If you're going out with mates this evening and everyone's having a great time, stop it dead by saying the following out loud: "Today marks the fifth anniversary of laws preventing people from paving over front gardens without planning permission".
Life and soul of the party you are not. But you've shown your green credentials. You get a big tick for stepping up for nature.
Heaven knows where we'd be without this new legislation following the wettest September in the UK for thirty years. In India it's also been the wettest September, but one of the driest Monsoon seasons. Over in South America, even the mighty Amazon is drying out. Water is a global issue and allowing rainwater to gush down our drains as it runs off land concreted-over to meet our needs for car parking is pretty uncool.
I'm not personally aware of Londoner who has been prosecuted for paving over their front garden. Do let me know if I'm wrong, or I will be forced to assume that either the law has been a huge success or it's being ignored. Water is one of those things we generally take for granted, until there's either too much or too little. That's true of so many things that don't have a price tag. Like wildlife, marine habitats or the countryside.
Laws are written to protect what we can, and for those things that slip between the legislation, there's tax money to repair the damage. But that system is as outdated as Stephenson's Rocket and Sir Joseph Bazalgette's Victorian sewers. What's needed is some smart development harnessing nature's powers and using them to inform the way we build and plan. Back that up with investment in the right sectors and we're on to a winner.
Why are so many homes built on flood plains? Why do we encourage farmers financially to try to squeeze ever more out of their land or allow people who order their staff to persecute wildlife to escape blame. I wish I knew.
I do know that the RSPB has been trying to address some of these issues through our work with water. Silly development in the wrong place has made flooding worse than it need be. The Common Agricultural Policy encourages over extraction of water and pollution of waterways and our habitat restoration work in Bowland in northern England is helping United Utilities lower the extremely high cost of purifying rainwater for human consumption. As part of the same habitat work we're boosting numbers of birds of prey, but many still mysteriously die when they fly onto land owned by individuals who deny all knowledge.
As UK tax payers, we all contribute two Euro's thirty cents a week (almost £100 a year) towards the maintenace of our countryside. It's time we stood up and demanded payback. Londoners unite for a healthy countryside and affordable quality food!