The London Assembly has said that roughly two thirds of the city’s 1.9 million front gardens have been paved over and warned that this could cause severe flooding. The assembly’s environment committee said the loss of gardens has put huge pressure on drains as well as increasing local temperatures, creating a dirtier environment, encouraged more car noise and pollution and reduced the amount of greenery in the city by an area roughly 22 times the size of Hyde Park. The committee said: “The more the ground is covered by hard surfaces, the less rainfall will soak into the ground. The drains then overflow and the contents are discharged into rivers, putting extra pressure on our already creaking Victorian sewerage and drainage systems.” It added: “The huge scale on which London’s front gardens are being paved over is contributing … to the overflow of the drainage and sewerage systems during heavy rainfall.” (Guardian)