184777

| From: | santon commissioners [email protected] | | --- | --- | | Sent: | 08 May 2019 01:55 | | To: | DEFA, Planning | | Subject: | 19/00475/C: Perk Cottage, Knock Froy Road, off Main Rd. Santon, IM4 1JD. |

Dear Sir/Madam,

Extract from minutes of a meeting of Santon Commissioners held on 7th May 2019.

19/00475/C: Perk Cottage, Knock Froy: Tempo. use of adjoining field as a camp site with associated toilets and parking for the duration of week before TT until a week after Festival of Motorcycling. Objections.

The Commissioners wish to object to this application for the following reasons (in no particular order):

1. Given the location by Main Castletown Road, it is considered that the site access could be a safety hazard. Only recently Santon Commissioners, the Minister for DoI Mr. Harmer and MHK Mr. Simmons met at this location to assess the perceived dangers to school children and others boarding and alighting from public transport on such a busy road with fast traffic and limited (in places very poor) visibility.

2. The recent increase in the number of applications for camping and "glamping" approval, whilst appearing to conveniently provide for an influx of tourists at peak times, now threatens to litter our HLVSS countryside with camps which, unless very carefully controlled, may not be an asset to the Island in the long term.

3. The application site is at present occupied by containers and abandoned vehicles and would certainly be the better for these being removed but not to be replaced by motor homes and "glamping pods". Temporary tents at race periods would be acceptable, subject to public health requirements being assured.

4. Tented camp sites are a convenient and economic way of temporarily providing for a sharp rise in demand for accommodation at race periods but which are then restored to original (often agricultural) use for the remainder of the year. There is a danger of permanence by motor homes and "pods" of possibly varying type and quality.

5. There is a fear that these Island glamping pods could eventually achieve planning approval for occupation all year round and devolve into low-quality cheap housing in which a new stratum of Manx society will develop. Historically, and to the long term benefit of the Island, caravan sites have been discouraged (compare many mainland sites of no merit whatsoever) and so, one wonders about the long-term aspects of mobile "homes" and glamping sites here.

6. Reference is made by the applicant to an application for camping at Ballavartyn. The Commissioners have given qualified approval to Ballavartyn because this site has a properly established infrastructure and should lend itself to the purpose. Restriction on the active period of use has been requested.

Should the Committee be minded to approve the application, the Commissioners would like to see a condition that no motor home should be retained on the site outside the specified period.

Yours faithfully,

Howard Benson, Clerk to Santon Commissioners. 822761.

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