Paving - permeable? Pourous?

This weekend the in-laws are staying, and I rely on my mother-in-law to educate me about our garden (including today's tip on how best to prune and otherwise treat our fig tree). What she's also great for, is saving up press cuttings and other interesting bits and pieces, and this time, it was a page out of the Royal Horticultural Society's magazine, The Garden.

The story is about new legislation, due into effect this October, that will mean a householder wishing to pave a front garden with an impermeable material (as yet to be defined), will have to apply for planning permission. The reasoning is to do with floods and run-off, and requiring good reason to provide yet more run-off on our streets than we already have.

Anyway, it sounds like good reasoning, although it has the potential for a greater burden on the planning department. Let's hope that the aspiration of this legislation (to make householders think twice before doing it), will work, rather than not stopping it at all, and simply making it more expensive and time-consuming for everyone.

Download the Impact Assessment from the Communities and Local Government website.