John Smith Flooring

With families staying put in the same house until after the children have flown the nest, there comes a time when that luxuriously lush and green front lawn becomes a battle ground in the squabble for parking places.    Most modern houses are lucky to have more than one small parking space outside their front door or garage.   The developers from say mid 2004 onwards have been working on the misguided notion that if they only supply one parking place per house, the family will only have one car and therefore no problems will arise.   This was a government initiative to look as if we as a country were prepared to go down the green, climate saving route.  Sadly for the activists, knowing what to do and actually doing it are completely separate entitities.   It’s rather more a case of “I have three children and a wife who each have a car and we need to park them somewhere.  Let’s dig up the front lawn and replace with brick or concrete”.  This is where there are minor safeguards built in for the environment.   Basically you are not allowed to replace a lawn with non permeable materials.  In other words, you must not replace with anything that does not allow rain water to drain through to the ground below and thus disappear back into the earth.   If you do plan to replace with a permeable surface you will not usually need planning permission except . . . if your paving or driveway is going to be more than 5 metres squared.  If some or all of your new surface does not let water through, you will need tp apply for and obtain planning permission.  You will probably also need it for your paved area that is likely to affect access for any neighbours;  this would be considered causing a nuisance to the neighbours.