Are our front gardens becoming a concrete jungle?

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Survey shows 68% of Ealing's front gardens covered with hard surfacing

68% of the average front garden in the London Borough of Ealing is covered with hard surfacing materials: concrete, brick, paving etc.

A survey of the hard surfacing in a representative sample of front gardens in the London Borough of Ealing was carried out by volunteers during spring/summer 2005.
The survey was organised by Ealing�s Local Agenda 21 Pollution & Public Health Project Group in response to increasing concern about front gardens disappearing under hard surfacing. The results show that a quarter of the borough�s 74,300 front gardens are completely covered with hard surfacing: concrete, brick, paving etc. A further 20% are nearly completely (90% -99%) covered.

Hard surfacing front gardens causes flooding and contributes to sewerage overflows, hotter cities, more noise and air pollution, loss of habitat for birds and animals, a more stressful environment, less contact between neighbours and unattractive neighbourhoods.

Most (but not all) front garden hard surfacing is for parking. Over 40% (31,200) of the borough�s front gardens are used as car parks. Except in three conservation areas, pavement crossovers (kerb drops) are �permitted development� so there are no planning controls on what people can do with their front gardens.
In about 5,000 front gardens people are driving illegally across the pavement to park. Using front gardens for parking causes uneven pavements, risks to pedestrians especially children, less parking space on the roadside and faster traffic when there are fewer parked cars on the road.

The survey also found 12,600 nearly or completely hard surfaced front gardens not being used for parking. Likely reasons for this are a desire for minimal maintenance or a presentable year-round look, and varying attitudes towards front gardens and their role, and lack of gardening tradition and knowledge in some ethnic groups.

Some roads have nearly all the front gardens hard surfaced. This is evidence of the �domino effect� pavement crossovers cause. Because no-one else can park in front of them, crossovers reduce the amount of roadside parking. This tips more people into converting their front gardens to car parks, so more crossovers are put in, so there is even less roadside parking, and so on until most of the front gardens in the road have disappeared.

For further information and copy of survey report
Christine Eborall Tel: 020 8001 0006, mobile 0796 830 3462
Andrew Lyon (Ealing Council Pollution Control Team) Tel: 020 8825 7308.

About Local Agenda 21
At the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992, world leaders agreed on a plan of action to tackle the major threats to the environment and improve people�s quality of life - Agenda 21.
Local Agenda 21 is the process of building partnerships between local authorities and communities in order to develop and implement local policies and plans for sustainable development. Sustainable development means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

In Ealing there are 5 Local Agenda 21 project groups addressing different issues: Pollution & Public Health, Energy & Built Environment, Biodiversity & Natural Environment, Community Development, Allotments)

 

January 17, 2006