Brighton model fails in planning bid

1:37pm Wednesday 8th June 2011 in News By Tim Ridgway, Local government reporter

ANGRY: TV presenter Annabel Giles with Kemp Town residents ANGRY: TV presenter Annabel Giles with Kemp Town residents

A model turned TV presenter has been knocked back in her attempts to save the appearance of a 200-year-old house.

The owner of Wyndham House in Wyndham Street, Brighton, began replacing Victorian windows and doors with UPVC ones about two weeks ago.

Residents, including TV presenter Annabel Giles, are unhappy, claiming it brings down the look of the East Cliff conservation area.

Despite complaints, Brighton and Hove City Council said there was nothing it could do to protect the former home of actor Frank Finlay, which is not a listed building.

Ms Giles described it as a terrible shame, adding: "One of the best things about our wonderful city is its beautiful buildings, which we are slowly destroying."

A council spokesman said: "Local people have been advised that government guidance permits single dwellings in conservation areas to make such alterations unless there is deemed to be serious harm to the conservation area."

Comments(29)

feline1 says...
1:46pm Wed 8 Jun 11

Double glazing is a **** sight better than those useless Victorian sash windows. It was all very well back then in the olden days when, if they needed some more fuel, they could just annex another part of Burma or Africa and chop down all the trees. Ms Giles will be sulking out the other side of her face when when global warming puts the whole East Cliff under bloody water, in a Ballardian "Drowned World" epic.

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Tis I says...
1:59pm Wed 8 Jun 11

Ms Giles should mind her own 'kin business, if she has nothing other to worry about than someone else's windows then she has too much time on her hands!

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Clyde Cash says...
2:03pm Wed 8 Jun 11

feline1 wrote:
Double glazing is a **** sight better than those useless Victorian sash windows. It was all very well back then in the olden days when, if they needed some more fuel, they could just annex another part of Burma or Africa and chop down all the trees. Ms Giles will be sulking out the other side of her face when when global warming puts the whole East Cliff under bloody water, in a Ballardian "Drowned World" epic.
The prospect of the East Cliff being underwater would make a great sci-fi movie, but my idea about making a film about giant crabs invading Brighton is better.

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feline1 says...
2:12pm Wed 8 Jun 11

As crabs are water-based crustacea, I fail to see why the two ideas are mutually exclusive! Bring on the Macra!!

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ShorehamBeachcomber says...
2:20pm Wed 8 Jun 11

Er isn't it Brighton PRESENTER fails in planning APPEAL

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Bubs says...
2:34pm Wed 8 Jun 11

How ridiculous! The owner is completely within his/her right to upgrade the windows unless it is a listed house, and this woman is just being a nasty neighbour. This wouldn't be in the paper unless she used to be on telly - what a cheap trick and silly of the Argus to even print it as news! What's wrong with progress? The new windows are likely to work better, keep the house warmer, reduce the carbon footprint of the house and keep bills under control. Brighton is not a museum - it is a living evolving city and there are plenty more eyesores to get upset about than upvc windows.

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hawksmoor says...
2:54pm Wed 8 Jun 11

uPVC windows are an ugly curse on an old building, and they are no more green. Softwood windows if properly made, installed and maintained will last for many decades, and can be just as energy efficient as short lived plastic ones. If all the historic properties in Brighton were abused in this way the city would be greatly diminished. The problem is lazy inconsiderate owners and greedy ignorant plastic window manufacturers. Well done Ms Giles for trying. The Council's own guide clearly states:
Traditional timber windows and doors are fundamental elements of the street scene, and in many of Brighton & Hove’s streets they are features that form a distinct pattern which can be harmed by the intrusion of new designs and finishes. In particular uPVC doors and windows cannot be produced with the delicate joinery
sections possible in wood.
For these reasons uPVC and aluminium windows and doors will not normally be given planning permission on street frontages.
The Council have adequate powers they just choose to ignore them.

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oneflewoverthe says...
3:01pm Wed 8 Jun 11

What a load of tosh, who cares about drafty old windows being saved, for gods sake have'nt the Middleclasses got anything else to complain about.

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feline1 says...
3:02pm Wed 8 Jun 11

hawksmoor, you don't happen to sell double-glazing for a living by any chance?

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Alzir says...
3:20pm Wed 8 Jun 11

Ha! Look at the 'Angry, of Kemptown' poses ;)))

To be fair, there are now some really convincing uPVC windows designed for conservation areas that the council should subsidise with all the back handers they (must) get form allowing retarded planning applications through the system year-on-year. Of course i'm sure it doesn't happen today what with the Greens in power and all....

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oneflewoverthe says...
3:32pm Wed 8 Jun 11

Should read has been presenter throws toys out of pram over residents attempts to keep houses warm in winter with energy saving windows and doors.

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feline1 says...
3:39pm Wed 8 Jun 11

What I'd like to see is Annabelle Giles, out there with an AXE, chopping down trees and sweating like a pig, crying "Take THAT, tree! I need your wood for WINDOWFRAMES!!"

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Gazza says...
5:01pm Wed 8 Jun 11

I can see Annabel’s point ‘ but I think the scaffolding around the building looks even more out of place. Also went on goggle earth and the TV aerial cables on the large brick building beside it looks even more unattractive draping down ‘ hear there everywhere.
Also modern day sky scrappers at top of road looks like a monstrous hideous carbuncle’ apart from that ‘’looks like a very nice place to live. I’m down that way tomorrow on a job so I shall drive along the road if I remember and have a really good nose at these windows for myself ‘ dare I say a large wind turbine looking down the road out to sea would be fetching or perhaps ‘a big wheel like the London Eye hehehe.
Yours Faithfully
Mr Sasha D Still

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kentseagull says...
5:24pm Wed 8 Jun 11

she could have installed timber double glazed sliding sash units that would have lasted longer and looked a lot better than upvc...that said, if the Council wanted to control this they could have done by removing permitted development rights by an article 4 direction so its a bit of a non-story.

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qm says...
6:53pm Wed 8 Jun 11

and I suppose the residents of the local environs are not fit to do the 'deeming'??? It is quite fit and proper for people to care about the environment in which they live!

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Hove Actually says...
8:47pm Wed 8 Jun 11

You didn't expect Everest to be doing that now, Did You?

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Tis I says...
9:19pm Wed 8 Jun 11

Hove Actually wrote:
You didn't expect Everest to be doing that now, Did You?
Ha ha best quote on here in ages!

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freeranter says...
9:47pm Wed 8 Jun 11

TV PRESENTER ANNABEL GILES,NEVER HEARD OF HER WHAT DOES SHE PRESENT THEN?

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Tis I says...
9:51pm Wed 8 Jun 11

freeranter wrote:
TV PRESENTER ANNABEL GILES,NEVER HEARD OF HER WHAT DOES SHE PRESENT THEN?
'Playschool' she's through the square window!

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game on says...
10:59pm Wed 8 Jun 11

Ms Giles described it as a terrible shame, adding: "One of the best things about our wonderful city is its beautiful buildings, which we are slowly destroying."

HAHAHAHAHA Skidrow by sea. The Heart was ripped from Brighton YEAR ago and it is certainly not a pretty place. What Planet does that harridan come from.

URBAN DICTIONARY STATES...
Skidrow - by - sea
Brighton. A now run down former grand seaside resort on the south coast of England. So named by Private Eye due to its frequent mentions in their "Rotten Boroughs" column.

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Valerie Paynter says...
8:05am Thu 9 Jun 11

UPVC is not a sustainable material and it is not that easy to recycle. My flat has them and they all need replacing. They only went in 20 years ago.

These days timber double glazing and even triple glazing is made and without all the metal moving parts on UPVC windows, which need a lot of maintenance to keep from sticking and jamming (I have one permanently jammed shut UPVC window).

Double-glazed timber sash replacements would have served the value of this house better than the cheap and bulky UPVC junk installed that swamps the look of the fenestration in an ugly way.

Well done Annabel Giles for highlighting this issue - a good use of the pulling power fame provides!

Security word...couldn't make it up....is pull-wood !

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game on says...
10:12am Thu 9 Jun 11

Valerie Paynter wrote:
UPVC is not a sustainable material and it is not that easy to recycle. My flat has them and they all need replacing. They only went in 20 years ago.

These days timber double glazing and even triple glazing is made and without all the metal moving parts on UPVC windows, which need a lot of maintenance to keep from sticking and jamming (I have one permanently jammed shut UPVC window).

Double-glazed timber sash replacements would have served the value of this house better than the cheap and bulky UPVC junk installed that swamps the look of the fenestration in an ugly way.

Well done Annabel Giles for highlighting this issue - a good use of the pulling power fame provides!

Security word...couldn't make it up....is pull-wood !
mmmmmmmmmmmm pull-wood, NOW you are talking.....

Security word

hard-tugs!

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game on says...
10:25am Thu 9 Jun 11

Brighton Model.. err.. Great headline, why not Brighton Schoolgirl, then put in the story, ex-schoolgirl Annabel-Giles .. what excremental reporting this is.

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Kedge says...
12:45pm Thu 9 Jun 11

When my 1930s stained glass windows weren't doing the business, I got laminate secondary glazing installed. The internal panels fit flush to the windows, don't cut out the light and are easy to remove in summer. Job done and much cheaper than new windows.

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Skidrow says...
2:05pm Thu 9 Jun 11

Who are you calling a rotten borough?

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Batter Up! says...
5:45pm Thu 9 Jun 11

Skidrow wrote:
Who are you calling a rotten borough?
HA! When the floods come you will all have to hide behind the hurriedly constructed barricades of excrement and uncollected rubbish, rather like they do already at the Hollingbury Lubyanka.

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Commander says...
5:02pm Fri 10 Jun 11

ShorehamBeachcomber wrote:
Er isn't it Brighton PRESENTER fails in planning APPEAL
EXACTLY! But it would be a non story then.. err...

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AdamBarnett says...
6:28pm Fri 10 Jun 11

This building is a fine example of a double fronted Victorian house and is in a conservation area. These buildings should be respected and timber sash windows form part of the aesthetic. There are good quality slim line double glazed timber sash windows available of much better quality and more durable that PVCu. PVCu windows nowadays devalue a property for good reason - they are ugly, do not age well and detract from the quality of the built environment. Timber sash windows have lasted in some cases for centuries (in my house they are 220 years old). PVCu will need replacing in twenty years. The council should enforce their policies and make the owners of this property reinstall timber sash windows. They should not be allowed to get away with it.

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oplease says...
5:09pm Sun 12 Jun 11

there are replacament Upvc windows in conservation areas all over brighton due to the councils poor record in controlling work in these areas. looks like they have decided to do something here because someone on TV is involved. I do agree with the decision though .

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