Conservation Area Windows

Some time ago Brent's Planning Committee had two contrasting cases of window replacement in a Conservation Area, that is dealt with in radically different ways.

Windows in conservation areas have been a hot topic in the past couple of years. Traditionally, Brent insisted on wooden replacements in areas like Queens Park, Mapesbury and Barnhill. Some people didn't like this because wooden windows tend to be more expensive than uPVC. In some cases at least, uPVC can be virtually indistinguishable from wooden. The policy has therefore been relaxed over the past year to allow some uPVC windows.

However, my view is that a recent decision in Barn Way relaxes it so much as to make enforcement in the Barnhill Conservation Area virtually impossible. Officers were recommending refusal for a house with some very poorly desiggned windows with grossly uneven sightlines. The Committee overturned their recommendation (although all three Labour members supported the officers' view).

Strangely we subsequently had an extremely lengthy discussion of wooden windows in Keyes Road in the Mapesbury Conservation Area where the Planning Committee seemed quite happy to impose stringent conditions on a Housing Association.

The Mapesbury Residents Association (MAPRA) will be pleased with the result they got, but I wonder what the Barnhill residents will think about the Committee making their Conservation Area into virtually a dead letter. I suspect that the effective result of that night will be that officers redirect their limited enforcement resource to areas and subject where the Committee will uphold their actions, which will not include the Barnhill Conservation Area.