HERITAGE
Changing perceptions
Alan Burgess , MD of Masterframe , employs a specialist town planner to help his customers overcome the perception of our industry held by most planners and conservation officers , which is not always a good one .
PLANNING FRUSTRATIONS
Conservation officers are concerned with the amount of frame material showing , the visible sight lines and seeing windows incorrectly fitted . They dislike having the styles changed , ( sash to casements of instance ), inappropriate replacements like when old boxes are left in-situ with aluminium or plastic inserts or shoddy architraves and silicone .
They much prefer windows of similar proportion , windows fitted correctly behind the reveals with wood grained finishes , traditional butt jointed construction and authentic detailing .
Installers meanwhile find the whole “ approval ” process frustrating . Unable to fit what they want , they dislike the bureaucracy , the costly and time consuming applications and find there ’ s no consistency between departments or authorities .
They also find that the authorities often have outdated policy documents , are unaware of recent regulatory changes , and totally unaware ( and unwilling to consider ) the latest product developments .
Unwilling to stick out their necks and approve a new product , they turn to Historic England for guidance , rather than consider any “ modern ” alternative , believing wood is good and nothing else should be considered . Their reaction is therefore quite interesting when they ’ re informed that that sealed units were first patented in 1865 , yes over 150 years ago !
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS
So what are the common misconceptions , how can installers use the rules to their advantage ?
Well firstly , Historic England only offer advice , they don ’ t make any decisions . All decisions are taken at a local level via the Local Authority ; they must follow the NPPF , the National Planning and Policy Framework .
What most homeowners ( and installers ) do not know is that the vast majority of homes have Permitted Development Rights , that ’ s to say that permission has already been granted for the owners to “ develop ” their home i . e . change their windows , the only proviso is that windows must be of “ similar ” appearance . This also applies to conservations areas . If a normal house with single occupancy , no commercial or rented accommodation in a conservation area , has permitted development rights , then no further permission is needed . However rented accommodation , flats or multiple use buildings always need permission as the permitted development rights will have been removed , meaning an application is necessary .
Secondly , installers don ’ t know that the NPPF actually states that a development that may be “ harmful ” should be permitted ( but normally isn ’ t , only developments that are likely to cause “ substantial harm ” should be refused .)
AN UPHILL TASK Whilst applications are tedious , time consuming and frankly a little complicated to get right , they are a necessary evil . All too often , applications are refused or turned down because the installer didn ’ t explain the changes in sufficient detail . Planning authorities need to visualise the impact the proposal will have on the building and neighbourhood . Scale drawings of before and after are pretty well mandatory .
Unfortunately , unlike Building Regulations ( which either comply or not ) planning restrictions are a question of perception , personal preference of the planner or conservation officer . Until the rules are changed or we as an industry become more professional with applications , the challenge of changing perceptions of the industry will remain an uphill task .
Masterframe has had a number of interesting articles written for them by Michael Thornton , a town planner , specifically to help its installers understand the challenges , improve their applications and overturn refusals . Read them at www . masterframe . co . uk / news / diy-planningapplication .
www . masterframe . co . uk
50 » OCT 2016 » CLEARVIEW-UK . COM