I think people should think carefully about whether or not they want to support this as there are pros and cons to be weighed up. Its a shame that people in the affected roads do not carry more weighting than the general public when it comes to decision time as it it is they who will be most affected. Generally conservation areas are fairly good things to have around as they can hold property values and be generally maintained as a nice place to live. Planning laws have become so much more relaxed recently that some people can and do get away with anything and bad design implemented under permitted development rights can often ruin an area forever. It can be nice for people to visit conservation areas and to enjoy them however for the people living there its just as you stated, jacksprat , there are considerable inconveniences and costs of maintaining , refurbishing and redevelopment that they might not be able to afford. Is it possible for a conservation area to be established without article 4 or even an amended article 4? I'd be grateful if people could explain this to me. The Council is now closed until Monday and I can't wait until then!

The irony for me in all of this is that the Council will think nothing of imposing such a fairly onerous arrangement on people whilst continuing to have such poor assessment of design quality elsewhere. However maybe they are hoping conservation areas will save them from themselves.