Tiles on top of slate roof?!

[Commander Kinsey]

Is this planning permission bullshit, or is there a good reason to do this? Near me there is a terrace of very old small stone cottages with slate rooves. Most of the rooves are leaking, so people are repairing them. I noticed people were putting in planning applications to repair their roof (I happened to be scouring through planning applications for another reason), this normally isn't needed, but people are ticking "listed building". Surely it can't be true, a listed building with slates, you can't take them off but you can cover them up? Or maybe it's ok because a foot of them is showing at the bottom? WTF?

[Colin Bignell]

I wouldn't worry about it. The extra weight will probably cause the roofs to collapse soon anyway :-)

[Andrew]

If you make any changes to a listed building, or its grounds, outbuildings, boundary wall etc or the property is in a Conservation area then you have to submit a planning application to the LA (and grease their palms with the fee).

If emergency repairs are needed then the work can be done (or started) before the planning application has been approved.

[alan_m]

Possibly bullshit conservation officer rules (can only be replaced with slate from a the same source which is no longer available) coupled with a bullshit work-around (the tiles are only temporary while we search for the unobtainable.

[alan_m]

But in this case wouldn't the "rules" be that the appearance of the roof cannot be changed. The roof can only be slates or look-alike slate replacements.

Looking more closely at the photo it doesn't look if the tiles have been laid on top of the slate - just that the bottom has been left as slate. If the tiles were on top of the slate wouldn't they sit a lot higher at the tile slate boundary.The battens for the slates would have had to been fixed to the top of the slate if they were on top.

[alan_m]

It also looks like new slate - next door has old slate.

[Brian Gaff]

Often it could be because the area is a conservation area. The same goes for new windows as well, they have to look as near to the originals as possible. I used to know somebody around here who had this problem when replacing the old single glazed sash windows with double glazed ones. Its all a bit ridiculous as many homes now have loft extensions, which when you start adding dormer windows mean a good deal of the roof has to be remade and you cannot get the original tiles. Brian

[alan_m]

Where friends used to live the whole street was in a conservation area* although the building were of different ages (built hundreds of years apart) and with many different window styles - nothing common even on similar styles of properties. One of their neighbours had to fit like for like single glazed sash windows even though adjoining properties had had their windows changed for something different a decade before. It seems it's down to how the conservation officer or those in the planning department interpret the seemingly changing unwritten rules.

There were some strange things happening in that street :) In two adjacent terraced properties the upstairs front room belonged to property A but the upstairs back room in property A actually belonged to property B (flying lease/freehold?). The right of ways to the back of some properties was actually through neighbouring gardens (and not just an alley-way) and in one case actually through the neighbours house. In reality the latter not used because the adjoining property had convenient front/back door access.

[Commander Kinsey]

All council workers are morons.

Through the neighbour's house? That's absurd and I'm sure could have been removed in court if necessary. You can't be expected to leave your house unlocked for your neighbour.

[Commander Kinsey]

[Commander Kinsey]

A farmer once told me he needed slates for his house and pulled them off another building he had which wasn't under the silly conservation order, then put the new tiles on that.

[Commander Kinsey]

Probably both the tiles and slates are plastic. My council really is stupid.

I'm currently trying to find out what's blocking fibre to the premises getting here. It's present in all three directions (the fourth is a field) but not here. The cabinet is done, BT think it isn't. Another part of BT says there's a delay due to (lists 5 possible reasons, including planning permission). It it's planning permission I'm going to visit the council offices with a three foot crowbar.