AN investigation has been ordered after a charity’s bid to install UPVC windows at the former home of Colne’s first mayor was rejected.

Supporters of new community interest company Enable U are in the middle of a conversion project for Stanley Villas, in Albert Road, a former Lancashire County Council day care centre.

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And John McBeth, from the initiative, insisted that sash windows at the historic building needed to be replaced, not only to improve its energy efficiency rating but safety issues, as some could not be safely opened.

He told the Colne area committee that the charitable enterprise, part of Pendle Care and Support Services, had been quoted £20,000 for period replacements. But councillors turned down Enable U’s application to fit UPVC alternatives to the front and side of the property, once home to Alderman Samuel Catlow, Colne’s inaugural first citizen in 1895, which has been vacant for more than two years.

The decision came amid concerns over the impact on the conservation area - and prompted debate on how many other conversion schemes on the road had involved loss of original fixtures.

Coun Sarah Cockburn-Price said: “I am sure this a laudable aim. But Stanley Villas was the home of the very first Mayor of Colne and is an historic building within the conservation area.

“You have done everything right and gone through the process so we are having the opportunity to talk about this, rather than some people who have done it by stealth.”

Coun Tony Greaves said that the committee needed to stick to its conservation area policy regarding the UPVC windows.

But he added: “If we refuse this application and say that we expect him to comply with our policy then we should go back to the people who, in recent times, have not complied with the policy and tell them that they need planning permission as well.

“We cannot have one rule for one person on the street and one rule for another on the same street.”

Borough planning manager Neil Watson is to produce a report on which main road properties have fitted UPVC windows without permission.