Driveways in Yarm

A market town with old rules and new estates

Yarm received its market charter in 1207, and the town hall in the middle of the High Street dates from 1710. A bridge has crossed the Tees here since around 1400. In a 2007 BBC poll the High Street was voted the best in Britain, and the qualities that won it that title (Georgian fronts, red pantile roofs, cobbled forecourts and narrow wynds) are exactly why front gardens in the old town are treated with care.

South and west of the centre the picture changes. Levendale, Leven Park and the streets off Green Lane were built from the 1970s onwards with open lawns and single drives, and Kirklevington, just to the south, mixes old farmhouses with newer cul-de-sacs. We plan a drive very differently in each.

Inside the Yarm conservation area

The conservation area covers about 31 hectares around the High Street and riverside and holds more than a hundred listed buildings. Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council uses Article 4 Directions in parts of its conservation areas, and where one applies you need planning permission to lay a hard surface at the front, alter a gate or front boundary, or take a front wall down.

Three points catch people out in the old town:

• The cobbled areas along the High Street are public highway. Even when they sit right outside your door, they are not a private drive.
• Historic paving can be part of a listing. Old flags or setts in a yard should not be lifted until you have checked with the council.
• Listed building consent is a separate step. Working on a listed building without it is a criminal offence, so it is worth asking even about small changes.

Where a rear yard can be reached through a wynd or back lane, it is sometimes the realistic place for a parking space. Access is often narrow, so materials may need to be barrowed in, and we price that honestly at the survey. Granite setts, clay pavers in plain red or brindle, or gravel with a sett edge sit comfortably beside the old brickwork. Our conservation areas guide lists the questions to put to the planning team.

Behind the flood walls

The Tees has shaped Yarm for centuries. In March 1771 floodwater stood several metres deep in parts of the High Street, and today the Environment Agency maintains about 1.3km of flood wall and 32 flood gates around the town, protecting more than 500 homes and businesses. Since 2024 some of those gates have been replaced and upgraded.

A drive cannot change the river, but it does change how much rain runs off your property in a downpour. That matters on a riverside town where road drains can be overwhelmed. We design falls away from the house, keep the finished level at least 150mm below the damp-proof course and favour surfaces that let water soak in:

• Resin-bound laid on a porous asphalt base;
• permeable block paving with an open-graded sub-base;
• gravel, ideally held in a stabilising grid.

The national rule still applies: more than 5m² of new impermeable surface at the front, draining to the road, needs planning permission. See permeable driveways for the detail.

Levendale and Leven Park

Levendale grew up around its primary school in the south-east of Yarm, on land that was once Leven Mouth Farm, and many of its streets take their names from North York Moors villages. Leven Park, nearby, is mostly family homes with garages. On both estates a typical frontage is an open lawn with a single drive to one side, which makes widening fairly simple if the lawn is deep enough.

When we measure up for a second car we look at:

1. Width. Two cars side by side need roughly 5.5 to 6 metres.
2. The crossing. A wider drive needs a wider dropped kerb, and that needs the council's agreement first.
3. Obstacles. Lamp columns, telecom cabinets and verge trees can limit where the crossing goes.
4. The garage approach. Blocks often sink in front of the garage door where water gathers; a channel drain and a fall away from the door cure it.

Gardens on the edge of Levendale slope towards the River Leven, so getting the falls right is part of every job there. Worn tarmac or cracked concrete is common on drives of this age; if the base has failed we dig out and rebuild rather than overlay. See driveway repairs.

Green Lane and Mount Leven

Green Lane is the B1265, running west past Conyers' School to Yarm station, which opened in 1996. Because it is a classified road, a new or wider crossing onto it gets a closer look at visibility, and the council may ask for a planning application too. Where the frontage allows, a turning space so you can leave in forward gear is well worth the extra paving, especially at school times.

Land around Mount Leven Road is allocated for housing in the Stockton-on-Tees Local Plan, and schemes have been proposed there for over a decade. If you buy a new home in this part of Yarm, read the deeds for covenants about front gardens, check any management company rules, and give the ground a year or two to settle before replacing the builder's drive.

Kirklevington

Kirklevington lies just south of Yarm, with a church, a pub and a primary school on Forest Lane. Around 800 people live in the village, and the station is within the parish. It is in Stockton-on-Tees borough and the Yarm ward, so crossings and planning go through Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council even though the postal address is Yarm, North Yorkshire.

Drives here are often long. A common layout is gravel in a grid for the main run, with a paved or bound apron by the house and at the road so stones stay off the footway. Gates should sit far enough back that you can pull fully off the carriageway before opening them, and electric gates need a power supply and a level threshold.

Dropped kerbs in Yarm

The owner applies to Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council. The council either quotes and builds the crossing itself or allows a contractor holding its Opening Up licence to do it. Ramps or blocks in the gutter are not allowed. Where a verge sits between the footway and the road, the crossing covers both. Our dropped kerbs page and the guide to council or private kerb routes explain the two options.

Common questions