Outward Opening Garage Doors

[misterhelpful]

Hi all, hope this is the right forum for this.

More of a nosey query than anything else, but I'm interested in the answer.

A local lane (public highway) has just been resurfaced and one of the residents' garage doors, which are bi-folding, couldn't be fully opened as the surface level is now too high. The council came along and decided they would chip away a chunk of the new surface to allow the doors to open. There are a number of garages with outward opening doors onto this lane, which have been there for as long as I can recall, but it seems only this property's doors were affected
A neighbour wasn't happy that the new surface was being damaged (fair point) and was adamant that the garage doors shouldn't open directly onto the road anyway. The council workers were unsure as to whether he was correct and dug away, leaving an ugly looking chunk missing from the surface.


So, was the neighbour right that the doors shouldn't open directly onto the road, or not?

Cheers
mrH

 

[tony1851]

Presumably the neighbour who complained about the chunk of macadam (?) missing can open his doors?

 

[misterhelpful]

Yes, and his is an up and over door which is where I think his gripe comes from.

Apparently, he always complains to the Council about the least little thing, so this isn't unusual, but it would be interesting to know if he's right that doors shouldn't open directly onto a road.

 

[tony1851]

Clearly not ideal to have doors opening on to a lane, but it's probably a question of degree.

Is there much traffic?

Is a garage door opening on to a lane any more dangerous than a car backing out of the garage?

Presumably your neighbour will have complained to the council about the offending doors, so has anyone from the town hall followed this up?

If that's all your neighbour has to worry about, he's lucky.

 

[misterhelpful]

Clearly not ideal to have doors opening on to a lane, but it's probably a question of degree.

Is there much traffic?

Is a garage door opening on to a lane any more dangerous than a car backing out of the garage?

My sentiments exactly, and the lane is pretty quiet and narrow, with speed bumps, so not what I would call dangerous.

Presumably your neighbour will have complained to the council about the offending doors, so has anyone from the town hall followed this up?

If that's all your neighbour has to worry about, he's lucky.

Fortunately, he's not my neighbour - I was just visiting someone when all the fun started!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Garages would suddenly need to be a lot longer if outward opening doors were not allowed.

 

[joe-90]

I think he said it's an up and over door. How much does that stick out?

 

[angelboy]

The restriction on outward opening doors only apply to new build garages where there is a minimum set-back of 6.5m for outward opening doors.

I don't think there's any restrictions on existing garages but it's helpful to use common sense.