We have placed a number of criteria that a property must meet in order for a construction of a vehicular access to be permitted. These criteria are drawn from accident statistics, central government guidelines and local policy requirements.
Some of these criteria can be relaxed if a resident of the property is the holder of a valid disabled Blue Badge. It may also be necessary for additional work to be done in order for an access to be constructed.
The following criteria must be met by your property in order for construction of an access to be permitted:
Space: There must be an unobstructed space of at least 5m deep by 3m wide within the bounds of your property.
Entrance and visibility: If sightlines are unobstructed from a height of 1.2m there must be at least 3m of space at the boundary of your property and the highway boundary to form an entrance. If this visibility requirement cannot be reached then a minimum entrance width of 5m is necessary.
Corners and junctions: There must be at least 10m between the entrance to a junction or sharp corner and the location of the proposed vehicular access. (See figure 1.)
Obstructions: There must be no street furniture such as street nameplates or street lighting at the location of the proposed access. It may be possible to arrange for such features to be moved, but the cost for any such works would be borne by you.
The following circumstances will cause your request for construction of a vehicular access to be denied:
- Pre-existing access: If there is already a vehicular access to the property then a second one may not be constructed.
- Parking: If the proposed access would exit into pre-existing public parking, such as a lay-by or pull in, then its construction would not be permitted.
- Traffic calming: If there are traffic calming measures e.g. speed humps in the carriageway in front of or adjacent to the proposed access then it would not be permitted.
- Trees: If there is a tree (or trees) in front of your property such that any constructed access would be closer than 1m to the trunk. This is increased to the width of the tree’s canopy if there is an access on the other side of the tree in question.
Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and that there are other circumstances that may prevent the construction of a vehicular access.