Officer Report

Application No.: 17/00755/B Applicant: Douglas Borough Council Proposal: Creation of a childrens water play and splash pad area Site Address: Tennis Courts Nobles Park Douglas Isle Of Man IM2 4BD Case Officer : Miss S E Corlett Photo Taken: 03.08.2017 Site Visit: 03.08.2017 Expected Decision Level: Planning Committee Recommended Decision: Permitted Date of Recommendation: 08.09.2017 _________________________________________________________________

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 14 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) (No2) Order 2013 and to avoid the accumulation of unimplemented planning approvals.

• C 2. This approval relates to the creation of a water-based activity facility generally as shown in the submitted illustrations received on 14th July, 2017. Reason: To clarify the extent of the approval granted. Plans/Drawings/Information;

This approval relates to drawings E&R.17.032.1001A, NPSP2 photographs, NPSP 3, NPSP5 and NPSP6 all received on 14th July, 2017.

_______________________________________________________________ Interested Person Status – Additional Persons

It is recommended that the following persons should not be given Interested Person Status as they are not considered to have sufficient interest in the subject matter of the application to take part in any subsequent proceedings and are not mentioned in Article 6(4):

The owners of 40, Hollin Bank, Braddan, 124, Cronk Liauyr, Douglas, and 35, Cronk Elfin, Ramsey

As they are not sufficiently close to the site to be directly affected by the proposal _____________________________________________________________________________ Officer’s Report

THIS APPLICATION IS REFERRED TO THE PLANNING COMMITTEE DUE TO THE NATURE OF THE PROPOSALS

THE SITE

1.1 The site is that of two hard surfaced tennis course together with a parcel of land alongside to the south west, which all sit to the south of the roadway which runs through Noble's Park from St. Ninian's Road through to the Grandstand. The tennis courts are fenced off around their edges and are used, as the name suggests, for recreation although they are also used for motorcycle parking during TT and Manx Grand Prix/Festival of Motorcycling periods. - 1.2 Noble's Park accommodates a range of recreation and leisure uses - there are two football pitches and a cricket pitch which also provide open grassed areas when not in formal recreation use, a further 5 tennis courts, two bowling greens, a children's activity area opposite the tennis courts which are the subject of this application, a children's play area and skateboard and BMX tracks. - 1.3 Vehicular access into the site is from St. Ninian's Road where the entrance is only wide enough for a single vehicle to pass. The driveway in is just wide enough for two vehicles to pass carefully, speed is restricted by sign to 5mph and there is a series of traffic calming speed humps between the entrance and the restaurant building. THE PROPOSAL

2.1 Proposed is the conversion of the tennis courts and land alongside to a water play area. Two pedestrian access points, one suitable for people with disabilities will be provided to the north west and south west. the facility will have a solid base of around 300 sq m and within this will be a range of features which spray water up and down with the tallest being around 336cm tall. The exact design has not yet been finalised but the tallest feature is not envisaged as being 4m and no jets likely to go higher than 3m. - 2.2 The applicant describes the courts as redundant. - 2.3 The images provided indicate that the existing surrounding fencing will be removed and accesses made within the existing hedging with benches provided and outside lockers which would generally be allowed without approval under the Permitted Development Order Part 1 Class 12.

PLANNING POLICY

3.1 The site, like all of Noble's Park, is designated on the Douglas Local Plan of 1998 as Public Open Space. As such, there is a presumption in favour of uses or development which supports that use and the planning system would not normally favour one type of use over another. It is important for a leisure facility to be successful that it offers a range of activities for as broad a spectrum of users as possible, particularly in terms of age and physical abilities.

3.2 It is also important that such uses are as accessible as is practicable and safe, in line with General Policy 2h and that it takes account of community and personal safety and security in the design of buildings and the spaces around them (GP2m).

• REPRESENTATIONS
• 4.1 Highway Services indicate that they have no objection to the application (28.07.17). They say that the proposal is for use by members of the public using an existing public park that has various individual attractions. The park is served by car parking internally but there is also on street car parking available in the surrounding road network. They consider it to be very difficult to determine an accurate increase in visitors directly due to this application, and there is car parking at various locations within the park to accommodate different users. The car park is managed by Douglas Corporation and there is ample space within the park for overflow parking if required. They consider that the access is suitable for cars and the environment has been improved in recent years to encourage low speeds and give additional protection to pedestrians. They are satisfied that this proposal will not impact road safety or parking provision to such an extent as to warrant refusal.

4.2 Douglas Borough Council raise no objection (04.08.17).

4.3 The owner of 35, Cronk Elfin, Ramsey expresses concern that the application form states that there are in excess of 400 spaces but no assessment has been made of how many are being used and the projected increase. He adds that at present the access is not wide enough for larger vehicles and there are not enough safe crossing areas on the surrounding roads for a potential increase in traffic (31.07.17). - 4.4 The owner of 124, Cronk Liauyr in Douglas objects (06.08.17) on the basis that the Council's money should be better spent on activities and facilities which are available to a wider range of users, not just the 1-12 year olds. They do not consider the courts are disused and have seen people recently playing there and they consider that the park has relatively few facilities which are usable by older people other than bowls. They are concerned about the lack of changing facilities and comment that the area seems small. They also consider that a facility which is usable all year round would be a better use of funds. They are concerned that the noise from the facility may adversely affect the new wedding and event facilities in the band stand and restaurant and suggest that there are other similar facilities in Onchan Pleasure Park an the National Sports Centre. They also question where the motorcycles which park there during TT will go. - 4.5 The owner of 40, Hollin Bank in Braddan comment that the tennis courts are used frequently by a wide range of people of all age ranges and are certainly not disused and the application should be refused as it will result in the loss of a facility which helps people stay active and healthy. The water park should be introduced, but elsewhere (09.08.17).

PLANNING HISTORY 5.1 The most recent application for the Park was one for the creation of a car park and ancillary paving and archway works, 07/02247/B. The car park was refused and the other works approved on appeal. The car park was refused as it would have taken away recreational facilities for which the land is designated and was bequeathed to the public and as the appearance of regularly used 'grasscrete' would be inappropriate in this area.

5.2 An application was recently refused for the change of use of existing hard surfaced tennis courts in Onchan Park to a car park (17/00200/B). This was refused for the reason that:

• 1. The proposed use of land for the parking of vehicles, would be contrary to Recreation Policy
• 2 and Environment Policy 42 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 and Policy O/TRT/P/5 of the Onchan Local Plan since it would result in a loss of space for recreation purposes or which has the ability to be used for recreation purposes, and the application has failed to demonstrate that the caveats of Recreation Policy 2 can be or have been met.

• 2. The proposal is contrary to the provisions of General Policy 3 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 in that the proposed development does not fall within any of the listed exceptions to the restrictions on development outside areas zoned for development.
• 3. The proposal is contrary to the provisions of part (iii) Environment Policy 22 and part (g) of General Policy 2 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 in that the proposed development would cause substantial harm to the residential amenities of neighbouring properties through the noise created by the additional traffic generated by the development and also the same traffic then manoeuvring within the site to park.
• 4. The proposal is contrary to the provisions of Transport Policy 4 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 in that the application has failed to demonstrate that a safe and acceptable means of access to the site is achievable.
• 5. The proposal is contrary to the provisions of Environment Policy 42 and parts (b) and (c) of General Policy 2 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 in that the proposed development would cause substantial harm to the character, appearance and visual amenity of the area by reason of the use of the site as a car park from open space/recreation use and therefore changing the character and appearance of site and street scene. ASSESSMENT
• 6.1 The proposal would retain the use of the land as recreation/leisure and as such is in keeping with the land use designation. Within public parks there is generally no control over how land is used within the general description of Public Open Space - for example, if grass tennis courts were to be changed to a football field then planning approval would not be required for that, even though there may be a change in the number of people using it and/or when the area is used. Similarly, a well equipped and maintained play area can attract significantly more visitors than one which has less and less up to date equipment and where this is not looked after. These can attract very different levels of usage.

6.2 As such, it is accepted that parks will generally have the ability to attract a significant number of people and particularly in this case as it is the capital's largest area of Public Open Space (other than the Promenade and beach) and where, twice a year, there is the focus of the Island's tourist industry.

6.3 Bearing this in mind, it is not considered that the change from two tennis courts to a children's water based activity area will result in so much additional pedestrian and vehicular traffic to warrant refusal of the application. It is fully accepted that the vehicular access into the park from St. Ninian's Road is not wide enough for two vehicles to easily pass without compromising the safety of any pedestrians walking along it, but anyone walking can see vehicles approaching and those in the vehicles can see pedestrians and traffic is generally moving very slowly in accordance with the 5mph speed limit.

6.4 There is parking available within the Park but many people choose to park on St. Ninian's Road, Duke's Road, Glencrutchery Road or to walk from further afield. Given the lack of objection from the Highway Authority, the application is not considered objectionable from the point of view of car parking and highway safety. CONCLUSION - 7.1 The Council should be commended for seeking to improve the variety and range of facilities within the Park and this application is recommended for approval. INTERESTED PERSON STATUS - 8.1 By virtue of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) (No 2) Order 2013 (Article 6(4), the following persons are automatically interested persons:

• (a) The applicant, or if there is one, the applicant's agent;
• (b) The owner and the occupier of any land that is the subject of the application or any other person in whose interest the land becomes vested;
• (c) Any Government Department that has made written submissions relating to planning considerations with respect to the application that the Department considers material
• (d) Highway Services Division of Department of Infrastructure and
• (e) The local authority in whose district the land the subject of the application is situated. 8.2 The Planning Committee must determine:

• * whether any other comments from Government Departments (other than the Department of Infrastructure Highway Services Division) are material; and
• * whether there are other persons to those listed in Article 6(4) 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 18.09.2017

Signed : S CORLETT 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

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