Green Assembly Member Jenny Jones has questioned the Mayor over the Government’s proposal to relax planning laws on garden extensions, raising concerns about the threat to London’s green space this may pose.
Green AM Jenny Jones has raised concerns over the impact of
Government proposals on Londoners’ gardens
Jenny Jones asked the Mayor if he was concerned that the plans, which would allow an extension or conservatory of up to eight metres to be built within permitted development rights, up from the current four metre limit, will significantly increase the rate and scale of loss of green space in London gardens. London is already losing an area of vegetated garden land equivalent to two and a half times the size of Hyde Park every year.
In response to questioning from the Green Assembly Member, Boris Johnson agreed that the Government’s changes to permitted development rights could ‘lead to the loss of this valuable space with adverse impacts on the quality of life of residents and renewed attempts at ‘garden grabbing’. He has also advised Government that ‘I want to give further consideration to application of its proposal in the district circumstances of London.’
Jenny said
“Some councils in London [Sutton & Richmond] have made it clear that they have every intention of defying the government on relaxing planning laws on extensions. Now the Mayor has also stated that this policy could lead to further loss of London gardens. It will be interesting to see if the Mayor and London Councils will try to use the rules in the London Plan to block the Government. The Mayor has encouraged local authorities to tighten the rules on garden grabbing. In contrast Eric Pickles is urging residents to seek damages against such councils.”
“Instead of discouraging the loss of back gardens the government has recklessly relaxed planning laws allowing conservatories and other developments to be built up to eight metres beyond the back wall without seeking planning permission. It is also a recipe for neighbourhood disputes”
Jenny added:
“With climate change predictions warning us that the extremes of weather we are experiencing, such as the record breaking period of drought, followed by intense heavy rainfall this year, are expected to become the norm. That means back gardens in built up areas such as London will be become increasingly important for providing cooling during heat waves, and limiting flooding and surface water runoff and vital habitats for wildlife.”