Ah I see, that's a pain... sorry I misunderstood that part.
I would say there is still no harm in seeing if a private contactor might do it for you I suppose; but it's a risk I guess. I suppose the council would not be best pleased if they found out you were digging up their path.
But I would not recommend involving the council. Unfortunately I have found in the past that if you want work done on public roads/paths, the council have to arrange it. The shocking part is that the same contractor is called in as you might use privately, but the bill is somehow much higher. I am not sure who pockets the extra cash?
I wanted to drop the curb 15 years ago or so, on a house I used to own, so that I could turn part of the front garden into a drive. A contractor quoted £1,500, which seemed about right to me. But he told me he did a lot of council work like that, and suggested I check with them it was OK (apparently they have to assess if the curb being dropped is safe, dependant on proximity to junctions etc.).. The Kings Lynn and West Norfolk council looked into it for me, and told me I would have to pay them, and then they would arrange the contractor. But the mind boggling part was that they wanted £4,000. I spoke to the chap at the council, and he seemed apologetic enough, but said there was nothing he could do, and had no idea where the prices came from. He also said he recognised the name of the contractor I had originally approached, and confirmed he often did work for them.
I did not have £4K burning a hole in my pocket, so I suffered parking on the road until I moved.
