p is for fabled pavements

i know my train of thought can start somewhere normal and end up at an ode station and so listing to people on the radio talking about ugh boot can result in me thinking that pavements shouldn't be paved in which case maybe we should call them sidewalks like our friends over the pond do. (but there is no such thing as an eggplant)

so basically someone was on radio 4 say ugh boot are bad for you if you wear the outside because they don't absorb the impact from the hard pavement and this over time can damage your joints. i though this was a bit unfair blaming it all on the ugh boots and not asking why ground outside if harder that the floor inside.
and this started me thinking what is the point of incasing our walkway in concrete,stone of tarmac and the only thing i could think of was to stop our shoes getting muddy. but i could think of a number of reasons not to
1. cost: i hate to think how much taxpayer's money we spend on paving every year
2. health: not just the ugh issue but think of all the people who end up in a and e after tripping over a uneven paving slabs. (this also means less cost for the NHS
3. drainage. more rain water being absorb by the ground would mean less strain on the sewer system
4. biodiversity: i shore more things live on the bare grown than on a pavement
5. maintenance: if the ground get to uneven you can just shovel some more dirt down and when to need to dig it up to get at something underneath you don't need a nosey Jackhammer

if any one can give me a better reason for having hard pavements please post a comment

ps. mugs mugs mugs