Do I need planning permission for a driveway?
The front garden rule, dropped kerbs, conservation areas and listed buildings, in plain English.
Usually not. A new or replacement front driveway needs no planning permission if it is permeable, or if the rainwater drains to a lawn or border on your own land. You need permission if more than 5m² of impermeable surface drains onto the road, if the house is listed, if an Article 4 direction covers the frontage (as in parts of Wolverton and Towcester), or if the new access is onto a classified road.
- Permeable drive
- No planning needed
- Over 5m² draining to the road
- Planning needed
- Dropped kerb
- Council approval, always
- Article 4 frontages
- Planning needed
Checked against the Planning Portal and council guidance, October 2026.
The 5m² front garden rule
Since 1 October 2008, paving more than 5m² of front garden with an impermeable surface that drains to the road needs planning permission. The rule is about where the rainwater goes, not the material you choose.
So you do not need planning permission if the surface is permeable (resin bound on a permeable base, permeable block paving, gravel), or if an impermeable surface is laid to fall onto a lawn, border or soakaway on your own land. Planning Portal: paving your front garden
Back gardens are different: a driveway or hardstanding behind the house is normally permitted development whatever it is made of.
When a driveway needs planning permission
- More than 5m² of impermeable surface in the front garden draining to the road
- A listed building, where the setting is protected too
- An Article 4 direction on the frontage: in Wolverton’s conservation area any new hard surface at the front needs permission, and Towcester’s covers frontages to Watling Street and nearby streets
- Flats and maisonettes, which do not have householder permitted development rights
- A new access onto a classified (A, B or C) road, which needs planning permission before the dropped kerb application
- Planning conditions on newer Milton Keynes estates that keep front gardens open-plan or limit parking
A dropped kerb is a separate approval
Even when the drive needs no planning permission, crossing the footway to reach it always needs the highway authority’s approval for a dropped kerb: Milton Keynes City Council, Central Bedfordshire Council, Buckinghamshire Council or West Northamptonshire Council, depending on the address.
See dropped kerbs for the fees and the process in each area.
How we keep you on the right side of it
We design every front driveway to be permeable or to drain to your own ground, so the front garden rule is met without an application. Where an Article 4 direction, a listed building or a classified road means permission is needed, we tell you at the free design visit and draw it up with you.
If the ground will not take water, as on much of the Milton Keynes clay, a permeable driveway can be lined and drained to a controlled outlet, and driveway drainage such as channel drains and soakaways can take water off an impermeable surface before it reaches the road.
Things people ask us
Do I need planning permission for a new driveway?
Is a resin bound driveway permeable?
Do I need planning for a driveway in a conservation area?
Does a dropped kerb need planning permission?
What happens if I build a driveway without permission?
Free design, free visit, free samples
We measure up, talk it through and send a written proposal with the build-up, the programme and one whole price. No pressure and no follow-up sales calls.