Wooden & Metal Gates Specialists Across Letchworth Garden City & hitchin

Secure by Design principles for boundaries

Secure by Design is a police-backed set of principles covering layout, lighting, sightlines and boundary treatment that developments are assessed against, and fencing specification is one part of meeting it.

Applying the principles generally means avoiding blind corners, keeping sightlines open where surveillance matters, and using proportionate rather than maximum height and solidity on each boundary.

Defensive planting alongside a security fence

Dense, thorny planting such as hawthorn or berberis along the inside or outside of a lower fence adds a deterrent layer without extra height, and is sometimes used where planning limits the fence itself.

Planting needs a maintained gap from the fence line so roots don't undermine posts and growth doesn't hide someone approaching the boundary — the deterrent only works if it's kept low enough to see over and dense enough not to push through.

Key-alike cylinders across multiple gates

A key-alike cylinder set lets several gates on one property, such as a side gate and a bin store gate, be opened with a single key rather than a separate key for each, which is a common request on properties with multiple access points.

Specifying key-alike hardware needs to happen at the point of ordering the cylinders, since matching an existing single cylinder to a new one after installation isn't generally possible without replacing both.

Self-closing spring hinges and tension setting

A self-closing spring hinge pulls a gate shut automatically after use, which matters where a gate must not be left open — around a pool, a road-facing boundary or a play area — but the spring tension needs setting so the gate closes fully without slamming.

Tension that's too light leaves the gate ajar in a headwind; tension that's too strong accelerates wear on the latch and keep from repeated hard closing.

Parking and material handling on site

Fencing, gates and decking all involve moving bulky, heavy material — concrete posts, gravel boards, decking joists — from a van to the working area, and how far that has to be carried has a real effect on labour time.

On streets with permit parking, no off-street loading bay, or restricted delivery hours, we plan the drop-off around those restrictions rather than assuming a van can sit outside all day.

Where a plot has a driveway or side gate wide enough for a barrow run, that alone can shave a meaningful amount of time off a job compared with hand-carrying everything round the front.

Insertion loss is not soundproofing

A garden acoustic fence reduces noise by a measurable but modest amount — insertion loss — rather than eliminating sound entirely, and that reduction only applies to noise travelling along the path the barrier actually blocks.

We set that expectation before work starts, since a fence that noticeably softens traffic noise is a realistic outcome, while a silent garden next to a busy road is not.

Manual override on an automated gate

Most automated gates include a manual release so the gate can be opened by hand during a power cut or motor fault, and checking this release still works is worth doing periodically rather than only discovering it's seized in an emergency.

We check the mechanical gate and release mechanism; motor and control-board diagnosis is referred to a specialist.

Zinc-aluminium coatings

Zinc-aluminium alloy coatings, sold under various trade names, combine zinc's sacrificial protection with aluminium's more stable barrier properties, generally giving longer service life than pure zinc galvanising in the same environment.

They're commonly used on wire products and fixings destined for coastal or heavily salted road environments, where standard galvanising alone corrodes faster than inland applications.

The trade-off is that these coatings are usually applied by wire-drawing or continuous coil coating processes rather than batch hot-dip immersion, which limits them to certain product types rather than large fabricated steelwork.

Protecting known cable and pipe runs during digging

Where a service run is known — marked by the utility company, visible from a meter or duct cover, or noted on a site plan — a physical marker or hand-dug trial pit at that point before general digging starts confirms its exact depth and route.

Once a service is located, leaving a visible marker such as a cane or spray line on the surface stops it being forgotten by whoever digs the next hole along the run, particularly on a multi-day job with different people digging on different days.

Ducted services are generally easier to work around than direct-buried cables since the duct itself gives some protection, but the duct can still be damaged by an auger or breaker if its depth isn't confirmed first.

Commercial and site boundary fencing

Commercial boundaries — industrial units, retail yards, small business premises — usually prioritise security and low maintenance over appearance, which points toward galvanised steel palisade, weldmesh or heavy-duty timber closeboard rather than decorative panel fencing.

Access control matters more here too: wide vehicle gates need clearances checked against delivery vehicle turning circles, not just car dimensions, and a site with out-of-hours deliveries may need lockable pedestrian access separate from the main gate.

Any work adjoining a public footpath or road also needs to think about temporary hoarding and public safety during installation, not just the finished boundary.

What an Article 4 direction actually does

An Article 4 direction is a mechanism councils use to withdraw specific permitted development rights across a defined area, often to protect the character of a conservation area or estate.

Where one applies to boundary treatments, works that would normally need no permission at all — like replacing a fence panel-for-panel — can require a planning application.

Article 4 directions are published by the local authority and searchable against individual addresses, so checking before ordering materials avoids an unwelcome retrospective planning conversation.