Would you demolish a lovely front garden to create off street parking?

[HeadFairy]

Our road is terrible for parking. Most people have paved over their front gardens and have dropped curbs so they can park but consequently this has left the rest of us with very little curb to park in. We're only a 10 min walk from town where there are some large insurance companies and the like so lots of people drive here and park for the day, parking's actually not that bad at the weekends. But during the week it's hellish. I've just spent 20 minutes driving around looking for a space (strangely I would accept this if I still lived in London, but not here!) and that's a good day.

Anyway, dh thinks we should pave over the front garden in a kind of can't beat 'em join 'em move. I love our front garden, there's a beautiful magnolia tree and a fuschia hedge, it would be a shame, but the parking is driving me insane.

WWYD?

I find the demise of the front garden terribly depressing [auld hippy emoticon].

HeadFairy
Infact I'm such an old tree hugger that I've put a picture of my magnolia tree on my profile for all to see!

That is a beautiful tree!

ooooh namechange, that's a lovely magnolia (your kids aren't bad either :o)

I can't really move the magnolia, it's so massive that it would require a crane to move it. Unfortunately the town I live 10 mins from isn't the one I work in, nor is it the one ds goes to school in. I usually walk the school run, but there are quite a few days when I have to drive just to get to it on time (I say school run, it's really the pre-school run so ds starts at 12.50) This morning I had to get to the bank 10 mins after I'd dropped him off and there was no way I could have done it if I didn't drive.

Nannynobnobs - a sobering thought :o

the council should be making your road a residents only parking area. By not doing so, and by allowing residents to pave over their gardens, they are sanctioning the flood risk. Flooding is going to be a big part of our lives in the next few decades. And people who pave over their gardens are part of the problem.

Get other neighbours to petition to with you to have residents' parking (we have 10.30-11.30 and it's brilliant - commuters don't abandon their cars here all day but you can still have visitors outside those hours) and then badger your local councillor. Don't sacrifice your front garden for parking.

The problem is, by the time you get the council to listen and implement the scheme...tis far easier to have OSP done..

OTOH, I would have been far more reluctant to have ours done had we had a lovely tree in our front so I can sympathise with OP - I got upset when neighbour cut her Jasmine tree down as I loved the smell of it in the summer!