Driveway residents facing action

Up to 35 residents of a Coventry estate face enforcement action after digging up their lawns and replacing them with driveways.

The city council says Daimler Green is a green zone and planning permission should have been sought.

Their MP Geoffrey Robinson said the council must accept some responsibility as the residents clearly did not know about "the rules".

The council is meeting on Thursday to decide if action will be taken.

Mr Robinson, the Labour MP for Coventry North West, said he fully supported the residents as 35 was a high number for so many people to have carried out the work if they had known they needed planning permission.

I have got a hedge and borders and shrubs in front of the window Resident Karen Rowley

He said: "The council must have to accept a certain amount of responsibility for not stressing enough to residents the emphasis of 'open green spaces' at the time properties were being bought on the Daimler Green Estate.

"So I think the council are guilty of a lack of information, and in one case complete misinformation."

Karen Rowley of Bardley Drive said she did not think it was to do with green spaces.

"It is because of people not having planning permission," she said.

"I have got a hedge and borders and shrubs in front of the window. I don't need any grass to make my property look any greener."

A spokesman for the county council said a lot of effort was put into landscaping when the estate was built

"For this reason a specific planning condition was attached which requires that any additional hardstanding in front gardens should not be built without planning permission," he said.