How high can a fence be next to a road?

The rule is written around the highway rather than around the front of the house. Class A stops permitted development where a gate, fence, wall or means of enclosure next to a highway used by vehicular traffic would exceed 1 metre above ground level. The Planning Portal renders the same test as being next to a highway used by vehicles, or the footpath of such a highway. A corner plot with a side garden onto an adopted road, or a rear boundary onto a service road, is caught by exactly the same wording as a front garden.

How far back a fence has to sit before it stops being next to the highway has no published answer. The Order defines neither highway nor adjacent for these purposes, so where the line falls is a matter of planning judgement for the local planning authority. Any website quoting a specific setback, such as 2 metres back from the pavement, has invented it. If your fence sits behind a deep verge or a long front garden and you want more than 1 metre of height, ask Cheltenham Borough Council or apply for a lawful development certificate.

Planning permission is only one of the controls. Highways Act 1980 section 79 gives the highway authority a standalone power at a corner, bend or junction. Where it deems it necessary to prevent danger from obstruction to the view of people using the highway, it can serve notice requiring an owner or occupier to alter a wall, fence, hoarding, paling, tree, shrub or other vegetation. There is no height figure anywhere in that section. A fence can be lawful permitted development and still be caught by a notice, which is the trap on corner plots.

Visibility splays are where the 600mm figure comes from, and it pays to be accurate about it. Manual for Streets is Department for Transport design guidance for street layouts. It does not operate as a national fence rule. It assumes drivers need to see obstructions from 2 metres high down to 600mm above the carriageway, that lower figure existing so small children can be seen, and it normally uses an X distance of 2.4 metres in built-up areas. It also suggests railings instead of walls, or leaving boundary structures out at exits. Councils apply it through planning conditions, with wording that varies.

Practical options at the roadside. A 1 metre fence with planting behind it gives height without triggering an application, though conditions and covenants can restrict planting on open-plan estates and where a driver's sight line could be blocked. Driveway gates need care, since anything over 1 metre next to a vehicular highway needs permission. Our gates run at a guide £200 to £700 per gate excluding VAT. Two more highways rules are worth knowing: barbed wire that is a nuisance to the highway can be ordered removed, and a fence pushed out onto an adopted verge or footway can be removed by the authority.

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