Do I need planning permission for a driveway?
The five square metre rule, what counts as a permeable surface, and the three situations where you do need an application.
The three questions that decide whether your driveway is legal
Almost every driveway enquiry we take runs into the same three things: planning permission, the kerb, and where the water goes. None of them are complicated once somebody explains them properly, and all three are cheaper to sort out before the job than after it. These pages are the explanations, with the council's own rules cited so you can check them yourself.
How do I get a dropped kerb in East Sussex?
Who applies to East Sussex Highways, who builds the crossing, and why planning has to be settled first.
Where is my driveway water supposed to go?
Why you cannot drain to the road, what a soakaway actually needs, and how falls and channel drains are set out.
Before anybody digs
Planning, kerbs and drainage are the legal side. The physical side is what's already buried in the garden — it's the reason most quotes say "subject to survey". We do the survey first, which is why ours doesn't — and no detector finds all of it, so we don't pretend it does.
What do you check at the survey?
We measure the job properly, check the levels and where the water goes, check what planning rules apply, and look at what has to come out, manholes, access for the digger and skip, and any ducts. It all happens at the site visit before we quote, so by the time the number is written down we know what the job needs. That's why our price is fixed rather than subject to survey.
Do you take a deposit?
Often not. Jobs that qualify get our zero deposit option: we buy the materials, we build the job, and you pay once, on the day, after you've walked it with us and the build record is in your hands. Otherwise you cover the materials when we break ground and settle the balance on completion. We confirm which applies when we give you your fixed price, and the price is the same either way.
Can the council make me take my new driveway up?
Yes. If a new drive over 5 m² is laid with a solid surface and the rainwater runs onto the road, it needs planning permission. Without it, the council can serve an enforcement notice requiring it to be put right, which can mean digging it up, and since April 2024 they have ten years to do so. The notice goes to the homeowner, not the contractor. A cheap quote rarely mentions any of this. We design every drive so it doesn't need permission — a permeable surface, or falls and drainage that keep the water on your land — and we put it in writing. The rules are on GOV.UK: Permeable surfacing of front gardens and Enforcement and post-permission matters.
We do this part for you
When we quote a job we tell you which of these three apply to your address, what the council will want, and what it costs. We do not submit applications in your name — the licence has to come from the property owner — but you will not be guessing.
Pricing questions live on the prices page, the Hastings cost guide and the guide to the cheapest driveway that still lasts.
Worth reading
- Why driveways sink, and whose fault it is
Four causes, and how to tell which one you've got from the shape of the failure — plus when a lift and relay fixes it and when the whole drive has to come up.
Includes: how to lift one block and check your own sub-base depth
- Your new-build garden is waterlogged. Here's who's responsible.
Why gardens on new estates hold water, how to tell compaction from a drainage fault, and the order to escalate it in — developer first, warranty provider second.
Includes: how to run a percolation test and measure your topsoil depth