A lot of our front gardens are being paved and turned into parking spaces. How do you feel about this? Is it a necessary evil? Can anything be done about it? How can we keep our streets green and leafy for our health and well-being whilst accommodating our cars?
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I'm also concerned that a lot of front gardens are being paved with materials that don't let water drain through them which increases the risk of flooding from heavy rain because the water that should drain into the soil will now be going into the drainage system.
I'm really surprised that anyone would consider using non-permeable material for their front garden car parking spaces nowadays, even though I understand that under a certain size (five square metres) they don't have to consider drainage issues. I imagine this covers quite a few Victorian terraces. The trouble is that if whole streets convert their frontages into non-permeable hard standings then that adds up.
In relation to keeping the streets green, I don't understand why the council doesn't seem to plant trees along the pavements any more. For example, parts of the A119 are in desperate need of trees. On busy, fast roads like this, with heavily congested areas, especially at peak times, it would help to reduce noise, pollution and also soak up some of the excess water.
It's also the case that the loss of front gardens inevitably results in a loss of habitat for insects and birds.
Enforce limitations of car ownership per household to avoid parking congestion. Introduce better and more flexible public transport. Introduce grey water recycling systems in all new builds. Assess residential home surface water run-off and specify minimum impact requirements akin personal CO2 footprints. As you can imagine - not an easy topic as larger houses have bigger driveways and hard standing areas, garages etc. It’s a political mine field which I suspect a solution to which will be avoided - however very interesting and controversial debate to be had amongst KNP