18-04-2025
Plans to install solar panels on Grade-II listed building are approved
PLANS to install solar panels on a Wetheral listed building have been approved by planners at Cumberland Council.
The application was for The Retreat, Eden Mount, and it requests listed building consent for the installation of 20 in-roof solar PVs as well as repairs and reroofing of the south face of the building's roof.
The decision to grant planning permission, which is subject to conditions, was made on Monday (April 14).
A planning report concludes: 'In all aspects the proposals are deemed acceptable and the scale and design of the alterations would not have an adverse impact upon the Grade-II listed building.
'Overall, it is considered that the proposal is compliant with the objectives of the relevant development plan policies.'
Wetheral Parish Council made no observations about the proposal and, according to a separate planning statement, The Retreat sits within the Wetheral Conservation Area, and forms part of the listing of the Grade II Eden Mount, for which it once served as the servants' quarters, and from which it was split off in the 1940s.
The report states that Eden Mount was built in 1872 for a tea merchant and it was redecorated in the early 20th century.
It adds: 'The Retreat makes a moderate contribution to the significance of Eden Mount and its setting, having formerly been an ancillary part of the property.
'This subservient relationship between Eden Mount and The Retreat is still clearly legible externally, with The Retreat having been built purposely on a more modest scale and with less ornamentation, but with the same yellow brick, stone lintels and slate roof.
'Internally, however, this relationship has been lost, as the links between the properties have been blocked off and the original internal layout of The Retreat (and the adjoining part of Eden Mount) has been altered and lost, with the insertion of a new staircase and most historical interior/decorative features no longer present.'
