172792

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                                      19/00581/B                                     Page  1  of  3

PLANNING OFFICER REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Application No. : 19/00581/B Applicant : Castletown Town Commissioners Proposal : Formation of a coach layby on Farrants Way Site Address : Castletown Civic Centre 1 Farrants Way Castletown Isle of Man IM9 1NR

Principal Planner: Miss S E Corlett Photo Taken : 27.06.2019 Site Visit : 27.06.2019 Expected Decision Level : Officer Delegation

Recommendation

Recommended Decision:

Permitted Date of Recommendation: 02.07.2019 __

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.

Plans/Drawings/Information:

This decision relates to drawings 1814-P100A and 1814-E100A both received on 20th May, 2019.

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Interested Person Status - Additional Persons

none __

Officer’s Report

THE SITE 1.1 The site is the curtilage of Castletown's town hall, the Civic Centre which lies on the eastern side of Farrant's Way. The site contains the town hall which is a relatively new building in the town and the site also forms a pedestrian walkway from Arbory Street to Farrant's Way as well as providing public toilets.

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1.2 Directly in front of the building is a layby in which motor vehicles may park where their drivers or passengers have business at the Civic Centre. The layby has a curved shape allowing around three vehicles to park there.

THE PROPOSAL 2.1 Proposed is the redefinition of the parking bay to accommodate coaches, widening and deepening the layby. New paving is proposed, similar to that at the rear of the building, to demarcate the bay and the surrounding pedestrian surface and the scheme has been designed in accordance with Manual for Manx Roads.

2.2 Currently coaches are parked at right angles to Farrant's Way to the rear of the Co-op, 7, The Parade and Balcony House. At the time of the site visit a coach was manoeuvring into one of these spaces and filled the width of the road with traffic having to stop whilst the coach moved into the space (see photograph).

PLANNING POLICY 3.1 The site lies within Castletown's Conservation Area within an area designated as Mixed Use on the Area Plan for the South (2013). The development is therefore required to preserve or enhance the character or appearance of the Conservation Area and to have an acceptable impact on the appearance of the area, as stated in General Policy 2 and Environment Policy 35 with Planning Policy Statement 1/01.

PLANNING HISTORY 4.1 The Civic Centre was approved as a new building in 1987 with various alterations having been approved since. The former library was converted to an administration centre for the southern policing in 2015. The former mortuary across the yard to the south was converted to a pizza restaurant in 2017. There is a current application awaiting determination for the replacement of windows in the Civic Centre and the creation of a bin store (18/00580/B).

REPRESENTATIONS 5.1 There are no representations on file at the time of writing.

ASSESSMENT 6.1 The building is a modern one and the existing layby, with its associated signage and the appearance of parked vehicles is not one which is otherwise in accordance with the historic character of the area. What is proposed will not change the character of this part of the town but will tidy up the appearance of the kerbs and paving which will have a positive impact.

CONCLUSION 7.1 The works are not considered to have any significant impact on the character or appearance of the area but will generally improve the quality and appearance of the paving and will provide a safer means of alighting from the coaches for those travelling to the town in this way, in conformity with General Policy 2 and Environment Policy 35 and the application is supported.

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.

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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 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: 10.07.2019

Determining officer

Signed : C BALMER

Chris Balmer

Principal Planner

Customer note

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