Downward sloping driveway - how can it be done with a short garden?

[emmad82]

Hi, my problem is that I applied for a disability grant to have a driveway built in my front garden. My garden drops down about 1.5ft from the pavement outside but it has a sloping zig-zag path that leads to the front door. My house is semi-detached and has wheelchair access that leads around the side of the house to the extension at the back. We applied for a drive because people keep parking outside our house (despite polite signs asking them not to) and it makes wheelchair access extremely difficult. We've been approved for the drive and work is due to commence in a couple of weeks. My issue is that the garden is around 17ft from front door to pavement in a straight line. The planners told me they would only be doing half the garden as a drive and that the height of the ground from the pavement means a sloping drive that would need steps to the front door. I told them that was impossible as it's for wheelchair access. They said I could continue to use the side access and not the front door. They also said the drive would be so high that it would come up about 1.5ft up the side of the house and they'd need to cut my shed door (I have a utility-type shed attached to the side of my house, a bit like a side extension) for access to the shed. This would mean you'd have to step down into the shed though! I'm assuming the 1.5ft drop and the 17ft garden length make sloping a drive too difficult. It sounds to me like they want to keep the drive level with the pavement instead of sloping it down to the front door. The fact that they're only wanting to use half the garden is stupid (but probably a money-saving thing seeing as it's a grant). If I have only half the garden done, then there's going to be a 1.5ft drop down to the rest of the garden. Are there any ways around all this? I feel that their money-saving corner cutting is going to be to the detriment of the wheelchair user, instead of making things easier.

[The Builder]

A sloping drive would have a gradient of around 1 in 11. Not ideal, but there are far worse.
It would be a straightforward job to strip the topsoil etc, then lay hardcore and concrete. By raising your end by 1.5', they're making a whole lot more work for themselves, not only with the extra fill, but with having to construct a retaining wall to support it.
Oh dear, sounds like they've have got themselves into a bit of a mess here :o(

[TWR]

Can you not apply to the council for no-parking road marking put down Emmad? surely that would be far cheaper & less hazell.

[cathfromsaron]

what about hollowing out a level path then installing an outdoor lift?

not ideal i know!

[ChuckFickens]

Assuming you'd need a 3foot flat path area at the bottom of the drive you'd need about a 1 in 9 (or 6degree) slope, could you handle that in a wheelchair ok?

[marden40]

its difficult to give a solid answer without seeing the area, but the garden probably is aprox 1.5ft lower at the house end but your front doorstep should be at least 6 inch higher than the garden so the drive might only slope 1ft when its completed........I have build literally 100s of houses where the drive or path is at dpc level and its been separated from the property with concrete edgings set away from the house.......I don't think they have given it much thought.