Landscape & Urban Design Issue 41 2020 | Page 26

LANDSCAPING SERVICES PERMITTED PAVING 2019 – another year of flooding around the UK – provided a timely reminder of the importance of sustainable drainage or SuDS. Although a requirement for most new developments, other often forgotten planning measures encouraging SuDS also apply to new or replacement paving around existing properties, as the trade association Interpave explains. Many planning authorities have already embraced SuDS and incorporated requirements for them in local policies being implemented now, impacting on planning applications. This stance is supported by the 2019 National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). But, in addition to new developments, earlier changes to planning ‘Permitted Development’ rules aim to apply SuDS techniques to new or replacement paving around existing homes and also various non-domestic buildings. 26 www.landud.co.uk Before these changes, paving anywhere in a garden related to a ‘dwellinghouse’ or within various non-residential properties, using any materials, was considered to be ‘permitted development’ – effectively, an automatic planning permission without needing a planning application. Planning Changes For dwellings, the changes take away permitted development rights from new or replacement drives or other paving between a house and the street, unless it is permeable paving or drains water onto a permeable area within the property. Otherwise planning permission is now needed before installing new, or replacing Follow us @ludmagazine