Keep it Green

[cwhaley]

Although you need to be careful not to look at history through rose-tinted glasses (i.e. there were horrible neglected places to live decades ago just as there are now) I think broadly, more people took greater care of their property and the surrounding area compared to present day. Some of this was due to the post war era (WWII) when areas were rebuilt/rejuvenated and when people moved into newly built council estates, often coming from dwellings that were no longer fit for purpose. So they tended to take greater pride.

As you've touched on, my mum will tell stories of how my gran kept her council house spotlessly clean, including the step at the front door and the path leading up to the door. She would also scrub the pavement area immediately outside her house, a few feet either side. Many of the residents did this, meaning most of the pavement was always clean.

I moved into an ex council house with mum ~30 years ago. Next door lived an elderly couple who had lived there for decades. They were in the old school mould referred to above. I couldn't believe it when we hadn't long moved in, I looked out the living room window one day and there was the old boy from next door sweeping up fallen autumn leaves from a grassed area outside our houses! Needless to say, a few years later when he was too infirm, no one else took that batten up!

Of course nowadays many people still keep their property in good order, however I suspect the number of people faithfully scrubbing their front step or tending the (public) area immediately outside their property has dropped significantly.

Oh I agree, my formal education is in history -- I'm very aware of considering context and not looking through a keyhole view.

Love the story about sweeping the leaves, I know exactly the character you mean!

My aforementioned Uncle was a veteran, and was very grateful and very lucky to have survived what he went through. After the war he and my Aunt ended up renting a single bedroom in a house and had to share a kitchen with the owner. In 1950, our local council built two new roads with council houses on and being able to rent a three bedroom semi with an indoor toilet and large garden was a small slice of heaven! The front has also had the garden ripped out, membrane laid down and stones poured on. It's functional, but does make me sad knowing how much pride had gone into it in the past.

People do still take pride though, as you say. After all, I'm far younger than those we're talking about but I always keep the front swept and pressure washed, put hanging baskets out along the front, sweep the gutter, etc. Definitely no 'donkey stoning' the front steps any more, though!

 

[Winglet]

I am all for putting a bit of nature back in to our concrete cities.
This February I planted 4 fruit trees on council land and added a few hawthorn bushes to replenish the hedge that had been damaged at the back of the street.
The council guy who cuts the grass has even been careful round the trees and several people have said it is great.
We all need to do our bit.

 

[securespark]

She was the last 'original resident' of that road, having lived there since 1947. They're all gone now and the new owners, although alright to talk to do not care a jot for 'curb appeal' -- none have maintained the patch of land on the front, they all park on it and have torn it up with tyre tracks.

That's sadly down to the massive increase in car ownership since the end of the war.

The Council could cut into the land and make a layby or parking spaces which would look a whole lot better than the current situation.

 

[cwhaley]

That's sadly down to the massive increase in car ownership since the end of the war.

The Council could cut into the land and make a layby or parking spaces which would look a whole lot better than the current situation.

Reasonably solution I think! It's about 25 - 30 ft. wide and runs along the front of 14 houses. The council are at least aware of it and trying to stop being doing it, but it's down to the local councilors raising it as an issue (usually around local election time).

I don't think my Uncle had a car until 1953 and like all the other blokes, push biked in to work at the local lace factory!

 

[Odds]

Recently there has been a trend to convert vegetated garden space to hard standing area (i.e. a move from ‘green’ to ‘grey’ in garden styles). Front gardens particularly, are commonly paved over to facilitate off-road car parking (e.g. 56 % of front gardens in Edinburgh, UK, Kelly, 2018). This along with patio construction and a desire for lower maintenance gardens has resulted in the loss of vegetated areas (by 40–75 %) and greater soil sealing (≤60 % in the Netherlands) in the last 2 decades (Stobbelaar et al. 2021). Such trends have implications for flooding and urban heating at a city scale. Well-vegetated landscapes reduce rain-water run-off by 44–50 % (Kadaverugu et al. 2021), through plants detaining rainwater in their canopies, and non-sealed soils allowing better infiltration of water.

Plants cool the local environment via shading and evapotranspiration, improving human thermal comfort and mitigate urban heat island phenomena. Garden plants typically cool the air by 2–3 °C and surface temperature by 10–15 °C (Cameron et al., 2014, Zhang, 2020). Garden trees, hedges, shrubs and climbers also protect buildings from cold winds and low temperatures in winter, and improve building energy efficiency by 20–30 % (Cameron et al. 2015). Similarly, such garden features mitigate noise (Van Renterghem, 2019), and make sounds seem less intrusive when they visually block its source. Conversely, machinery such as lawn mowers enhance noise nuisance (Dittrich and Spellerberg, 2016). Increasingly, vegetated barriers are used to protect garden space from air pollution, for example from vehicles on adjacent roadways. Plants with fine leaves, hairs or waxy leaf cuticles are particularly useful at absorbing particulate matter (del Carmen Redondo-Bermúdez et al. 2021). Some plants should be avoided though as volatiles or pollen from them can reduce air quality or induce allergenic reactions (e.g. Betula spp.).

Urban Forestry & Urban Greening @sciencedirect.com

 

[wobs]

Recently there has been a trend to convert vegetated garden space to hard standing area (i.e. a move from ‘green’ to ‘grey’ in garden styles). Front gardens particularly, are commonly paved over to facilitate off-road car parking (e.g. 56 % of front gardens in Edinburgh, UK, Kelly, 2018). This along with patio construction and a desire for lower maintenance gardens has resulted in the loss of vegetated areas (by 40–75 %) and greater soil sealing (≤60 % in the Netherlands) in the last 2 decades (Stobbelaar et al. 2021). Such trends have implications for flooding and urban heating at a city scale. Well-vegetated landscapes reduce rain-water run-off by 44–50 % (Kadaverugu et al. 2021), through plants detaining rainwater in their canopies, and non-sealed soils allowing better infiltration of water.

Urban Forestry & Urban Greening @sciencedirect.com

Indeed. After the floods in 2007, Hull has pushed for people to not pave gardens with non-permeable surfaces, as it increases the flood risk.

 

[Odds]

Indeed. After the floods in 2007, Hull has pushed for people to not pave gardens with non-permeable surfaces, as it increases the flood risk.

The area shown here corresponds with the ancient wetlands and marshes, prevalent during the Paleolithic era. Further evidence for this can still be seen on this map which illustrates the discovery of boats from that period. We've built so much over the land and reclaimed a large percentage for farming and building homes but as the ice caps melt, sea levels rise and reclaims all our hard work.

 

[wobs]

The area shown here corresponds with the ancient wetlands and marshes, prevalent during the Paleolithic era. Further evidence for this can still be seen on this map which illustrates the discovery of boats from that period. We've built so much over the land and reclaimed a large percentage for farming and building homes but as the ice caps melt, sea levels rise and reclaims all our hard work.

Oh, I know. There are developments in the Humber area for controlled retreat, where defences have been moved back to accommodate greater flows. Also, Hull has seen higher defences in many places, for Humber defences.

I know a small patch of land that replicates the marshes of prehistory in this area.

However, the 2007 floods were down to rainfall. The whole of the city relies on pumps to take away rainfall and sewage. The more we concrete over, the more rainfall ends up in the drains in one go in a heavy rainfall situation.

 

[Odds]

A £50m scheme to protect thousands of homes from flooding by the autumn has been pulled by the Environment Agency.

Businesses that put together bids for the scheme to provide homes in England with flood defences including flood doors, non-return valves and waterproof floors, say they have spent tens of thousands preparing their bids.

But on Tuesday the EA said the tender process was being pulled. In an email to companies, the EA said: “Following careful consideration the Environment Agency has decided to discontinue the current procurement of a new property flood resilience (PFR) framework that was commenced earlier this year.

The EA said they were pulling the scheme because they had not received enough competent tenders to provide value for money. But Simon Crowther, who runs one of the companies that bid for the work, said the EA had made the process so complicated and costly it had put people off bidding.

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It appears @wobs will have to buy a bigger boat when the rains come again...or anybody else living around the coast or one of those new builds on a floodplain. Good luck, say the EA. Y'all on your own. 'The project was pulled by the EA as the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) revealed only a third of local authorities had enough staff to manage flash flood risks.'

Understaffed; underpaid; underwater.

Tory Britain. Sinking fast.