the costs are coming from. I'll have a look around the forum, cheers!

[Tony McC]

5 metres may be the 2.7m crossing width plus the two droppers, which would give you 4.5m in total rounded up to 5m in council-speak.

[nry]

The supplied spec (a further copy of which was returned with a quote to indicate which spec would be worked to) indicated an overall width of 5.5 metres which does include the dropped kerb stones.

What's annoying is that a good number of Council properties with driveways have had a tarmac lip put down in front of the kerbstones. Whilst I don't want this, and the 'correct' method would be much better for house value, the response from the Council when I asked about this method was vague to say the least. They admitted it should not be done but the reply suggested that, for Council properties, such a method was sufficient: they made no comment on whether we could use this measure either temporarily or permanently, leaving it 'up to you' i.e. we probably won't do anything but we could if we wanted.....

Ah well, the other option is a long wait: the company who has provided the driveway is aiming to become approved by the Council in the coming months. If we wait long enough (and given the costs we probably will!) we should be able to reduce costs substantially. We budgetted for the £1500 but would rather not spend all this on the kerb if we can avoid it.

[Tony McC]

A bitmac ramp in the channel of the road is a really bad idea and I'm surprised to hear a council implicitly condoning such a construction. The ramp impedes the flow of surface water in the channel and will be ripped out if/when a re-surfacing operation is undertaken. However, knowing only too well how local authorities apply one set of rules to their work and an entirely different (and far more stringent) set of rules to work carried out by private contractors, I really shouldn't be surprised. Still: I'd want it in writing before I sanctioned such a ramp - the chance that some council bod having a bd day willd ecide to make an example of your ramp shouldn't be overlooked.

A 5.5m crossing suggests 4 centre stones (the low kerbs) with two droppers. And I wouldn't build-up my hope sthat your private driveway contractor will acquire council accreditation in the near future. Many councils are now requiring a minimum of 5 million quid insurance, plus Streetworks Registration, a Safety Officer, a Risk Assessment and a 12 months defects period on dropped crossing installation. Anyone would think they didn't want private contractors getting a piece of this lucrative market!

[nry]

Ahh, see they didn't condone it, nor did they say it wasn't an option. It was a very wierd conversation where the implied answer was that they do it for Council properties 'sometimes'....

From asking 5 contractors to quote for the job 5 weeks ago only 1 has replied. Time to ring round a few more I reckon!

[cwight]

nry, where are you based? I have been quoted 650 for a crossing that has 8 centres and two edges that comes in about 8.5m I think. However the pavement width is only 1m. But if you were close I could always put you in touch with my contractor (who is different from the person quoting me for drains - see question in drainage).

[nry]

Carlisle, Cumbria (Oop Norf).

[danensis]

You could always adopt a granny. Lots of councils put dropped kerbs in at a discount for disabled drivers.

[nry]

I'm in contact with the Council at the mo, seeing if helping out parking for the community is a route to lower costs....worth a go give that we've freed up 2 parking spaces for others to use now the drive is in, and that some people in the Close are Council residents.

[dig dug dan]

one of my customers has asked to have one dropper moved by one ker length so his drive opening is a bit wider. At the moment, his driveway is unsurfaced, just mud and stone. They quoted him £800!!
I know of another guy round the corner from him who did his himself, and no one said anything about it!

[nry]

Given some of our neighbours, methinks one may report us for being unofficial just to cause problems!

[nry]

Interesting response I got from my Councillor today:

"Your email has raised a policy issue which the Council is
looking at. I understand that a large part of the fee concerns ******'s
charges for the licence. This is being investigated further."

[Tony McC]

It's a while since I last applied for a pavement opening licence, roughly 5 years I think, but I'm sure it was only 41 quid. Even then, I thought it was a bit of a cheek given they had our insurance records on file and we were 'regular customers', so the licence took less than 2 mins to complete, plus, say, another 3 mins to lose it in the council's arcane filing system.