The drop kerb is on a ransom strip and the rest of the ransom strip is currently turf.

Driveway will be porous (probably gravel) with some basic edging to make mowing the rest of the lawn easy. That said I am open to suggestion on the precise makeup for ease of use/maintenenace and relatively low cost installation.

Driveway will be straight and from a Cat D road (we have been told this, I cant find what that means but we are in a small residential cul-de-sac of about 15 houses in the middle of a 1980’s housing estate).

Based in East Dorset if that makes a difference or if anyone is interesting in taking the job on.

Can anyone give me a rough budget for the work? Ideally for the drop kerb/ransom strip and then a separate cost for the driveway incase I need to spread the costs over a few months.

I had to get a council approved contractor to drop my kerb, pavement is 4m wide, dropping the kerb and doing the full pavement area was £800 3 years ago.

Just had this done in Chichester. The drop kerb was almost as expensive as getting the lawn dug up and gravelled! I think we paid about 3k all up for an area big enough for two cars + dropped kerb.

We got geogrids added which maybe wasnt necessary but it looks great now so happy.

Where we are only the council are allowed to drop the kerb, it cost us ~£600 about 13 years ago

When you say ransom strip that implies that someone else owns it.

Do you have the oweers permission to do the work and access across the strip?

I’d be sorting that before worrying about the costs.

Do you have the oweers permission to do the work and access across the strip?

I’d be sorting that before worrying about the costs.

Not least because that might end up being the main cost. How has a ransom strip infiltrated a small 1980s development?

As above, it might be a council only thing to drop the kerb. There should be relevant details on their website, you won’t be likely to get much change from £1k if they do it.

I had to get a council approved contractor to drop my kerb,

That’s what you should do…or at least get permission from the council. Or just get your own builder to do it and don’t tell anyone. The Council will never know and if they come knocking 10 years down the line you just say “it was like that when we bought the house sir”. Obviously depends on how nosey your neighbours are because being shopped in by your neighbours is the main risk and we all know these days how some people are just itching and waiting for any chance to dob their neighbours in.

we all know these days how some people are just itching and waiting for any chance to dob their neighbours in.

I would. The kerb is part of the Highways and anyone working on them should have the appropriate licences and insurance.

We had this done about 18 months ago. We had 8 drop kerb stones, they had to remove a couple of tree stumps and dig out about two lorry loads of earth. They fitted edging stones to make a small border, a foundation layer and then grids topped with chard flint. Was £4.5K.

The block paving was already laid:

Sorry, got stuck on a long call!

So, the local website says we have to get an approved contractor, but helpfully does not list them so I was about to start ringing round the local companies and the first question will be “are you an approved contractor”.

Maybe ransom strip is the wrong phrase. It is a pavement wide strip of land round one side and the front that belongs to the council. They mow it once in a blue moon, we mow it the rest of the time so it merges into our lawn.

Thanks for the geogrids comment, I was going to ask about that kind of thing and now I know what to ask for!

As for doing it on the quiet…. Thats not going to happen, this is the (expensive) solution to a parking issue that we have had for about 15 years that the latest neighbours are escalating quickly. This way I can get all our cars off the road and leave everyone else to argue about who park where….. If we try and do it on the QT at least two of the neighbours will probably kick off so it’s all going to be above board!

To add to my post above, we had to have planning permission and use approved contractor. Planning permission was a couple of hundred quid and I just annotated some photos to show span of new drive.

As for doing it on the quiet…. Thats not going to happen, this is the (expensive) solution to a parking issue that we have had for about 15 years

Until the neighbours start parking on your drive or blocking it :)…

Until the neighbours start parking on your drive or blocking it :)…

How much for a parking barrier…

It might sound a bit doom and gloom but you may well find a drive way really doesn’t solve your parking issue (especially if it’s a 2 car wide driveway and the problem is people parking in front of other houses as there’s limited curb space and too many cars.)
Unfortunately only really one way to find out.

“it was like that when we bought the house sir”

Google streetmap says otherwise.

We had ours done just before lockdown 1.
Sandwell council charged £196 for an assessment. This took two minutes and had a quick chat about crap parking etc. This is non-refundable even if the decision goes against you. The council approved contractors (great bunch of lads) came and did the work about two months later. One sloped kerb and four flat dropped kerbs £980. All of the above will vary as to where you live.
As others have said it helps but Unfortunately some Muppets will still park halfway across, fully across etc depressing I know but its all too common. The worst offenders will probably be your close neighbors.

being shopped in by your neighbours is the main risk

It’s really not, the main risk is someone falling over and breaking their neck on it, that’s when the real trouble starts.

Also cost me 180 quid to get the white line painted on there too.

. If we try and do it on the QT at least two of the neighbours will probably kick off so it’s all going to be above board!

Quite wise – buy putting in a dropped kerb you’re effectively claiming a price of highway  that would otherwise been shared parking space as exclusively you’re. That’ll escalate the issues for other -If space in the neighbour is contested you’re making it more so…. which is fine. But if you’ve not gone through the proper channels then someone will call shannanigans.

it’s something I may have to do myself soon. In the culdesac where my partner’s mum lives one household went through the proper channels – paved over their front garden and had the kerb dropped – fine – they run a driving school from home – have lots of cars to park and they’ve done it all by the book and put the least amount pressure on parking that they can

But taking that lead nearly all the neighbours have followed with their own improvised arrangements – non of which have been sanctioned and it’s chaos. It now means there’s no part of the street where anyone can park if they’re not one of the householders- it’s effectively dropped kerb along the whole length. The irony is it’s quite an elderly group of residents and their carer’s and health visitors now have to park on neighbouring streets.

going through this now with son’s house.

£60 to apply for permission to drop kerb. Kerb can only be dropped by approved contractor, council provided me with costs £800 once permission was granted. Other things they wanted

• I would remind you that City Council specifies a minimum length of 5 metres for a driveway and that loose material (e.g. stone chippings) must not be used to surface the first 2 metres length adjacent to the footway.
• The driveway must also be drained internally with no surface water discharging onto the public road. Due to previous difficulties we have experienced with porous lock block, this will not be sufficient for being internally drained. If the driveway slopes towards the road we insist that a drainage channel is installed along the back edge kerb.
• You must, therefore, ensure that your driveway meets this requirement when constructed; your driveway must be completed prior to the footway works being carried out.
• Please also ensure that the kerb at the back of the footpath, if present, is replaced with a flat top kerb level with the footpath, if there is no kerb currently there please ensure that one is installed.
• Should these kerbs not be installed or at the incorrect height this work will have to be carried out as part of the footway crossing construction at your cost and may result in some of your driveway having to be lifted to allow this, you would then have to arrange to have your driveway reinstated at your own expense.