Block Paving in Liphook: Why the Council Is Finally Checking Whose Driveway Actually Drains

A customer out toward Griggs Green rang last month wanting a resurfacing quote and asked, half-joking, whether he'd get a letter from the council about it. He might, as it happens. The rule that anything over 5 square metres of new driveway at the front of a house needs either a permeable surface or its own soakaway has been on the books since 2008, but enforcement has been patchy at best — that's changing now as councils get more nervous about surface water flooding after the downpours we've had the last couple of winters.

It's not complicated to get right. Permeable block paving — Marshalls Tegula or Brett Omega both do a jointed version — lets water pass straight through gaps filled with 2–6mm grit rather than kiln-dried sand, down into an open-graded Type 3 sub-base that acts as its own temporary soakaway before it drains away naturally. No pipework, no attenuation tank, just the right build-up.

The bit people skip is the falls. A driveway needs a fall of around 1:60 to shed surface water properly, and on a flat plot around Conford or the lower end of Longmoor Road that means getting the sub-base levels right before a single block goes down, not adjusting afterwards.

Impermeable options — resin bond, standard block on a sand joint — aren't banned. But you need somewhere for the water to go on your own land, and a lot of older Liphook driveways were never built with that in mind, which is exactly what's catching people out now.

Peter Beasley has been building driveways and patios around Liphook since 1987, permeable or otherwise, and can tell you honestly which one suits your plot before you commit to anything — more at peterbeasley.co.uk.

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