Dropped kerb lands villager in hot water with parish council

A moorland village bungalow owner who dropped the kerb outside his home found himself in hot water with the local parish council. Robert Haughton made the change to the pavement at his property in Blackburn Road, Edgworth, to give him off-street parking without the necessary planning approval. This led North Turton Parish Council to write to Blackburn with Darwen Council's planning department to object, forcing him to apply for backdated planning permission for the change on highways grounds.

Its letter said: "The parish council strongly objects to this proposed retrospective development due to impact on the street scheme and the issue of accessibility." Town hall officials then reviewed the scheme. A report by borough planning manager Gavin Prescott told councillors: "This is a retrospective planning application for the creation of vehicular access to provide two off-street parking spaces with dropped kerb.



"The site relates to a semi-detached bungalow lying to the northeast side of Blackburn Road within the Edgworth village boundary. "The host property and neighbouring dwellings along this stretch of Blackburn Road are set back from the highway by circa 10 metres and the dwellings are set at a higher level in context with the adjacent highway/footway. Existing driveway openings are present in the locality and taking these similar openings into account together with comments from the council's highways officer, the proposal would not have an adverse impact on highway grounds or pedestrian safety "Due to the land level difference, part of the existing front garden has been excavated to facilitate the parking space.

"The immediate surrounding area is characterised with front gardens, and this is a fairly consistent theme with the exception of the properties that have driveways/garages. "The retention of part of the front garden ensures the proposal poses no harm to the visual amenity of the host property and surrounding area." Mr Prescott's report was considered by Blackburn with Darwen Council's planning and highways committee on Thursday night which granted Mr Haughton backdate planning permission for the dropped kerb allowing him to keep it.

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