Eco gurus, hands off our garages!
SUSTAINABILITY expert Stefanie O’Gorman decries the fact that houses are being built with double garages (Mail). Frankly, I wouldn’t mind if developers were allowed to build homes with parking for four cars. Local authorities who stick to the Government guideline of 1.5 parking spaces per household when granting planning permission simply allow builders to cram in more homes. No Government is going to restrict car purchases because of the income it provides the Exchequer. That said, it is living in cloud cuckoo land when it thinks that a new-build housing estate on the edge of town, with minimal bus services and no railway station, is going to attract buyers if there is inadequate parking. I live on a development where the planners allowed the builders to get away with the minimum space per house. The result is cars parked along the roads, turning them into an obstacle course for other drivers, or bumped up on pavements, causing problems for mothers with prams. Sustainability experts should direct their criticism at local authorities and house builders, not home owners.
CHRIS J. M. HORSMAN, Little Stanion, Northants. GREEN gurus say double garages harm the environment. To ensure families don’t need more than one car, neighbourhoods should be planned to provide local amenities, such as shops and schools, so people don’t need to travel and can go on foot or by bike.
Many 1930s houses were built on this model with shopping parades, schools, railway station and bus stops. However, since the 1970s, house builders assumed everyone would have a car and this has resulted in extra traffic and air pollution.
A. WILLS, Ruislip, Middlesex. STEFANIE O’GORMAN must live in a city where there is public transport or she can walk or cycle to work. As AA expert Luke Bosdet stated, due to a lack of trains and infrequent buses, most households need a car. My family is in the minority in having one car. Most of our neighbours have paved their front gardens to park their four cars. These families travel to work or school in different directions because we live equidistant between Aylesbury, Oxford, Milton Keynes and Banbury.
PATRICK WICKHAM, Buckingham. MOST people don’t park their cars in a double garage. They are used as workshops or for storage. If you did put two cars in them, you wouldn’t be able to open the doors to get out.
ALAN JACOBS, Biddenham , Beds. THE call to stop the provision of double garages is on the basis that car ownership damages the environment. Is it better to concrete over lawns and flowerbeds for parking? So many people desperately want to save our planet when they don’t live on it.