The controversial windows causing a right stink at £800k house in leafy suburb

A councillor at war with his own planning committee has been told he must spend thousands of pounds to replace the uPVC windows at his £800,000 home with wooden frames in a leafy area of Trafford. Councillor Phil Eckersley failed to get his colleagues on the borough’s planning and development management committee to go against officers’ recommendations to refuse his retrospective planning application for renovations to his home.

It means that to get planning permission he must replace the ‘wood grain effect’ uPVC window frames in the Victorian home, which lies within the Bowdon conservation area. Planning officers were also critical following the removal of stone gateposts at the driveway of the Grange Road home, although Coun Eckersley said they had been retained and would be put back following the completion of the alterations.

Other elements of Coun Eckersley’s application - such as the demolition of a garage and the building of a single-storey side extension, raised patio, enlarged rear lightwell and external alterations including rooflights - were deemed acceptable. The committee was told the house, along with other properties on the west side of Grange Road, was taken into the conservation area in 2016.

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Head of planning and development Rebecca Coley told the committee: "On the demolition and repositioning of gateposts - officers consider this to be harmful. Officers consider the replacement of all timber windows with uPVC to require planning permission as they are not similar in appearance to the previous windows."

She said the new windows had ‘impacted on the architectural significance of the heritage asset [the house]’ and ‘diminished its group