Not making the Grade

THE article on listed buildings assumed listing officers make rational decisions.

We live in an 18th-century Grade II timber- frame thatched cottage, which had metal windows installed in the Fifties. The local council listing officer ‘quite liked’ the windows, so we are stuck with cold, draughty, modern monstrosities with condensation running down them.

Up the road, a listed period timberframed cottage has a tin roof that is painted bright green. It was added in

the Twenties when the thatch wore out, as it was a cheap alternative for barns.

The owners have been refused permission to return the roof to the original thatch or even to change the colour, as the tin has been deemed ‘part of the house’s history’. RAYMOND NORMAN, Hemingstone, Suffolk.