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25/90728/B
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PLANNING OFFICER REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Application No. : 25/90728/B Applicant : Miss Kyra Chantelle Parsons Proposal : Variation of condition 5 of 24/00659/C (additional use of dwelling for the running of a beauty business) to extend operating hours to 9am to 8pm, Mondays to Saturdays Site Address : 18 Ballakermeen Drive Douglas Isle Of Man IM1 4HN
Planning Officer: Vanessa Porter Photo Taken :
Site Visit :
Expected Decision Level : Planning Committee
Recommendation
Recommended Decision:
Permitted Date of Recommendation: 17.09.2025 __
Conditions and Notes for Approval
C : Conditions for approval N : Notes attached to conditions
C 1. The area of the building to be used for beauty treatments shall be limited to that shown highlighted yellow on the location plan, dated received 1st August 2025 forming part of the application and the use hereby permitted shall not extend into any other part of the premises.
Reason: To minimise the disturbance to adjacent residential occupiers and to protect the residential character of the locality.
C 2. The use hereby approved shall only be for the benefit of Miss Parsons while they are resident at 18 Ballakermeen Drive, Douglas and no staff may be employed and/or work at the premises.
Reason: Although the specific details of this application have been found acceptable, any change to its operation will require fresh assessment.
C 3. Notwithstanding the provisions of the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 2013 (or any Regulations revoking and/or re-enacting those Regulations with or without modification) no advertisement on or within 18 Ballakermeen Drive may be displayed without the prior submission and approval of advertisement consent.
Reason: To control development in the interests of the amenities of the surrounding area.
C 4. The business shall not operate outside of the operational hours stipulated in the application of: Monday to Saturday 9am to 8pm.
Reason: In the interest of protecting neighbouring living conditions.
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C 5. Notwithstanding the provisions of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 2019 or Town and Country Planning (Change of Use) (Development) (No. 2) Order 2019 or any order amending, revoking or re-enacting these Orders, the building hereby approved shall be used only for the purpose hereby approved (beauty therapy) and shall not be used for any other purpose within Use Class 1.1 without the express grant of planning approval from the Department.
Reason: To enable the Department to consider the implications of any subsequent change of use on the amenities of the area.
C 6. For the avoidance of doubt, should the summerhouse cease to be used for the business use hereby approved as specified in Condition 3 of the approval, the summerhouse may either be removed or only be used for purposes incidental to the enjoyment on the main dwelling house at 18 Ballakermeen Drive.
Reason: To enable the Department to consider the implications of any subsequent change of use on the amenities of the area.
This application has been recommended for approval for the following reason. Due to the small scale capacity the use of the garden shed by the applicant the proposed extension of times is considered acceptable. Overall the proposal is unlikely to cause adverse additional harm to the amenity of neighbouring residents above and beyond what is currently in place and generally meets the aims and objectives of General Policy 2 of the Isle Strategic Policy (2016), Business Policy 1 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 August 2025; o Location Plan o Photograph of work area o Photograph of summerhouse o Floor Plan - summerhouse o Floor Plan - property o Covering Letter __
Right to Appeal
It is recommended that the owners/occupiers of the following properties should be given the Right to Appeal as they have submitted an objection that meets the specified criteria: No.16 Ballakermeen Drive
It is recommended that the following organisations should NOT be given the Right to Appeal: DOI Highways - No Objection __
Officer’s Report
THE APPLICATION SITE 1.1 The application site is within the curtilage of 18 Ballakermeen Drive, Douglas which is a semi detached two storey dwelling situated to the East of Ballakermeen Drive.
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1.2 To the rear of the property is a tired garden which has a summerhouse situated upon it. Due to the location of the property, there is no off street parking situated with the site.
THE PROPOSAL 2.1 The current planning application seeks to vary condition 5 of PA24/00569/C to extend the operational hours to: Monday to Saturday 9am to 8pm.
2.2 The existing wording of condition states, "The business shall not operate outside of the operational hours stipulated in the application. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday - 10am till 3pm Thursday - 12pm till 7pm Saturday - 10am till 5pm Reason: In the interest of protecting neighbouring living conditions."
PLANNING HISTORY 3.1 There is one previous application which is relevant to the assessment of this application PA24/00569/C which was Permitted with 7 conditions.
PLANNING POLICY 4.1 The site lies within an area zoned as "Predominantly Residential" on the Area Plan for the East, Map 4 - Douglas. The property is not within a Conservation Area or a Flood Risk Zone.
4.2 In terms of the Strategic Plan (2016) the following Strategic Policies are the most relevant.
4.3 The following Strategic Policies are also relevant;
REPRESENTATIONS 5.1 The following representations can be found in full online, below is a short summary;
5.2 Highway Services have considered the application and state, "After reviewing this Application, Highway Services HDC finds it to have no significant negative impact upon highway services, network functionality and/or parking as this would not material impact parking in the area as it is an extension of opening times rather than intensification of the site." (12.07.25)
5.3 Douglas City Council were consulted on the 4th August 2025 of which at the time of writing this report (17.09.25) no reply has been received.
5.4 There has been several comprehensive objections (01.09.25, 12.08.25 & 08.08.25) received from the neighbouring owner/occupier, No. 16 Ballakermeen Drive, of which their objections are discussed in the assessment of this application below.
ASSESSMENT
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6.1 The previously approved application PA24/00569/C accepted the use of the summerhouse within the rear of the dwelling and whether the parking on site is acceptable, and as such this report will be assessing the extension in time only, with the main issue being with regards to neighbouring amenity, especially noting the objections received.
6.2 Since the validation of the application, the officer has had a meeting with both the owners of the site and the objector, to ascertain a general understanding of the objections raised and where issues lie.
6.3 There is a lot of issues raised within the objection from No.16 Ballakermeen Drive which are not relevant with regards to Planning, of which the owner of No.16 Ballakermeen Drive has been informed of this. The relevant parts to this application is the impact of the proposal with regards to noise generated and the use of the site outside the hours requested under PA24/00569/C.
6.4 For the avoidance of doubt the following points raised are not Planning issues and as such will not be discussed further in this report,
6.5 With the above in mind the following are Planning issues and as such discussed below;
6.6 In the first instance the use of the summerhouse as a nail salon was deemed acceptable under PA24/00569/C, as such this application is limited to the extension of time.
6.7 For several years the Department has been receiving applications to work from home from all parts of the Island and from different types of dwellings, including completely rural sites and completely urban sites. With the majority of applications being approved, where an application has been refused this has been down to the available parking on site or the proposed working from home aspect, such as a gym.
6.8 When assessing working from home applications balance needs to be given for the circumstances that the Island and the world as a whole is currently in, in that the likelihood that within a housing estate/ street there will be people within the house during the daytime and that people working from home is likely. As such as a Department we cannot necessarily assume that during the working day no-one would be within the surrounding properties. The same is the case for homeowners who look after children part or full time and retired homeowners who are likely to be home more during the daytime.
6.9 The first objection to the application was with regards to children being within the garden area, in the first instance the property is situated within a housing estate and as such children are a common occurring item, it is also not unknown for several children to reside in one property at any given time. Whilst the above is the case, and whilst noting that the homeowner is not doing any other business from the property if they so wish, The Town and Country Planning (Change of Use)(Development)(No.2) Order 2019 provides permitted development for the change of a building from a dwellinghouse to a combined use as dwellinghouse and
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childminder (Class 6 with conditions), of which one of the stipulations are no more than 6 children.
6.10 Turning towards the objection with regards to noise, The World Health Organisation (WHO) has guidance for noise and the disturbance (Compendium of WHO and other UN guidance on health and environment 2024 update - Chapter 11. Environmental noise) and whilst not aimed at working from home but for other situations, it's helpful to understand the impact of noise on neighbours, "Important sources for environmental noise exposure are road, railway and air traffic, or building sites. Noise exposure can also occur through other sources such as wind turbines and leisure activities such as listening to loud music or other audio content including participation in e-sports (video and computer game competitions). Excessive noise can cause annoyance; in addition research shows it increases the risk of IHD and hypertension, sleep disturbance, hearing impairment, tinnitus and cognitive impairments, with increasing evidence for other health impacts such as adverse birth outcomes and mental health problems."
6.11 It's obvious from the information provided from the neighbouring property that they deem the noise to be above and beyond what would be accepted within a residential environment and taking account the above, it's understandable that excessive noise can cause serious health and mental health issues.
6.12 Whilst that is the case, and noting the main impact of noise that the WHO have deemed to be the most likely to cause an issue, the location of the property and the actual use of the summerhouse needs to be looked at. In the first instance the use of the summerhouse is as a nail salon which in itself, does not create any noise above and beyond what you would expect within a residential environment with the most likely noise coming from a nail drill, which would not be dissimilar to any household item such as a washing machine or tumble dryer.
6.13 Turning towards the location of the site, 18 Ballakermeen Drive is situated to the South West of Ballakermeen Drive, of which the property has a long front garden which faces onto Ballakermeen Drive which ends at Peel Road and the rear which is situated to a rear alley. The property is situated approximately 48m away from Peel Road situated to the West of the site, which is one of the main service roads into Douglas, approximately 166m away from the Bowl which is a football stadium which houses approximately 3,500 spectators, which has regular football matches, approximately 230m away from the running track and pitches of the National Sports Centre, approximately 220m away from an industrial estate and approximately 100m from Starbucks and KFC, and approximately 200m away from McDonalds. To the rear of the property the property is situated approximately 380m away from Ballakermeen High School.
6.14 All of the above means that there is a general underlining noise around Ballakermeen Drive due to its location, whilst this might be limited due to the mature trees that surrounding the cul-de-sac, it will not remove this underlining noise completely.
6.15 Whilst it's noted that the neighbour has an issue with the noise generated from talking within the summerhouse, it would be no different than if the summerhouse was used from an office worker who takes calls.
6.16 It should also be noted that if the noise from the site is above and beyond what would be accepted there would be other objections from neighbouring properties.
CONCLUSION 7.1 The proposal in itself is to extend the opening times of an already existing business, which is a nail salon. Overall whilst the site does not have the required parking for a business on the site, there is ample parking in the surrounding streets, the property is close to a main artery road (Peel Road) and Highway Services have not objected to the proposal.
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7.2 Whilst an objection has been received with regards to the extension of the opening times, with the main complaint being noise from the site, it's clear that the use of the site as a nail salon would not be creating noise above and beyond what would be expected from a residential environment, especially when noting the location of the property.
7.3 The extension of the hours proposed whilst until 8pm Monday to Saturday, is unlikely to create a disturbance above and beyond what would be expected from the properties setting.
7.4 Overall noting that there are no additional objections from neighbouring properties, and that there is other legislation for the dealing of noise nuisance, such as the Noise Act 2006, the proposal is considered to comply with General Policy 2, Business Policy 1 and Business Policy 7 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 and therefore acceptable.
RIGHT TO APPEAL AND RIGHT TO GIVE EVIDENCE 8.1 The Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) Order 2019 sets out the process for determining planning applications (including appeals). It sets out a Right to Appeal (i.e. to submit an appeal against a planning decision) and a Right to Give Evidence at Appeals (i.e. to participate in an appeal if one is submitted).
8.2 Article A10 sets out that the right to appeal is available to: o applicant (in all cases); o a Local Authority; Government Department; Manx Utilities; and Manx National Heritage that submit a relevant objection; and o any other person who has made an objection that meets specified criteria.
8.3 Article 8(2)(a) requires that in determining an application, the Department must decide who has a right to appeal, in accordance with the criteria set out in article A10.
8.4 The Order automatically affords the Right to Give Evidence to the following (no determination is required): o any appellant or potential appellant (which includes the applicant); o the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture, the Department of Infrastructure and the local authority for the area; o any other person who has submitted written representations (this can include other Government Departments and Local Authorities); and o in the case of a petition, a single representative.
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I confirm that this decision has been made by the Planning Committee in accordance with the authority afforded to that body by the appropriate DEFA Delegation and that in making this decision the Committee has agreed the recommendation in relation to who should be afforded interested person status and/or rights to appeal.
Decision Made: Permitted Date: 29.09.2025
Signed : Mrs Louise Philips Presenting Officer
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