Keeping a watching brief
Our secretary provides an insight into how the committee deals with numerous planning applications throughout a typical month.
“I’m concerned about my neighbours. There are bags of rubble outside the front door and I don’t think there is a planning application for any work they might be having done. I’m especially concerned as the house is listed.” This type of message is received by members of the Committee more frequently than one might imagine.
To clarify, Historic England states that listing “marks and celebrates a building’s special architectural and historic interest, and also brings it under the consideration of the planning system, so that it can be protected for future generations.” All pre-1700 buildings in anything approximating their original condition are listed, as are most built between 1700 and 1840.
Working on information received, rstly recent planning applications are scrutinised to ensure that it is not one which fell through the net and was not, as is usually the case, passed to the Committee by South Kesteven District Council for our Society’s comments.
If it is apparent that the homeowner has not gone through the proper channels – unfortunately a reasonably common occurrence – we notify the Planning Of cer in Grantham, providing as much information as we can glean about the type of work being carried out. Sometimes a member of the Committee may go along and strike up a conversation with the builders to see if any further useful information can be elicited.
So what happens next? Ian Wright, SKDC’s Principal Conservation Officer, may call a halt to the work and may call for specialist advice from bodies such as Historic England. Having consulted experts, the property may have to be repaired and returned to its original condition. As stated on the Lincolnshire County Council website: “carrying out unauthorised work to a listed building is a criminal offence... and the district council can require you to put the building back as it was.”
Recently we were alerted to a lot of work being done to the interior of a town centre property. The neighbour had noticed bags of rubble on the pavement yet had not been able to find a relevant planning application and knew that it was a Grade 2 listed property with an undercroft. Again, our Chairman immediately contacted Ian Wright at SKDC and a few weeks later a planning application duly appeared for our scrutiny.
It transpired that a stone barrel vault had been discovered by chance eighteen years earlier when the previous owner had taken down the partition behind the timber staircase and discovered stone steps leading down to it. This was a long time after the survey had been carried out by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments back in 1977 and therefore, being unrecorded, alterations could have passed unnoticed.
Following our intervention, it was agreed that an heritage impact assessment was essential and there was particular concern about the proposals for the undercroft. Historic England was approached to visit the premises and decide on the age of the vault, considered to be at least early eighteenth century. The Architectural Advisors‘ detailed comments were passed on for consideration by SKDC. None of this would have occurred without the Civic Society receiving notification and acting on it.
One has to wonder why the owners chose a listed building with all the hassle that is involved in altering any part of it if they wished to modernise it to their taste. Perhaps they thought they would not be caught out. Let’s hope that word spreads and other homeowners think twice before attacking the fabric of a listed building.
Without our diligence and our members’ support we would be unable to halt the ruin of unique historic buildings and future owners and Stamford would be the worse for it.
“I’m concerned about my neighbours. There are bags of rubble outside the front door and I don’t think there is a planning application for any work they might be having done. I’m especially concerned as the house is listed.” This type of message is received by members of the Committee more frequently than one might imagine.
To clarify, Historic England states that listing “marks and celebrates a building’s special architectural and historic interest, and also brings it under the consideration of the planning system, so that it can be protected for future generations.” All pre-1700 buildings in anything approximating their original condition are listed, as are most built between 1700 and 1840.
Working on information received, rstly recent planning applications are scrutinised to ensure that it is not one which fell through the net and was not, as is usually the case, passed to the Committee by South Kesteven District Council for our Society’s comments.
If it is apparent that the homeowner has not gone through the proper channels – unfortunately a reasonably common occurrence – we notify the Planning Of cer in Grantham, providing as much information as we can glean about the type of work being carried out. Sometimes a member of the Committee may go along and strike up a conversation with the builders to see if any further useful information can be elicited.
So what happens next? Ian Wright, SKDC’s Principal Conservation Officer, may call a halt to the work and may call for specialist advice from bodies such as Historic England. Having consulted experts, the property may have to be repaired and returned to its original condition. As stated on the Lincolnshire County Council website: “carrying out unauthorised work to a listed building is a criminal offence... and the district council can require you to put the building back as it was.”
Recently we were alerted to a lot of work being done to the interior of a town centre property. The neighbour had noticed bags of rubble on the pavement yet had not been able to find a relevant planning application and knew that it was a Grade 2 listed property with an undercroft. Again, our Chairman immediately contacted Ian Wright at SKDC and a few weeks later a planning application duly appeared for our scrutiny.
It transpired that a stone barrel vault had been discovered by chance eighteen years earlier when the previous owner had taken down the partition behind the timber staircase and discovered stone steps leading down to it. This was a long time after the survey had been carried out by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments back in 1977 and therefore, being unrecorded, alterations could have passed unnoticed.
Following our intervention, it was agreed that an heritage impact assessment was essential and there was particular concern about the proposals for the undercroft. Historic England was approached to visit the premises and decide on the age of the vault, considered to be at least early eighteenth century. The Architectural Advisors‘ detailed comments were passed on for consideration by SKDC. None of this would have occurred without the Civic Society receiving notification and acting on it.
One has to wonder why the owners chose a listed building with all the hassle that is involved in altering any part of it if they wished to modernise it to their taste. Perhaps they thought they would not be caught out. Let’s hope that word spreads and other homeowners think twice before attacking the fabric of a listed building.
Without our diligence and our members’ support we would be unable to halt the ruin of unique historic buildings and future owners and Stamford would be the worse for it.
