Law ’n’ order

It’s not only environmentalists who raise an eyebrow when people concrete over their lawns.

Planners are frowning on it too, now that it’s a legal requirement for homeowners to apply for permission to pave over front gardens. Simple acts like these remove natural systems, which slow and absorb heavy rains, and contributed to 2007’s £3 billion flooding damage bill, says the Environment Agency.

Experts at environmental consultancy Entec echo the message in a new online forum designed to encourage debate on the future of flood risk. Can we really explain flooding as ‘too much water in the wrong place at the wrong time’ they ask – or ought we to scrutinise our own part in the story?

28 January 2009

Hannah Bullock