A homeowner has been taken to court for painting his house and installing grey uPVC windows but is adamant he is keeping the controversial features. Aneel Zafar has been locked in a battle with Stoke-on-Trent City Council ever since he painted his house grey and installed matching plastic windows four years ago.
The 32-year-old has splashed out around £20,000 on the new windows at his home in Tunstall, Staffordshire, because the old wooden ones were smashed and full of holes, he told StokeonTrentLive. But the city council said Aneel was breaking the rules of the conservation area, which means specific planning rules and protections are in place.
Aneel said the council has been "bullying" people in the area for years by making them spend "so much money" on replacement wooden windows. But he argued some of his neighbours have uPVC windows, so he should be allowed to have them too.
The ongoing dispute has seen Aneel take his fight to the High Court, running up a bill of more than £15,000, and he has this week been hauled before the North Staffordshire Justice Centre for the second time. Despite the expensive four-year battle to keep the windows, which he had installed in 2018 after buying the house in 2014, he is not giving up.
He is now hoping the Planning Inspectorate, which deals with planning appeals, will hear his case and agree he can keep the windows. He says more than two-thirds of the homes on Victoria Street, where he lives, have similar windows.
Following this week's case, Aneel said: "When I bought the house in 2014 I was not aware it was in a conservation area. I was not aware that I was not allowed to change my windows.
"I had the uPVC windows fitted in 2018. I did not think I was doing anything wrong. But the council prosecuted me.
"When I had my windows changed the council said it sent me a letter saying I had three months to appeal. I did not receive that letter.
"After the three months the appeal process had gone. The council came back and said it was going to take me to court.
"I went to court in 2020 and told the council to produce the Article 4 document and the conservation area documentation. They said they had lost it. I am contesting the conservation area status. I believe it was never put in place properly."
He added: "My old wooden windows had holes in them. They were smashed. Air was getting in the house.
"The council has been bullying people for years into spending so much money on wooden windows. The council is playing hardball for no reason.
"This has been going on for four years. All I want is to get it in front of the Planning Inspectorate.
"If I had known that I was not meant to get my windows changed then I would not have changed them. The council has money to send me to court but not got the money to spend on the rest of Stoke-on-Trent.
"Some of my neighbours had uPVC windows. I just thought go for it and I did not have to have planning permission for it.
"Unless I do something about it I am going to be prosecuted again and again and again.
"I am going to take it to the Planning Inspectorate. I am not going to give in. The council wants me to put wooden windows - it is on a power trip."
