On Wed, 08 Nov 2006 22:52:01 +0000 Alex Heney wrote :
Just what is you f&^#ing problem? It's bad enough that we have these
idiotic conservation rules, without people like you going round
reporting others.

There wouldn't be any point in conservation areas if people did not
report breaches of the rules.

From your response, I would guess you think there isn't any point. I
think most people would disagree.

Conservation areas should be like grade A levels, i.e. be a mark of
something of particular merit. Most of them are just another street of
Victorian spec-build. Perhaps in this LA (LBRuT) there might be a case
for 10, even perhaps 20, but we have something like 70!! Like A level
grade A CA status now means a bit better than average, not excellent.

What has not been mentioned so far are the costs they impose on society.
Acres of low density Victoriana round here (within walking distance of
rail, bus and shops) could be, and would be, redeveloped were it not for
CA status. Instead new homes are pushed out into areas which are not well
served with consequent traffic generation. And they insult us by calling
it conservation. At my church we could rebuilt the halls and provide some
really first rate community facilities. It's CA so no point in talking to
the planners - best we can do is to work on the existing buildings and
end up with something much less good. Do the planners care? No, people
take second place to old buildings.

The irony is that all this conservation is about preserving what was
built when there was no control and people could just get on and build
what they wanted or what would make a profit.

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk