Thanks to Retired Hack for this report from Monday night’s Niton parish meeting. In his own words. Ed
Isle of Wight Council plans to create a Conservation Area (CA) in parts of Niton have been given a frosty reception by villagers.
Formal consultation on the scheme won’t begin until the New Year, but this week the Council sent an officer to a parish council meeting to extol the virtues of CAs.
The idea is to preserve the character of the built environment, but this is done by making householders apply for planning permission for things everyone else is allowed to get on with without interference.
Examples are replacing doors and windows – wood is good, uPVC less so – making hard-standings for cars, work on fences, hedges and trees, putting up satellite dishes, changing exterior paint colours, and any kind of demolition.
“Houses are there to be lived in, not looked at”
One Nitonite at the meeting said: “I think the poor lady turned up thinking she was doing us a favour, but the reaction was fairly uniformly negative. The general feeling was that houses are there to be lived in, not looked at, and in the end all these extra restrictions are going to cost money.
“People put in uPVC windows because they’re the most cost-effective way of keeping the weather out and fuel bills down. CAs have to be exempted from the insulation rules under Building Regs because single-glazed wooden windows are so inefficient.”
CAs help IWC meet Government targets
The Niton resident went on, “And we had to tell her that in Niton, we need satellite dishes to get DAB radio because there’s no normal signal.”
“Some of us have tried hard in the past to get the IW planning people to enforce the present rules, and frankly it’s been a bad joke. Now they want to take a lot more powers.
“Apparently the Council is supposed to meet Government targets in setting up these schemes – we get points, explained the lady – but what’s the point on coming to a place like Niton and trying to micro-manage the way we live?”
Image: Uberculture under CC BY 2.0
