The Yellow Brick Road

Why do estate builders insist on building footpaths (and extended driveways serving several houses) out of colourful bricks (block paving) rather than Tarmac. I know that it looks better for a short period of time, but then it breaks up and grows weeds at an alarming rate of knots.

Ladygrove has seveal paths made of block paving. Almost without exception, these have grass or weeds growing between the bricks at least 4 courses in from either side, reducing the width of the path. In several places there are big holes where one or more of the blocks has worked loose (or been vandalised). These are either left as a serious trip hazard for weeks on end, or are repaired using tarmac. It is obviously too expensive to maintain them properly...

There are areas of the estate, for example behind the shops, where over half the blocks have been removed and there is now just an expanse of sand 6 inches lower down. The blocks have been used for target practice at someone's windows.

Also, the estate suffers from serious problems of subsidence, especially in the summer, due to the atrocious drainage on clay with no topsoil whatsoever. This means that the blocks move around and become more easy to be lost of have large gaps between them.

If the council were going to allow the developers to use block pavia, surely they should have made sure they had enough respurce to properly maintain them all.

They are now a serious trip hazard over large stretches, look awful due to the weeds and have lost any colour as the paint has long since worn off.

Here ends the lesson.