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19/00313/C Page 1 of 5
PLANNING OFFICER REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Application No. : 19/00313/C Applicant : Mrs Rosemary & Mr Thomas Waterworth Proposal : Change of use from light industrial to a laundry business Site Address : Former Gas Works Mill Road Peel Isle Of Man IM5 1AX
Principal Planner: Miss S E Corlett Photo Taken :
Site Visit : 10.04.2019 Expected Decision Level : Planning Committee
Recommendation
Recommended Decision:
Permitted Date of Recommendation: 29.04.2019 __
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.
C 2. The operation must be laid out generally as shown in the submitted floor plan: in terms of facilities which are available to the public to operate themselves, there shall be no more than 6 washing and 6 drying machines.
Reason: the control the amount of customers visiting the premises in light of the parking spaces available to the site.
Plans/Drawings/Information;
This approval relates to the internal floor layout shown in drawing 002 received on 15th April, 2019 and the location plan and C-10-03 both received on 19th March 2019.
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Interested Person Status - Additional Persons
None
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19/00313/C Page 2 of 5
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Officer’s Report
THIS APPLICATION IS REFERRED TO THE PLANNING COMMITTEE AS THE PROPOSED USE IS NOT WHOLLY IN CONFORMITY WITH THE LAND USE DESIGNATION
THE SITE 1.1 The site is one which has recently been redeveloped from a gas works to industrial and office premises with associated parking, including a few spaces for newly built dwellings alongside the site. The site sits opposite the House of Manannan museum and its associated car park and alongside the site on the same side of the road is the food park and fishyard. Immediately adjacent to the site is a residential property which was approved as part of the redevelopment of the gasworks site - 14/00928/B. Beyond this are other residential properties either side of Station Road and East Quay marks the start of a number of shops, cafes, restaurants and bars with a few, older, industrial operations - car repairs and sales and depots.
1.2 The site accommodates two buildings - a large modern industrial building which is subdivided internally into four units and another, smaller building which is being re-built as an office (18/00137/B). The approved plans show a mezzanine level over half of each unit although it is understood that the applicant does not wish to install the mezzanine level as approved.
THE PROPOSAL 2.1 The building was approved as one for storage and distribution (Class 6) (14/00930/B) and is nearing completion. Proposed is the use of unit 1 as a laundry including which would constitute an industrial use (there is no Use Class for industrial use) but also coin operated washing and drying machines which would constitute a retail use (Class 1). The applicant owns two of the four units which have ten parking spaces allocated to them. A current application, 19/00327/C, proposes the use of unit 2 - also owned by the current applicant - as a gym. This application indicates that they will have up to five people on the site at any one time and the plans show 4 parking spaces being available to that unit.
2.2 The applicant suggests that there is a general lack of such facilities in the town - the only other public launderette being on the promenade where there is little available parking and none directly outside the site. They indicate that they will also operation a pick up and delivery service for commercial and domestic customers including washing, drying and ironing and possibly wet cleaning which they describe as a much greener version of dry cleaning. The coin operated machines would be open from 0800-1800hrs and would be manned.
2.3 The internal layout shows a jacket former, trouser topper, two ironing boards, a desk, two commercial washers and two commercial dryers with a fifth of the floor area dedicated to the coin operated machines - six of each. The remainder of the building will be open and used for storage and the parking of the company vehicle which will be used for deliveries.
PLANNING POLICY 3.1 The site lies within an area designated on the Peel Local Plan as Predominantly Industrial. Industrial processes, as defined in the Strategic Plan include the following:
"industrial building" means a building (other than a building in or adjacent to or belonging to a quarry or mine and other than a shop) used for the carrying on of any process, for or incidental to any of the following purposes, namely:-
a) the making of any article or of part of any article; or b) the altering, repairing, ornamenting, finishing, cleaning, washing, packing or canning, or adapting for sale, or breaking up or demolition of any article; or
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c) without prejudice to the foregoing paragraphs, the getting, dressing or treatment of minerals; being a process carried on in the course of trade or business other than agriculture, and for the purposes of this definition the expression "article" means an article of any description, including a ship or vessel."
3.2 As such, the use of the site as a laundry which involves the washing or cleaning of clothes is an industrial operation which would not require planning approval in an industrial area. The planning approval granted for the development of the industrial unit (14/00930/B) described the proposed development as the erection of a block of four storage/distribution units although the amount of parking provided was in excess of that required for that purpose. The proposed industrial use of the premises would therefore require planning approval and the inclusion of the coin operated launderette, being a retail use, would also require planning approval.
3.3 Business Policy 5 of the Strategic Plan states that land designated for industrial use will be approved for only industrial, storage and distribution operations and in particular, retail use will not be generally acceptable unless they are of a particular nature which justifies an industrial location. Business Policy 1 encourages the growth of employment opportunities throughout the Island provided that the development complies with the other objectives of the Plan.
3.4 Parking standards in the Strategic Plan indicate that industrial development is to have one parking space per 50 sq m gross of floorspace: storage and distribution should have one space per 100 sq m gross space. The unit has 165 sq m of floor area. Whilst approved with a mezzanine level, the applicant indicates that they do not intend to construct this and there is no indication on the plans of an upper floor.
3.5 General Policy 2, whilst applicable to development which is consistent with the land use designation, sets out general standards of development which should be applied to all new proposals and requires, inter alia, that the development would not result in adverse highway safety or parking issues, the character of the area and the amenities of those in adjacent residential accommodation. Transport Policy 7 requires that adequate parking is provided and Environment Policy 22 also protects the amenities of those in existing property from environmental impacts such as pollution, emissions, vibrations, odour, noise or light pollution.
3.6 Environment Policies 10 and 13 presume against development which would result in increased flood risk.
3.7 Finally, the Government undertook a review of the amount of employment land available in the Island in 2015, updating it in 2017. Both reports conclude that there is no issue with the supply of employment land in the north and west, noting specifically in 2017 that "existing allocations remain sufficient to meet future demand in the South, West and North."
PLANNING HISTORY 4.1 The relevant previous applications are referred to above.
REPRESENTATIONS 5.1 There are no representations on the file at the time of writing.
ASSESSMENT 6.1 The proposed use of part of the building as a laundry is consistent with the designation of the site as industrial although conflicting with the approved use of the site as for storage and distribution. The inclusion of a service where visiting members of the public may come, is different from either of these and would bring implications for additional parking to be provided.
6.2 The unit has six parking spaces available to it as well as space within the building for the company vehicle. It is important for the business to be successful that customers who are not
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having their washing collected and delivered could park close to the site as there is no on- street parking in the vicinity and the House of Manannan car park is very often completely full. It is therefore in the applicant's interests to ensure that there is sufficient space for their customers' vehicles. For example, those depositing their washing may wish to park there, put their washing on then walk into the town to avail themselves of the facilities there - shops, cafes, restaurants etc. People are unlikely to want to carry large bags of washing to and from the site from any distance. Most launderettes on the Island have no on-site parking: for example, Buck's Road, the existing launderette in Peel on the promenade and Bathurst Street - and customers have to find on-street spaces nearby. In the Douglas cases the spaces are controlled by disc systems where parking is restricted to short periods of time (30 mins).
6.3 It is considered that there is sufficient car parking available for those who may come to the site to use the machines and that any overspill will not adversely affect highway safety as there is clearly no opportunity to park immediately outside the site and the operation is likely to become self-policing with potential intervention by the operators of the site.
6.4 Laundry services are a useful addition to a settlement, including commercial operations, for example where there is tourist accommodation there can be a demand for larger scale washing and drying. Having this within the town should be of benefit to the town. The offer of a collection and delivery service will enhance this and minimise the need for car parking on site. Whilst the site is designated as industrial, it is very close to the town centre and its services and amenities and without customers having to go through an industrial estate.
6.5 In terms of the ELR, it is clear that there is no identified shortfall in the provision of land for employment purposes in the west so the use of part of this unit for a launderette is not considered to result in a deficiency in employment land provision which would justify refusal of the application. In addition, the location of the site is adjacent to residential properties where industrial operations could be unneighbourly and where the proposed use is less likely to be so, through a reduction in the size of vehicles using the site, and likely reduction in the amount of vehicular movements. This is particularly relevant given the narrow width of Mill Road and the traffic light operation.
6.6 It may also be considered appropriate to control the hours of operation. However, given the lack of such a condition on the original approval for the building, and the fact that there is likely to be lower levels of traffic and disturbance from the proposed than the lawful use of the building, it is not considered necessary in this case.
6.7 Finally, whilst the site lies within an area liable to flood risk, the proposed use is no more likely to be affected by such risk than is the lawful use of the site and is not considered a high risk use type.
CONCLUSION 7.1 The use is considered compatible with the designation of the site and it is considered that the operation could run successfully without adverse impact on those in other industrial or office space on the site or highway safety. 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 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:...13.05.2019
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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