Paving over front gardens

[hobble]

Paving over front gardens will be more difficult this autumn, due to a new law to be introduced. Presently people who remove their front gardens for a parking space have been concreting/ paving over them. This is a shame for wildlife, and drainage, as well as looking awful in some cases.
From October, homeowners in England will have to apply for planning permission if they want to pave their front garden with impermeable materials such as asphalt- but will be exempt if using porous products.
I think this is great news as this will minimise paving and protect some areas of greenery.
Parking spaces can be designed in such a way to incorporate soft landscaping as well as cars, let's hope people become a bit more sympathetic in the future.

[nightshade]

There are really good materials around that will allow a garden to take the weight of a vehicle but grass or plants will still grow up through it, a hard-standing would cost (DIY)around £200 using these.
The run off these days into drainage systems (designed to be assisted by large areas of grass and soil) causes local flooding and in some circumstances contributes to serious flooding.
And do not start me on the gardens lost to hard pressed wildlife through the desert creating Decking

[tufftie]

It's turning into tarmac garden city round here - there seems to be a constant process of front gardens being turned into driveways. I'm not sure that most of these people wont go for the materials that allow plants to grow through as they are looking for a no maintenance approach to gardening. i think the new law, didn't know about it, will be a really good thing...just hope they're strict with it
Will the planning permission require areas of greenery as well as porous materials?

[demicav]

I think this is a good thing as the present trend seems to be flagging and paving many green areas especially gardens.

[wildmanofthewoods]

Here here it saddens me when i walk down a street & see that a large percentage of people have done this. Maybe this has added to the decline of species such as the Song Thrush.

[GerryNick2]

Interesting, what would you class block paving as, an impermeable material or a porous product. My understanding is block paving is considered as a porous surface as it allows surface water to soak through albeit slowly.

Gerry

[outdoorguy]

i'm a window cleaner and i notice gardens changing.. most people do it because they like the idea that there car is not on the road and because they have more cars.. eg kids grow up and get cars... i like a nice lawn.. better for my ladder too.. and paving is dangerous when wet.. i think its a good law.. there is one particular road i can think of that i used to deliver newspapers when i was a kid it used to be half driveway and half grass on every house.. now i'd say 90% of them have block paving or tarmac.. looks so boring and sterile..... james

[bigpete51]

This comes out of a DEFRA strategy report 'Future Water' published in February 2008. It's tempting to think that it will fix the problem, but it's only concerned with flooding from increased water runoff. There's nothing in the proposal to prevent gardens being ploughed up and replaced with hard landscaping. It just uses the cost of applying for planning permission to even up the price discrepancy between 'normal' paving and the permeable stuff.

Front Gardens | Change Alley

[nightshade]

I do not see why people need to concrete such large areas, two parallel tracks should suffice for an average car and 4x4's do not need metalled tracks do they ?
How about a National "Cut Holes in Your Concrete Day" to help restore the
balance and plant stuff to brighten our lives

[Stefan]

We have a semi-paved front garden - but with three beds still present with a big tree. 80% of the front gardens in the area are completely covered - It looks terrible to be honest

[lol geoff]

I'll tell you what I really find funny about this is that the people who made up this new law, are the same people who decided that the majority of school fields around here were to be built on. They are also the same people who have decided we need thousands more houses and industral estates and their associated infrastructures on any patch of marshland, green belt or open space around here that they fancy...... I'll lift a paving slab in the rear patio next time it rains, that should ease my conscience a bit.

[Wild-Woman]

Locally, we have front gardens that are sterile, concreted, carparks with not a blade of grass or a sign of a weed(wild-flower). It is depressingly boring and we now have this trend of putting up these ghastly ornate railings on top of the already walled carparks.

Bring back the box hedge, ricketty front gates that you could swing on as a kid and an unkempt lawn, full to the borders with daisies and dandelions please.

PS-Where are the front garden hollyhocks nowadays?

[demicav]

Originally Posted by lol geoff

I'll tell you what I really find funny about this is that the people who made up this new law, are the same people who decided that the majority of school fields around here were to be built on. They are also the same people who have decided we need thousands more houses and industral estates and their associated infrastructures on any patch of marshland, green belt or open space around here that they fancy...... I'll lift a paving slab in the rear patio next time it rains, that should ease my conscience a bit.

Oh how I agree with you, I really do. I think the law is a good thing but doesn't solve the problem and when I told my other half he was very angry and did accuse these people of being hypocrites.

[bigpete51]

Originally Posted by lol geoff

I'll tell you what I really find funny about this is that the people who made up this new law, are the same people who decided that the majority of school fields around here were to be built on. They are also the same people who have decided we need thousands more houses and industral estates and their associated infrastructures on any patch of marshland, green belt or open space around here that they fancy

Point 1: This isn't a law, it's a recommendation in a DEFRA policy document. It'll have to go through all the usual procedures to become a law.
Point 2: DEFRA are not the people who decide on what to build and where. "They" are other government departments, like the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Point 3: There's no inconsistency between promoting building new housing and wanting to protect what's left of our suburban green spaces.

Change Alley

[nightshade]

Quote; PS-Where are the front garden hollyhocks nowadays?
__________________

In my back garden where I can admire them

[nightshade]

Originally Posted by nightshade

I do not see why people need to concrete such large areas, two parallel tracks should suffice for an average car and 4x4's do not need metalled tracks do they ?
How about a National "Cut Holes in Your Concrete Day" to help restore the
balance and plant stuff to brighten our lives

Quote;...... I'll lift a paving slab in the rear patio next time it rains, that should ease my conscience a bit.

If everyone cut or lifted a 2ft ( 60cm ) square out every time it rained that would be marvellous

[Wild-Woman]

Actually not such a daft idea. Plug holes for patios. Imagine the big whirl of water going down it and the sucking sound! Ooops! There goes a Hedgehog!

[witham]

That's the main cause of much of the so called flash flooding we saw repeatedly last year, most of the places affected seemed to be fairly new housing estates with hardly a blade of grass in sight so all the water that naturally would have soaked into the ground had nowhere to go as the drains couldn't cope with it, so flash floods were caused, unfortunately some of these out of town developers build on land that is just not suitable, without the local knowledge of its past history etc resulting in many problems for the new home owners or neighboroughing communities that have never flooded but have now been put at risk

[shei111]

Hello weve got quite a big front to the bungalow we put a laurel hedge in to go round the boundry thats 27 laurels. We have a bit of a lawn about 30 foot by 16 foot, then we have the car parking area enough to park 5 cars in emulsion and pea shingle so when it rains it can soak away ive still got a few shrubs out front besides the laurel hedging. But I do like my back garden for privacy and more wildlife than I do the front. I think this day and age theres more vehicles on the roads so they all have to be parked somewhere , then theres also the double yellows outside a lot of homes, . Plus the fact that so many people on new housing sites have big mortgages therefore they work longer hours to pay for it then they dont have time to garden or dont want to garden so they slab all over. so they have maintenance free gardens . sheila