Gravel drive - neighbour unhappy

[Nolyty]

We moved into our home last year and inherited a very old, very messy paved front garden. We built an extension on the side of the house where the garage used to be, leaving half the front garden with tarmac.

We managed to scrimp together enough money to get something done at the front. The cheapest option was gravel. We had this done last week and were very happy with ourselves that we'd made our home more presentable.

However...

Our new neighbour spoke with DH today about loose stones going onto the pavement and into the road, potentially damaging cars and the like.
I'm so upset with myself that I didn't think about this before. I just assumed as it was a popular choice for front gardens/drives, we'd be ok.

I don't want to ruin relations with our new neighbour, I certainly don't want to cause a safety issue. I'm really worried we've spent thousands on this project and now we might have to do something different. We're not using it as a drive currently, but had plans to if ever necessary. We'll of course sweep what goes onto the pavement regularly.

I've looked into glue for this kind of thing, but once applied you can't drive over it, so we'd basically not have a drive. It's also very very expensive.

I just don't understand how this has become such a big problem when gravel is so common. I'm not sure whether we stick with it and sweep as best we can, or somehow look to change it (but we have no money to do so...).

Any advice?

Although I’m not keen on gravel it actually is a good choice. It allows rain to drain naturally and can be off putting to burglars or alert you to someone on your property.
Its a bit late now and you haven’t done anything wrong but if I had to lay a new driveway especially if it was for light use, I would look at the hexagon panels you have but overlaid with turf - better still seeded.
Yes you need to mow it but it’s still hard standing and drains.

most homes around us have gravel drives, including ours, it’s really popular. I would just forget about the neighbours comment.

This has always been an issue with gravel drives. Vile things. There is a cul-de-sac near us where every other bungalow has one. The pavements and the road look like Brighton beach.