Retrospective Listed Building Consent for a Grade II Listed Building in the Cotswolds

Things always seem to go wrong when you can’t do anything about them… Two days into the first lockdown back in March 2020 I got toothache… Couldn’t see a dentist for 99 days. Nearly drove me mad… Whilst on holiday recently I had to take our boat from its mooring, across a bay of roughly three miles, to a fuel pump located at a marina… “It’ll be fine” I thought… Naturally I ran out of fuel almost equidistant between the two points…

In between Christmas and New Year, Mr and Mrs S’s boiler gave up the ghost, necessitating its urgent replacement. The old boiler was located within the Grade II listed dwelling, which itself is located within a Conservation Area within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The location of the old boiler had long caused trouble, and so a decision was made to situate the new boiler to the exterior of the dwelling. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, however Listed Buildings are a different beast… Works must preserve and enhance their appearance. Where they cause harm, this must be considered to be within the public interest. Therefore even fairly innocuous changes to Listed Buildings can invoke the Planning Officer’s displeasure…

A retrospective planning application of Listed Building Consent was made by WRP to regularise the matter, which contained a heritage report which demonstrated that the proposal would result in minimal harm to the heritage significance of the property, which was then weighed against the benefits of the proposal.

The Local Authority accepted our heritage arguments. Accordingly the new boiler was allowed to stay.