Driveway planning rules in Hull

The national front-garden rule

The Planning Portal explains permitted development for paving a front garden. Since 1 October 2008, if the area is more than five square metres, planning permission is needed when the surface is impermeable and the water runs off toward the road, rather than soaking into a border, a lawn or a designed permeable system inside the boundary. A back garden is treated differently. The rule is about the garden, not about who pours the material.

This guide is not a planning decision. If the Portal's questions do not match your layout, ask the council or apply for a lawful development certificate. Hull Driveways cannot grant or refuse permission.

Hull's crossing, which is extra

Even a garden that is permitted development can still need a dropped kerb. Hull City Council says approval is required to cross the footway or verge, and that only approved contractors may do the work. The June 2025 pack adds that planning permission is required where the crossing is on a classified road or in the Avenues/Hymers conservation area. It tells you to talk to a planning officer about turning space in those cases, and it states minimum dimensions of 10.3 metres by 7.3 metres for that turning space. Those minima are not a rule this website invented, and they are not quoted here as a fee.

The pack and the dropped kerbs page are the local documents. The council's phone number is on the council's own site. It is not repeated here, because this website does not publish a phone line.

Conservation areas and Article 4

Hull City Council says the city has 27 conservation areas. The published list includes the Avenues and Pearson Park, Garden Village, Newland, Newland Park, Cottingham Road, Sutton Village, Holderness Road East and Holderness Road West, among others. Being in a conservation area does not ban a drive. It does add controls, including on demolition of many walls and gates beside a highway, and on trees.

Some areas go further. The council's conservation-area list says the Avenues and Pearson Park Article 4 direction includes cross-overs and hard-standing areas. Garden Village has its own Article 4 page: unless a property is in the exempted list, planning permission is required for a hard surface in a front or side garden and for a crossover. The direction's map, not this paragraph, shows the exempted houses on streets such as Laburnum Avenue, Village Road and Acacia Drive.

Holderness Road's conservation areas are real, but this guide does not claim they have the same hard-standing Article 4 as Garden Village. Read the list before you assume a street has, or has not, lost its permitted development rights.

Trees

GOV.UK's guidance on trees in conservation areas says you must tell the council before you work on many trees in those areas, so it can decide whether the tree needs a preservation order. A drive that needs a root cut or a crown lifted is in that territory. A tree preservation order, where one exists, is stricter. The photograph of Westbourne Avenue shows why this comes up in the Avenues: the street trees are part of the place.

Across the boundary

East Riding of Yorkshire Council says a dropped kerb for vehicle access may need planning permission. Hessle, Willerby and Cottingham are in that authority. Hull's approved-contractor arrangement does not travel with you across the boundary. The area pages say which council applies.

Questions about planning in Hull

Sources: Planning Portal: paving your front garden; Hull City Council dropped kerbs; Dropped kerb customer information pack, June 2025; Hull conservation areas; Conservation area list and Article 4 notes; Garden Village Article 4 direction; GOV.UK: trees in conservation areas; East Riding: dropped kerbs and road maintenance.