Front Gardens Matter !

Report - Jan 06

A full report on the paving over of front gardens has been issued. It is on the London 21 web site.

BBC story

BBC London TV ran a story ran a story on 11th Jan 04 about paving over front gardens for cars. Christine Eborall of Ealing Friends of the Earth was featured. See BBC web page for the story. (This is a stand-alone page - close or minimise window to return.) See below for the preceeding story.

Front garden

History

North Kensington Environment Forum launched a leaflet called 'Front Gardens Matter' at the Natural History Museum on 10th June 2004.

This simple flyer says how keeping one's front garden green and full of plants is far better for the environment than covering it over with stone or asphalt

Christine Eborall, of the Local Agenda 21 Group in Ealing, presented the results of research project, which showed that a major reason for hard surfacing of front gardens is to provide parking spaces for cars. See 'front gardens matter' leaflet.

Effects of covering front gardens

Covering front gardens with stone or asphalt makes the street look bleak and unfriendly. There are many other downsides, eg:

• Increased risk of flooding, especially flash flooding
• Increased levels of pollution of local watercourses
• Increased air pollution (particulates)
• Dirtier environment
• Increases the local temperature
• Adverse effect on plant and animal life (ie biodiversity)
• Increased noise from traffic and other sources, especially at ground floor level
• Less opportunity for informal contact with neighbours
• Encourages more cars and more traffic

Project update (to Dec 04)

In Spring 2003, Ealing's Local Agenda 21 Pollution & Public Health Project Group started a programme of research into the scale of hard surfacing of front gardens within the Borough. Why? There is growing concern that hard surfacing of front gardens is becoming a serious environmental problem, and also a social issue.

The launch of the leaflet at the Natural History Museum in June 04 was the most public event, apart from the BBC London item. But the project continues - see project update (Word document, Nov 2004) and full report (Jan 06).

Links

(Updated Jan 06)