Neighbour has demolished front garden wall for electronic gates.

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IsleOfMan

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Our near neighbour has demolished part of their front garden granite wall fronting on to the public pathway to put in place an electronic garden gate. The opening has more than doubled in size. It is completely out of proportion with the other houses on the road.

Do you need planning permission to do this?
 
Generally not. The alteration of an existing gate or gateway in the wall between your house and the public road is an exempted development, unless it involves raising the wall height to more than 1.2 m, or a section of the wall is left not properly capped or (unless it's a natural stone wall) not property rendered or plastered.

If this were a new gate then I'd be looking at whether it's excessively close to a junction, or anything of the kind. But from what you say it's not a new gate; he's widening an existing gate that was there already. So there's probably no mileage in that.
 
In addition to Tom's post above planning permission would also be required if any buildings are protected or listed structures. Unlikely in this case but worth noting. The boundary wall would be within what's known as the curtilage of the protected structure and therefore also be protected.
 
TomEdison said:
Generally not. The alteration of an existing gate or gateway in the wall between your house and the public road is an exempted development, unless it involves raising the wall height to more than 1.2 m, or a section of the wall is left not properly capped or (unless it's a natural stone wall) not property rendered or plastered.
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It is a natural stone wall. When the original developers were building the houses they had to reinstate the original stone wall that existed before the site was developed.

Each house had a circa 10' opening to their driveway, the neighbour has extended the opening to double this.
 
If it affects access to the road or if anything needs to be done to the kerb to allow cars to drive in or out (thus reducing space for parking on the road), potentially yes, otherwise, aside from the reasons other posters have made, probably not.
 
Leo said:
While you can within reason replace an existing gate, planning is always required to widen a driveway entrance. It is not exempted development and it's one you do occasionally see the LAs going after.
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I don't think so. Alteration of an existing gate or gateway within or bounding the curtilage of a house is an exempted development in Class 5, unless it involves a breach of the wall height limit or of the requirements as to the finish of the wall.
 
bkenn14 said:
What is the total with of the front wall, is it the same width for each house,
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Each house has the same length of wall. Each house has the same entrance size. The new entrance opening is double the size of the old entrance opening, making the remainder of their front wall out of proportion with every other house on the road.
 
The council does as far as I know expect planning permission for this.

Did they also need to dip a footpath outside the house? Council might be more inclined to take action if that's been done without permission.

If you apply for planning permission you can find the council then charges you something like 1000 euro to "dip" the footpath to get that permission. Dipping is reducing the height of the footpath to make it easier for the cars to access the driveway.

That money is recoverable if/when after some number of years the council hasn't actually dipped the footpath and you remember to go after it, but it will help disuade people from applying for permission in the first place.

It's a bad system as result is the team doing the widening also dips the public footpath without any council involvement, permission or guidelines for making the dip comfortable for pedestrians.
 
OK, clearly I'm missing something. Planning and Development Regulations 2001 reg 6 and Sch 2 item 5 say that altering a gateway is an exempt development (on certain conditions) and widening a gateway is clearly an alteration, so how is it not exempt?

As to the footpath outside the gate, whether you call it dishing or dipping or anything else I agree that you need council approval for anything done to the footpath — not a matter of planning permission, but an aspect of the council's responsibility for roads. And most councils will insist on doing the work themselves, or having approved contractors do it, and will charge you for it.
 
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