Planning permission for driveways affecting the installation of non-permeable paving to the front of properties was introduced on 1st October 2008 in response to a number of factors.
These factors include the increasing density of housing stock in many towns and cities, greater car ownership (which resulted in homeowners converting their front gardens into car parks) and potential climate change – all of which could increase the extent of localised flooding.
Whether you agree with the effects of global warming and climate change or not, something had to be done about the apparent increasing incidence of localised flooding and planning permission for driveways was introduced. We can do little about the amount of rainwater falling on our homes, gardens and driveways, so regulations and planning permission for driveways were introduced to deal with water run-off from driveways onto the public highway.
Government Sustainable Urban Drainage (SUDS) legislation is designed to reduce the incidence of flooding caused by water run-off from impermeable driveways