Bid to replace wooden conservatory using recycled plastic rejected by East Lothian council

A bid to replace a wooden conservatory using recycled plastic was rejected despite claims it made more sense than cutting down hardwood trees to rebuild it.

East Lothian planners rejected proposals to replace the conservatory at the back of a Category-B listed house on Bowmont Terrace, in Dunbar, after the applicants put forward plans to use UPVC frames instead of the current timber ones.

The house, which has a unique turret WC at the back that was added at the start of the 20th century and can be seen from East Links Road, is one of a number on the street listed for special architectural interest.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) did not comment on the application, leading the agent for the owners to insist they were happy with the changes.

However, planners insisted that a refusal to comment did not signify approval from the Government body, and the guidelines it produces for councils regarding the use of materials for listed buildings remained in place.

Rejecting the plans, they said: “The UPVC framing of the proposed conservatory would not, as required by the HES Guidance, be a high-quality material appropriate for use on a category B listed building.

“Instead, it would be a nontraditional material that would detract from and would neither preserve nor enhance but would be harmful to the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building.”

In an appeal due to go before the council’s Local Review Body next month, the representative for the owners argues that the recycled UPVC planned for the replacement conservatory is better than using traditional hardwood.

He said: “The aggressive environment experienced on the seaward facing elevations of these buildings soon degrades even the best of hardwood and that is why I proposed UPVC.

“Why would you proliferate the felling of mature, rare imported hardwoods when we have existing recycled UPVC available, which will retain the current embodied carbon?

“A mature 50-60-year-old hardwood will be absorbing around 30-35kg CO2/pa, whereas planting replacements takes a long time to get up to that, with even a 10-year-old hardwood tree will only be absorbing around 8-10kg/CO2.

“Then, of course, you have to regularly de-desalinate and repaint and maintain a hardwood conservatory with all the required chemicals, energy and carbon embodied in that to be added to the opportunity cost of felling the tree.

“I am in favour of properly considered genuine beneficial use of hardwood timber in construction in the correct technical and site-specific exposure conditions and restricted structural applications, but in this case, recycled UPVC just makes so much more sense.”

The appeal will be heard by councillors next month.