A vehicle crossing, also known as a dropped kerb, is the lowering of a kerb to give your vehicle access to your private property from the highway.
You are not allowed to drive over a footway or verge unless a vehicle crossing (dropped kerb) has been constructed in accordance with Section 184 of the Highways Act 1980.
Determine if your road is classified or unclassified
To create a new vehicle access to your property, or extend an existing access, you need to first determine whether the road that you want to install the vehicle access on is classified or unclassified. If the road is classified, you need to apply for planning permission in the first instance.
Prior to continuing with the application, if you are not the owner of the property, you need to seek this permission before progressing.
If you are unsure if you live on a classified or unclassified road, you can use the map below to check.
How to apply for a vehicle crossing (dropped kerb)
For properties on a classified road (ie. 'A', 'B', or 'C' roads)
If you live on a classified road, you need to apply for planning permission to drop the kerb to your property.
You can find details on how to apply on the apply for planning or building regulations page.
For properties on an unclassified road (ie. housing estate etc)
If you live on an unclassified road, you do not need to apply for planning permission, unless the creation of the the vehicle access (dropped kerb) to your property would involve the loss of a grass verge between your property and the road.
If this is the case, then you will require planning permission. You can find details on how to apply on the apply for planning or building regulations page
We would not typically allow a vehicle crossing across an existing parking area / layby.
Criteria for vehicle crossings
The parking space (within your own property) for your vehicle must have a depth of five metres (at approximately right angles to the road) and a minimum width of 2.5 metres.
Please note we will not allow any vehicle crossing where the depth of the frontage parking space is less than five metres, so please do not apply.
The width of the vehicle crossing needs to be three or four low kerbs wide for a single crossing. If shared with a neighbour, it needs to be six to eight low kerbs wide. We will not permit a vehicle crossing the full width of a property or on the radius of a junction.
The distance between vehicle crossings needs to be a minimum of three full height kerbs. Maintaining the visibility splay is the responsibility of the landowner and the Highway Team will request this at the point of application.
Where an unbound material (ie gravel) is used on the driveway, it is for the landowner to keep this unbound material off the footpath.
Electric vehicle charging
With more electric vehicles using the road network, there will be a need to charge these vehicles. Any requests for vehicle crossings will still need to comply with the above requirements.
Access Protection Marking
We are able to install Access Protection Markings (APM) at properties.
Please email trafficregulation@peterborough.gov.uk to request Access Protection Markings. You will need to send:
- A marked up plan of the request
- Your address
- Contact phone number
Please enter 'Access Protection Marking' as the subject of the email.
When we receive the request, we will advise whether we can install the APM.
Following the successful request, we charge a payment of £150 (this includes VAT) towards the APM. Once we have received payment, we will program the installation. Please note the works are weather dependant and could take up to three months to install.
After installation, it is the responsibility of the homeowner to refresh the marking when it fades. If roadworks remove the marking, we will renew it free of charge.
Contact the Highway Maintenance Team
Once you have planning permission, or if you do not need planning permission, please complete the Dropped Kerb Application form.
Your request will be logged with a highway inspector who will contact you directly within 14 days of your form submission.
The inspector will provide further information regarding contractors, costs and any other requirements.
If you live in a new property where there is a current application in by a developer to have the adjoining road dedicated as public highway, please contact the Highway Control Team by emailing HDTeam@peterborough.gov.uk to check how this will affect the planning consent and road adoption application for the site. Failure to do so may prejudice the adoption of the estate roads.
A list of the adopted roads can be found under 'List of Streets' on our Highway Control page.