making an exit from property onto the road... legal? planning?

Bowen4Horses

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hey all

my list of things to do to my house is neverending and this is the next installment...

my stables (and ultimately yard too) are at the end of my garden (nearly 2 acre garden, but garden nevertheless- this is an important fact as i'll explain). we have a drive for our cars which stops at our house. if we were to drive/walk/ride/lead from the drive to the stables we'd have to go through the garden and also over a septic tank.

so... i was thinking of making another drive type thing up the other side of the garden. but this would mean making a new entrance/exit/gateway thing on the road. am i allowed to do that? or would i need planning?
ideally i'd like cars/horsebox to be able to drive down it to make life easier. would that make it harder to get permission than a simple one to walk/ride down?

advice appreciated...
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I'm certain you'd need planning and the Highways Agency will be involved looking at things like visability splays and dropped curbs etc. Also the planners will be ensuring your neighbours are happy with your plans.

Give the local planning office a ring and see what his thoughts are.
 
Well I dont know about planning permission, however you would need permission from your local highways department as a small section of land either side of a highway is normally 'off limits', and for any kind of excavating prior to laying a drive you would therefore need permission from them to check there are no underlying gas/water pipes etc etc

My mother works for the highways department, can you tell!?
 
If you are making another exit back onto your drive I would think you would be ok to do that. My parents never bothered as we rode out the back and if someone needed to be boxed, they'd park int he drive and we'd bring the horse round!
 
you do need planning permission as the council have to approve the new entrance for safety etc (ie blind bend, speed limit change etc).
 
It depends on how the property is classified.

If you are opening from an existing field and the exit can be labelled 'agricultural' you do not need planning and Highways can't say anything.

If you are opening from a residential part of the property then planning may want to get involved but they generally have to allow you to open the entry as long as you close off an existing entry. Highways will certainly want to be involved in this case and will need to approve the safety of the new entry. If the new entry has more visibility and is generally safer than the old one that you are closing off they are more likely to approve.
 
if there's already an old gateway there, you can just do it. (i did at my last place.)
if not, you need to talk to the planners about it. i can't really see it being a problem as you have no kerb there, visibility is good, etc.
 
From seeing a friend's expierence you need both planning and permission from the Highways Agency. Just be aware they do not talk to each other and give contradictory advice. Planning said that gate must be in one position , when it was there the Highways Agency said it had to be in another, both said if she did not abide by their rulings then they would take her to court. Eventually agreement was reached but only after she had paid the neighbour a considerable amount to be allowed to change their hedge which she now has to maintain.
 
Yes, you will need planning, which involves the planning department getting reports from the Highways department, you don't need to contact the Highways yourself.
 
argh, what a minefield...

this is why i kept telling my husband we needed to buy somewhere with 1. the right amount of land and 2. equestrian facilities already there...

right, i won't need kerb dropping, as no kerb there (just grass verge thing). it is from residential, not agricultural land, as it is still classed as a garden. and we won't be shutting off the other driveway as will need that for our cars etc.

our planning department are about as much help as a wet fart. i tried to ask about getting stables and they were SO vague i ended up putting temp ones up instead. i'll try ringing them again... but almost guarantee they'll tell me to submit an application, which i don't want to do yet. i just want them to advise so i can plan what we'll do.


oh, and the property is listed...

my new neighbours probably hate me already. perhaps i should invite them round for a little mulled wine evening?!?!
 
Best thing we ever did is get advice from a planning consultant.

Both times the council had told us all sorts of weird stuff, planning consultant wrote to them asking for more info as where they had come up with this...no answer... then wrote citing case studies of similar applications and everything got approved.

My personal view is that councils will try to say no to everything in the hopes that you will just give up.
 
you can put up wooden stables within your garden provided they are no closer than the notes laid down in planning law. There are national standards about height and type of structure and distance from road etc and there are also standards for areas of Outstanding natural beauty. As to drives on to roads there are two areas to look at - one is what is there currently on site and the other is what type of road does it come on to. If it is an unclassified road then the highways agency are not at all interested as we found out. However the planning department will be. I would ring your local plannign department and ask them what you could hypothetically do - don't say where you are as then you alert them to the development. As them for the national standards on permitted development. if you have no joy - then I personally would say - put the drive in, and then wait for someone to complain. Then you can get retrospective permission.
 
[ QUOTE ]
. As them for the national standards on permitted development. if you have no joy - then I personally would say - put the drive in, and then wait for someone to complain. Then you can get retrospective permission.

[/ QUOTE ]

Or not. Somebody near me did this and created a access on to a smallholding. Planning spotted it and made them block it up again
 
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