Committee gives go-ahead to church hall repairs near Scarborough against officers’ advice

An application to install 11 double-glazed uPVC windows at the St Laurence Church Hall in Scalby has been approved by the Scarborough and Whitby Area Planning Committee despite officers recommending that the plan be refused.

At a meeting, councillors said they were sceptical about the scheme’s negative impacts on the conservation area as highlighted in a council report.

Officers said that “in terms of the existing windows, the slim section metal glazing bars are characteristic of the age of construction and the inter-war architectural style”.

They added that “a modern material in combination with the historic fabric, would detract from the aesthetic quality of the historic building” and the wider conservation area.

Coun Derek Bastiman, who represents Scalby on North Yorkshire Council, told the committee: “I am of the opinion that replacing the windows would give the building a more attractive appearance, improve the area, and become a more pleasant building for the users to enjoy, and I urge you to vote against the recommendation.”

A public speaker, Sue Truefitt, spoke in favour of the application at the meeting: “The visual impact of replacing the windows on the building itself and the wide conservation area will be very minor and not particularly noticeable.

“Any harm to the significance of the conservation area will be firmly placed, we would say, at the lower end of less than substantial.

“The modest harm to the significance of the conservation area should be weighed against the public benefits.”

She added: “In this case, the public benefits include improvements to the value of the community facility that will make it more sustainable in terms of energy use and running costs, improvements to the building that will help secure its optimum value as a venue for a wide variety of uses and events.”

The circa late 19th-century church hall was originally constructed as a school and was extended by a flat roof extension on its southeast elevation in the 1930s.

Coun Subash Sharma concluded: “I personally feel that the distance of the building from the footpath means that the millimetres involved aren’t really visible and they don’t really make a difference.”

After rejecting the recommended refusal by five votes to one, the committee voted to give the proposal the green light.