My local village is a conservation area ... however for a number of years the local councillor (not the sharpest knife in the drawer) personally disliked the whole idea of conservation as it stopped his mates doing whatever they wanted to their houses.

At the time there was an unspoken 'rule' that the local councillor for an area would be indulged in decision making (as it gave them all wiggle-room on policy that they could use to gain favour and enhance their chances of re-election ...so they all went along). He used this to systematically undermine the conservation rules (allowing pvc modern design windows, tile roofs and even building modern bungalows in the vegetable gardens behind the traditional houses amongst other things) ... it's still an attractive village, but the architectural integrity has been compromised by one ignorant person and the weakness of the Local Council's planning system ... the long term worry being that some future incumbent will use the damage done to push that the village no longer deserves conservation status to allow a feeding frenzy by local developers should they see it as being in their short term interest.

Our architectural heritage needs protecting. The overwhelming majority of modern developers are mindless money-grabbers who will always go for the low quality 'cookie-cutter' approach over doing the right thing if there's an extra pound in it for them.

K