The Wood Window Alliance and British Woodworking Federation took Top Gear presenter and journalist Jeremy Clarkson to task in a statement on 18 December for his "acerbic criticism" of wooden sash windows.

But, in a world polluted with political spin and double talk it's refreshing to hear someone like Jeremy Clarkson just tell it like it is.

The target for his exuberant blunt honesty in his Sunday Times column this time were homeowners who chose products on the basis of perceived good taste instead of actual performance. He illustrated the point by talking about the refined prejudice about PVC-U windows. His own wood windows "rattle when there is a breeze, leak when there is rain and jam solid when there is sun. They were beautiful to behold, but they are almost completely useless, so give me one good reason why [I shouldn't] replace them with something cheap in long-lasting plastic," he said. "Fitting any other sort of window to your house is madness really."

Rapping him over the knuckles for his views, the WWA chairman Sean Parnaby told him what he should think. "His preference for cheap plastic windows in his manor house would be the equivalent of putting a plastic dashboard into an Aston Martin DB9. As he would say, this isn't just a matter of taste; it's a matter of fundamental human sanity."

In my view, if you have the money for an Aston Martin DB9, then the ongoing maintenance costs are probably not uppermost in your mind. Car manufacturers do put beautiful wood trim on the dashboard and interiors of their cars where the timber is protected from the weather, but I don't know many who still think it makes sense to put wood on the outside of their cars.

Things have moved on since the days when all timber windows were totally useless and when all PVC-U windows were ugly. Now, even up close, it can be hard to tell the best new timber sash windows from the best new PVC-U sash windows as some open minded planning officers have discovered. Nevertheless I prefer to keep my beautiful wood furniture inside the house, and rely on long lasting PVC-U windows and doors to protect my home.

Yours sincerely

Martin Randall
Founder of Fighting Back With Facts: the campaign to restore facts and balance to the debate about PVC-U as a building material.
http://www.fightingbackwithfacts.com