Landlord Told To Replace Triple Glazing With Single Pane Sash Windows

The new stained glass in the porch

Conservation areas exist to manage and protect the special architectural and historic interest of a place - in other words, the features that make it unique. Every local authority in England has at least one conservation area and there are around 10,000 in England. Portsmouth has 30 and this one comprises 5 distinct groups of houses in the Campbell Road area of Southsea, protected by Article 4 Directions between 2008 and 2010 to protect the 'Leafy 19^th century suburb'.

You can debate whether 5 groups of houses interspersed by developments from the 1930's to the 1960's is actually a leafy 19^th century suburb or not, but it is interesting that the owners can do anything they like to their properties as long as they get planning permission for any change to the front windows, front door, chimneys or painting of any brickwork on the front façade.

As each pair of houses was unique at time of build, and all have been altered since – plus many have had porches added and front walls removed or changed, it is hard to ascertain what precisely PCC are trying to conserve here – especially as when the Conservation area was established, around two thirds of the properties already had uPVC windows.

Front wall restored to original style using bricks which perfectly match the house facade

Let's be honest – it is an HMO and neighbours and councillors hate HMO's.

In this case, the house has been refurbished to a high standard – the nasty 1960's front wall was pulled down and replaced with something in keeping with the original, the porch was restored and the stained glass lovingly repaired and rotting windows were replaced with triple glazed uPVC ones….

A neighbour complained about the windows and the owner was told he would need to apply for retrospective planning permission. He did so and it was refused.

Then PCC Planning decided to issue an enforcement notice stating that he had breached Conservation area rules and would need to remove the triple glazed uPVC windows and replace them with single glazed sash windows.

Why single glazed you may ask? We have no idea – sash windows can be bought / made with double glazing these days but triple glazing is too heavy and thus it is a choice between 'the most energy efficient glazing available today' or 'something with a sash' as the 2 are mutually exclusive. It is possible to get uPVC double glazed sash windows, which in theory would meet the PCC criteria – but that just goes to show the imprecision of their documentation, as we are sure it is the material they object to and not the way it opens.