Freedom of information response

Q1 - Thurrock Council adhere fully to their policy on dropped kerbs and access across paths and verges to access property's? Yes

Q2 - Do the council maintain records of applications for dropped kerbs and authorised crossings of property's in the borough? Yes but currently our records only reach back as far as 2016.

Q3 - Is it necessary to have planning permission as well and if so why are there no records on the planning page for most of the property's that have dropped kerbs?

In terms of dropped kerbs/crossovers, the proposal must satisfy the requirements of Class B of Part 2 of the Town & Country Planning General Permitted Development Order (GPDO), namely:

• The property must be on an unclassified or private road
• The access must be associated with some other form of permitted development. Most commonly, this would be a paved car space(s), whether existing or proposed as part of the same
• The paving of the car space must be permeable or include drainage to direct runoff to a permeable area
• The parking space that the access serves must be wholly within the site curtilage and at least 4.8m in length and 2.4m in width
• The dropped kerb must be necessary to obtain access to the car space
• Construction of the access must not involve the demolition of a wall within a Conservation Area
• The access must not create an obstruction that is likely to cause danger to highway users
• Permitted development rights must not have been removed, either by Article 4 Direction or a condition in a prior consent that applies to the land

If the proposal does not meet all of the above requirements, a full application will be required.

Any applications for planning permission for dropped kerbs/crossovers will be recorded in the planning portal records on the Council’s website. In many cases the dropped kerb crossings would have been permitted as part of the original consent for the dwelling(s) on a site. There may, however, be instances where crossovers have historically been added without obtaining the requisite planning permission. The ability for the Local Planning Authority to retrospectively require a planning application would depend on the length of non-compliance, for example, if more than 4 years this would in all likelihood become immune from enforcement action.

Q4 - If there are records showing which property's have been granted permission for dropped kerbs and path access, can these records be accessed by the public? – With respects to Highway approvals then there is a charge. 

Where planning applications have been submitted these will be available to view on the Council’s website under the public planning records.

Where planning permission is not required, on adopted roads maintained by the Local Highway Authority (this would be Thurrock as a Unitary Council) there would be an additional requirement to obtain highways approval for constructing a new dropped kerb or extending an existing dropped kerb.

Q-5 Council policy is "Your crossing must be constructed by one of our approved contractors" So does the council hold information as to who constructed the development and when, of each application? – Yes subject to the records held as per Q2