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Councils to tell gardeners what they can grow
Nicholas Cecil, Chief Political Correspondent08.09.08
Town hall bureaucrats could soon dictate what homeowners grow in their gardens.
The extraordinary new rule is among a string of ideas put forward in a government-commissioned report to step up Britain's battle against household waste.
Restrictions on fast-growing plants, trees and flowers could be brought in by "including gardens in building regulations," it said.
Shadow local government minister Bob Neill, MP for Bromley and Chislehurst, said: "Are they really expecting hardworking people to go along to the council to get building regulation consent to plant their rhododendron?"
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn has pushed the measure but Downing Street has sought to kick it into the long grass.
The research for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs identified 52 measures, including a ban or tax for junk mail, forcing companies to offer longer warranties for products to stop them being thrown away, and restrictions on the advertising of wasteful products.
Reader views (12)
If by "fast growing plants" they mean leylandii, then I'm all for it!
The ODPM screwed the High Hedges Law by making it expensive for the complainer and generally unworkable!
- Taf Parsons, Cardiff
Thank goodness Bob Neill is my MP and one who sees sense. This Goverment truly has lost the plot. They probably want to regulate fast growing plants as they see another way of taxing us - Nice view? Nice flowers? Nice garden? That's another £500 in tax, please.
- Shirley, London
Gosh! Can you just imagine the headlines; 'Prison sentence for gardener who refused to pay fine for growing daffodils!' 'Government gets tough on growing horticultural subculture living on the fringes of suburbia!' 'Police uncover huge secret stash of Forget-Me-Not seeds, arrests made' 'Hanging baskets and flower pots outlawed, manufacturers told to stop production or be closed down!'..And the best one of all 'Government imposes green tax on gardeners, declare what you have bought and grown, declare your containers, fill in a green self assessment form, return by 31st January every year (attaching photograph)...or we'll fine you!' And what a waste of newspaper column inches that would be!
- Karine, London
OK, so who's going to take responsibility for the Japanese Knotweed creeping into our gardens from all that ill-kept public space?
- Nora, London, UK
Hilary Ben should be moved to the Department of Stupidity. He's already come out with previous clangers and clearly shows his ideas are as mad of those of his father.
- Adam, Harrow, UK
I assume any un-PC plant name will have to be changed; e.g. Cyclapersons, chrysantheparent!
- Michael, London
Mark,
Organic waste in a landfill site IS a problem. It decomposes (in the absence of air) to methane. If this leaks to the atmosphere it is a greenhouse gas 15x worse than CO2. If it leaks through the ground into a cellar or drain, it can cause an explosion.
Your general point is right, though. Councils ought to collect garden and other organic waste, compost it, and make money selling the compost! And councils should not have any say over what you grow. Neighbours, in the case of over-high hedges and suchlike, yes, through the courts if necessary. Councils, no.
- Nigel, London
Astounding! Will we soon have to get permission to have our own thoughts? Or will these be regulated by this extraordinary authoritarian government?
- Michael, London
Is this why our taxes have gone up so much - to pay for the implementing, managing and enforcing of policies like this.
Hasn't the Government got more important things to deal with.
- Grant Stretch, Guildford, Surrey
With this load of Marxists in charge qwe'll have to get permission to bathe or breath soon. Any garden waste is of course bio-degradable so what's the problem? Even if put into a landfill (waste) it will not cause any problems.
- Mark, London
Will "kicking ideas into the long grass" be allowed in the future? I'm sure the Environment Secretary would like to see Councils regulating our use of metaphors too.
- Sally Wainman, Ipswich England
Councils should have the right to ban ordinary people to grow fast growing plants and shrubs in their garden under the anti terrorism rules. Potential terrorist will then not be able to hide behind these bushes!
- Adrian, London UK
