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 Cheshire

Cheshire service area

Gate Automation in Warrington

Gate automation in Warrington means fitting motors, controls and safety equipment to driveway gates across a borough with an unusually wide range of entrances. Warrington was designated a New Town in 1968 and grew outwards in planned phases, so a single postcode district can hold 1930s semis with short frontages, large detached houses on generous plots at Appleton and Grappenhall, and estate housing at Birchwood and Westbrook laid out from scratch. Which drive suits a given opening is decided by the frontage and the gradient rather than by the age of the house. John the Gate Man works from House Farm in Leyland, PR25 1LE.

Warrington Borough Council has been a unitary authority since 1998, which makes the same council both the planning authority and the highway authority. That is worth knowing at the outset, because a new gate frequently involves two separate approvals: planning permission if the gate exceeds the permitted development height, and a vehicle crossing approval if the footway needs a dropped kerb. In a borough where both sit with one authority, it is sensible to settle the crossing width before the gates are ordered, since the finished crossing sets the opening.

The borough also carries a lot of small commercial frontage. The motorway corridors where the M6, M56 and M62 meet brought business parks, yards and trade units, and gates on that kind of premises run many more cycles a day than a domestic driveway does. High cycle counts change the specification: a heavier duty motor, an intercom or keypad rather than fobs alone, and a maintenance interval set by use rather than by the calendar. Under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations a powered gate at a workplace also has to be maintained and inspected, which is a stricter duty than the one on a private drive.

Gate services in Warrington

Automation, installation, servicing and repair, together with the intercoms and access control that decide who gets through the gate.

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.

Intercoms

See and speak to whoever is at the gate, and let them in without walking down the drive.

Access Control

Control who can open the gate, and how, without handing a key to everyone.

Gate questions in Warrington

Do I need planning permission for electric gates in Warrington?
Not usually, provided the gate is no more than one metre high where it fronts a road used by vehicles, or two metres elsewhere on the boundary. Above those heights an application goes to Warrington Borough Council. Permitted development is also removed within the curtilage of a listed building, and an Article 4 direction can remove it inside a conservation area such as Grappenhall Village or Thelwall Village.
Who approves a dropped kerb in Warrington?
Warrington Borough Council, because as a unitary authority it is the highway authority as well as the planning authority. A new or widened vehicle crossing over the footway needs its approval and has to be built to its specification. Worth settling before ordering gates, since the finished crossing width determines the clear opening the gates have to fill.
Can you fit an intercom to gates at a Warrington house?
Yes. Audio and video intercoms are a normal part of gate automation, and they are the usual answer where the gate is far enough from the house that you cannot see who is at it. A panel goes at the gate, a handset or screen goes inside, and the intercom releases the gate directly. Where running a cable back to the house is impractical, systems that call a phone instead are available, and those suit long or awkward frontages.
What access control suits a small commercial gate in Warrington?
It depends who needs to get in and how often. A keypad with a shared code is the simplest thing that works for a small yard, fobs suit a fixed group of staff vehicles, and an intercom is needed as soon as visitors and deliveries have to be dealt with from inside the building. Many premises end up with a combination: fobs for staff, a keypad for regular contractors and an intercom for everyone else.
Are underground gate motors a good idea on low lying Warrington ground?
They can be, but the foundation boxes have to be drained properly rather than simply cast into the ground. Much of Warrington sits low in the Mersey valley, and a box that holds water will shorten the life of the motor inside it. Where reliable drainage cannot be achieved, articulated ram arms mounted to the pillar avoid the problem completely and are easier to service later.
Do commercial gates need servicing more often than domestic ones?
Generally yes, because the interval should follow the number of cycles rather than the calendar. A yard gate opening fifty times a day does more work in a month than a domestic driveway gate does in a year, and hinges, racks and rollers wear accordingly. On a workplace there is also a separate legal duty to maintain and inspect work equipment, which sits on top of the safety obligations that apply to any powered gate.
Can gates be automated on a Birchwood or Westbrook estate driveway?
Usually, though estate driveways laid out as part of the New Town phases are often short and open straight onto a shared road. Where there is not enough depth for a pair of inward swinging leaves to clear a parked car, the answer is normally a sliding gate along the boundary, a bi-folding leaf that halves the swing, or gates hung to open outward away from the footway where the highway authority accepts it.
Will you work on gates fitted by another company in Warrington?
Yes. Servicing and repair are not tied to whoever installed the gate, and any make of drive and control board can be worked on. Gates fitted by installers who have since stopped trading are routine work. If the original handover paperwork still exists it saves time identifying the equipment, but the gate can be assessed without it.
Does a gate at business premises have to be force tested?
Yes. A powered gate is classed as machinery in law wherever it is fitted, so the closing and opening forces have to be measured against the limits in BS EN 12453 and the risk of trapping or crushing designed out. On commercial premises the duty is stricter still, because work equipment must also be maintained and inspected, and responsibility sits with the business, landlord or managing agent.
What decides the cost of gate automation in Warrington?
Gate weight, whether the drive is swing or sliding, how far the power has to be run, whether the posts or pillars need work, and what access control goes on top. An intercom, a keypad and a set of fobs are three different jobs at three different costs. Because the frontage, the ground surface and the cable route all change the work involved, the opening needs looking at before a real figure can be put to it.

Nearby areas

Gate work in Warrington?

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

Call 07768 314082Get a quote
Call nowQuote