Criticism of garden 'car-parking' two days running in Daily Telegraph shocker

A good letter on Urban Greenery in the 28th March edition from an Anthony Rodriguez in Staines, Middlesex.

He lamented the loss of street trees to bad town planning and fears over subsidence and went on the say that 'It is also wrong that so many urban gardens have vanished under concrete and paving, especially in Greater London ........ These trends despoil the visual environment and make a mockery of the efforts to reduce flooding and climate change'.

WELL SAID!

An article entitled 'Birds take refuge in gardens to survive cruel winter' , reporting on the results of the latest RSPB 'Big Garden Birdwatch', ended with the news that 'Since 1979, when the survey started, sparrows, starlings, blackbirds and robins have all seen a decline, in part due to habitat loss through development such as concreting gardens to create parking spaces.'

So can we look forward to this august publication championing the right of other species not just to exist, albeit in ever-dwindling numbers, but to thrive, instead of bleating about 'hard-pressed motorists' every time there's a (much-needed) increase in fossil fuel prices?

TIME TO START TAKING SIDES FOLKS ........

Haringey Council asks residents not to pave gardens

Haringey London Borough Council has recently published its Biodiversity Action Plan, which is ahead of some others I could mention in terms on specific plans and the apparent strength of written intent to implement them:

http://www.haringey.gov.uk/index/environment_and_transport/leisure_nature_and_conservation/nature_and_conservation_conservation/conservation_biodiversity_action_plan.htm

In pursuit of a self-proclaimed 'Greenest Borough' strategy, the Gardens Habitat Action Plan states that the objective is to (inter alia):

- highlight and protect the overall resource for wildlife provided by gardens (public and private) and housing estate land.
- improve individual gardens and housing estate land as habitat for a range of local wildlife.

and

- identify and protect the garden resource within Haringey by 2015

There is an intention to:

- Produce a report on the change in the amount, type (e.g. paving/lawn) and distribution of private gardens over time within Haringey.

There will be initiatives to encourage residents to garden in a wildlife-friendly way.

The objective of '4.2 Produce and implement wildlife friendly management plans for housing estates (2 per annum)' looks particularly interesting.

And, although local Councils currently have little legal power to prevent loss of gardens to car-parking and the like, at least Haringey has bitten the bullet insofar as it can, and explicitly says:

How You Can Help
• If you are lucky enough to have a garden don’t pave over it!

(Their exclamation mark, not mine).

Credit to Haringey for this.

Goodbye to green - collateral damage and 'verge-grabbing'

I wrote to Bexley Council recently, inquiring about the status of verge protection legislation, and lamenting the damage I have seen locally and the fact that the Council appears to do nothing about it, not even appealing to the public to desist in its own public magazine. The Council's Enviro-crime Unit state that is illegal to park a vehicle on or drive over [a] verge and footway to gain access to a property without a properly constructed vehicular crossing. I was invited to report incidences of the same. In a letter below the following pictures, which show the extent of some of this damage, I explain why I am reluctant to do so. My worry - the likelihood of 'verge-grabbing' (sanctioned or otherwise) as the 'easy way out' - being illustrated in the final photograph.









Reply to Enviro-crimes Unit, 15/2/2010.

Belated thanks for your very prompt and helpful reply to my inquiry.

I could easily report numerous examples of driving over verges and
footways, but am reluctant to do so until I have determined what the
Council's longer term action would be in such cases.

The cynic in me fears that it might take the 'easy' option and simply
encourage or allow such residents to widen driveways, resulting in
permanent loss of yet more verge. Enough was lost hereabouts some years
ago when the already dropped kerbs and entranceways were widened.
According to a workman I challenged at the time, this was allegedly
necessitated by 'EU legislation'.

I have noticed two recent, local examples of people concreting over a
corner of the verge where they were previously driving over it, without
any notices being put up allowing public objection. I will inquire as to
whether these actions were approved, or done on a 'freelance' basis, since
I think it important to determine whether the Council desires to protect
public amenity over a minor 'inconvenience' to private car owners - or
not.

Yours sincerely, Chris Rose.


If anyone complains, will the Council protect public amenity, or give private motorists licence to annexe chunks of verge for their own convenience (having already paved over much, sometimes all of their front gardens for the sake of multiple car-parking)? Above - corner of verge recently concreted over in favour of a resident for whom a front garden was of no value and a one car's-width entranceway just wasn't enough.

That told 'em - old verge protection notice spotted

I came across this heart-warming old notice in the January snow. Sadly, this particular bit of law was repealed back in the 1970s, according to Bexley Council's enviro-crimes unit, who told me that other, newer legislation does make it illegal to park a vehicle on or drive over verges to gain access to a property without a properly constructed vehicular crossing. They've said that if I report the location they'll have the sign removed. But I rather think that people should be reminded to show due respect to such public amenities, so have heavily cropped the picture to hide the location. See my postings on collateral damage to verges by people who've car-parked their front gardens for images of what happens when the law is not enforced.