Homeowners - Planning permission for paving front gardens - Submitted 24 Apr 08

Homeowners should be aware that from the end of this year, any one who wishes to create a driveway on the front of their house by using block paving will need to apply for planning permission however, this does NOT apply to those which are made up of porous stone or chippings.

With the increase of not only the number of vehicles per household but with with the popularity of off road parking there has been a massive growth in the use of block paving.

Through what appears to be a result of climate change, a growing number of homes have been subject to large scale flooding and these type of driveways result in the surface water not being dispersed satisfactorily. Conversely stoned driveways will absorb the water which then soaks through into the ground.

The increase in the number of properties also exacerbates the situation as the mains and sewers were never intended to cope with the unexpected increase.

House of Commons debates Thursday, 13 March 2008 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - Flooding

Hilary Benn (Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) One of the very practical changes that we made when we published the water strategy recently was to withdraw the present ability of house owners to pave over front gardens with impermeable paving without planning permission.

In future, if people want to concrete over their gardens in a way that does not allow the water to soak away, they will have to seek planning permission, but if they use permeable paving they can decide for themselves.

Source Houses of Commons Debates 13 March 2008

What do you think, should you be able to make changes to your front garden without planning permission?

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