If you're paving your front garden, start with a surface rain can soak through, like gravel or permeable block paving. Do that and you won't need planning permission, whatever size the drive is. Cover more than five square metres with solid paving and you will, unless the rain runs onto your lawn or a border and drains away there.
Permeable paving needs sandy or gravelly ground underneath, not clay, and may not suit a steep drive. Wherever you can, have the drive fall away from the house. The rain should soak away in your own garden, not run out onto the road. If you need a soakaway, keep it well clear of the foundations.
Dropping the kerb needs a separate application to the council, and you need its permission before any work starts. On a classified road or in a conservation area, you'll need planning permission too. Once it's down, sweep off leaves, mud and litter before they clog it, and never tip soil, sand or oil on it. To check it still drains, run a hosepipe over it for a minute or two. No puddles should form.
Getting this right before anything is dug saves you a planning application, and keeps your rain out of drains that can't cope. Call me while the surface is still your choice. At Alpha Renovations Ltd I do landscaping across Cheltenham, and I'll come and look at your ground and slope with you. You can read how I approach Landscaping.
