Gardens of Delight

Gardens of Delight - Garden Grabbing

Stop Garden Grabbing campaign

Gardens are under threat at the moment due to a change in the law that classifies them now as brown field sites. When I first heard that new houses were to be built on brown field sites, as opposed to green field sites or else where. I thought that was a good idea, thinking these brown field sites were old industrial sites, abandoned buildings, etc. which was the case originally. I hadn’t realised that gardens had now been brought into that category, which is dreadful.

There are developers now buying up houses with large gardens in ordinary small streets, knocking down the house and building flats on the entire land. Because there are targets for building on brown field sites, developers are able to dismiss local protests and local councils refusal to grant planning permission, by going to building inspectors, who approve their plans if it helps meet their targets.

There is a growing campaign to change the law again and remove gardens from the definition of brown field sites. Caroline Spelman is bringing in the Bill on Friday 19th of October in parliament. If you go to Garden Organic save our gardens campaign, you can find ways to voice your support for her bill and find out more about the issues and why gardens are important for everyone.