Most homes in North Birmingham were built before anyone expected two cars per household. The interwar council cottages of Kingstanding, Perry Common and Pype Hayes have front gardens that were designed for privet and roses, the Victorian streets of Aston, Stockland Green and Handsworth have forecourts barely deep enough for a wheelie bin, and the 1930s semis of Great Barr and Hamstead were given one narrow strip for one small car. Converting a front garden to parking, and fencing what is left, is the everyday work here.
B6, B20, B23, B24 and B44 sit wholly or mostly in Birmingham. B42 and B43 are split three ways: Perry Barr and Oscott are Birmingham, Hamstead and parts of Great Barr fall in Sandwell, and Pheasey belongs to Walsall. Those lines decide which council lowers your kerb and which planning team you ask.
We don't lay paving or put up fences ourselves. We send your details to a single local specialist covering these postcodes, and your contract is with them.
Getting a dropped kerb on a Birmingham, Sandwell or Walsall road
Without a lowered kerb you cannot legally drive across the footway, and parking enforcement on these busy estate roads is real. How you get one depends on the council.
Birmingham. Apply online and pay £125, which is not refunded and covers the site inspection. If the application succeeds, the council's highways contractor builds the crossing and bills you for the works plus a £375 administration charge. You have to lay a permeable hardstanding before the crossing goes in, and the council will not approve a crossing longer than 8.5 metres.
Sandwell (Hamstead and parts of Great Barr). You pay a £250 inspection fee by card when you apply. It is kept even if you drop the idea or the officer finds the frontage unsuitable, and it is not knocked off the quotation that follows. Sandwell says a standard crossing of two tapered and three flat kerbs on a 1.8 to 2 metre footway typically costs £1,300–£1,800, with extras for traffic management, moving street furniture or utility boxes. Quotations last six months. The council has warned about people knocking on doors claiming to work for it and offering to drop kerbs for cash.
Walsall (Pheasey). An assessment comes first, then a road opening permit and a contractor of your choosing.
A frequent snag on the Kingstanding and Perry Common estates is the grass verge between the pavement and the road. Crossing a verge adds cost, and where mature street planting or a lamp column sits in the way, the council may refuse or charge to move it. Council tenants also need their landlord's permission first. For the steps, see how to get a dropped kerb; for prices, the dropped kerb cost guide. The specialist can lay the hardstanding and handle the paperwork, and our dropped kerbs service explains who does what.
Conservation areas: few, but worth checking
Unlike Sutton Coldfield or Moseley, most of this patch is outside any conservation area, so ordinary permitted development rules apply to fences, walls and paving. The exceptions:
- Aston Hall and Church, Birmingham, around the Jacobean hall and its park in B6.
- Great Barr, Walsall, a large area covering the Great Barr Hall estate and reaching towards Barr Beacon, which includes some homes on the Walsall side of B43.
- Lozells and Soho Hill, just south of Handsworth, for those on the edge of the patch.
If your street is in one of these, removing a front wall or railing more than a metre high needs consent, and paving the front garden is judged on how it looks from the road. Everywhere else, the national rules are enough.
Plots, access and what they mean for a job
Kingstanding, Perry Common and Pype Hayes. Built by the council between the wars, with semis and short terraces set back behind front lawns, long back gardens and rear access down shared paths between the blocks. Front gardens are often 5 to 6 metres deep, enough for one car nose-in. Plenty have privet or low brick fronts that the owner wants replaced with a wall and gate or removed entirely.
Erdington, Stockland Green, Gravelly Hill and Aston. Victorian and Edwardian terraces with a shared entry between every pair of houses. The entry is often 80 to 90cm wide and arched, which rules out a mini digger and means fence panels, posts, concrete and spoil go through by hand. That adds time, and our estimator allows for it.
Great Barr, Hamstead and Oscott. 1930s to 1950s semis, many with a driveway shared with next door up to side-by-side garages. Resurfacing a shared drive needs both owners on board: agree who pays for what before the specialist visits.
Handsworth Wood. Larger interwar and detached houses on bigger plots, with gates and front walls to match.
Castle Vale. Rebuilt since the 1990s, with modern houses, allocated parking and open-plan fronts.
Clay, Tame valley flooding and drainage
The higher ground in Kingstanding, Great Barr and Erdington is mostly mudstone clay under a layer of glacial till, which holds water. Down in the Tame valley around Witton, Perry Barr and Gravelly Hill the ground changes to river sand and gravel over clay. On clay, a soakaway dug to a standard size can sit full for days, so a percolation test before committing to one is money well spent.
The River Tame has flooded homes in Witton and Perry Barr in the past, and the Environment Agency has carried out flood risk work there. Smaller brooks such as Hawthorn Brook through Perry Common and Kingstanding also respond fast to heavy rain. In these parts, SuDS is not a box-ticking exercise: water-permeable block paving, resin-bound or gravel keeps rain on your plot instead of adding to the peak in the drains. Front driveways over 5m² need a permeable surface or drainage into a lawn or border to stay within permitted development; the 5m² rule guide explains, and a replacement drive counts as new for this purpose.
Driveways and patios in North Birmingham
Most jobs are single-car or tight two-car drives in the 15 to 30m² range. At that size the choice of surface moves the price a lot: tarmac comes in around £50–£80 per m², block paving £90–£140 and resin-bound £75–£115, with £10–£18 per m² to dig out a lawn. On a 30m² front garden on grass, a tarmac drive typically lands at £2,350–£3,930 and block paving at £3,550–£5,730. Tarmac is not permeable, so on a front garden it needs to drain to a border, a channel or a soakaway. The block paving vs resin vs tarmac guide and the driveway cost per m² guide set out the trade-offs.
Many older drives here were laid thin on poor ground and have sunk where cars stand. Our guide on why cheap driveways fail explains the sub-base and edging that stop it happening again.
Back gardens get the patios, often replacing cracked 1970s slabs: sandstone costs £110–£160 per m², and a new patio should sit at least 150mm below the damp-proof course. See tarmac driveways, block paving and patios, or the North Birmingham driveways and patios page.
Local questions
I rent my house in Kingstanding from the council. Can I get a drive?
You need the council's permission as landlord before anything else, and Birmingham will also want it for the dropped kerb. If you are a leaseholder or have bought under right to buy, check your deeds for restrictions. Once you have consent, the specialist can quote for the hardstanding.
My B43 house is in Sandwell. What does the kerb cost?
Sandwell charges a £250 inspection fee that is never refunded, then quotes for the works. Its own figure for a standard crossing is £1,300–£1,800 on a normal-width pavement, more if a verge, lamp column or utility box is involved.
Our entry is shared with next door. Can we put a gate on it?
Usually yes, if both households agree and your neighbour keeps access. Most shared entries carry a right of way for both houses, so the gate must not block it, and both of you need keys. Check your deeds if you are unsure who owns the entry.
Is my front garden too small for a car?
It depends on the depth from the house to the back of the pavement. Councils generally want enough room for a car to park without overhanging the footway, which many Victorian forecourts in Aston and Erdington lack. The council's inspection decides; the specialist can measure before you apply.