Christian McArdle wrote:
Local conservation officer has stated that he is looking for timber
windows. Given the sash style upvc ones that are available can he
insist on this as I am looking for low maintenance.

If you stuck a non-timber window in a conservation area near me, I'd be on
to you like a sack of bricks.

That doesn't alter the fact that the OP is perfectly entitled to
install upvc windows if that is what they desire.

If you approached me with that attitude, if I decided I wanted to
replace my wooden windows with upvc, you'd get an earful of abuse at
the very least.

My house belongs to me and if I decide to make relatively minor
alterations to it, then I will. If you don't like upvc, that's your
problem, not mine.

Do it properly. Decent timber windows are lower maintenance overall than
uPVC anyway.

That sentence and the next are mutually exclusive.

OK, you should repaint them every five years.

I've got both and the wooden windows need far more maintenance than the
upvc.

Do this and they
will last centuries. uPVC is often ********ed up within 10 or 20 years and
then needs total replacement.

Mine are 15 years old and work just as well as they did when they were
installed

I doubt if anyone would be able to tell the difference.

I can, as can anyone who like traditionally constructed buildings. If you
don't like nice buildings, don't buy in a conservation area, but get a
characterless hutch on a new estate.

Don't be so patronising. I didn't decide to buy in a conservation area,
the village I live in became one after I moved in. Oddly enough, my
house is the 1800s equivalent of a "characterless hutch", a two-up,
two-down semi built from the cheapest materials available (bricks from
local clay). If upvc windows had been available then they wouldn't have
been used, not because they "don't fit" but because they would have
been far more expensive than wooden windows from local materials.

Please don't ruin conservation areas
for the people who care enough to live in one.

If a house with upvc windows "ruins" a conservation area for you, then
you're far too sensitive for this life.

Cheers,

John