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.