- Home
- Areas
Areas and the three councils
Three council areas, three different driveway approval processes. Find your suburb, then read what your council asks before the crossing is poured.
Maitland City Council
Maitland
- Application
- Application for Vehicle Access Crossing (Driveway)
- Lodged
- MyCouncil online, or the PDF form by email
- NSW Planning Portal
- No, checked 29 September 2026
Driveway crossings in the Maitland council area
Maitland City Council treats the driveway from your boundary to the kerb as work on its road reserve, and approves it under Section 138 of the Roads Act 1993 through a form it calls the Application for Vehicle Access Crossing (Driveway). It is lodged online through MyCouncil, or the PDF form is completed and emailed to council with a site plan. Council was not on the NSW Planning Portal’s list of councils taking Section 138 applications through the portal when checked on 29 September 2026, so the portal is the wrong door here.
Council publishes its fee, $435 for a new, widened or additional driveway, and says a straightforward application is usually processed in 14 to 21 working days, with 28 working days allowed where a steep or multi-level site needs its own design. Written approval arrives before any work starts. The concreter then books a formwork inspection by ringing council no later than the business day before, and inspections run on weekdays between 6:30 am and 4:00 pm. A second pre-pour inspection is charged at $170.
The build standard is council’s drawing set SD007 to SD012. A residential crossing is 125 mm of 32 MPa concrete with SL72 mesh placed centrally, between 2.7 m and 6 m wide at the kerb not counting the 600 mm wings, set square to the kerb, with a full depth expansion joint at the boundary and the layback dowelled into the existing kerb. Council’s 2026 technical document adds a 3 m crossing for a single garage and up to 4.5 m for a double, at least 600 mm clear of poles and 2 m clear of a street tree. Kerb, gutter and layback must stay plain concrete, but council generally permits a special surface across the footway as long as it is not slippery. Council’s own words are that the property owner is responsible for the standard of the work and it recommends the contractor be adequately insured and appropriately licensed. Ask the concreter to state in the quote who prepares the site plan and who lodges.
Maitland City Council: driveway information · standard drawings
Cessnock City Council
Cessnock
- Application
- Section 138 Vehicle Access Crossing application
- Lodged
- NSW Planning Portal only
- NSW Planning Portal
- Yes, checked 29 September 2026
Driveway crossings in the Cessnock council area
Cessnock City Council is the one council on this site that takes its driveway applications through the NSW Planning Portal. Council’s lodgement page says consent for works on a public road under Section 138 must be made through the portal and that this includes driveway works. In the portal the application is started from the Roads Act item and the approval type is the Section 138 works and structures option. Council’s customer service team then contacts the applicant for payment, and the application is not treated as lodged until the fee is paid.
What goes in is set out in council’s submission matrix. For a driveway the required items are the estimated cost of the work, a driveway plan, a site plan and a section plan, and the matrix lists what the driveway plan has to show, including thickness, strength, mesh and cover, the profile with crossfalls, the width at the boundary between 3 m and 6 m, and a minimum 1.5 m from the closest side boundary. Council’s 2026 to 2027 fee schedule lists an application processing fee of $244, an assessment fee of $62 and an inspections fee of $491.10, with a re-inspection charged at $220. Council says it aims to approve a complete application within 10 working days and that an approval is valid for 24 months.
The current drawing set is dated July 2024. Drawing SD-RD-008 gives a residential crossing 125 mm thick in N32 concrete with SL82 mesh placed centrally on at least 150 mm of DGS20 base, between 3 m and 5.5 m wide at the kerb plus 750 mm splays, at least 6 m from the tangent point of a corner. Council’s driveway page keeps 1 m clear of poles, pits, signs and street trees and allows one driveway per residential lot. The crossing is to be plain, uncoloured, reinforced concrete with a non-slip finish where the street has kerb and gutter, and a sealed gravel crossing with a pipe culvert where it does not. A council engineer inspects before the pour and again at completion, and owners are told to make sure the contractor is licensed and insured. Have the quote state who draws the plans and who lodges on the portal.
Cessnock City Council: driveway information · standard drawings
Port Stephens Council
Port Stephens
- Application
- Driveway Application Form
- Lodged
- Council's own online forms site
- NSW Planning Portal
- No, checked 29 September 2026
Driveway crossings in the Port Stephens council area
Port Stephens Council runs the simplest process of the three, and publishes the least detail. The Driveway Application Form on council’s own forms site covers building, rebuilding or removing a driveway, and the residential fee of $320 per crossing is paid when the form is submitted. Council is not on the NSW Planning Portal’s list for Section 138 applications, so there is nothing to lodge there. Council’s driveway page says a development application only covers the part of the driveway inside your property and that this permit is for the section from the property line to the road.
After lodgement a council officer visits the property to look at the location. Council’s page says a straightforward approval usually takes two working days, while the form itself allows a site inspection within seven business days and an approval within twelve business days of lodgement. Treat the longer figure as the one to plan around. The approval comes with the relevant standard drawings and any site-specific requirements, which is how council specifies the crossing, because its public standard drawings page lists driveways as coming soon. Public liability insurance is provided to council before construction starts, and the owner rings council for a final inspection once the work is done.
The rules that are published are simple. The form caps a residential crossing at 3 m for a single garage and 4 m for a double, and the Development Control Plan asks for a minimum driveway width of 3 m, a crossover at least 0.5 m from the side boundary, and grades to Australian Standard 2890. A layback is needed where the driveway meets an upright kerb and must be lipless, and rollover kerbs are acceptable. Council says any non-slip finish is acceptable, including some aggregate finishes. Slab thickness, mesh and concrete strength are not published and come with the approval, so ask the concreter to quote to the drawings council issues and to say in writing who lodges the form.
Next step
Unsure which council covers you?
Send the suburb and leave the rest. Your rates notice names the council, and the concreter checks it at the site visit anyway.