Apply to have your kerb lowered
Skip to:
Kerb Lowering
You may need to have vehicle access to your private property from the highway. This must be done safely and legally by forming a vehicle crossing, also known as a crossover or dropped kerb.
A dropped kerb allows residents, commercial property owners, or tenants to legally cross the council maintained footway and verges.
The law does not allow you to drive over a footway or verge unless a vehicle crossing has been constructed by the council in accordance with section 184 of the Highways Act 1980
Only the council can build vehicle crossovers, it is an offence for anyone else to make any changes to the public footway.
Our Domestic Vehicle Crossover Policy (ODT, 116 Kb) ensures that you are fully informed of the criteria for a Domestic Crossover before you submit an application.
It also considers the importance of maintaining the character of the borough, improving air quality and water drainage.
It encourages you to include some soft landscaping within the design of their forecourts. Also ensuring that crossovers do not increase the risk and impact of flooding from non-permeable driveways.
Before you submit an application for a vehicle crossover, we recommend that you read our guidance notes (ODT, 150 Kb)
Any application that does not adhere to the policy is unlikely to be accepted and the cost of the application will not be refunded to the applicant.
Crossover Fees
The initial application cost is £219.67 this includes the administration costs and site survey for suitability only.
This fee is non-refundable.
If your application is successful, a legal agreement between you and the council will be formed and a full quotation for works will be provided. The quotation for works will be dependent on several factors such as:
- removal or relocation of street furniture, for example streetlights, trees and signposts
- width of the footpath
- size of the proposed crossover
- any existing highway amenity such as a tree, lamp column or any other street furniture requiring a specialist officer visit will attract an additional inspection fee of £177.71. Where works may be approved or proposed, cost of such works will attract further fees
- the Legal Agreement Fee of £238.18 will be payable together with the payment for the crossover and any other associated works
Works will only commence once payment is received after which the crossover will be constructed by Barnet’s approved highway contractor.
Apply for a dropped kerb (crossover)
Apply online if you want to form a vehicle access to your home or premises:
If you are unable to complete our online application, please email highwayscorrespondence@barnet.gov.uk
For guidance, refer to the:
We would also highly recommend that you read the:
Apply for a crossover prior to planned works in your street
If Barnet Council is planning to carry out footway works to the pavements on your road, you will receive a letter.
If you apply for a crossover, you may receive a discount in price because of these planned works.
A discounted rate is only applicable if the crossover does not affect street furniture or parking bays.
For further information, please download the:
Apply online to have your kerb lowered prior to works:
Crossovers where there is a parking bay/Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ)
If the location of the proposed crossover is affected by a parking bay, including electric vehicle charging points (EVCP) and associated EV marked bays, a separate approval from our Parking Design Team will be required before the parking bay can be removed or altered to allow the construction of the crossover.
This process will involve changes to the legal documents governing the parking bay, called Traffic Management Orders. The process involves a statutory consultation which includes public consultation and advertising. For each Traffic Management Order to modify.
The first stage of the process (stage 1) requires a fee of £1681.89 payable in advance and will cover the drafting and advertising of the proposed changes to Traffic Management Order, and carrying out the associated consultation.
Following this consultation if there are no objections to the proposed parking changes, your final crossover quotation will be prepared.
This includes an extra fee of £813.47, (stage 2) to complete the final amendment of the Traffic Management Order(s). But, if objections have been received but not upheld this fee will be £1057.05, on top of the Crossover Construction Cost.
Refused crossovers
Your crossover application can be refused for a number of reasons including location specific concerns.
Some examples of why your application might be refused include:
- because your property is on a bend or at a road junction (sightlines)
- a tree is in the proposed crossing.
- street furniture or a street lamp may impede access
- the safe passage from your property is affected by traffic signals
- there is insufficient depth in a garden area (cars overhanging footway)
- there is insufficient visibility
Planning permission
In some cases planning permission is also required. It is the applicant's responsibility to check whether planning permission will be required for their hard standing area, and to obtain it where necessary. Planning permission is generally needed in the following circumstances, although this list is not exhaustive:
- access is to be on a classified I tiered or trunk road
- access is to a commercial property
- access is to a property that is a maisonette or divided into flats
- access is to a listed building
- access is in a conservation area, which is covered by Article 4 Direction requiring planning permission for hard surfacing and
- access is likely to affect a tree, which is protected by a Tree Preservation Order
If your proposal requires planning permission, then a further planning fee will be payable with your planning application.
Where planning permission has already been given a copy of the consent letter, any approved plans and the conditions must be submitted with the crossover application form.
Report an illegal crossover
If you want to report an illegal crossover please contact us by calling 020 8359 3555, Monday to Thursday 9am to 5:15pm, Friday 9am to 5pm, or via email highwayscorrespondence@barnet.gov.uk
Report footway parking
If you want to report footway parking, phone our 24 hour enforcement line on 020 3856 0020.
Contact us regarding a crossover application
In the current circumstances we are unable to accept applications via post. To contact us about your application, email to crossovers@barnet.gov.uk
Apply for a white line in front of your dropped kerb (crossover)
If you already have a crossover and want to prevent people parking in front of it, we can provide a white crossover bar marking - a white line that runs across your driveway parallel to the kerb line. This emphasises that there is a driveway there and discourages obstructive parking.
How to apply
To apply for a white crossover bar marking, please download and complete the:
And email to highwayscorrespondence@barnet.gov.uk
Payment
To process a payment for white lines please email highwayscorrespondence@barnet.gov.uk and request us to contact you to take your payment.
Refreshing your white line
If you already have a white crossover bar marking and want to refresh it, please email highwayscorrespondence@barnet.gov.uk. Your email should include the property details and the reason for the request.
Please note, there is a fee associated with refreshing the white line.
Highways consultation schedule
Once approved, your application will need to go through a statutory consultation process if you live within a Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ). You can find out when this consultation will take place here: Highways consultation schedule