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                                      20/00754/C                                     Page  1  of  5

PLANNING OFFICER REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Application No. : 20/00754/C Applicant : Mr & Mrs R Leonard Proposal : Change of use from office use to residential Site Address : The Barn Moaney Woods Farmhouse Lonan Church Road Laxey Isle Of Man IM4 7JX

Planning Officer: Mrs Vanessa Porter Photo Taken :

Site Visit :

Expected Decision Level : Officer Delegation

Recommendation

Recommended Decision:

Permitted Date of Recommendation: 21.12.2020 __

Conditions and Notes for Approval

C : Conditions for approval N : Notes attached to conditions

C 1. The development hereby approved shall be begun before the expiration of four years from the date of this decision notice.

Reason: To comply with Article 26 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) Order 2019 and to avoid the accumulation of unimplemented planning approvals.

C 2. The proposed dwelling hereby approved shall be used only in association with, and ancillary to the main dwelling house "Moaney Woods Farmhouse."

Reason: the dwelling is within a single residential plot within an area not designated for development and has only been considered acceptable for the reasons identified within the application. The application does not propose to create separate units of accommodation within the site and has not been considered as such.

This application has been recommended for approval for the following reason. The proposed dwelling is considered to comply with Strategic Policy 1, Housing Policy 11 and Environment Policy 1 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 subject to conditions and is therefore acceptable.

Plans/Drawings/Information; This decision relates to the following plans and drawings, date stamped received on 24th November 2020: o Site/Location Plan o Ground Floor Plan o First Floor Plan o Site map with details of car parking, bin storage and garden area.

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Interested Person Status - Additional Persons

None __

Officer’s Report

THE APPLICATION SITE 1.1 The application site is an existing office within the grounds of Moaney Woods Farmhouse, Lonan Church Road, Laxey which is an old barn which was converted and extended.

1.2 Moaney Woods Farmhouse can be accessed via a farm lane from Lonan Church Road of which the existing office is situated to the east of the main dwellinghouse within a cluster of other structures.

THE PROPOSAL 2.1 The current planning application seeks approval to change the existing office into a residential dwelling.

PLANNING HISTORY 3.1 There are several applications on the site of which the property in question was previously a barn for goats which was changed into residential under 87/04530/B, of which there were several Conditions, one of which states "Condition 4, "The proposed accommodation must be used solely in association with, and ancillary to "Moaney Woods."

3.2 In 2001 there was an additional application, PA01/01224/C which was for the change of use from cottage into office and was permitted with several conditions of which one stated, "This approval relates to the use of Moaney Woods Farm Cottage for office purposes only by the owner/occupant of Moaney Woods farmhouse."

PLANNING POLICY 4.1 The site lies within an area on the Area Plan for the East, Laxey Map which is not designated as being for any particular use and where there is a general presumption against development unless considered to meet any of the exceptions set out in General Policy 3.

4.2 As the land is not zoned for development General Policy 3 would be applicable and as this application is for the conversion of an existing building it would be considered to meet General Policy 3 (b). In addition to this the following policies of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 are considered applicable in the assessment of the application particularly the criteria of Housing Policy 11 in the conversion of existing rural buildings into new residential accommodation.

4.3 Strategic Policy 1 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016, which states, "Development should make the best use of resources by: a) optimising the use of previously developed land, redundant buildings, unused and under- used land and buildings and re-using scarce, indigenous building materials; b) ensuring efficient use of sites, taking into account the needs for access, landscaping, open space and amenity standards and c) being located so as to utilise existing and planned infrastructure, facilities and services."

4.4 General Policy 3 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 states, "Development will not be permitted outside of those areas which are zoned for development on the appropriate Area Plan with the exception of: b) conversion of redundant rural buildings which are of architectural, historical, or social value and interest (Housing Policy 11)"

4.5 Environment Policy 1 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 states, "The countryside and its ecology will be protected for its own sake. For the purposes of this policy, the countryside

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comprises all land which is outside the settlements defined in Appendix 3 at A.3.6 or which is not designated for future development on an Area Plan. Development which would adversely affect the countryside will not be permitted unless there is an over-riding national need in land use planning terms which outweighs the requirement to protect these areas and for which there is no reasonable and acceptable alternative."

4.6 Housing Policy 11 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 states, "Conversion of existing rural buildings into dwellings may be permitted, but only where: (a) redundancy for the original use can be established; (b) the building is substantially intact and structurally capable of renovation; (c) the building is of architectural, historic, or social interest; (d) the building is large enough to form a satisfactory dwelling, either as it stands or with modest, subordinate extension which does not affect adversely the character or interest of the building; (e) residential use would not be incompatible with adjoining established uses or, where appropriate, land-use zonings on the area plan; and (f) the building is or can be provided with satisfactory services without unreasonable public expenditure.

Such conversion must: (a) where practicable and desirable, re-establish the original appearance of the building; and (b) use the same materials as those in the existing building.

Permission will not be given for the rebuilding of ruins or the erection of replacement buildings of similar, or even identical, form. Further extension of converted rural buildings will not usually be permitted, since this would lead to loss or reduction of the original interest and character."

4.7 The Department has recently published the Residential Design Guidance (March 2019 revised in July of the same year to include illustrations) which provides advice on the design of new houses, alterations and extensions to existing property as well as how to assess the impact of such development on the living conditions of those in adjacent residential property.

Paragraph 1.2.3 of the Residential Design Guide states, "1.2.3 The way in which the other issues are considered may be different where a proposal relates to the development of a new dwelling(s) compared to a householder extension. Therefore, the approach to the design of new houses (whether single dwellings, larger schemes or new estates) should take account of the issues set out in Chapter 2 whilst targeted guidance on different types of extensions is provided in Chapters 3 and 4. There are some common concepts which may apply to all types of development, and these are set out in 5 (architectural details), 6 (the wider site) and 7 (impact on neighbouring properties). The impacts on neighbouring properties relates to both the impact of the development on existing nearby properties and, where a development would result in more than one property, the impact of the proposed dwellings on each other."

REPRESENTATIONS 5.1 Highway Services have No Highways Interest in this application (04.08.20).

5.2 No comments have been received from Garff Commissioners at the time of writing this report.

ASSESSMENT 6.1 The fundamental issues to consider in the assessment of this application is whether the principle of the development would be acceptable and whether there is any visual or residential impact on amenities.

6.2 When looking at the strategic policies within section 3 of the report above it can be seen that generally the conversion of redundant buildings to ensure the best use of a site is

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supported as an exception to the principle that there should be no development within the countryside. Whilst it could be stated that the existing office is not redundant in the sense of dilapidation, it was ascertained during my site visit that the use as an office is no longer required as the business which was owned by the owners is no more and as such they wanted to change the use back to its prior use as a residential dwelling and as such the change of use would conform with Housing Policy 11.

6.3 When looking at parking and highway safety, highways have not raised any issues with regards to the change of use and due to the site being down its own farm lane, the parking on site would need to be enough for the existing dwelling and any potential occupants of the proposed residential dwelling. When looking at the information provided and during my site visit it could be seen that there are several areas within the site which would be used for parking which would be above and beyond what would be required under Appendix 7 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan of 2 spaces per property.

6.4 When looking at the residential amenities for any future occupants it is considered that the internal accommodation would be of an acceptable size and all primary rooms with the lounge situated to the lower ground level which has views over the shared garden and the fields and the kitchen/ dining room us upstairs.

6.5 Whilst assessing if the property would be suitable for a dwelling it is necessary to note that a lot of the services available are shared and as such it would be difficult to separate the proposed residential unit from the already existing dwelling on the site, as such a condition should be attached to state that the proposed property can only be used in conjunction with the main dwelling as per the condition attached to the original application to change the barn into residential.

CONCLUSION 7.1 For the above reasons the proposal is considered to comply with Strategic Policy 1, Housing Policy 11 and Environment Policy 1 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 and therefore acceptable.

INTERESTED PERSON STATUS 8.1 By virtue of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) Order 2019, the following persons are automatically interested persons: (a) the applicant (including an agent acting on their behalf); (b) any Government Department that has made written representations that the Department considers material; (c) the Highways Division of the Department of Infrastructure; (d) Manx National Heritage where it has made written representations that the Department considers material; (e) Manx Utilities where it has made written representations that the Department considers material; (f) the local authority in whose district the land the subject of the application is situated; and (g) a local authority adjoining the authority referred to in paragraph (f) where that adjoining authority has made written representations that the Department considers material.

8.2 The decision maker must determine: o whether any other comments from Government Departments (other than the Department of Infrastructure Highway Services Division) are material; and o whether there are other persons to those listed above who should be given Interested Person Status __

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I can confirm that this decision has been made by a Principal Planner in accordance with the authority afforded to that Officer by the appropriate DEFA Delegation and that in making this decision the Officer has agreed the recommendation in relation to who should be afforded Interested Person Status.

Decision Made : Permitted

Date: 22.12.2020

Determining officer

Signed : C BALMER

Chris Balmer

Principal Planner

Customer note

This copy of the officer report reflects the content of the file copy and has been produced in this form for the benefit of our online services/customers and archive records.