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19/00028/C Page 1 of 5
PLANNING OFFICER REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Application No. : 19/00028/C Applicant : Department Of Infrastructure, Transport Services Proposal : Additional use of hospital grounds for the parking of up to five minibuses (retrospective) Site Address : Ramsey & District Cottage Hospital Cumberland Road Ramsey Isle Of Man IM8 3EZ
Planning Officer: Mr Nick Salt Photo Taken : 01.02.2019 Site Visit : 01.02.2019 Expected Decision Level : Officer Delegation
Recommendation
Recommended Decision:
Permitted Date of Recommendation: 14.03.2019 __
Conditions and Notes for Approval
C : Conditions for approval N : Notes attached to conditions
C 1. The proposed use of the site for the parking of minibuses, hereby approved, shall be restricted to within the hatched area shown on the submitted Site Plan, date-stamped as having been received 15th January 2019. This area shall be restricted to a maximum of 5 minibuses parked on the site at any one time.
Reason: To ensure that there is no further loss of parking for the wider use of the site in accordance with General Policy 2 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016.
Plans/Drawings/Information;
This permission relates to the following plans and drawings, date stamped received on 15th January 2019:
o Applicant statement o Photographs of bus park x2 o Location plan o Site Plan __
Interested Person Status - Additional Persons
None __
Officer’s Report
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1.0 THE SITE 1.1 The application site forms part of the Ramsey & District Cottage Hospital grounds, which is to the north of Cumberland Road (entance) and Grove Mount South (exit). The plan indicates a hardstanding area/parking area to the north of the main hospital car park, which will be used for the minibus parking area, adjacent to a large open green.
2.0 THE PROPOSAL 2.1 The proposal is for the additional use of part of the Ramsey Hospital car park for the parking of up to five minibuses; the application is retrospective. In reference to this site the Department of Infrastructure (DoI) have stated "This site has been in use as an operational base/parking site for vehicles employed on DHSE contracts since mid-2017. There is no requirement to begin vehicle cleaning, maintenance or refuelling at this site."
3.0 PLANNING POLICY 3.1 The site is shown on the Ramsey Local Plan Order 1998 map No.1 as being within the local plan area and the site is designated within an 'Schools and Other Establishments in Large Grounds' with the additional confirmation of the use as a Hospital. The site is not within a Conservation Area.
3.2 As discussed later in this report, the minibuses are intended to serve a range of uses and are not specifically for use in connection with the wider use of the site. However the immediate use of this part of the site and the area proposed is for the parking of vehicles and therefore General Policy 2 is considered to apply in this instance; this policy states that proposals that are in accordance with the land-use zoning and states that development will normally be permitted where it: -
(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; (h) provides satisfactory amenity standards in itself, including where appropriate safe and convenient access for all highway users, together with adequate parking, servicing and manoeuvring space; (i) does not have an unacceptable effect on road safety or traffic flows on the local highways;
4.0 PLANNING HISTORY 4.1 There have been a number of planning applications on the Cottage Hospital site in previous years. Of these, the following are considered materially relevant to this application:
o 92/00887/B - Provison of a car park to the rear of Ramsey Cottage Hospital, Permitted on Review. o 97/01813/B - Creation of Additional car park spaces, Permitted o 06/00847/B - Creation of additional car parking spaces, Permitted.
4.2 Other similar applications have been permitted recently, with 18/00812/C an example of a similar application on an educational site for 6 minibuses.
5.0 REPRESENTATIONS 5.1 Ramsey Town Commissioners have no objection to the proposal (25.02.2019).
5.2 No comments were received from DoI Highways, it is therefore regarded that there is no Highways objection.
6.0 ASSESSMENT 6.1 Background
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6.1.1 The proposal is for the additional use of part of the training centre car park for the parking of up to six minibuses; the application is retrospective.
6.1.2 Bus Vannin is understood to have two distinct sections; big buses for the local bus network and minibuses, which are separate operations. The main big local network buses are garaged at the three main depots in Ramsey, Douglas and Port Erin.
6.1.3 The minibus section is understood to comprise of 33 minibuses between 9 and 16 seats. Ten of these vehicles are operated under the 'big bus' license to allow commercial activities to be undertaken, while the remainder are operated under a commercial courtesy license held by the DOI. Services to be operated from the application site include home to school, transport for SEN children, home to centre transport for adult training centres, and for elderly mentally infirm clients on behalf of the DHS, patient transfer service, school excursions and commercial services to the Sea Terminal and Airport.
6.1.4 The DoI is now understood to be moving 10 of the minibuses from the 'courtesy', licence to the 'big bus' licence to permit the use of the vehicles on private hire and demand responsive services. The current application includes a proportion of these buses that will be covered by the new licence. The remainder of the buses will stay on the existing licence and can be stored in 'Any suitable location owned or operated by an Isle of Man Government department, statutory board or agency.' It is also understood that the number of minibuses included in the description of the current application is a maximum that can be parked on the site and this is not the expected number of vehicles every night. Due to the nature of the use of these vehicles, some will park in one location on some nights and in others on other nights.
6.1.5 The DoI do not envisage any changes in the way vehicles operate in and out of operating centres. Whether used for commercial or courtesy services, the activity that the driver and vehicle undertakes at the operation centres identical; the driver arrives at the vehicle undertakes his daily checks and drives away from the location. At the end of the day, the vehicle is returned, parked and locked.
6.1.6 The locations are only used for overnight parking and there will be no maintenance undertaken, no fuelling or washing. There is no intention to use this location for any vehicle with more than 17 seats or more, as these will remain a separate operation. Although it is possible that there will be days that the vehicles are not required and will need to remain on site all day.
6.2 Principle
6.2.1 The minibuses are intended to serve a range of uses and are not specifically for use in connection with the wider use of the site. However the list of intended users provided in the applicant's statement includes operations carried out on behalf of The Department of Education, Sport and Culture (DESC), which operates the Island's schools and the University College Isle of Man (UCM) and The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), which includes healthcare as well as social services for adults and for children and families.
6.2.2 The operations on behalf of DESC include the transport of SEN (special educational needs) children, behaviourally and emotionally challenged children and 6th form students. The wider site is for Hospital and associated uses and the proposal includes use to meet the demand on health services including the transportation of elderly, infirm patients.
6.2.3 On balance, the use is partially in accordance with the land use designation and although the new licence includes the use for 'commercial' uses, this mostly relates a diversification for uses associated with other government departments. The principle for the parking of these vehicles in this location is therefore acceptable, subject to the considerations below.
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6.3 Impact to Character
6.3.1 Parts (b) and (c) of General Policy 2 states that proposals should respects the site and surroundings and not affect adversely the character of the surrounding landscape or townscape. The immediate use of this part of the site and the area proposed is for the parking of vehicles. This proposal does not include any works to the site to accommodate these or the building or erection of any structures. The potential impact to character relates only to the parking of these large vehicles and their visual appearance on the site.
6.3.2 The site is located within an urban area, approx. 90m to the north of Cumberland Road from which it is accessed, the egress for vehicles is via Grove Mount South to the west of the bus park. The area to be used for the parking of these vehicles is amongst buildings is not considered to be specifically visible from any public vantage point; and given the nature of the use of the immediate site as a car park and the wider site as an healthcare facility, it is unlikely that these will be particularly incongruous where they can be seen.
6.4 Impact on Neighbours
6.4.1 Part (g) of General Policy 2 states that proposals should not adversely affect the amenity of local residents. There are no nearby neighbours, such as those in Grove Mount, that are likely to be directly impacted by the parking of vehicles any more so than the use of the immediate site as a car park.
6.5 Parking and Highways
6.5.1 Parts (h) & (i) state that the proposal should provide satisfactory amenity standards, including adequate parking, servicing and manoeuvring space; and that they do not have an unacceptable effect on road safety or traffic flows on the local highways. Whilst there are no comments from DoI Highways regarding this application, the minibus parking area is directly adjacent to an existing car park and the spaces are within the standard parking space requirements.
7.0 CONCLUSION 7.1 The proposal would not unacceptably harm the characteristics of the existing site or the character of its surroundings and would not result in a significant adverse impact upon the living conditions of neighbouring residents. There is likely to be no loss of on-site parking spaces as the area was newly hard surfaced and formed part of the grass area to the east; however, the highways officer has not objected.
7.2 The proposal is therefore in accordance with General Policy 2 and recommended for approval.
8.0 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 decision maker must determine: o whether any other comments from Government Departments (other than the Department of Infrastructure Highway Services Division) are material; and
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o whether there are other persons to those listed in Article 6(4) 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.
Decision Made : Permitted
Date: 14.03.2019
Determining officer
Signed : C BALMER
Chris Balmer
Principal Planner
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