Planners have rejected a request to allow a number of new homes in the Keswick area to keep their Welsh slate roofs, following a requirement to use local materials instead.
The Lake District National Park Authority’s development control committee refused an application to remove a requirement that five new-build homes in Braithwaite use local slate – mined or quarried in Cumbria – for their roofs.
This requirement formed part of the original planning permission for the development, however Welsh slate was instead used for the construction of the five new properties at Hopegill Gardens, Thelmlea.
The developer, Atkinson Homes, noted in its application documents that Welsh slate has been used “extensively within the area”.
However, members of the development control committee took a dim view of the decision not to use Cumbrian slate with eight of the nine members agreeing not to allow the requirement to be removed.
Committee member Jim Jackson said: “It’s beginning to feel like we’re being ignored in terms of the conditions we put on.
“We put conditions on for a reason. If they’re not complied with, I think people should be made to rectify that situation.”
Member Hugh Branney added that he felt the committee should take a “hard line” on the matter.
“It appears to me to be a deliberate breach of condition,” he said. “It’s happening time and time again, and I think this an opportunity to take a stand.”
He added that he felt there would be “reputational harm” to the authority if the committee did not “take a line” on this matter.
Committee member Mark Kidd added that it was “annoying” when planning conditions are not complied with, but pointed out that it is “not illegal to do that”.
“It’s only illegal if there’s an enforcement notice,” he said.
Mr Kidd did however note later in the discussion that the “local distinctiveness” of the area had to be considered.
Development control committee chairman Geoff Davies questioned the harm in planning terms of the Welsh slate being allowed to remain.
“A lot of people wouldn’t be able to distinguish the slate that’s been put on from the slate that was requested,” he said, adding that it was a development that is not very visible from public areas.
However, committee members concluded by voting overwhelmingly in favour of rejecting the application to remove the condition, meaning that the requirement to use local Cumbrian slate still stands.
