But islanders would be forgiven for not noticing, as the colour wash was carefully colour-matched to the existing beige plaster on the school building.
Confusion arose about whether planning permission was needed for the work, which saw the college paint the south-east tower.
In a letter to planning, Lovell Ozanne director Chris Richardson said the college had long worked with the planners to maintain the Regency-era building, which has been listed since 1982.
‘I believe that a clear understanding has been gained as to an acceptable methodology for render repairs, to include use of hydraulic lime render, including a colour-tinted or equivalent finish coat, intended to provide the best possible colour match to the original render,’ he said.
‘This render specification was presented in more detail and utilised, with planning permission, for works to re-render the facade of the Gate House in 2018, and utilised again during repairs to the south-east tower.’
While careful colour-matching was done, the localised repairs on the tower, with their coloured render, resulted in a patchwork appearance. So it was decided the paint the whole side of the tower, although the college did not have planning permission for this work.
Mr Richardson said the method had been used in the past, with planning permission.
‘For this reason, and acknowledging that some misunderstanding arose as to the requirement for planning permission, a colour wash was applied to the south-east tower,’ he said.
He said that this had meant that a uniform colour had been achieved on the repaired wall areas, using a specialist product.
Planning officers wrote to the college bursar in April, saying that retrospective planning permission was now needed for the work, which led to the application.
The application has also requested to extend the colour wash application to additional areas of planned render repair, with priority repairs intended to the inner roof-facing walls of the north-west and north-east towers and to the west face of the central tower, where the render has particularly deteriorated.
Permission is not normally required for repairs to protected buildings, unless those repairs involve alterations that would affect a building's special interest. This must be determined in each case.
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