Developer’s Welsh Slate Roofs Have Got No Authority!

A HOUSING developer has been told to strip off all the newly installed Welsh slate roofs of a new build development in the Lake District.

At a meeting of the Lake District National Park Development Control Committee on 2 November, the roofs were ordered to be stripped after a member of the public complained. Despite admitting the roofs were not illegal, the committee members decided to make an example of them.

Slate Roofs

The developer, Atkinson Homes had originally gained planning permission in 2020 for the development of five new houses at Hopegill Gardens, Thelmlea in Brathwaite near Keswick. Included as a condition of the development’s permission was a policy presumption to use slate from a local quarry to preserve ‘local distinctiveness’.

Atkinson Homes, noted in its application documents that Welsh slate has been used “extensively within the area”.

Initially arguing against upholding the condition for only locally sourced Cumbrian slate to be installed on the new development, Deputy Chair Mark Kidd said, “Can I tell the difference between that Welsh slate and the local slate and would it be reasonable to make them strip it all off and put something on which kind of looks the same anyway? And who can tell? I wouldn’t be able to tell.”

He 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.

Locals See Planning Flouted

However, other members of the development control committee said that there had been too many instances where planning conditions were being ignored. Committee member Janet Sayers acknowledged that the council’s resources limit any proactive checks of planning compliance, and referred to an ongoing discussion of “locals” seeing planning requirements “being flouted”.

Jim Jackson agreed, remarking “It’s beginning to feel like we’re being ignored in terms of the conditions we put on and my worry is how many of these do we let go?

“Do we get to the point where people think, ‘we can get away with that’?”

Another committee member, Hugh Branney added, “I think we should take a hard line on this one. This appears to be a deliberate breach of condition… I feel really strongly about this because, as has just been mentioned, it’s happening time and time again. I think this is an opportunity for us to take a stand.”

“There is harm in this, it’s reputational harm and it’s our reputation that’s being harmed by not taking a line with this one. It’s been a deliberate decision by developers and I think we should say stop.”

The Lake District National Park Development Control Committee decided to uphold the complaint against the Welsh slate roofs and ordered that they be replaced with a locally sourced slate.

Cumbrian slate sources and stocks are extremely limited. Westmoreland Green and Burlington Blue Grey slate are both quarried in the Lake District area and offered for sale by Burlington Slate. The company reports a 18-20 week waiting list currently.

The Lake District Council launched a consultation on local design in September this year with the aim of drawing up a design code specifically for the Lake District National Park area.

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