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Proposed Erection of Self Storage Facility Middle River Industrial Estate.
Statement to accompany the Planning application
June 2024
This statement is to support the application for the creation of a Self Storage facility situated at Plot 8 Middle River Industrial Estate, Pulrose Road, Douglas Isle of Man. The proposed facility would provide 106 storage containers over two levels, of which 104 will be leased to members of the public and two will be retained for services and facility management purposes. At present my client has been successfully operating a similar facility in Jurby and demand is continuing to grow with waiting lists stretching for months, with no guarantee of units becoming available. We believe, this expansion into the East of the island would be greatly welcomed.
The application site is a brown field site situated in the middle of an already established Industrial estate, previously the land was once used as a tipping site for the slag produced from the power station. The existing site is approximately 64m long at its longest length and 32m wide, it is proposed to utilise the majority of the site to form the self-storage facility in the arrangement shown on drawing 101.
The 106 permanently sited shipping containers will be operated in a tidy and professional manor offering safe, dry storage to local businesses and residents.
Photos of an existing facility, operated by the same client, out in Jurby industrial estate can be found in Appendix A for reference, and this proposed site is intended to be operated in a similar fashion.
The client is looking to establish a purpose-built self-storage facility to the East of the island. The proposed facility would comprise of 106 storage containers over 2 levels as shown in the proposed drawings submitted with the planning application.
Approximately half, of the right-hand side of the plot when viewing from the road, is being left as a vacant hardstanding to allow for loading and unloading.
The perimeter of the site with be enclosed with industrial style fencing similar to others found within the estate. There will be one large automatic vehicular gate placed along its front elevation which will be operated by a pin pad, and a single pedestrian maintenance gate to the rear of the site.
Storage and Clientele Initially when we begin development in Jurby we expected the vast majority of clients to be private individuals storing mainly household items, with a few containers going to trades.
However, from our current leasing records we are providing storage facilities, to a number of Retail, Construction/Tradesmen, Commercial Offices, Digital Entertainment, Event management companies and Fitness companies.
Having had discussions with some of our clientele, they have confirmed that the presence of this facility has allowed them to successfully expand from mainly small home startups, into small to medium-sized businesses while maintaining relatively low overheads.
Given that the storage facility is providing local businesses the opportunity to grow, it is argued that the very presence of these facility’s is providing an indirect benefit to the local economy.
It is envisioned that by permitting this application and our subsequent expansion into the East of the island this trend is to continue to grow, enabling more small existing business and potential future startups the opportunity to expand.
Staff The running of the storage facility is to be operated mostly remotely and there are no plans to have any permanent staff on site, however since opening the facility in Jurby we have regularly employed maintenance staff attending the site, along with office-based staff working from another location, the current facility in Jurby is providing employment for 3 members of staff, and should this expansion be permitted this number is likely to increase.
Vehicle movements The proposed development would provide 106 Self storage containers with 16 parking spaces. This ratio of units to carparking spaces would comply with the advice received from the “Self Storage Association United Kingdom” who have release the following document (Appendix B) “Traffic Patterns for Self Storage”
The SSA summarises that the requirement of parking for storage facilities of this size is 13.1 vehicles per day. As the table below indicates on average there are less than 14 vehicles per 299 units, entering a site over a 24-hour period. With customers staying approximately 1 hour on average, most sites would only ever have 4 or 5 vehicles on site at any given time.”
In order to more accurately determine the likely use of the proposed facility we have conducted a two-week continuous traffic count via the CCTV at our Jurby facility which hosts 66 Units or 61% of the proposed Development.
The results concluded that Saturdays were our busiest day with an average of 10.5 cars over the 24hr period (Friday 23:59 to Saturday 23:59). Along with also becoming our most congested day over the two-week period, specifically between the hours of 1pm and 2pm with a total of 4 vehicles present at once.
Assuming that the 40% increase in units on the proposed site would directly relate to the number of visitors expected, this would mean that the total number of vehicles to arrive at the proposed site during peak day (Saturday) would be 15 with a peak of 6 Vehicles between the hours of 1pm and 2pm.
This traffic data confirms that our proposed level of car parking for up to 16 vehicles is not only sufficient, but capable of servicing a sudden surcharge of over 266%, if required.
Details of our traffic study at Jurby is appended for review by the highways board.
We believe that the proposed development is in-keeping with the designated use of the site and its surrounding areas. We believe we have undertaken sufficient analysis of the existing traffic movements on site and likely impact of the highways network and cannot see any reason for why this application would be deemed to be unsuitable in its current location. Therefore, we are hopeful of a swift and positive review.
External perimeter.
Smart and professional Appearance
Smart and professional Appearance
Large Suspended walkways
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