Brighton & Hove · Resident-led
Every slab laid over a Brighton front garden sends more rain into our sewers, more sewage into the sea and more heat into our streets. The Protection League exists to stop the paving — and to bring the greenery back.
Why it matters
For years, homeowners have paved over front gardens — usually for car parking — without realising the harm to their neighbourhood and to the planet. The explosion of paved area across Brighton & Hove is a major contributor to:
Rain no longer soaks into soil. It runs straight off hard standing into overloaded sewers and.
Excess run-off overwhelms the sewer network, which then overflows — sending sewage into the Adur, the Ouse and the sea off Brighton.
Soil and greenery cool the air. Replace them with slabs and resin and whole streets bake through every heatwave.
Front gardens are stepping stones for bees, hedgehogs and birds. Paving removes habitat and pollinator numbers fall with it.
Grey, unwelcoming frontages drain the character from Brighton's terraces and villas — and the pleasure of walking your own street.
“What can I do to help?” One answer is literally on your doorstep.
Our two urgent campaigns
Campaign one
Lamppost charge points are being installed across Brighton at speed and seemingly at random; hard-wiring kerbside car charging into streets before residents have been properly consulted. We are calling for an immediate pause and full community input into a plan that protects front gardens from being paved over.
Campaign two
Wherever it is possible, every household should be able to keep at least one protected, green, on-street space. A Green Plaque space is a formal recognition that a household has kept — or restored — a planted front garden, so that keeping your garden green never means losing your place to park.
Restoring a front garden is a simple but powerful tool against climate change — and it starts with a few square metres.
Our aims
Help householders and property owners understand why de-paving and re-greening matters — and how to install SuDS: rain gardens, rain planters and water butts that capture rainwater where it falls.
Promote householder action through a Brighton Front Gardens Network, backing the street-level groups already doing this work across the city.
Ask Brighton & Hove City Council to adopt policies that support de-paving and re-greening, and that reduce the impact of converting front gardens for parking.
Seek funding for neighbourhood scale de-paving and re-greening schemes, delivered by local partnerships of residents, the council and contractors.
Ask national organisations and government to change policy and law so there are real incentives to de-pave, re-green and install SuDS.
Take action
We are a resident-led league of neighbours, gardeners and street groups. Everything we do begins with people on their own doorsteps.
Add your street to the map of Brighton residents defending their front gardens.
Lift a slab, plant it up, add a water butt. Small de-paving spreads fast along a terrace.
Ask for a pause on the EV lamppost roll-out and for Green Plaque parking spaces.