Planning permission required for paving your driveway?

Over the last 18 months, there has been much talk on the changes imposed by the Government to the ways we pave our front gardens.

This is the gist of it… As of 1st October 2008 planning permission is required to lay traditional impermeable driveways that allow uncontrolled runoff of rainwater from front gardens onto roads, because this can contribute to flooding and pollution of water courses. However, householders will not require planning permission if they use permeable paving, or have sufficient drainage or soak away to ensure runoff from non-permeable surfaces does not go onto roads.

Basically, this is a great move. In times of heavy or sustained rainfall our drainage systems comes under extreme pressure. Catastrophic flooding in parts of the UK in recent years has demonstrated the distressing consequences of overloading the system and the importance of water management in our urban areas.
Permeable paving is certainly the best option environmentally, and the easiest choice when it comes to the new legislation. However not everyone has the right soil conditions for permeable paving and for it to work well, it really does need to be installed by a professional.

Whatever your choice – permeable paving or planning permission – there are plenty of products on the market that will suit every project.