Areas we cover

The six towns

• Wakefield. The city itself and the villages around it, including Crofton where we are based. Everything from Victorian terraces near the centre with a few metres of frontage to interwar and postwar semis with a proper drive and a garden behind.
• Ossett. A market town on the ridge west of Wakefield. Stone frontages and older terraces near the middle, later semis and estate housing spreading out from it.
• Horbury. Sat on the hill above the Calder, with a good deal of Georgian and Victorian stone along and behind the main street. Levels and retaining come into a lot of jobs here.
• Normanton. A former mining and railway town east of Wakefield. Long terraced streets with short frontages, and postwar estates with wider ones. Made ground is common, so the dig is worth checking properly before anybody prices it.
• Pontefract. An old market town with the castle in the middle of it. A mix of stone and brick in the older parts and modern estates around the edges, so the right surface varies street by street.
• Castleford. Where the Aire and the Calder meet, and another town built on coal. Terraces close in, estate housing further out, and the same story underground as Normanton.

Why your postcode changes the price

Three things move with location, and none of them shows up on a satellite photograph.

The first is the ground. A lot of this district is former coalfield, and made ground turns up regularly around the old pit and railway towns. Dig depth can change across a single frontage because of it. A soft spot has to come out and be made good rather than be bridged with an extra bit of stone, and we would far rather have that on the quotation than run into it on day two.

The second is levels. Horbury sits on a real slope, and plenty of frontages elsewhere fall towards the house or sit above the pavement behind a wall. On those plots the levels are the job: retaining, steps and edgings all have to be set out before a block goes down, and getting the fall right is what keeps water off the pavement and away from the house.

The third is access. A wide frontage a machine and a grab lorry can get to costs less to dig out than a terraced street where every barrow of spoil goes out by hand. That is why we ask for the postcode and then come and look.

Planning permission on a front garden

England has one rule that catches people out, and it is about water rather than looks. A new hard surface between the front of the house and the road is normally permitted development as long as it is porous, or the run-off from it goes to a lawn, a border or a soakaway inside your own boundary. Over five square metres in something solid that drains straight onto the pavement, and you need planning permission.

In practice it decides the drainage line on the quotation rather than stopping the job. Listed buildings and conservation areas are a different matter, so we check that before pricing.

Dropped kerbs: who approves them

• Wakefield Council. Wakefield, Ossett, Horbury, Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford. One authority for all six towns.

The crossing over the footway is the council's to approve. They decide whether the frontage is deep enough and what the crossing has to be built to, and they set the fee. Those requirements change, so check the current position with the council rather than taking a figure off any contractor's website. We build the drive up to your boundary and work in with whatever the council requires on the footway.

When to book

Groundwork carries on all year. What weather stops is mortar in a hard frost and tarmac in a downpour, both of which we would rather move a day for than lay badly and have to return to. If your timing is flexible, spring through to autumn gives us the cleaner run. If it is not, ring anyway and we will tell you honestly what the season means for your particular job.