Council gives up on Bordesley Green Ideal Village
Mar 25 2009 by Paul Dale, Birmingham Post
Restrictions prohibiting houses in one of Birmingham’s most important conservation areas from being modernised have been scrapped by the city council after residents routinely ignored the ban.
So many people have built roofs with artificial tiles and installed UPVC double glazed windows without planning permission that councillors have decided it is too time consuming and expensive to try to enforce regulations governing the Bordesley Green Ideal Village.
The council admits its failure to enforce regulations has resulted in many of the 440 early 20th Century workers’ homes being altered beyond recognition.
The decision was taken “with sadness” according to Planning Committee chairman Peter Douglas Osborn, who admitted nothing had been done for 14 years after the conservation area was approved in 1990 to prevent householders from making inappropriate alterations to their homes.
Nine years after establishing the conservation area the council withdrew an order banning artificial roof slates and UPVC windows.
The decision was taken after consulting Ideal Village residents, who said they were unhappy about the restrictions.
But the ban was reinstated in 2004 when the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition took control at the city council.
Coun Douglas Osborn (Con Weoley) said it was clear that families who had moved into Bordesley Green “brought their own values on property ownership which conflicted with the community standards that would have kept the character of the area”.
He added: “We must now admit that the erosion of that character is so far gone it would be unrecognisable to the original architects.”
Unauthorised changes include the demolition of garden walls to build hardstandings for cars and the installation of modern front doors.
Attempts to crackdown after 2004 saw legal action taken against 50 occupants for altering their homes without permission.
But council director of regeneration Clive Dutton said taking householders to court “did not represent value for money” and took up too much time.
Bordesley Green was the first Ideal Village in England, built between 1908 and 1914 by Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin. The pair eventually went on to build Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire. The villages were welcome relief to the slums of English cities at the time – the homes were built to high standards and had gardens.
Coun Douglas Osborn insisted the decision should not be seen as a green light for unauthorised development in other conservation areas.
He added: “The committee will support enforcement officers 100 per cent in their quest to impose planning regulations on those people who think they can despoil a neighbourhood by exceeding their rights.
“Further enforcement will take place that will be in public, and bring home to people the limits of those rights. Though necessarily a slow process, cases will be referred to the courts to enforce planning conditions.”
