Neighbour has demolished front garden wall for electronic gates.

bkenn14 said:

Sometimes householders extend access to give themselves better movement of vehicle before the drive out trough the existing dipped,dished area

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It appears that every other house on the road can manage with their existing entrance and driveway though.

From Dublin City Council.

"Well considered and appropriate designs for off-street parking in front gardens can provide for the car parking needs of residents while making a positive contribution to the character and amenity of streetscapes. By comparison, poorly designed parking in front gardens can detract from the visual character of streets through the excessive removal of front boundary walls or railings and the surfacing of the entire front garden"

I know when I was cobble locking our driveway we widened our gateway by about 2 foot without permission
We were told that planning permission was needed but it's not something that they really enforce once you're not taking the mick
But I would feel that to double the size of the opening would/should have gotten planning permission to avoid any problems later

Why does he need to widen so much for electric gates, surely the gate can be recessed back on the inside and run back neatly behind the existing wall as you see nearly everywhere else, sounds a bit agricultural

joe sod said:

Why does he need to widen so much for electric gates, surely the gate can be recessed back on the inside and run back neatly behind the existing wall as you see nearly everywhere else, sounds a bit agricultural

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The only thing I can think of is that the wall is not straight so they had to demolish a larger part of the wall so the gate could run comfortably behind the existing wall as it opened.

Either way it seems that they didn't care about how it was going to look and they were going to do what they were going to do.

joe sod said:

Why does he need to widen so much for electric gates,

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Likely so they can get more vehicles in without the last one blocking others and having to mess about with moving cars so you can get the one you want out the standard entrance.

TomEdison said:

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?

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Yeah, erecting a gate in an existing entrance is allowed within the limits, but creating a new entrance or widening an existing one is not allowed.

WaterWater said:

The only thing I can think of is that the wall is not straight so they had to demolish a larger part of the wall so the gate could run comfortably behind the existing wall as it opened.

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This seems reasonable. Are you sure he is not going to put the wall back when complete. He might be just repairing it to make it flush.

Leo said:

Likely so they can get more vehicles in without the last one blocking others and having to mess about with moving cars so you can get the one you want out the standard entrance.

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Plenty of room in the existing driveway to park two cars side by side and each could drive out without having to move the other car.......through the old entrance.

elcato said:

This seems reasonable. Are you sure he is not going to put the wall back when complete. He might be just repairing it to make it flush.

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No. Capping has already been done to the side and top of the pillar where the new opening ends. Also a massive gate at least 20' feet wide has been erected in the new opening.

IsleOfMan said:

Plenty of room in the existing driveway to park two cars side by side and each could drive out without having to move the other car.......through the old entrance.

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Yea, I'm just trying to guess at why someone might want a wider gate. the wider it is the more it costs.

joe sod said:

I hate that modern phenomenon of ripping out traditional gardens and lawns to put in all that hard-core for vehicles

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On the street where I live in Blackrock there have been a number of houses putting in place large electronic gates where a traditional gate used to be. One of these just extended the entrance by about 2', however most have just used the existing opening, thankfully.

Some have completely taken out their front lawn, turning their front garden in to a horrible yard like area. Some have tastefully left a decent sized border of flowers and shrubs with a nice granite border and gravel. These can look very nice.

Some of these electronic gates take a while to open. So if I am in my car behind the owner who is stopped in the middle of the road, waiting for his gates to open it is a pain in the backside.

I am not sure why some people need to build these fortress type compounds. Also I suspect that they hate any type of gardening and are not even prepared to plant a shrub or two to soften the look.

I think that Planning permission rules and regulations should be strictly enforced to stop this type of thing especially where the existing opening and existing car spaces were adequate. Why anyone would want to double the size of their standard gate opening and destroy the look of the street landscape is beyond me.

Leo said:

Yeah, erecting a gate in an existing entrance is allowed within the limits, but creating a new entrance or widening an existing one is not allowed.

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Yeah, but why not? The legislation says that altering a gateway is exempt, and widening a gateway is certainly altering it. So I'd love to know why local authorities think it's not exempt.

But, as you've established, they clearly do think that, and anyone wanting to widen a gate, or to object to the widenign of a gate, should bear that in mind.

The SI states that:

I noticed on my sisters estate (the one she lives on not one she owns) most of the driveways are widened. The issue there is the reduced on street parking. They haven’t all dipped the curb but people still tend to avoid parking in front of a car parked outside a house

TomEdison said:

But, as you've established, they clearly do think that, and anyone wanting to widen a gate, or to object to the widenign of a gate, should bear that in mind.

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I agree most would interpret as you did, I'm just aware of their treating it differently from reading planning cases over the years. Multiple LAs all seem to follow the same guidance that a gateway and an entrance are separate things entirely.