New Driveway Legislation being introduced

New Driveway Legislation - How to… replace your driveway according to new legislation

With the average household in Britain currently owning two or more cars, it’s no surprise that we are constantly striving for that elusive extra parking space – in the garage, on the driveway, we even concrete over our front lawns to give us an extra space! Keeping the car off the road also significantly lowers insurance premiums, so most families make sure their driveway is as usable as possible. Homeowners in larger cities with unused off-road parking are even renting spaces out! This benefits both the homeowner – spaces can be rented for as much as £3500 per year – and the car-owner, who has the advantage of a guaranteed, safe parking space and cheaper car insurance!

Remember, you can get an instant online quote for your paving and driveway projects at PavingQuoter - click here.

Adapting your driveway at the moment is relatively easy – you don’t need planning permission, you can use whichever materials you like and you can concrete over the front lawn without any trouble. However that’s all about to change.

As of autumn this year, homeowners will require planning permission to replace their driveway or pave over the garden unless porous materials are used. This is all to combat the high flood risks which hit Britain last year – 55,000 homes flooded and, according to government figures, impermeable materials, such as concrete and tarmac, prevented the rain from soaking into the ground and exacerbated the problem. According to the London Assembly, London has already lost the equivalent of 22 Hyde Parks in “green space” as a result of people paving over their gardens. However if the necessity of extra parking really does outweigh your need for green, here are five top tips to replacing your driveway according to the new rules:

1) Gravel
Gravel is by far the cheapest porous material to use on your driveway or garden, and it’s also the one that best keeps your garden looking like a garden. Gravel costs as little as £2 per square metre and comes in many different colours depending on the quarry it’s from. Choose whichever colour you like best and lay the stones onto a permeable membrane to stop weeds going through. If you still want some planting in your garden, work out where your car will go and add “planting pockets” in the membrane. In these you can place hardy plants that will survive if you accidentally drive over them! Try things like bugle, creeping jenny and thyme. You could also try planting berry trees around the edge of your garden where hopefully you won’t crash into them! These are especially hardy and able to cope with the fumes and heat from your car, and will add instant colour. If you are feeling exceptionally green, you can even buy recycled gravel, which is a by-product of the ceramics industry.

2) Bricks
Brick-paving is still an option under the new driveway regulations, as long as you use permeable bricks. These are fitted in an interlocking style that allows rainwater to penetrate through the gaps in the brickwork and soak into the ground. Permeable bricks need to be laid by professionals and cost upwards of £15 per square metre. Brick paving arguably takes away the feel of a garden from your home, but you can add colour by placing pot plants around where your car will go. For pots, it’s easy to add colour all year round – plant things like petunias during the summer months and replace these with hardier plants such as pansies throughout the winter.

3) Recycled driveways
As well as recycled gravel, there are other “green” ways to replace your driveway. Cellular paving is made from hexagonal cells of recycled plastic which you fill with an aggregate, such as resin-bonded gravel or any other aggregate of your choice. The cells usually come in green, but there are other colours available at an extra cost. You can lay cellular paving yourself from £60 per square metre or getting it laid professionally will set you back £100 per square metre.

4) Keep the grass!
If you really do love your garden, but need that extra parking space, you can simply keep your front lawn and park on that. However if you don’t reinforce the grass first, you could end up with a quagmire in front of your house! There are solutions available to reinforce your lawn so that your car can drive on it with ease, without sinking and without ruining the grass. Grass reinforcement is made from plastic and is easy to lay, though you do have to take the grass up first! Then lay the reinforced plastic sheet underneath the lawn and you’ll be ready to park over it in a few hours. There are also concrete underlay options available, but these will obviously take longer to dry before they can be used! Plastic grass underlay costs from £17 per square metre.
If you do want to keep your existing grass and garden pretty much as it is, but still need the extra space for the car, you can lay paving slabs in strips where the wheels of your car will go. This makes a track in your lawn so that your car can be parked on it without leaving tyre marks! However you have to make sure you park precisely and that your wheels don’t leave the paving slabs.

5) Finishing touches
Even though you may think you have turned the front garden into a car park, there are still ways to keep it looking like a garden. As well as “planting pockets” in gravel and pot plants around the car, you can also add other touches to make sure you still have some plants and greenery. Try leaving “holes” in the paving, by leaving circular shapes unpaved. Fill the circles with soil and plant decorative trees or topiary in them – obviously making sure that they will not grow so big that they block the driveway or their roots will damage the paving! Choose small evergreens or topiary bushes that will remain miniature.

You could also build a pergola over the car so that it will stay hidden and your garden will still look pretty. To climb over the pergola, plant variegated ivy or beautiful florals such as honeysuckle, hydrangea, clematis or passion flower. If you don’t want to build a pergola, you could also consider putting a trellis up the front of the house and planting a climbing plant to grow up that. This way you are not missing out on some green in your garden!

If you are still not convinced by using a porous material on you driveway, consider that non-porous materials increase rainwater run-off by 50 per cent, which then has to flow into drains, which could overflow and flood. Non-porous materials also stop rain from soaking into the ground, which makes the ground dry and can cause subsidence. But don’t let this put you off having a driveway – off-street parking can add thousands to the value of your property and is a useful, safe space for your car. Just make sure you are sticking to the new laws and using porous driveway materials!

Don't forget, you can get an instant online quote for your paving and driveway projects at PavingQuoter - click here.