# Renovating an old roadside farm cottage (gable to road): Road entrance



## Cottier (21 Oct 2011)

Can anyone advise?

We're renovating an old roadside farm cottage in Co. Galway. The house is gable end-on to the road, separated by an old dry stone wall (all the other sides of the plot are stone field walls too). Most of the frontage wall and gateway must have been demolished at some point, if they ever existed, and the roadside plot was left to grass, open to the road for about 10m. The previous owner put up a post and rail fence (no planning permission) leaving a smaller opening but never laid a driveway and it's not clear where the original field/yard entrance was.

During the renovation we knocked out most of the fence to get the JCB in. We're now wanting to put back the frontage by restoring the dry stone walls, with a wooden bar gate. This would be 3m away from where the last owner decided to put his opening. Does it matter much? (are we running risks by moving it from where his fence opening was? Or by building/restoring roadside stone walls?). No problem with visibility on a straight road and putting the opening where we want it would actually improve the sight lines.

Does our gate need to be set further back from the road edge? (the wall line would be a couple of feet back, but we could curve the entrance in further if that's needed). Is there something in the regs about having enough room to pull a car off the roadway safely before opening the gate?


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## lowCO2design (23 Oct 2011)

you need advice from an arch/ Arch Tech/ planning consultant or road eng - who are familiar with LA and made aware of all of the above mentioned. 
you would be best to seek this advice on site and get written correspondence going between you and the LA. 
you need planning to alter an entrance, this is all quiet straight forward but you should to deal with this through the proper channels


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## onq (23 Oct 2011)

Hi Cottier,

+1 what  has posted and I also offer the following questions and comments -

Was the house occupied when purchased?
(restoring a dilapidated cottage may need planning permission)

Do you have permission for the refurbishment works?
(some Councils are very strict).

A new vehicular entrance is not an exempted development.
I'm assuming that moving an entrance on a a straight road would improve it because of the nearby House Gable.

Depending on -

- the position of the house
- the location of the entrance
- the design speed of the road
- the required set back from the carriageway
- the required sight-line distance
- the geometry of the entrance
- the profile of the carriageway
- the width of the carriageway

you may or may not have a problem.

You need to discuss this with the local planning officer and roads engineer and then appoint whatever professionals they suggest in order to make a competent technical submission.

You may also need to have a digital survey done of the site and road for circa 100M in each direction from the site boundary.
Alternatively, an OS map with record photographs may be acceptable.

On a related side issue, you should consider how best to insulate and service your property from a waste and surface water point of view.
New charges may be introduced for septic tanks in poor condition - or ones that don't exist!

If you don't have any design professional involved at this point I suggest you appoint one.


ONQ.

[broken link removed]

All advice on AAM is remote from the situation and cannot be relied upon                                                    as a defence or   support  -     in     and    of        itself  -         should         legal             action        be           taken.
Competent legal and building professionals should be asked to advise in                                                    Real Life with rights   to         inspect     and       issue         reports    on     the               matter     at  hand.


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## Cottier (24 Oct 2011)

Thanks, much appreciated. No problems with the house being continuously occupied (although intermittently as a holiday cottage 'in progress' by the previous, after 100 years in the same family). We have correspondence with planning on the renovation and possible future extension (what we're doing is more in keeping with the vernacular style and materials than what was done by the previous owner). We've installed French drains running off away from the road to soak away. Just the query on the entry gateway, and yes it would be preferable if moved away from the gable. 100m sight lines are fine, more like 300m. We'll run it by the planning officer in the first instance and see where we get to.


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## onq (24 Oct 2011)

No problem Cottier, you're very welcome.

All you have posted bodes well for the resolution of this matter, just to be aware that in rural areas where entrances are concerned, the local roads engineers sometimes has the final say 

You might let us know how you get on.


ONQ.

[broken link removed]

All advice on AAM is remote from the situation and cannot be relied upon                                                     as a defence or    support  -     in     and    of        itself  -         should          legal             action        be           taken.
Competent legal and building professionals should be asked to advise in                                                     Real Life with rights    to         inspect     and       issue         reports    on     the                matter     at  hand.


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