Only two people have been prosecuted for carrying out illegal alterations to listed buildings in Cheltenham in the past two years.

The Echo has discovered that Cheltenham Borough Council has only twice taken court action to prosecute, despite there being almost 100 instances of unauthorised work.

But council officers say that prosecution is the last resort in preserving the integrity of the borough’s almost 2,600 listed buildings.

The figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, revealed that in two criminal prosecutions, the offender was found guilty carrying out work without the relevant Listed Building consent.

They were ordered to pay £4,400 in both cases, including costs.

The figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, revealed that in 2013, there were 56 cases of suspected work carried out on properties without the relevant Listed Building consent. In 2014 there were 36.

In the last three months, Cheltenham Borough Council won two successful cases at court.

One was for unauthorised solar panels which were added to Ham Barn in Charlton Kings and the other was for unauthorised works to a listed building at 24 Lansdown Parade.

In July, mother of three Nina Salerno, 40, was taken to court by the authority for carrying out unauthorised work to her Grade II listed home in Lansdown Parade.

She pleaded guilty to offences including removing and replacing three fireplaces.

Magistrates ordered her to pay £2,500 of the council’s costs, a £15 victim surcharge, and she was given a two year conditional discharge.

In July, the house in Fairview on which the Banksy spies painting is painted has been the subject of enforcement action, when a 28-day stop notice was placed on it to prevent damage to internal walls, after it was believed workmen were due to remove the mural.

The Grade II listed house, owned by David Possee, was also subject to enforcement action to repair the render on its exterior.

Investigations into possible listed building consent infractions confirmed that 10 had unauthorised external works carried out in 2013 and 12 in 2014.

The figures also showed that in 2013, 25 cases were investigated and found to have of unauthorised internal works, whereas in 2014 the figure was six.

Cheltenham Borough Council revealed that 10 people found to have carried out illegal work in 2013 have since applied for retrospective consent and had it granted. Seven cases followed the same path in 2014.

The information also revealed that 17 cases were restored to a compliant state voluntarily in 2013 with one case of a property being restored to a compliant state following enforcement action.

Five properties were restored to a compliant state voluntarily this year.

There is still work to be done, however, as four cases have remained unauthorised since 2013 and are pending a decision on enforcement, and three fall into that category for this year.

Investigators found that 18 cases were unfounded in 2013 and 10 were cased of legitimate work being carried out in 2014.

At the time of going to press, six cases of suspected unauthorised work being carried out were still under investigation.

Five properties have had unauthorised work carried out on them in 2013, but the decision has been taken not to take any enforcement action against the owner. There was a single case in 2014.

Mark Nelson, built environment enforcement manager said: “Cheltenham’s legacy is its exceptional range of quality buildings designed and built primarily throughout the nineteenth century.

“Our enforcement team is committed to protecting the heritage of our beautiful town for future generations, and all proposed changes to listed buildings should come through our planning office before any work is carried out.

The whole of the building is listed including internal details such as fireplaces, plasterwork, and internal woodwork.

“In most cases people are very happy to take our advice and guidance on how best to move their project forward.

“We have also adopted a protocol to identify historic unauthorised changes to listed buildings (e.g. windows and doors) by writing to the current owners to record that these works must be rectified at the time of sale and change of ownership. All cases not rectified at this time will be subject to enforcement action.

“Prosecutions are only used by this authority in the most serious cases, usually where a satisfactory resolution cannot be achieved by working with the owner of a property.

“We will continue to carry out inspections and respond to complaints about unauthorised changes to listed buildings, using our statutory powers when necessary.”

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