# Car scrapes pavement :-(



## dee4life2005 (Sep 18, 2007)

I have a standard focus st, with mountune and could get the car up the driveway with no issue until this week. The council have just adopted and resurfaced the pavement and it looks as though they've raised it including drain covers and its now a steeper angle than before. I cant take it at an angle as it's only just wide enough for the car.

Am i now stuck with it like this - having to leave car out - or will the council sort it.

Cant ask them as they are shut for the weekend, so if anyone has any idea so i have ammunition on monday that would be grand.


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## PaulaJayne (Feb 17, 2012)

Do you have a dropped kerb? If not then it is against the law to pass and re pass over the pavement as the services (electrictity/gas/ drains) are not protected from the weight of your vehicle and so damage.

This is of interest


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## dee4life2005 (Sep 18, 2007)

Its a dropped kerb, with the pavement sloping down flush with the road.


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## PaulaJayne (Feb 17, 2012)

Need to look at the plans for the dropped kerb install - It should be on record with the council as to its dimensions.

Vehicle crossing widths

The width of a crossing and its position relative to the frontage of the property may be influenced by a number of factors such as widths of carriageway, footway or verge, and the width and depth of the area available for parking. In general, the width of a crossing is limited to that necessary to facilitate its proper use.

The standard crossing width (lowered kerb length) is 2.7 metres. This is the normal width appropriate in most cases. In exceptional circumstances, dependent on site conditions, the maximum crossing width (lowered kerb height) for an individual property of 3.6 metres may be applied. 

Where one exists, the boundary fence, wall or hedge should be retained for that portion of the frontage not covered by the footway crossing. This is to protect the street scene and pedestrians from motor vehicles manoeuvring on the footway.


Paula


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## ardandy (Aug 18, 2006)

Can you reverse up it?


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## dee4life2005 (Sep 18, 2007)

I could but would that not be just as bad with scraping on the way down?
Will give it a try tomorrow anyway.


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## dee4life2005 (Sep 18, 2007)

Tried all different angles, including reversing, and it will scrape for all. Even the neighbours toyota yaris scrapes the rubber strip at bottom of their bumper and that isn't exactly low.

Had a closer look, and they have raised the pavement and at the same time lowered the joining bit of the road by about 1cm. Doesn't help that the drop kerb also has a noticeable raised but in the middle.

Will be on to them on monday to see what they can/will do about it. If they aren't going to do anything then i'll get some tar and chuck it down myself if thats what it takes.


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## johanr77 (Aug 4, 2011)

PaulaJayne said:


> Do you have a dropped kerb? If not then it is against the law to pass and re pass over the pavement as the services (electrictity/gas/ drains) are not protected from the weight of your vehicle and so damage.
> 
> This is of interest


Funny that when we do dropped kerbs we don't do anything additional in nature to protect services.


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## minnnt (Mar 5, 2007)

Any further in getting this sorted matey?


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## dee4life2005 (Sep 18, 2007)

Nope, someone from the roads department in the council is coming out to take a look, but i fully expect them to do sod all to be honest. It took them two weeks to do the pavement and its now a week since then , so thats three weeks my car has been sitting outside - can't even wash it as the karcher doesn't reach that far ... And its badly needing washed.

A similar driveway further up the street was done properly with the tar extending in to the street a bit to negate them raising and steepening the slope of the kerb ... Seems like they've done a half arsed job but will the roads inspector see the problem ... We'll see.


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## minnnt (Mar 5, 2007)

Hmmm... that's not good mate. Keep badgering them. If your local council are anything like the one I work for then they will bow down to pressure. It's ridiculous that you can no longer use your driveway! Not exactly like it's a lambo that is a nats nad off the ground!!


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## Snowy172 (Oct 2, 2013)

My local council redone the path for the garage next door as they complained that their car was scrapping and they come out and resurfaced the path so they might come and do yours keep at it


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## dee4life2005 (Sep 18, 2007)

I`ll definitely be keeping at them until they do something about it. 

In the meantime, I`ll be taking a few photos of their "workmanship" and a couple photos showing the nose of my poor car resting on the pavement (not really, I`ll get as close as possible without doing that as don't want to inflict more scratches). May even take a video. This will give me some evidence in case the roads "inspector" tells me to do one. 

Don't see how they have a leg to stand on the fact it's a standard car.

I could always buy a couple of bags of tar and build up the dip myself, but I don't see why I should - plus they'd probably do a better job than I could.


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## griffin1907 (Mar 4, 2006)

Try telling them if they don't get it sorted you'll invoice them for getting the bumper sorted.

I had an issue a few years back with a temporary speed hump that kept taking people's mud flaps off, as soon as I mentioned invoicing them for damage the hump was removed.

Might be worth a try???


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## dee4life2005 (Sep 18, 2007)

that's another angle I could take, I'll keep that in mind.


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## dee4life2005 (Sep 18, 2007)

The inspector from the roads department was around to see it the middle of last week ... and the workmen have been back and have started to remove the bad section and hopefully fixing it today. They've also had to redo the next three houses up the same side of the road after similar complaints .. and one of them was from someone with a 4x4 which also grounded it's front bumper !!!!

Fingers-crossed that it'll sort it this time - at least enough that it doesn't ground with just me in the car (the fiesta scrapes with two or more in the car at the moment).


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## JMorty (Apr 25, 2011)

I hope you get it sorted mate, spend my life scraping my bumper but...








Mines slammed lol
If you want to get it in, you could get some wood planks to level it out?


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## dee4life2005 (Sep 18, 2007)

JMDetailing said:


> I hope you get it sorted mate, spend my life scraping my bumper but...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I've seen a few slammed cars ... but that sucker is looooowwww.


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## TooFunny (Sep 18, 2012)

You may want to put a rocket up their **** by telling them that if they don't get it sorted you'll be invoicing them on a yearly basis for the added costs to your insurance as it is not longer kept on the driveway overnight.

You may want to let your insurance know this also, just in case!


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## dee4life2005 (Sep 18, 2007)

TooFunny said:


> You may want to put a rocket up their **** by telling them that if they don't get it sorted you'll be invoicing them on a yearly basis for the added costs to your insurance as it is not longer kept on the driveway overnight.
> 
> You may want to let your insurance know this also, just in case!


I never actually thought of that, that's a fair point ... though I do seem to recall that by specifying my car as parked on street rather than driveway actually reduced my premium by about £35 ... the only explanation I can think of is that it reduces the risk of theft by keys (as a result of breakin to home) as they are less likely to know for sure which house the car belongs to if it's on the street.


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## DJ X-Ray (Sep 2, 2012)




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## RisingPower (Sep 21, 2007)

DJ X-Ray said:


>


Is everything with you small?


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## Snowy172 (Oct 2, 2013)

JMDetailing said:


> I hope you get it sorted mate, spend my life scraping my bumper but...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I have to use planks to get my car in the garage and it's a nightmare in the winter in the cold and rain.


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## dee4life2005 (Sep 18, 2007)

Well, they were back today. Same squad of guys as last time. I was speaking away to them and they weren't surprised they had to come back. Their gaffer had told them not to do it they way they had want to do it - to save time and tar apparently, as they were running behind time - but they did it properly this time and it looks perfect. Not had the car up the drive yet, but I reckon I'll have a few cm of clearance now ... Woohoo!


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## Alex_225 (Feb 7, 2008)

Good news!! That would have p!ssed me right off. 

I was going to suggest that if they didn't get on the case I'm sure your local newspaper would run a story on it. They'd love to grass the council up for wasting our taxes on roadworks that stop residence parking on their own driveways.


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## minnnt (Mar 5, 2007)

Great news mate.  

The corner cutting penny pinching excuse sounds familiar. Good on'ya!


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