Public Servant Lifestyle

London is losing two thirds of its front gardens, according to the London Assembly. But where are they going to?

A new report reveals that London has lost two thirds of its front gardens. Roughly speaking that’s equal to an area twenty-two times the size of the English capitals’ Hyde Park, sixteen times the size of the new Olympic Park in East London and around the size of 5,200 international competition sized football pitches. So where have all these garden spaces gone? And why has no-one noticed until now...?

In the new report: Crazy paving – the environmental importance of London’s front gardens, Members of the London Assembly Environment Committee urge the government to change planning laws to control the number of concrete-covered gardens in the capital.

Sacrifice

In his foreward, the Chair of the Committee - Darren Johnson – spells out what is rapidly becoming a large-scale modern reality: “If an area of green space in London the size of twenty-two Hyde Parks were to be concreted over there would, quite rightly, be a huge public outcry. But when the lost green space in question is made up of front gardens rather than parkland, we have let this happen with barely a murmur. Our research suggests that around two-thirds of London’s front gardens are now either partially or wholly covered in an assortment of paving, bricks, concrete and other hard surfacing.”

Pictured (right): Are front lawns a sight that's going to vanish from London - often as not to the servicing of automobiles?

Whereas in other major towns and cities across the UK the sight of a paved over front lawn is a relatively new one, in London - perhaps due to the premium placed on having that treasured parking space - gardens are becoming the sacrifice worth making for householders...

Gardens play an important role in the English capital’s ability to soak up rainfall. Rain not absorbed runs into underground drains, putting additional pressure on the already creaking Victorian sewerage and drainage system. In recent years, flash floods meant tonnes of raw sewage were dumped in the Thames, which in turn led to localised flooding as rivers burst their banks. A particular issue of concern lately is the development of front gardens for off-street vehicle parking which not only has an impact on environmental biodiversity, on he attractiveness (or not!) of the general street scene, but could also be a factor in change to overall flooding risk in the city.

Pave The Way?

According to figures from the London Assembly, something like a fifth of London’s entire area is taken up by domestic gardens - accounting to one-third of the city’s green spaces. In addition, it is estimated that some two-thirds of London’s tree population are in private gardens.

Assembly Members are also calling on the Mayor, Ken Livingstone, to launch a campaign to help raise public awareness of the impact of paving over their city gardens - and to promote more environmentally friendly alternatives. The Environment Committee has been looking into this issue since February – and hopes to report back 2005 the

Darren Johnson, Chair of the Environment Committee said: “There are various reasons why people choose to pave their front gardens - to park their cars, because they think ‘minimalist’ gardens are sophisticated or because they just don’t like gardening. Whatever the reasons, the results are the same. The increase in paved gardens is contributing to London’s flooding problems. The more paved surfaces there are, the less rainfall is soaked into the ground and the more London’s dilapidated sewerage system struggles to cope. The consequences will be dire unless action is taken to control replacing gardens with vast swathes of concrete.”

The report: Crazy paving – the environmental importance of London’s front gardens - represents the first London-wide analysis of the problem - and can be accessed by following this link.

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