By Ruaraidh Britton & Tim Hanlon
A bitter row has erupted between neighbours in Aberdeen after a resident claimed the "wrong paint" was used for a house's window timber.
Karen Iridag had made changes to her C-listed home on Rubislaw Den South without permission from the city council, which was sought with a retrospectiveplanning application. And the application drew an objection from Anne and Johan van Diggelen next door, who voiced concerns about the windows used in the property. They complained to city planners about the windows' opening mechanism and slammed the used of brown paint rather than its original white finish.
The objection reads: "The brown finish is completely inconsistent with the Conservation area, there are no other sash and case windows in Rubislaw Den South that have a brown finish, the finish also appears to be a stain rather than a paint, paint would be the traditional finish that we would expect would be required on a listed building.
"The Supplementary Guidance: The Repair and Replacement of Windows and Doors states: 4.14 Colour White has been the default colour of window frame repairs and replacements for the past 20 years. In order to encourage uniformity, where there are multiple units in a building new windows will be white. Other colours will need to be agreed.
"As this building consists of two flats it is particularly unsightly to have brown finished windows on the ground floor where we have the accepted white finish on our windows to the first floor. We have a photograph from 1974 that shows that the ground floor windows were originally painted white - we can provide a copy of this if required."
The homeowner has however been given a reprieve from the local authority, who deemed the 120-year-old villa's 14 new windows were 'appropriate' and provided improved 'thermal efficiency' to the home. Council planners, reported AberdeenLive, wrote: "The retention of the windows with a brown timber finish rather than white paint to match the upper storey does result in minor tension with Aberdeen Planning Guidance - Repair and Replacement of Windows and Doors.
"However, due to the specific characteristics of this building, this is not considered to result in an adverse impact or detriment to the appearance of the listed building and the character and appearance of the Albyn Place and Rubislaw Conservation Area. This is because the building is screened to a degree, and more significantly is constructed in two distinct colours of granite which strongly demark the upper and lower floors. The use of uniform window designs, but with differing colours, is not considered incongruous in this specific setting."
