The chairman of a Welsh council’s planning committee said authorities across Wales are struggling to cope with the thousands of listed buildings under their care.
It comes after a claim by an architectural historian that mistakes are being made by planning departments because of the burgeoning workloads, after heritage body Cadw handed the responsibility for listed properties to local authorities.
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Detrimental to Grade II listed property
The debate ignited after the owner of a listed building was ordered to remove solar panels from a barn at his Grade II listed property. The owner had been told when he bought the property that it was not listed.
Carmarthenshire council forced the owner of the Grade II-listed farmhouse in Brechfa to remove solar panels from a barn behind his property.
Bobby Bazalgette spent £70,000 restoring the listed house and added solar panels to an unlisted barn.
The council said the panels were “detrimental to the setting of a listed building” and has ordered him to remove them or face prosecution.
He lost an appeal over the decision and said he is “devastated”.
Before Mr Bazalgette bought the house, the council said it was not listed when, in fact, it was.
But Mr Lenny said the building was a particularly significant one and that the barn was also significant as it lies in the curtilage of the listed property.
He said: “Fforest in Brechfa is a very ancient house, parts of which date back to Tudor times. This property is so old that some of the windows are arrow slits. The newest part of the house has Georgian widows but it has a Jacobean staircase, and on the upper floor is a small window of Tudor origin, and a number of other windows of the arrow slit type.”
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Restoration work orderd
After moving in, Carmarthenshire Council advised Mr Bazalgette in 1998 that property was in fact listed, and he had to restore the house after previous owners had made alterations.
The council admitted it made an initial mistake and had to pay Mr Bazalgette about £65,000 in damages and costs.
In a statement, the authority said it “does not target owners of listed buildings” but added it will investigate breaches of planning controls, with prosecution a “last resort”.
Julian Orbach, who listed buildings for Cadw in the 1980s and 1990s, said: “There is a problem with pursuing people who are doing their best to keep up listed buildings, while other things are just falling apart.
“My feeling is that the solar panels are neither here nor there in the context of an important, historic building in Carmarthenshire. They really are unimportant.”
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But Mr Lenny, who chairs Carmarthenshire council’s planning committee, said this particular property was “genuinely one of Carmarthenshire’s older and architecturally significant houses.”
He said: “The problem is you need planning permission to put alternative energy schemes in listed buildings – which is possible- but every case needs to be assessed on its individual merits. Often those who sell these schemes don’t advise about the listed status of a property. The legal onus is on the property owner to establish planning merits.”
Mr Lenny said the authority has 1,800 listed buildings which it must oversee but it has only one conservation officer.
He said the system, thanks to so many listed buildings, is “sagging under the weight of regulation and enforcement.”
Open to interpretation
Mr Baker said the case raises wider concerns.
“I think that the planning laws and guidance are quite open to interpretation and you can see that with the different approaches of the local authorities,” he told the BBC.
“Cadw, since it’s been taken into the Welsh government, really has lost its edge.
“Everything is passed to local authorities who just can’t cope with the added pressure of looking after historic buildings and mistakes happen. I think the case in Carmarthenshire is an example of this.”
The Welsh Government said new guidance will be rolled out.
Deputy Culture Minister Ken Skates said: “New guidance, which will accompany our Historic Environment (Wales) Bill, aims to build on this further by introducing measures that will ensure there is a more careful and consistent management of change to listed buildings across Wales.”
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