Gavin Lawlor

Thanks very much, Clare.

The simple answer in terms of the widening of the entrance is no.

They can rebuild the wall, like for like, same height, same materials, not a problem.

The reason that planning doesn't allow you to widen entrances is because then potentially you have two cars and there's potential for car accidents or unsafe traffic conditions.

So that's why they want you to bring it into planning to check that in that particular circumstance that everything's okay.

So for example, if your house was onto a corner

then there might be two different car movements that might not be able to see you reversing out.

And that would need to be properly assessed.

You could be at the end of a cul-de-sac.

It might not be a problem, but it needs to be assessed.

Even if you're in a housing estate, for example.

If the road is open to the public, if it's a privately owned lane, no, you can then widen your entrance.

But if it's a public road, if it's accessible by the public, and the road is wider than four metres, which most housing estates are, then you can't widen your entrance.

If the public road is less than four metres, you can't.

So first things first, there's two different issues there.

One is building regulation, the other one is planning.

Building regulation is separate from planning and people shouldn't mix the two up.

That's not saying it's any less important.

But in terms of planning, they absolutely need planning permission to do that, the people who own the house.

And if they haven't secured planning permission, it's very easy to check that.