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                                      20/00880/B                                     Page  1  of  5

PLANNING OFFICER REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Application No. : 20/00880/B Applicant : Mrs Johanna Martin-Edge Proposal : Creation of a fire door to rear elevation and additional use of second floor rooms as tourist living accommodation Site Address : Knock Rushen House Scarlett Castletown Isle Of Man IM9 1TA

Planning Officer: Mrs Vanessa Porter Photo Taken :

Site Visit :

Expected Decision Level : Planning Committee

Recommendation

Recommended Decision:

Permitted Date of Recommendation: 23.11.2020 __

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. For the avoidance of doubt no permission is hereby given for the car parking plan shown on drawing no. 304-01 (location plan).

Reason: for the avoidance of doubt.

C 3. The guest rooms hereby approved shall not be occupied unless the parking area has been laid out and retained in accordance with details which have first been submitted to and approved in writing by the Department. The detail shall demonstrate how the spaces to be provided are of sufficient size, shape and layout to meet the standards set out in the Manual for Manx Roads. The parking areas shall not be used for any purpose other than the parking and turning of vehicles associated with the development and shall remain free of obstruction for such use at all times.

Reason: To ensure that sufficient provision is made for off-street parking and turning of vehicles in the interests of highway safety.

This application has been recommended for approval for the following reason. The change of a window to a fire door and the additional use of the rest of the property for tourist accommodation will have a minimal impact on the neighbouring amenity of the current

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residents and as such complies with General Policy 2, Business Policy 13 and Transport Policy 7.

Plans/Drawings/Information; This decision relates to the following plans and drawings, date stamped received on 5th August 2020: o Drawing No. 304-01 (location plan) o Drawing No. 304-01 (proposed and existing floor plans) __

Interested Person Status - Additional Persons

None __

Officer’s Report

THIS APPLICATION IS REFERRED TO THE PLANNING COMMITTEE AS THE DEVELOPMENT COULD BE CONSIDERED TO BE CONTRARY TO THE DEVELOPMENT PLAN AND IS RECOMMENDED FOR APPROVAL

THE APPLICATION SITE 1.1 The application site is within the curtilage of Knock Rushen House, which is a large detached house situated at North West of Scarlett Road. The house is three storeys of accommodation with an open area to the south.

THE PROPOSAL 2.1 The current planning application seeks approval for the change of use of six additional rooms within the property as a guest house. There is also the alteration to a window at first floor level to create a fire door and the creation of three additional car parking spaces to the front car park.

PLANNING HISTORY 3.1 The property has been subject to a number of applications for alterations and ones for the addition of dwellings on the site (08/00706/A, 10/00898/B and 12/00909/A). The land to the rear has been developed for residential purposes in the form of the Knock Rushen housing estate.

3.2 A number of applications were refused for the conversion of the existing dwelling into 12, 9 and 6 units - all rejected due to concerns about increases in the use of Queen Street and inadequate visibility for drivers emerging from the site (04/02404/A, 02/01715/A and 05/01129/A)

3.3 Recently approved under 19/01133/B was the "Removal of a rear doorway (retrospective) and additional use of guest house as a spa" which was permitted.

PLANNING POLICY 4.1 The site lies within an area zoned as Predominantly Residential on the Area Plan for the South. Given the nature of the application it is appropriate to consider General Policy 2, Business Policy 13 and Transport Policy 7 in conjunction with Appendix 7.6 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016.

4.2 General Policy 2 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 states, "Development which is in accordance with the land-use zoning and proposals in the appropriate Area Plan and with other policies of this Strategic Plan will normally be permitted, provided that the development:

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b) respects the site and surroundings in terms of the siting, layout, scale, form, design and landscaping of buildings and the spaces around them; c) does not affect adversely the character of the surrounding landscape or townscape; g) does not affect adversely the amenity of local residents or the character of the locality; n) is designed having due regard to best practice in reducing energy consumption."

4.3 Business Policy 13 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 states, "Permission will generally be given for the use of private residential properties as tourist accommodation providing that it can be demonstrated that such use would not compromise the amenities of neighbouring residents."

4.4 Transport Policy 7 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 states, "The Department will require that in all new development, parking provision must be in accordance with the Department's current standards."

4.5 Appendix 7.6 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 states the following for Hotels, motels and guest houses, "1 space per guest bedroom. In rural and suburban locations," and for assembly and leisure the following, "1 space per 15 square metres gross floor space."

REPRESENTATIONS 5.1 Highway Services have considered the application and Do not Oppose (26.08.20). Further clarification was sought from Highways due to a discrepancy in the comments on this application and the previously approved PA19/01133/B to which Highway Services explained their reasoning and state, "As the current application is insignificantly different in highway terms from the existing position and unlikely to cause overspill, I considered that it did not warrant an objection or a separate response."

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

ASSESSMENT 6.1 The fundamental issues to consider in the assessment of this planning application, is the impact of the proposal on the neighbours and local amenities.

6.2 In the first instance the alteration of the rear window to a fire door will not alter how the property is viewed within the overall streetscene and as such complies with General Policy 2 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016.

6.3 When looking at the alteration from the residential parts of the property to tourist it is difficult to assess how an individual person would behave whether they be a tourist or permanent resident. As a tourist, a person may be out a lot of the time, but may also have greater late nights and be disruptive on return. On the other hand, permanent residents may be at home more of the time, but be more likely to invite friends or family over for dinner or parties that may be noisy. In general terms, however, the majority of people tend to behave well and raise no concerns, although there will always be a percentage that might not, whether they are a permanent resident or otherwise.

6.4 Business Policy 12 indicates that permission will generally be given for the use of private residential properties as tourist accommodation providing that it can be demonstrated that such use would not compromise the amenities of neighbouring residents. In the first instance with regards to the above when looking at the property as existing the whole second floor and one bedroom to the first floor level was not used as tourist as such the change of use of these areas to make the whole property tourist would be an advantage due to there not being an overlap of tourist and residential in one property, both of which would have different ways of going through the day and could potentially clash.

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                                      20/00880/B                                     Page  4  of  5

6.5 When looking at the potential that neighbouring properties could be affected, the property in question is situated to the end of the housing development along Queens Street and whilst Knock Rushen House has neighbours the neighbouring property to the east (17 Scarlett Road) is approximately 21m away and the neighbouring property to the north west (1 Knock Rushen) is approximately 22m away. Whilst the area is within an area of predominantly residential Knock Rushen House has had a previously approved use of a spa within the grounds and as such this would have a certain amount of comings and goings.

6.6 With the change of use of the additional bedrooms it is necessary to assess the parking especially when looking at the site as a whole with the spa in place. When looking at appendix 7 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan the overall car parking spaces which would need to be available on site would be around 12 spaces for the spa, based on the previously approved application for the spa (PA19/01133/B) and 9 spaces for the guest house with one space for the managers accommodation. This means there needs to be a total of 22 spaces whereas the proposed site plan shows a total of 16 spaces within the grounds which is a loss of 6 spaces.

6.7 Highway Services wrote in to state that they had no objection to this application, due to the previously approved application warranting an objection from Highways, clarification was sought. On the basis of the clarification sought Highway Services suggested that the proposed car parking spaces available should be reduced to 75% occupancy with clients using both the spa and the guest accommodation at the same time and with the possibility that both the guest rooms and the spa will not be at full capacity at all times. As such with this reduction to 75%, the proposed required spacing would be 16 and a half spaces.

6.8 Whilst the above means that there would be suitable enough spacing on the site, the space size given 4.8m by 2.4m is less than the recommended spacing for car parks within the Manual for Manx Roads which states "The Department recommends that standard parking bays in car parks should be 5m by 2.5m to accommodate modern larger SUV's and MPV's. The bay size will facilitate easier parking and faster parking for all types of passage vehicles, therefore reducing the likelihood of overspill parking on the adjacent highway."

6.9 When putting the directions of the Manual for Manx Roads into practice this would reduce the parking even further, whilst this could potentially be an issue the agent for the application has stated that that the guest house itself does not have any staff with staff of the spa cleaning the guest house and providing the morning breakfast and with a lot of the spa clients coming via taxis or car sharing.

6.10 Overall it would be better for cars and the property if the car parking spaces were laid out on the existing ground instead of a free for all car parking arrangement which could produce even less spaces than stated, as such with the above in mind and taking in account the required spacing per the Manual for Manx Roads a condition should be attached to the application to state prior to occupation of the guest rooms a new car parking arrangement should be received and approved by the department and the car park should be laid out as such and retained thereafter.

CONCLUSION 7.1 For the above reasons the proposal is considered to comply with General Policy 2, Business Policy 13 and Transport Policy 7 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;

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(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 __

I confirm that this decision has been made by the Planning Committee in accordance with the authority afforded to it under the appropriate delegated authority.

Decision Made : Permitted

Committee Meeting Date: 30.11.2020

Signed : V PORTER Presenting Officer

Further to the decision of the Committee an additional report/condition reason was required (included as supplemental paragraph to the officer report).

Signatory to delete as appropriate YES/NO See below

Customer note

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