What Hull City Council actually says
The photograph at the top shows dropped kerbs on Torbay Road in Eastcote, where front gardens are used for parking. It is not a Hull street.
Hull City Council's dropped-kerb page says you need the council's approval or consent to take a vehicle across the verge or footway. It says the works can only be done by contractors approved by its Network Management Team, and that it is an offence for anybody else to carry them out. The council also says it is an offence to construct a domestic footpath crossing without the appropriate approval and a roadworks permit.
The same page explains the route. You use the information pack and application form, then send that form to contractors you choose from the council's approved list so they can quote. The contractor seeks planning approval if it is required. Their quote is meant to cover the design and the works on the public highway, including moving utilities, streetlights or trees where that is needed. The contractor designs the crossing to the council's vehicle-crossing design guide. The council says the contractor wants full payment before the works, then obtains a permit, and only then gives a start date.
Once built, the crossing remains part of the highway and the council is responsible for its maintenance. Parking on the crossing is not permitted. The council says crossings are usually tarmac, and that block paving, concrete or flags may be approved only if they fit the street.
This website does not employ those contractors and does not submit the form for you. A quote request can ask local driveway businesses to price the private garden. The highway crossing is still the council process above.
When planning permission is added on top
The June 2025 customer information pack says planning permission is required if the crossing is on a classified road or in the Avenues/Hymers conservation area. The pack points readers at the council's list of classified roads and at a map of that conservation area. It also says that where permission is needed you should speak to a planning officer about the information required, and it records the usual need for adequate turning space within the garden, giving a minimum length of 10.3 metres and a minimum width of 7.3 metres. Those figures are the pack's, for cases where planning permission is in play. They are not a design for every quiet cul-de-sac.
The pack also summarises the national hard-standing rules that have applied since 1 October 2008. The Planning Portal sets the same idea out for the public: a large impermeable front garden that does not deal with its own rainwater can need planning permission. That permission, where it applies, is separate from the crossing permit.
Holderness Road is the kind of corridor where "classified or not" changes the paperwork. Bricknell Avenue is a residential road with footways and front gardens. Neither fact replaces the council's map. Open the pack rather than guessing from the name of the street.
East Riding is a different authority
Hessle, Willerby and Cottingham are not governed by Hull's approved-contractor list. East Riding of Yorkshire Council's roads page says that having a dropped kerb installed for vehicular access may need planning permission, and it points people to the council's planning section. The Parkway in Willerby, shown above, is an East Riding street. Using Hull's pack there would be the wrong form. This site does not reprint an East Riding fee, because the page it publishes is about whether permission may be needed, not a price list for the works.
What to ask professionals to separate
Ask for two lines: the private drive inside the boundary, and the highway crossing if they are on the council's approved list and are willing to quote that part. A firm that paves gardens may not be approved to touch the footway. Hull Driveways cannot tell you who is on the list. The council supplies it with the pack.
Questions about dropped kerbs in Hull
Can I lower the kerb myself?
The city council says it is an offence for anyone other than an approved contractor to carry out the works, and an offence to build a crossing without approval and a permit.
Does the crossing stay mine?
No. The council says that once it is built it remains part of the highway, and the council maintains it. You still must not park on it.
Will a quote from the form include the kerb?
Only if the professional includes it and is allowed to do that work. Read the quote. This website does not add the kerb in afterwards.
Sources: Hull City Council: dropped kerbs; Hull City Council dropped kerb customer information pack, June 2025; East Riding of Yorkshire Council: road and footpath maintenance; Planning Portal: paving your front garden.