This letter is in response to the news that Oxfordshire County Council is planning to bring in charges for residents' parking in Oxford (Oxford Mail, February 22).

As a garden designer, I notice increasingly how home owners are paving over their front gardens to make parking spaces for their cars.

This is an unfortunate trend, socially, economically and environmentally.

It will be a rising trend if home owners are charged for parking outside their properties.

Socially: Every time I work in my front garden, passersby stop and comment or chat. It can lead to plant swapping and friendship. One gets to know neighbours, and the flowers brighten their day. How dull if all our gardens were to be hard paving -- in some roads, this is already a reality.

Economically: We are increasingly aware of the problems of flooding. One contributing factor is the run-off from paved-over front gardens. I wonder if the council might do long-term evaluations along these lines? Will the charges from residents' parking be put towards better flood defences, or the fire service's drying-out activities?

Environmentally: As a child, I lived in south east London, where gardens were lovingly tended and pavements planted with trees and shrubs. How I wish this was more common today. In all the commotion over Cornmarket Street in Oxford, not once did I hear any idea of planting trees. Just think how pleasant that might have been in years to come.

Trees absorb harmful fumes and clean the atmosphere. Gardens are havens for wildlife -- insects, birds etc.

When you turn into a tree-lined street, you immediately feel better.

I urge all home owners in Oxford to plant a tree in their front garden.

We English are renowned for our gardens.

I fear that the moment our council starts charging residents for parking spaces, there will be a collective movement of cars into gardens. HELEN NUNN, Derwent Avenue, Headington, Oxford