Driveways, patios and gardens in Selby

Red-brick terraces and estates

Selby town has far more terraces than the countryside around it. In Selby East ward, 42.9% of households live in a terrace, against 17.3% across the former district, where detached homes lead at 41.1%.

The historic core is mostly local red brick from the 18th and 19th centuries, built right up to the pavement with no front gardens. On Armoury Road and Brook Street, terraces sit behind small front gardens with low brick walls and railings, and some walls have already gone to make parking. Along Leeds Road, semis and detached houses from the 1930s onwards stand on generous plots behind walls, hedges, railings and picket fences.

Further out come the estates: late-Victorian terraces and a large pre-war council estate of semis around Flaxley Road, a post-war estate with bigger gardens and grass verges around Abbots Road, and 1960s brick semis off Leeds Road and Doncaster Road. Staynor Hall is the big newer development.

Sand over clay, beside a tidal river

Selby is flat, largely reclaimed land on the edge of the Humberhead Levels. Much of the town stands on the Breighton Sand, a layer only a metre or two deep over Hemingbrough clay and silt, and nearer the river the ground is soft alluvium. For a drive, that means sand that can run when it’s dug, clay that won’t take water, and soakaways that need proving before anyone relies on one.

The Ouse is tidal at Selby. It flooded the town in 1947, and in November 2000 it reached its highest recorded level, flooding Barlby; more defences were finished in Selby afterwards. Parts of Selby flooded again in Storm Christoph in 2021.

South and west of the Ouse, the town lies in the Selby Area Internal Drainage Board’s district, crossed by drains such as Flaxley Road Drain and Staynor Drain. Building or planting within 7 metres of a board drain, or draining water into one, needs the board’s consent.

North Yorkshire Council’s front garden rules are simple: a permeable surface, or one draining to a lawn or soakaway, needs no planning permission, while one draining to the house drains needs an application. Water mustn’t run onto the road or next door.

Dropped kerbs in Selby

North Yorkshire Council must consent before a crossing is built, and on an A, B or C road you’ll probably need planning permission first. The council will quote to build it, or a contractor from its approved list can, under the council’s supervision. Once it’s built, it’s inspected, then inspected again at the end of a maintenance period. Applying for consent is a job we take off your hands.

Conservation areas

The former Selby district has 23 conservation areas, and in the town they are Selby Town, Millgate, Leeds Road, and Armoury Road and Brook Street. The Selby Town appraisal counts dropped kerbs among the traffic clutter that harms the area. Millgate has had an Article 4 direction since 1979, and the 2021 appraisals recommend new ones covering boundaries and gardens for Selby Town, Armoury Road and Leeds Road, though none has been made yet.

In any conservation area, demolishing a wall, gate or fence a metre or more high beside a road needs planning permission, and tree work needs six weeks’ notice to the council.