Mrs M’s house is in a Conservation area with an Article 4 Directive (local planning authority restrictions on permitted development rights). The owner wished to upgrade original ailing, single glazed timber windows with double glazed timber replacements to achieve the following:
- Improve the appearance and overall thermal insulation of the house
- Provide easy window operation & further ventilation options and do away with what she felt was the ‘obtrusive’ secondary glazing
- Put an end to the inconvenience and cost of repetitive maintenance for windows passed their prime
On behalf of Mrs M we undertook a planning application which the local council flatly refused, even though the proposed double glazed replacements that we designed, mirrored the original period detail, profiles and fenestration, on the basis that the introduction of double glazing would be out of character and would ‘harm’ both the look of the house and Conservation area.
Mrs M then commissioned us to prepare an appeal proposal to the Government Building Inspectorate in which we put forward the rationale for replacements together with detailed drawings and a sample window. This appeal was subsequently approved with the following conclusion by the Inspectorate:“I consider the proposal would preserve the character and appearance of the Conservation area and shall allow the appeal” We have since undertaken many successful planning applications and appeals in the same area and elsewhere.
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