And now Heritage officers are being awkward!
In 2017 before I brought my house, I paid for pre app advice and requested a heritage officer attend a site visit to discuss what restrictions and considerations needed to be addressed if I wanted to extend the property…and refurbish an old brick building into usable space. The officer came and said the site is within a conservation area, surrounded by listed buildings but is not listed itself as had no LB consent when the old storerooms were converted to a dwelling in the mid 80’s. He never provided an officers written report.
We brought the house, moved in and decided to begin work on refurbishing the old brick building. But before I started I arranged a telephone appointment with a LPA heritage officer to discuss the scope of works. He advised that what I proposed doing fell under PDR. I carried out the works as discussed.
Fast forward 6 months after completing works and one thing led to another and … we began renting the space as a holiday let . Four years later and planning enforcement have asked us to submit an app for change of use. We couldn’t apply for a certificate of lawfulness as didn’t have proof/evidence (although we do have more than 4 years solid evidence of continuous use now).
Our planning app was going really well with loads of support until the heritage officers (both of whom provided the original advice) stated that the building was listed due to being attached to a listed building, and that we have to resubmit the app as well as apply of LB consent.
I believe the officers are correct as the old brick building was just outside of the red line plan for the planning consent in the 80’s not requiring LB consent! So is listed as attached to a listed building!
After reading Historic Englands guidance and advice, there does appear to be ambiguity regarding whether LB consent is required. I strongly feel there’s no impact on the special interest of the main listed building. The old brick building arguably had no historic or architectural value until I finished refurbishing it. And it is almost identical to the main dwelling in terms of design, envelope, orientation and relationship to surrounding buildings as the main dwelling (that didn’t need LB consent in the 80’s) although the brick building is about a 3rd of the size.
I don’t want to spend more time, effort and money resubmitting the application but don’t really know where to go with this.
what would you do?