End of paving - Your garden!

[xpuser]

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[Ted]

I think people should be encouraged to build grey water systems so rainwater landing on a roof goes into a tank and is used to flush the toilet, water the garden, wash the car, provide water for animals etc...

This would lessen the water entering drains and save people cash.

I just built a reinforced concrete tank to do just this.

In the UK, would there be any regulations governing the construction of such a tank? I installed a grey water system once before in the UK but it was a factory made plastic tank. It is cheaper to DIY it yourself out of concrete I reckon.

[lutonlagerlout]

my mate used to live in bermuda and every house there has a massive tank for catching all the rainwater
we take water for granted in the UK,and some times that laisse faire attitude comes back and bites us.i.e floods

LLL

[Mikey_C]

It may just be my suspicious mind, but I get the feeling by the time this proposal actually arrives you will be allowed to have as much paving as you like but you will have to pay the government a "water not soaking in the ground tax".

[Rich H]

Rainwater reuse is an admirable goal.

Blaming paving for flooding is total crap. This stupid kind of woolly thinking beggars belief. If anyone really thinks that paving is stopping flood water from soaking into the ground then they need a lobotomy. Take a look at an ariel photo of even the densest populated areas in the most congested cities and you'll see why.

If I go down to the lock on the Thames at the end of my lane the 2003 high water mark is 1.2m above the 2007 high. It in turn is 2' below the 1953 mark and that is 3' below the 1867.

No one is going to tell me that paving was the cause of the floods in 1867!

[Suggers]

we take water for granted in the UK

Last year, helped a mate screed his floor up in the hills in Portugal (he's now living there) - every house had a "cisterna" o/s tank which he filled via hosepipefrom a stand-pipe 200m away - big eye opener how every drop was precious...
As for paving, this little town Chesham sits in a valley, with housing spreading up either side - over the last 20 years we have increased localised flooding in the high street and the valley roads - it's pretty much accepted that the trend for paving over the front gardens has contributed to this increase in surface water problems. Isn't this why the interest in SUDS is popping up everywhere?

[Ted]

My gripe with paving over the front garden is that it ruins the street's appearance.

Victorian terraced streets look far nicer with all the houses having a front garden rather than a car parking area.

Paving the front garden probably devalues some properties.

[lutonlagerlout]

i got a mate who lives in portugal too suggers ,hes 5 miles from the nearest house,loves the isolation
as for chesham,same with berko as well, more and more developments up the hills and no where for water to go except down to the high street.

thing is when will the planners accept that if some spud is going to build million pound houses then he is responsible for parking and surface water

the latest thing in luton is that if you build within 1/2 mile of the town centre (flats) then you do not need any parking at all because why would ppl need a car living so close to the town centre??
very very flawed thinking
LLL

[Rich H]

It's hogwash. Torrential rain can't soak into the ground fast enough to prevent flooding. When it floods, everywhere floods. Open fields, parks, sewage treatment works. It makes only the minutest difference that some people have paved drives and some don't.

Once the water courses have reached max. flow and the ground is saturated it will flood. A billion gallons of water isn't going to drain away because No. 32 Privet Drive kept their lawn green instead of paving.

As for Chesham, is the water flooding down the road going to be somehow diverted up the kerbs into people's gardens, were they not paved?

Have a look at this concrete jungle (Chesham Newtown):

http://www.multimap.com/maps....amshire

Bear in mind of course that most of the roof water is being directed to soakaways...

[seanandruby]

The argument is tho that its not just patios, drives and footpaths. It is also the substructures that act as dams, dont you think? so is the new way of thinking for permeable paving going to work?

[lutonlagerlout]

problem is rich as i am sure you know that an awful lot of the 1 day drive brigade will divert rainwater from soakaways into sewers just to make life easy
and when 50% of a town has this ,thats when the fun and games start
not
LLL