There's good news for heritage properties in Congleton.

Government guidance to protect the environment could see more older houses modernised instead of being bulldozed and replaced with new ones, councillors have heard.

The news was welcomed by Cllr Tony Dean (Knutsford, Con) who told Thursday's meeting of Cheshire East's environment and communities committee that in Legh Road and Gough's Lane in Knutsford 'amazingly rich people buy a house for £2.7m and, even though it was built 30 years ago, they immediately knock it down and build a bigger one to their own design'.

The matter came to light during a discussion about three draft conservation area appraisal and management plans which are due to go out for consultation relating to Macclesfield town centre, Alderley Edge and Ollerton School Lane.

The actual plans were not discussed by the committee, but Knutsford councillor Quentin Abel (Ind) had asked the officer whether there was a conflict between conservation, which 'often requires things to remain as they've previously been' and protecting the environment.

He said there was potential difficulty in trying to improve the efficiency of buildings with double glazing or some form of solar generation in a conservation area and asked how this conflict could be overcome.

Senior conservation officer Emma Fairhurst said: "In terms of retro-fitting historic buildings for energy efficiency, windows and insulation, many of the buildings in the conservation areas aren't actually listed, they are just historic or have other value to the conservation area, so we're always flexible about finding proactive ways to put measures in place to make them more energy efficient."

She added that where applications were submitted for the demolition of existing buildings 'while we may resist them in terms of historic character and their value to the conservation area, it's also quite big news and in the government's agenda at the moment, that existing buildings are actually retained anyway, in terms of their embedded carbon so I think there's many ways, as a team, we can help to contribute positively to climate change'.

With regard to keeping existing buildings because of embedded carbon, Cllr Dean referred to properties which had been knocked down in areas like Legh Road and Gough's Lane and asked: "Are you saying that it can now stop, or we have the power to stop that happening?"

Ms Fairhurst replied: "I wouldn't say we have the power to stop it particularly any more than we did before but, if the guidance that's out there becomes more ingrained into policy and the expectations upon the planning department, then it would weight it more favourably in terms of retaining the building and modernising it as opposed to demolishing it."

She added: "In many cases, most buildings can be upgraded to meet modern living standards. That's always been my personal viewpoint and it's positive to see the government is slowly making steps to making that a bit more robust."

The committee approved the recommendation that the three conservation area appraisal and management plans go out to public consultation for four weeks.

Congleton has over 133 listed buildings which could take advantage of better insulation or renewable electricity. However, not all of these are residential buildings.

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