Can I get a dropped kerb? Check your driveway in 3D
You can get a dropped kerb if your council agrees the front garden is deep and wide enough for a car, the access is safe, and trees and street lights are far enough away. Check your measurements against your council’s own published rules before you pay its fee, which is usually non-refundable.
Kent County Council: its own rules, read on 11 October 2026.
Not sure which council handles your road? Find it by postcode on GOV.UK.
Sample house
This browser cannot draw 3D (WebGL is off). Every rule below still works.
Meets the Kent rules entered, with points to check
The inspector judges some points on site. The council decides after its own site visit.
Planning permission
Checking.
Before any work
Checking.
This is a sample house, not yours: a semi-detached house with a 5.6 m drive. Change any size to make it yours, or start with your own frontage.
Every rule, with its source
Council rules as of 11 October 2026
| Result | Rule | Yours | Limit | Source |
|---|
Planning permission is a separate question
The highway authority’s consent and planning permission are separate. A house on an unclassified road usually needs none, if the hard surface in front is permeable or drains to the garden.
What it costs
| Choose a council to see its published fees. |
Fees as published on each council’s page, read on 11 October 2026. Fees compared across councils
Send the council what it asks for
Pro turns this check into the documents for your application. One payment covers one property.
- Application packA scaled site plan and frontage elevation drawn from your model, with the splays, furniture and dimensions; 3D views; every rule with its source; the photo checklist; a cover letterPro
- Planning packWhen planning permission is needed: which application, the drawings, the porous surface note, the route to applyPro
- If it is refusedEach refusal reason matched to the council’s rule, a letter asking for a review, and the complaint routePro
- Contractor quote checklistWhat your council requires of the contractor, and what to ask before you accept a quotePro
- Side-by-side optionsYour frontage with one change each, scored by the same rules: a lower wall, a porous surface, a double crossing, gates that open inwardsPro
$19 once, per property
Buy Pro on GumroadGumroad handles payment and refunds. Your key turns Pro on in this browser. The pack prepares your application; the council still decides.
Councils compared
The minimum parking space for one car, and the fee to apply, as each council publishes them, read on 11 October 2026.
The parking space for one car, in metres
The fee to apply
Essex Highways publishes its criteria, but its pages showed the fee as a blank when read, so Essex is in the tool without a page of its own. The other highway authorities in England are in the tool with the national rules and a pointer to their own pages.
Council pages
The rules, explained
- Dropped kerb rulesDepth, width, splays, junctions and trees, council by council.
- Do you need planning permission?Classified roads, flats, Article 4 and the 5 m² surface rule.
- What a dropped kerb costsApplication fees from £55.06 to £500, and the works.
- Application drawingsWhat councils ask you to send, with an example plan.
- Parking across a dropped kerbThe rules in England and Scotland, and the exception for your own.
- Refused?The usual reasons, and how to ask for a review.
Questions
Does a pass here mean the council will approve my dropped kerb?
No. It means nothing you entered breaks a rule the council publishes. The council decides after its own site visit, and judges trees, utility covers, parking bays, traffic orders and visibility on site.
Do I need planning permission for a dropped kerb?
Not usually for a house on an unclassified road. Planning permission is needed for access on to an A, B or C road, for a flat or maisonette, where an Article 4 direction or a planning condition removes the rights, and for more than 5 m² of impermeable surface in front of the house that drains to the road. Some councils also treat conservation areas and listed buildings as needing it.
Which councils does the tool cover?
The rules of Kent, Hampshire, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Lancashire, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, Bristol, Havering and Waltham Forest, read from each council’s own pages on 11 October 2026, and Essex’s criteria. Every other council in England gets the national rules and a link to its own page.
Can I park across my own dropped kerb?
In England, parking beside a dropped footway is prohibited in a special enforcement area, where the council enforces it, but one exception is parking outside a home by the occupier or with the occupier’s consent given free, not at a shared driveway (Traffic Management Act 2004, s.86(3)). Councils differ in how they enforce it.
Is anything I enter sent to a server?
No. The check and the 3D model run in your browser. The share link keeps the frontage after the # sign, which browsers do not send to servers. If you buy Pro, only the licence key is sent to Gumroad to check it.
What about Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland?
They are coming next. Wales shares the Highways Act 1980 but has its own planning rules, Scotland uses the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984, and Northern Ireland has its own roads law; the tool does not guess them.
Sources: Highways Act 1980, s.184, s.153 and s.163; GPDO 2015, Part 1 Class F and Part 2 Class B; Traffic Management Act 2004, s.86; each council’s own dropped kerb pages, linked from its row. Last checked 11 October 2026. legislation.gov.uk and GOV.UK content is used under the Open Government Licence v3.0; council figures are quoted as facts, with no copied text. The list of councils comes from the Office for National Statistics 2025 lookup, also under that licence. Not legal advice, and not affiliated with any council or government department.