Conservation rules risk clashes with residents over their homes

Just two months ago, residents discovered that they could be forced to pay 150 for satellite dishes put up on the front of their homes.

Now planners at Hull Council are looking at imposing further controls on what they can do with their homes.

In future, householders in the Avenues and Pearson Park conservation area could have to apply for planning permission if they want to replace slate or clay tiles with concrete tiles; reduce or remove chimney stacks and remove or replace "decorative and distinctive" timber barge boards.

The same could apply if they want to replace front doors with "non-distinctive doors in PVCu or other inappropriate materials" or remove, replace or enclose original front porches, but no fees would be charged.

A report to the Wyke area committee on November 17 admits the move could cause a public backlash – warning it could lead to "anti-conservation sentiment."

There would be full public consultation before a conclusion is reached on the proposals put forward by the Avenues and Pearson Park Residents' Association.

Chairman of APPRA Stephanie Wilson said: "We are happy that they are implementing an initiative that started some years ago. We think it is necessary to consult widely in order to carry everyone with us willingly."

APPRA has already run into controversy for lobbying for action on satellite dishes installed on the front of houses in the conservation area without planning consent. However APPRA says the same restrictions apply in other conservation areas nationwide.

Mrs Wilson said: "We aren't dreaming these rules up in order to spoil other people's lives. In the case of satellite dishes there's a national embargo."

She added: "If you resent these restrictions don't live in a conservation area."

However a resident of Pearson Park, who declined to be named, said: "While I understand the desire to protect the integrity of what is an attractive conservation area, I am sure many people would dislike being told what they can and cannot do with their own homes.

"An area's identity is surely made up of the people who live there who may want to live slightly differently to their neighbours.

"Some of these people may embrace change and may not wish to feel as if they are stuck in the 19th century."

In 2009 a survey of local authorities found one in seven of the conservation areas had deteriorated in the last three years – with unsympathetic replacement doors and windows identified as a "key issue" in the vast majority of cases.

The report adds: "Across the country the most significant threat to the character of conservation areas comes from the simple loss of historic building details such as traditional windows and doors, boundary walls and roof coverings."

Planners would bring in the changes by removing so-called "permitted development rights" which allow householders to make minor alterations without having to seek planning permission.

This has to be done by an "article four" direction. Hull Council is looking at introducing three more into the area. There are currently two "article four" directions in place in the avenues, governing the removal or alteration of windows and creating an access onto the highway.

The directions don't mean that alterations will not be permitted, as each application is treated on a case by case basis. Plastic windows have been approved in the Avenues, as recently as this week.

Homes built for the middle-class

Historians describe the Avenues as the "most extensive area of Victorian middle-class housing in Hull."

The 230-acre estate, originally known as the Princess Bank or Westbourne Park was laid out for a local shipowner and shipbuilder David Parkinson Garbutt in 1874. It consists of the north section of Princes Avenue, four main east-west avenues and two lesser north-south streets.