Skip to content
John the Gate Man, gate automation specialist in Leyland, Lancashire
Get a quote
Automated driveway gates of the kind installed and serviced across Lancashire

Lancashire service area

Gate Automation in Leyland

Gate automation in Leyland means fitting motors, controls and safety equipment to driveway gates in a town whose housing stock is dominated by interwar and postwar estates. Leyland grew around the motor works, and that growth left street after street of 1930s semis and later estate houses with short, straight driveways set close to the pavement. Runback and swing room are the constraints that decide most jobs here, not the choice of motor. John the Gate Man works from House Farm on the edge of Leyland, PR25 1LE.

The planning position is straightforward once you know the numbers. Under permitted development, a gate next to a highway used by vehicles can be up to one metre high before it needs planning permission, and two metres anywhere else on the boundary. South Ribble Borough Council is the planning authority. There are seven conservation areas in the borough, Leyland Cross among them, designated in 1978, and inside a conservation area an Article 4 direction can remove those permitted development rights entirely.

Whichever gate goes in, the legal position is the same. A powered gate is machinery in law, so it has to be assessed for the ways it could trap or crush, fitted with photocells and safety edges where the assessment calls for them, and force tested against the limits in BS EN 12453. Manual release has to work in a power cut, and it has to work for whoever is standing there at the time.

Gate services in Leyland

Gate Automation

Motorise the gates you already have, with the safety equipment the law requires.

Gate Installation

New gates supplied and fitted, from the posts up, manual or automated.

Gate Servicing

Planned maintenance and safety checks that keep an automatic gate legal and working.

Gate Repair

Gates that have stopped working, dropped, or been damaged, put right.

Gate questions in Leyland

Do I need planning permission for electric gates in Leyland?
Not usually, provided the gate is no more than one metre high where it faces a road used by vehicles, or two metres elsewhere on the boundary. Above those heights you need permission from South Ribble Borough Council. Permitted development is also removed within the curtilage of a listed building, and an Article 4 direction can remove it in a conservation area such as Leyland Cross.
Will swing gates work on a short 1930s driveway in Leyland?
Often yes, but only if there is enough clear depth behind the gate line for the leaves to open without hitting a parked car. Many of Leyland's interwar semis have driveways of nine or ten feet from pavement to house, which is tight for a pair of inward swinging leaves. Where the depth is not there, a sliding gate, a bi-folding leaf or gates hung to open outwards away from the footway are the usual answers.
Do I need permission to drop the kerb outside my house in Leyland?
Yes, a new or widened vehicle crossing over the footway needs approval from Lancashire County Council as the highway authority, and that is separate from any planning application to South Ribble. The work itself has to be done to the county's specification. It is worth settling before the gates are ordered, because the finished crossing width sets the gate opening.
Is the ground in Leyland suitable for underground gate motors?
Underground motors can be used on Leyland's low lying ground, but the foundation boxes have to be drained properly rather than simply cast in. The town sits on flat land between two rivers, so a box that fills with water will shorten the life of the motor inside it. Where drainage cannot be relied on, articulated ram arms mounted to the pillar avoid the problem completely.
Can my existing gates be automated?
Most existing timber, iron and composite gates can be automated, provided the leaves and the posts are sound enough to take the extra load. The check is on the hinges, the post fixings and whether the gate still sits level across its full sweep. A gate that already drops or drags will drop faster once a motor is pushing it several times a day.
What decides the cost of gate automation in Leyland?
Cost is driven by gate weight, whether the drive is swing or sliding, how far the power has to be run, and what access control you want on top. A pair of light timber gates on an existing supply is a very different job from heavy iron leaves needing a new armoured run and a full intercom. That is why a gate cannot be priced properly over the phone, and why the opening needs looking at first.
Does an automatic gate have to be safety tested by law?
Yes. A powered gate is classed as machinery in UK law, so the closing and opening forces have to be measured against the limits set out in BS EN 12453 and the risk of trapping or crushing has to be designed out. That means photocells, safety edges where the assessment calls for them, and a controller set so the gate stops on contact.
Where does the power for an electric gate come from?
Most driveway gates run off a spur from the house consumer unit, taken out to the gate in armoured cable buried in ducting. The run from the house to the gate is often the single biggest variable on a Leyland estate driveway, because the route may cross a drive that is already block paved. Where digging up a finished driveway is not sensible, a solar supply with a battery is an option on lighter gates.
What happens to an automatic gate in a power cut?
Every automated gate has a manual release, so you can unlock the drive with a key or a lever and push the gate by hand. The release has to be reachable from the side you are likely to be stuck on, which usually means outside as well as in. Some control boards also take a battery backup that gives you a limited number of cycles once the mains has gone.
How often should an automatic gate in Leyland be serviced?
An annual service suits most domestic gates, with more frequent visits where the gate cycles heavily or sits somewhere exposed. Hinges wear, safety edges perish with age and UV, photocells drift out of alignment, and the closing forces change as the gate gains weight from rust or repainting. Servicing is not tied to who fitted the gate, and any make of motor and control board can be checked.

Nearby areas

Gate work in Leyland?

Call 07768 314082 to talk it through, or send the details and get a call back.

Call 07768 314082Get a quote
Call nowQuote