Dear Readers, the London Climate Resilience Review was published yesterday, and it has some stern things to say about London’s preparedness for the expected flooding, heatwaves and increased levels of subsidence that changing climate are expected to bring. It contains 50 recommendations, and some of them should be fairly uncontentious – we should take better care of our street trees, for example (so many of which fail due to poor planting conditions and a lack of understanding of what they need in terms of soil and the correct fungal mycorrhiza), and when companies dig up roads they should be able to create rain gardens to soak up excess rain – there are some excellent examples of this in Walthamstow, which has embraced the idea with considerable enthusiasm.
Rain Garden by Meristem Design in Walthamstow (Photo from https://www.meristemdesign.co.uk/community-rain-gardens-waltham-forest)
More controversial (and of course, the idea that the press has latched onto) is the idea that people who pave over their gardens should be fined, and there should be incentives for people to take up their paving. There is no doubt that we are losing ridiculous amounts of green space due to people wanting car parking spaces and low maintenance gardens – a report commissioned fifteen years ago stated that London was losing an area two and a half times the size of Hyde Park every year to hard surfacing. The trend for decking a few years ago didn’t help either. Often there’s a lovely combination of hard paving and a plastic lawn. Personally, I would ban the sale of all new plastic lawns, but that’s me.
I don’t know about fining people – some people are now using porous or permeable substrate to create a low maintenance area, so in theory at least the water should be able to be absorbed. There is a larger question, I think, about the loss of biodiversity. It says something about our disconnect from nature that people often don’t want it anywhere near their houses, but of course if you’ve a health problem or have mobility issues, you also don’t want to be looking at a garden that you can no longer manage.
I’m also not sure how it would work. Is someone going to tour the streets of London keeping an eye open for stone slabs or concrete mixers? It makes more sense to me to ensure that new developments have actual gardens and soft landscaping rather than hard, even if it is more expensive.
I think what we really need is some kind of incentive, financial or otherwise, for people to increase the natural value of their gardens. In some US states you can get a plaque that declares that your garden is a quality habitat for different kinds of fauna, and maybe we could do something similar here. We need to look at competitions like ‘Britain in Bloom’ as well, which are moving away from regimented beds of petunias and geraniums to more ‘planet-friendly’ planting. I’m sure that there’s lots that could be done to encourage people to develop their gardens in a way that’s lovely to look at it, useful, easy to enjoy and good for wildlife, rather than punishing people for paving them over.
There is no doubt that we have to do something – the cost of not adapting to climate change will be paid in lives, and in money lost. It will be interesting to see which of the recommendations will be implemented. What do you think, Readers? Should we be using carrots or sticks here? What would you like to see happen?
You can read The Guardian article here and the whole Climate Resilience Plan is here.
When I was in Kent last year, I was struck by the variety of plants in even the tiniest – and I mean tiny – gardens that I walked past in some of the villages. It struck me then that we really ought to be encouraged (not necessarily by an ‘authority’ or law) to make the most of whatever space we have. On the other hand, given how small some of the gardens, it is not surprising that some sections have been paved over to make room for parking a vehicle 🙂
I think in central London/the inner suburbs, more and more people are doing without cars altogether – there’s nowhere to park, they’re always getting nicked, and if you really need a car (as I have done this past few weeks) you get a cab. It’s more of a problem if you live somewhere where the public transport/availability of cabs isn’t so good, clearly. It’s always nice when someone has left at least some of their garden for the critters, but often people just don’t think about it. We’ve had lots of high back garden fences going up recently, and no one was prepared to pop in a hole so that the hedgehogs could get through, sadly.
On a recent visit to South London (Plumstead), I noticed how nicely people were doing up the rather shabby houses – re-painting, plastering, renewing brickwork etc but the small front gardens were weedy and messy. Not surprising that the next step is to pave and put in plastic grass. But it struck me that people don’t really know how easy it is to keep a very small front garden tidy – just to pull up few weeds from the cracks in the paving as you return home from work daily. Perhaps they need educating before they reach for the poison? Or – alternatively – I recommend this wonderful book on the value of weeds by a local acquaintance of mine, Anna Chapman Parker: Understorey. A Year Among Weeds 🙂
It’s this urge for neatness and tidiness that I think is a curse – you’re right, a very small garden isn’t a lot of work. Maybe basic gardening skills (along with cooking, financial admin, basic diy) should be taught at school? Not everyone has a Mum or Dad who has the skills to teach them. The book sounds wonderful! I shall look it out.
My lovely neighbours and a best friend each have plastic grass in their front gardens, for the same reason; their lawns were in the shade and just didn’t thrive. I did suggest a moss lawn! They both have nice back gardens with all sort of plants, so perhaps that evens things out. We inherited brick paving at this house and while next door jet wash and polish their brick paving to go with the plastic lawn, mine is covered in loads of pots with just enough space left to park one car. I encourage the alyssum etc that happily grow in the space between the bricks! Personally I would ban all private vehicles as I don’t drive, but I don’t think that’s going to work and of course I am not averse to getting lifts when necessary…
It’s true, you can’t always judge the quality of a habitat by what’s at the front of a house. But why have a lawn at all, especially at the front? There are all kinds of plants that thrive in shade, and a woodland garden would be lovely. But folk are busy, and often do what seems to be the most convenient thing, and I don’t blame them per se. I just wish that more nature-friendly alternatives that are also low-maintenance got more press.
A little drastic. Most people will be paving over to park their cars as off-road parking is difficult in most parts of London. And if they have a back garden – as a lot do – they will be growing flowers and shrubs, one imagines. Such a knee-jerk reaction, the fine. As though cash will solve the problem.
I think it should definitely be carrot rather than stick, and as you say, you can’t always judge how nature-friendly a house is by its front garden.