Do you need planning permission for a new driveway in Shropshire?

Planning permission is the first thing many Shrewsbury homeowners worry about when they think about a new driveway. The good news: most driveways fall under permitted development and need no application at all. The catch is in the drainage rules.

Since 2008, laying more than five square metres of impermeable surface between the front of your house and the road requires planning permission — unless the water drains to a permeable area within your own boundary.

In plain terms: if rainwater runs off your new drive onto the public road or pavement, you need permission. If it soaks away on your own property — through a permeable surface, or via drainage channels into a lawn, border or soakaway — you don't.

That's why how a driveway is built matters as much as what it's built from. Block paving laid with drainage falls towards a planted border complies; the same paving sloped at the street doesn't.

Gravel is naturally permeable and almost always compliant — and it suits Shropshire's rural properties. Permeable block paving lets water through the joints into a special sub-base and complies by design. Standard block paving, concrete or tarmac comply when the run-off is directed to a soakaway or planted area inside your boundary, which is how we build them.

There are extra considerations if you're creating a new access onto a classified road, if you live in a conservation area, or if the property is listed — in those cases a check with Shropshire Council comes first, and we'll flag it during the quote visit.

We build block-paved and gravel driveways across Shrewsbury and Shropshire on a properly excavated, compacted sub-base — with drainage that meets the rules, included in the quoted price. Call or text 07540 120 284 for a free fixed quote.