Forum Topic

Greening Your Front Garden

Why it's a good idea to reduce or avoid those paving slabs and fence to fence to concrete. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW0mgRvQaFI

Philippa Bond ● 960d14 Comments

We have a very, VERY serious problem at The Ealing Kremlin when blatantly lying to residents is normal procedure at LBE.The culture there has rotted to beyond redemption, not only does Labour need to be booted out, but also many of the Executives, Management, and Staff.

Rosco White ● 936d

Yes, lots of people were told that - but they could see the smaller bins in front of other houses.  And as for the special treatment of the Bedford Park Estate that was just appallingly unacceptable.

Philippa Bond ● 937d

I was told smaller bins didn’t  exist. Had to prove they were lying before I  got my smaller bin. Get a bit fed up of Ealing Councils unacceptable behaviour some days  🤷‍♀️

Maggie Dodge ● 937d

Well done Libby.  We just don't have them.  The ide of filling a very small garden with steps and enormous hideous and unmanoevrable bins that were empty was beyond ridiculous.

Philippa Bond ● 940d

Libby that sounds pretty horrendous. We asked for a smaller grey bin which we share with a neighbour's house and had no issues at all ( 3years ago or so). We still barely fill it between us ( we are 1 small bag every 2 weeks) but MOP's next to us more than fill a very large bin

Tony Mansell ● 940d

We have a lovely Council.        🤣

Rosco White ● 941d

The reason the bins are almost all large size is due to the deal done by Bell.  It is nothing to do with needs, just costs. When I questioned why everyone was given large bins regardless the size of household he refused to answer. I then did an FOI on unit costs per bin by size and was told it was commercially confidential. I made such a fuss giving my age, height and weight and that if they didn't give me a small bin they would have to remove the large one from the bin store and wheel it to the bottom of the drive and to refuse to do that would be discriminatory and I would take them to court - it worked. I suggest that as bins wear out or people get older they demand smaller bins.

Libby Kemp ● 941d

Most people never ever needed such large bins.  Other Councils started with large bins and then swapped them for smaller ones as their residents learned how to reduce the amount of waste they created.Residents asked if they could share bins because of the size thinking they would be sharing the standard size but were presented with even larger ones.The original waste hierarchy was Reduce Reuse Recycle.  I've always worked with a larger one but was recently sent an even larger new one:  RETHINK    your choicesREFUSE      single useREDUCE      consumptionREUSE      everything you canREFURBISH  old stuffREPAIR      before you replaceREPURPOSE  be creative and reinventRECYCLE    the last optionWe've reduced our waste so don't even put out one black sack once a month.  We generally fill the green box.  We've just signed up for the garden waste bags.  We have a wormery in the garden and don't always even fill the very important food waste bin:  worms don't like a few things eg orange peel and onions and Life is too short to peel potatoes.I too think that the bins have blighted our properties and roads.  Most people already used bins - there were just a few who didn't and didn't take responsibility for their waste.I was reading a commercial waste contract recently and the company is responsible for clearing up anything the contractos spill when they empty the the big metal eurobins (very rare).  Why don't householders have to do/expect to do this?

Philippa Bond ● 945d

My tiny front garden would just be taken up by the rubbish and recycling bins. If I hadn’t taken the decision to buy clear recycling bags instead of a bin, and manage without a garden bun.. The ugliest sight ever is a road full of recycling, rubbish and garden waste monstrosities. Mainly brought about by the two weekly collections.

Maggie Dodge ● 954d

Councils should be making sure they are permeable as planning permission is needed for non-permeable.

Philippa Bond ● 955d

https://ealingfoe.org.uk/greening-front-gardens/

Libby Kemp ● 956d

I see evidence that a new cohort of residents are concreting over their front gardens in order to provide off street parking so they can install chargers for electric cars. I wonder if anyone has done an environmental cost benefit analysis for this. If you are considering doing this, please make sure you use porous paving to reduce water run-off.

Clare Gittins ● 958d

Don’t forget that it was Labour-run Ealing Council’s obsessive promotion of CPZs that led to a catastrophic loss of front gardens – and continues to do so.Confronted by huge CPZ charges, many residents took the logical step of concreting over their front gardens to provide them with free parking. As Ealing Council ratchets CPZ taxes ever higher, even more gardens will be lost. Bafflingly, our Labour-controlled council actually ENCOURAGES the concreting over of front gardens by artificially subsidising the cost of dropped kerbs. To put this in context: Ealing council charges a bargain £1,200 for this job. In fact, the real cost of providing a dropped kerb is more than £3,000.

David Marshall ● 958d

It isn't necessary or often legal to pave or concrete over all of your garden front or back (even if you are replacing what was there before).  It causes run off onto the roads and overflows the sewers (which can mean your drains and downstairs lavatory backing up and overflowing and your home flooding). Please please think about this.  Paving and concreting the whole isn't necessary - there are other options.  Pots also aren't necessarily easier as they need to have the right potting compost and be regularly watered and from the number of dead plants you see this often doesn't happen.  Also brushing your car against a shrub likely to be a lot less damaging than against a brick planter.  https://sola-blog.com/2016/05/09/greening-the-grey-vegetating-front-gardens-for-improved-well-being/

Philippa Bond ● 959d