Garden Land Grab in Chester

The City of Chester has managed to avoid the national trend of garden grabbing - a form of land development that has ruined neighbourhoods in other areas across the country.

Garden grabbing has previously seen flats and houses built in large back gardens, increasing housing density to areas and concreting previously green spaces.

Andy Farrall, a development chief in the Chester area said that the suspension brought in to control housing supply at a local level meant the garden grabbing trend has a limited impact on Chester.

Of developing garden land, Farrall said, “It can increase density, decreases open space and changes the character of an area. You get it on radial roads coming into a town where you have a big villa in its own grounds.”

There is presently little to stop developers from concreting garden land for sale as they are classified as brownfield sites, i.e. previously developed land. The Government has wanted over 70 per cent of all new developments to be on recycled, brownfield land sites.

Farrall added: “We brought in a housing moratorium. The government asked us to control the housing supply. Members of the council brought in, as part of the policy, a section which talks about restricting development in rear gardens.”

In other areas of the county, Tunbridge Wells MP Greg Clark has asked for private gardens to be removed from the “brownfield site” classification.

The Protection of Private Gardens Bill proposed by Mr Clark would effectively stop gardens being developed so easily, adding that the loss of the “green lungs of our towns and cities is very serious”.

Date: 4th August 2006