DEC Officer Report

PLANNING OFFICER REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION

Application No.: 24/00727/C Applicant: Mrs Pamela Radcliffe Proposal: Additional use as tourist accommodation Site Address: 49 Arbory Street Castletown Isle Of Man IM9 1LL Planning Officer: Vanessa Porter Expected Decision Level: Officer Delegation Recommended Decision: Permitted Date of Recommendation: 07.08.2024

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 26 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) Order 2019 and to avoid the accumulation of unimplemented planning approvals.

This application has been recommended for approval for the following reason.

Overall, the proposal is unlikely to impact neighbouring amenity above and beyond what would currently be in place by dint of its location within the streetscene and as such it is deemed that the proposal complies with Section 18(4) of the Town and Country Act (1999) and Environment Policy 35, General Policy 2, Strategic Policy 8, Environment Policy 22, Business Policies 11 and 13 and Transport Policy 7 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016.

Plans/Drawings/Information; This decision relates to the following plans and drawings, date stamped received on 1st July 2024;

• o Covering Letter
• o Location Plan
• o Site Plan
• o Drawing No. 050 Rev B (Existing)
• o Drawing No. 050 Rev B (Proposed) _______________________________________________________________

Interested Person Status

Additional Persons

It is recommended that the owners/occupiers of the following properties should be given Interested Person Status as they are considered to have sufficient interest in the subject matter

of the application to take part in any subsequent proceedings and are not mentioned in Article 4(2):

No.47 Arbory Street as they satisfy all of the requirements of paragraph 2 of the Department's Operational Policy on Interested Person Status _____________________________________________________________________________

Officer’s Report APPLICATION SITE

1.1 The application site is within the curtilage of 49 Arbory Street, which is two storey with a room in the roofspace mid terraced property, situated to the Southern side of Arbory Street. The application site is laid out with an open plan lounge, kitchen and dining room to ground floor level, two bedrooms and a bathroom to the second floor and a bedroom situated within the attic space. The application site has a small enclosed rear garden. - 1.2 The property has no off street parking. PROPOSAL

2.1 The current planning application seeks approval for the additional use of the property as tourist accommodation. - 2.2 Whilst the application shows proposed rooflights to be installed, these were approved under PA18/00847/B, as such there are no physical works proposed within this application. PLANNING HISTORY

3.1 The previous planning applications are not considered material to the assessment of this application. PLANNING POLICY - 4.1 The site lies within an area zoned as "Predominantly Residential" on the Area Plan for the South, Map 5 - Castletown and is situated within a Conservation Area. The property is not situated within a Flood Risk Zone.

4.2 Given the nature of the of the land designation and the property being within a Conservation Area, Section 18(4) of the Town and Country Planning Act (1999) is the most relevant in the assessment of this application. Followed by paragraph 7.29.2 and Environment Policy 35 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan, which set out development in Conservation Areas will only be permitted where they preserve or enhance the character and appearance of the area. - 4.3 With regards to the proposed tourist use of the property, the following Strategic Policies are relevant, General Policy 2, Strategic Policy 8, Environment Policy 22, Business Policies 11 and 13 and Transport Policy 7 from the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 which set out the general standards towards acceptable development, the acceptability of tourist development provided it does not adversely affect the surrounding area, that neighbouring amenity is not compromised and that there is the recommended amount of parking space available.

REPRESENTATIONS

5.1 The following representations can be found in full online;

5.2 Highway Services have considered the proposal and state, "After reviewing this Application, Highway Services HDC finds it to have no significant negative impact upon highway safety, network functionality and/or parking as the proposals would have a similar or less parking demand to the existing situation." (12.07.24) - 5.3 No comments have been received from Castletown Commissioners at the time of writing this report.

5.4 The owners/occupiers of No. 47 Arbory Street have written in to raise concerns regarding the application on the basis of, the proposed use of the site, parking and potential noise disturbance. (16.07.24)

ASSESSMENT

6.1 The main issues to consider in the assessment of this application are;

• - Section 18(4) test
• - neighbouring amenity
• - highway services
• - representation 6.3 SECTION 18(4) TEST

• 6.3.1 The property is situated within a Conservation Area, as such it is necessary to test the application under section 18(4) of the Town and Country Act (1999), see section 4.2 of this report, on whether the works preserve or enhance the Conservation Area.
• 6.3.2 When looking at the appearance of the Conservation Area and whether the proposal would impact this, it is noted that the proposed additional change of use does not include any external alterations. With this in mind and noting that the additional use of tourist should not alter the Conservation Area as a whole, the proposal will pass this part of the Section 18(4) test by preserving the Conservation Area.
• 6.3.3 Turning towards the character of the Conservation Area and whether the works would impact this, tourist accommodation is used in almost the same manner as residential use, with the likelihood that there would not be a change on the overall character of Arbory Street. As such the proposal would should not impact the character of the Conservation Area and the proposal will pass this part of the Section 18(4) test by preserving the Conservation Area.
• 6.4 NEIGHBOURING AMENITY

• 6.4.1 It is difficult to assess how an individual person would behave whether they be a tourist or permanent resident. As a tourist, a person may be out a lot of the time, but may also have greater late nights and be disruptive on return. On the other hand, permanent residents may be at home more of the time, but be more likely to invite friends or family over for dinner or parties that may be noisy. In general terms, however, the majority of people tend to behave well and raise no concerns, although there will always be a percentage that might not, whether they are a permanent resident or otherwise.
• 6.4.2 Business Policy 13 indicates that permission will generally be given for the use of private residential properties as tourist accommodation providing that it can be demonstrated that such use would not compromise the amenities of neighbouring residents.
• 6.4.3 The existing property would be used as a residential property, of which the additional use of this application will enable the owners to part-rent the property for tourist accommodation. The dwelling itself is situated within a residential use and located close to the main village within a residential area, close to a Mixed Use zoned area as such the site would be subject to a certain level of noise disturbance by dint of its location.
• 6.4.4 It is considered therefore deemed that the use of the existing residential dwelling as tourist accommodation would have a similar impact, whether it is used for tourist or permanent residential use and therefore would not have a significant impact upon the living conditions of the neighbouring properties.
• 6.5 HIGHWAY SERVICES 6.5.1 The property does not supply on-site parking and as such the parking provided for the property would be on-street parking, which would be used irrespectively if the property was used as a permanent residential accommodation or tourist purposes.

• 6.5.6 The additional use as tourist use would not result in any changes beyond current occupation in terms of an increase in water usage, criminal activity nor increase the likely hood of spread of fire beyond the existing arrangement, and so the proposal is considered acceptable in these respects.

6.6 REPRESENTATION

• 6.6.1 The representation from the neighbouring property is noted, the application is for an additional use as tourist accommodation, as such the proposal would not hinder the property from being rented out or being used as a family home. CONCLUSION
• 7.1 For these reasons the proposal is considered to comply with the relevant polices of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 and there is no demonstrable harm arising from the application. The living conditions of the neighbouring properties are not to be made worse as a result of the proposal and there is to be no impact on the designated Conservation Area, As such the application is recommended for approval. INTERESTED PERSON STATUS
• 8.1 By virtue of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) Order 2019, the following persons are automatically interested persons:

• (a) the applicant (including an agent acting on their behalf);
• (b) any Government Department that has made written representations that the Department considers material;
• (c) the Highways Division of the Department of Infrastructure;
• (d) Manx National Heritage where it has made written representations that the Department considers material;
• (e) Manx Utilities where it has made written representations that the Department considers material;
• (f) the local authority in whose district the land the subject of the application is situated; and
• (g) a local authority adjoining the authority referred to in paragraph (f) where that adjoining authority has made written representations that the Department considers material. 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 above who should be given Interested Person Status

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 and that in making this decision the Officer has agreed the recommendation in relation to who should be afforded Interested Person Status.

Decision Made : Permitted Date: 09.08.2024 Determining officer Signed : J SINGLETON Jason Singleton Principal Planner

Customer note This copy of the officer report reflects the content of the file copy and has been produced in this form for the benefit of our online services/customers and archive records.