Although I support the notion of conservation, Councillor Marilyn Ashton still seems to have a strange idea what the word actually means (“Protecting our town’s heritage”, February 6).

Conservation areas as currently defined, seek to preserve the past glories and ‘romance’ of Betjeman’s Metroland in aspic, with little room for manoeuvre. What was intended as a method of maintaining the character of the area, has turned into a nightmare for many, while those with the loudest voices have imposed their wills on their neighbours.

Undoubtedly, before the Pinnerwood Estate became a conservation area, there were several out-of-character developments and eyesores that were inappropriate to the area, but the designation as it stands is a monstrous blunt instrument.

I lay the blame entirely at the door of jobsworth planning officers and arrogant councillors who have absolutely no inclination to evolve.

I have been a longstanding critic of these blanket conservation areas, where all that is being conserved are high maintenance costs, poor insulation, chilblains, condensation, mould, damp, wood rot, high energy bills, obsolete heritage technologies and expensive intrusive, high maintenance, ‘approved’ substitutes.

I have seen what a disaster this is for the people living in the area, who are not wealthy and where the draughts from rustic draughty doors, rotten single-glazed windows and ‘historical’ old-style tiled roofs add considerably to their overdrafts.

Meanwhile, Harrow Borough Council rakes in well above average council tax bills and soon an £75 extra garden tax to add insult to injury.

Cllr Ashton is fortunate that in her neck of the woods, decent double glazing and insulation is permitted with sufficient income to cover the bills.

For a council that boasts its environmental awareness, Harrow, in actually preventing people from improving their own homes in the best and most cost-effective way, while conversely insisting that all new properties and council accommodations are insulated to the latest standard — paid for out of the conservation area residents’ council tax — is hypocrisy at best and theft at worst.

It is time to end the nightmare that some of our most asset rich and cash poor residents endure, with up-to-date ‘look and feel’ improvements and technology to be used, especially as hundreds of homes had this done before the rest had their draughts and high fuel bills conserved.

It is instructive that for all of this nodding to Metroland, I am surprised that in deference to our past heritage. Cllr Ashton exhibits no will to conserve the other scourges of the day — smoking chimneys, smog and tuberculosis.

Jeremy Zeid

UKIP PPC for Hendon