Front gardens shouldn't be grey

Parking is about so much more than where we put our cars

The huge amount of ‘grey space’ taken up by cars and parking in the capital contributes to a lack of green spaces. It also leads to urban sprawl and loss of our Green Belt. Plus, there’s the resulting carbon emissions, air pollution, road danger, noise and inactive lifestyles. These impact everyone, despite half of London households not having a car.

This is why parking policy is so important. It is key to combatting the effects of climate change, improving air quality, promoting active, shared and sustainable travel, making transport more accessible and delivering safe, attractive, greener streets. 

CPRE London believes all streets should be green and healthy, to help manage the climate and nature crises and to support healthy streets by enabling and promoting walking, wheeling and cycling. To achieve that, we need all boroughs to support the introduction of 12 design elements into residential streets.

CPRE has created a handy guidance leaflet to show quickly – and visually – the 12 design elements. You can download this as a PDF here. 

The Front Gardens Network

CPRE London’s Front Gardens Network promotes de-paving and regreening of front gardens by enabling people working in this area to exchange information and ideas, amplify the voices of individuals, and promote joint working where it can increase impact. Ultimately the aim is to re-establish important wildlife habitat; reduce river pollution and flooding caused by excessive rainwater run-off; reduce the urban heat island effect caused by paved surfaces; and make streets more pleasant to encourage walking and to promote wellbeing.

Members of the network include community groups, campaigners, urban design professionals and individuals concerned about the consequences of front garden destruction, including the increased risk of flooding. The meetings are a great opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and are open to anyone who wishes to attend.

For years, homeowners have paved over front gardens – often for car parking – without realising they are harming their local area and the planet.

Front garden loss is not a trivial issue, but one that directly affects our lives. In fact, the explosion of paved areas is a major contributor to:

• residential flooding, as water is no longer absorbed but runs off into the sewers
• sewage pollution in rivers, as excess rainwater run-off overwhelms sewers which then overflow into rivers (find out more)
• hotter cities, as soil is replaced with hard standing (reducing the natural air cooling effect of greenery)
• the nature crisis, as numbers of vital pollinators reduces when greenery and habitat is lost
• unwelcoming and unattractive streetscapes, lessening the enjoyment of the neighbourhood for local residents.

What can I do?

Restoration of front gardens is a simple but powerful tool to combat climate change. People often ask: ‘What can I do to help the planet?’ 

One answer is literally on their doorstep.

CPRE London is working with others to promote de-paving and re-greening of front gardens. The project aims to:

• Raise awareness among householders and property owners about the importance of them taking action to de-pave and re-green their gardens, and to install Sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS) such as rain gardens, rain planters and water butts to capture rain water.
• Promote householder action via community groups by supporting those groups via a Front Gardens Network
• Ask boroughs to adopt policies which support de-paving and re-greening (for example, setting appropriate policies to reduce the impact of conversion of front gardens for parking)
• Seek funding for ‘neighbourhood scale’ de-paving/re-greening projects which also involve installation of SuDS in front (and back) gardens across London. These would most likely be implemented by local partnerships involving local authorities and local community groups, and possibly also professional contractors.
• Ask national organisations and government to support changes to national policy or law, to create incentives to de-pave, re-green and install SuDS.

Watch this video on car parking in front gardens, which sets out some negative consequences and explores potential remedies. 

The Front Gardens Network holds three online meetings a year which provide opportunity for people concerned about the demise of front gardens to meet and share experiences, raise issues, and discuss solutions.

Alice Roberts is an environmental campaigner and head campaigns at CPRE London

CPRE London is an environmental charity with a vision is of a city with a network of thriving green spaces which are accessible to all, rich in nature and playing a crucial role in responding to the climate emergency. The Greater London Authority, London borough councils and other policy makers recognises CPRE London as an authoritative voice in the planning and development of London

A network of more than 100 community groups trust provides critical advice to support their local campaigns, CPRE London directly supports more than 500 friends of green space groups through our GoParks programme. It also convenes the More Natural Capital Coalition – a coalition of 20 environmental charities working together to identify key green priorities for the capital and advocate jointly for action.