Recent media article, bemoaning the classification of suburban gardens as brownfield sites and consequent use for infill housing. We hear a lot about how bad this is, but are there any good points to this? e.g.

1) avoids urban sprawl over food producing, or recreational, countryside.

2) Increased density of housing, reduces transport needs, and makes public transport more viable.

3) Gardens may be pretty, but we really mean those nice front gardens, they create a positive externality, the big back ones are private, we don't see them, nobody's considering building on the former sort.

4) The sort of prroperty the developers want, is big old oversized properties, that take up too much space for their current level of occupiership, so are wasteful of scarce urban space, better used as smaller housing units.

5) OK, turning gardens into housing may imperil some scarce species, but most gardens aren't the eco-friendly sort, at least 95% of gardens contain species imported via a garden centre, are replaceable, and have their fair share of pesticides and fertilisers. Wildlife in cities may be catered for by provision of public parks, woods, canals, railway embankments, and many other non-garden areas it colonises -  even old factory sites. A multitude of smaller gardens can also harbour birds and insects, as can the rural hedgerows that we won't build over if we avoid rural sprawl.

6) Building housing on 'true' brownfield sites may endanger the health of the householder (remember Love Canal), maybe such sites are better re-used for industrial, commercial purposes, where children won't be digging in the garden or Dad growing vegetables, whilst we keep housing in residential areas. Also endangers the wealth of the householder, as UK law is that the current landowner must pay for cleaning up any past pollution discovered on their land.

7) The really valuable gardens (ecological, visual, architectural) can and often have been preserved by the National Trust etc

 

What do other crit-geoggers think to using gardens for infill housing?

 

Hillary Shaw, Newport, Shropshire