In practice, people wanting to park in their front garden have to apply for a crossover through their local council. Permission is normally given except if the property is on a main road, is a block of flats or being converted into flats, is in a conservation area with an Article 4 Direction (see below), is in a drain corridor (grass verge), or if the crossover is in a dangerous location such as near a road junction or directly above underground public utility equipment, or requires a telegraph pole to be moved or a tree to be cut down, or similar. In such cases planning permission may be required.

In 2007 the Government consulted on changing the permitted development regulations, seeking to deliver "a more permissive regime than exists at present and remove the need for a planning application in many cases." Despite representations from the London Assembly and others, including Ealing Local Agenda 21, no change was made to the status of pavement crossovers: they are still permitted development.

Article 4 directions withdraw permitted development rights

Article 4 of the Town & Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995 allows for permitted development rights to be withdrawn. The mechanism for withdrawing permitted development rights is thus known as an "Article 4 Direction". An Article 4 Direction can therefore be used to require planning permission for pavement crossovers.

Conservation Areas sometimes have Article 4 Directions. However, they are not popular with local authorities. This is because the withdrawal of permitted development rights may make the council liable to claims for compensation for loss or damage resulting from the rights being withdrawn.

In Ealing only three of the borough's 26 Conservation Areas have Article 4 Directions in place and only one of them, the Brentham Garden Estate Conservation Area, has an Article 4 Direction which restricts front garden hard surfacing for any purpose or removal of the front garden boundary structures.

Front gardens can be completely hard surfaced

Until 2008 there were no controls at all on what people could do to the surface of their front garden (although putting up a structure requires planning permission). Consequently, as our research shows, many front gardens are totally covered with impermeable hard surfacing.

In October 2008, largely in response to extensive flooding in several cities in 2007, limited controls on front garden hard surfacing came into force. The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Amendment) (No. 2) (England) Order 2008 requires front garden hard surfacing of more than five square metres in area to:

·         either be made of porous material or, if an impermeable surface, to direct runoff to a soakaway area or rainwater storage within the property's boundary

·         or require planning permission, the application to include a scale drawing and a fee of £150.

This applies to replacement of and repairs to existing hard surfacing as well as new surfacing. The stated purpose of these new regulations is to control via planning permission the construction of impermeable surfaces and driveway "that allow uncontrolled run off onto roads".

In practice people may still put down impermeable surfacing, which is often cheaper, and likely to be difficult for councils to enforce. Will time and resources allow council officers to test the porosity of newly-created hard surfaces by tipping water onto them?

And people can still hard surface their front gardens completely. This causes a wide range of problems caused by hard surfacing (see Problems with hard surfacing and 43 reasons not to pave pages). It's a pity that government has taken such a minimalist approach and focused only on the flood-prevention aspect.

It's also worth noting that the new regulations don't apply to back gardens. These can still be totally covered in impermeable surfacing.

Driving across the pavement without an approved pavement crossover

The law is not as decisive as one might wish.

 

The Highway Code (Paragraph 145) states that "You MUST NOT drive on or over a pavement, footpath or bridleway except to gain lawful access to property, or in the case of an emergency."

 

It references the Highways Act 1835 (sic) Section 72 and the Road Traffic Act 1988 Section 34.

 

Section 34 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 states that it is not an offence to drive on land in emergency situations. Nor is it an offence under this Act to drive within fifteen yards of the road to park the vehicle on land.

 

However under Section 72 of the Highways Act 1835, a Council has the power "to require that vehicles are not driven on footways and verges" .