Planning Division Statement PA 12/00979/A

Statement On Behalf Of The Planning Division In Respect Of Pa 12/0979; Approval In Principle To Develop The Site For Residential Use, The Farmer'S Arms And The Former Auction Mart Site, Station Road, St. John'S, Patrick And German ### The Site 1. This site is a parcel of land 0.3ha in area, which lies on the western side of Station Road (A30) opposite a car park area and vehicular access to the relatively new St. John's Primary School. The application site currently accommodates The Farmer's Arms public house which has been closed for several years and to the rear of that, a mart facility for the auctioning of animals and with the associated storage buildings and pens. 2. The Farmer's Arms is a handsome, vernacular building with two storeys of accommodation and a single storey lean to annex on the left hand side. The building is rendered and currently painted pale green with dark green painted timber sliding sashes in the front elevation. The building has a strong string course visually separating the ground and first floors and a dentilled cornice below the eaves which support a slated roof with a substantial chimney stack at each end. The entrance to the building at the front is very simple with no porch or canopy but a simple set of steps up to the front door. The windows in the ground floor of the front elevation are double sliding sashes of the same proportion as the first floor windows but with two side by side. 3. The frontage is not delineated by any walling or hedging and stretches 80m along the roadside. The buildings to the rear are simple, single storey structures used for the storage of animals in association with the mart use. 4. The site also includes a parcel of land alongside (to the north) the Farmer's Arms and mart site. This is generally level with hedging around the perimeter and a hedge with low horizontal timber fence along the frontage. There is a large ash tree on the frontage of this part of the site at the northern side of the access into the site. 5. The long distance Heritage Trail footpath follows the route of the railway line which used to pass through St. John's and which is partly within the car park across the road from the site. Whilst the railway line would almost certainly have originally carried straight on through the application site alongside the public house, the public footpath diverts pedestrians up the road by around 30m before turning back down to the former railway line route. ### The Proposal Proposed is the demolition of all of the buildings on the site and the principle of their replacement with residential development. No illustrations have been provided in respect of the form or density or style of development. ### Planning Status And History 6. The site lies within an area designated on the St. John's Local Plan as Commercial and Public House, reflecting its then current use. The site also lies within a proposed Conservation Area. This was suggested as part of the study into the St. John's Local Plan but has to date not been progressed to adoption. The Written Statement accompanying the Local Plan includes a statement on the historical interest of various buildings in the village and includes The Farmer's Arms as one which was suggested to be of particular architectural, social or historic interest (paragraph 10.3). The statement goes on, "However, on closer inspection with the exception of the Ballacraine Hotel, none of these buildings is considered of sufficient merit in its own right to warrant Registration and their interest and importance relates more to their position within the village in relation to Tynwald Hill. In this respect, it is considered more appropriate to include these buildings within the Conservation Area as a whole." 7. The triangular parcel of land which is not part of the curtilage of the public house or the mart is outwith the Commercial/Public House zone and is part of a wider area of Open Space which is identified as a Landscape Improvement Area on the Plan. This covers a very wide area which stretches from the public house to western approach to the village on the A1 Main Road and is referred to as the Department of Transport Yard. In reality the part of the application site which falls within this area is not part of the Department of Transport (now doi) yard and is a piece of unused land alongside Station Road. It is not visually part of the remainder of the open space area nor served by the same means of access. The policy for this area in the Plan was that screen planting should be introduced to provide a soft edge to the village. It should be noted that this part of the application site does not form any edge to the village. 8. The Strategic Plan contains a policy which is concerned with the loss of local shops and public houses: Community Policy 4 states "Development (including the change of use of existing premises) which involves the loss of local shops and local public houses will only be permitted if it can be demonstrated that the use is no longer commercially viable, or cannot be made commercially viable." The preceding paragraph states "The loss of facilities such as neighbourhood shops in towns and or villages and public houses reduces customer choice and can also necessitate people travelling further to meet their needs. This is a particular problem in rural areas where village shops, post offices and public houses can be central to village life. It would be preferable to retain viable facilities, or those that can be made viable and where a change of use or re-development is proposed developers will be expected to show evidence of attempts to market the property as a business in these areas". 9. General Policy 3 includes provision for development outside of those areas which are zoned for development on the appropriate Area Plan and refers to "c) previously developed land which contains a significant amount of buildings where the continued use is redundant; where redevelopment would reduce the impact of the current situation on the landscape or the wider environmental and where the development proposed would result in improvements to the landscape or wider environment." 10. Appendix 1 provides the definition of "Previously Developed Land" as: "Previously-developed land is that which is or was occupied by a permanent structure, including the curtilage of the developed land and any associated fixed surface infrastructure. The definition includes defence buildings, but excludes, - land that is or has been occupied by agricultural or forestry buildings. - land that has been developed for minerals extraction or waste disposal by landfill purposes where provision for restoration has been made through development control procedures. - and in built-up areas such as parks, recreation grounds and allotments, which, although it may feature paths, pavilions and other buildings, has not been previously developed. - land that was previously-developed but where the remains of the permanent structure or fixed surface structure has blended into the landscape in the process of time (to the extent that it can reasonably be considered as part of the natural surroundings). There is no presumption that land that is previously-developed is necessarily suitable for housing development nor that the whole of the curtilage should be developed." 11. In this case, the site is designated for a purpose so the provisions of General Policy 3 are not directly applicable. The definition of previously developed land is useful and whilst it precludes the consideration in this category of land occupied for agricultural or forestry buildings, the mart buildings are not truly agricultural but a combination of agricultural and retail use - a use which is sui generis. 12. The site also lies alongside a watercourse for which there are specific policies in the Strategic Plan: "Development which would cause demonstrable harm to a watercourse, wetland, pond or dub, and which would not be overcome by mitigation measures will not be permitted. Where development is proposed which would affect a watercourse, planning applications must comply with the following criteria: a) all watercourses in the vicinity of the site must be identified on plans accompanying a planning application and include an adequate risk assessment to demonstrate that works will not cause long term deterioration in water quality; b) details of pollution and alleviation measures must be submitted; c) all engineering works proposed must be phased in an appropriate manner in order to avoid a reduction in water quality in any adjacent watercourse; and d) development will not normally be allowed within 8 metres of any watercourse in order to protect the aquatic and bankside habitats and species." ### Planning History 13. Planning permission has previously been granted for the alteration of the public house - PA 84/0209 - extension of sanitary accommodation which was permitted and PA 84/0096 which sought approval for the change of use of the property behind the public house from office/bank to bank/agricultural retail outlet. ### Assessment 14. It is suggested that the issues in respect of this application are: i) the principle of the loss of the buildings on site, ii. the principle of the loss of the retail/public house use on the site iii) the principle of whether a residential use on this site would be acceptable iv. the principle of whether the northern part of the site should be developed for any built structures 14. As the Farmer's Arms is identified in the Local Plan as a building of interest, it is disappointing that the building is to be removed as part of the redevelopment scheme. However the plan confirms that the building is not worthy of Registration and a direction to demolish the building has been issued by the Department (of infrastructure). The buildings to the rear are not identified as of particular merit or interest and as none of the buildings is within an adopted Conservation Area, planning permission is not required for the demolition of these buildings under Part 2 paragraph 6.2.e.ii of the Town and Country Planning Act 1999. 15. The loss of a village facility is unfortunate. However the site has not been operational as a public house for several years and the former owner marketed the site for use either as a public house or with redevelopment opportunities but without success. The site was purchased by Government in 2011. There is a local shop in St. John's which is also the post office. There is also a public house (The Tynwald Inn) and restaurant (Tynwald Tea Rooms) in addition to the retail and cafe facilities at Tynwald Mills which is around 1km to the north. It is unlikely that there will be a sufficient demand for a further public house or shopping facility in the village sufficient to warrant refusing the application for a new use for this site. By comparison, in Ballabeg, a village of a similar size but without a local shop, a planning approval was granted for a local shop with living accommodation above in the centre of the village PA 08/1266) This has been complete for some time but remains unsold and unoccupied. 16. Bearing the above in mind, it is unlikely that the site would be developed for commercial purposes. It is relevant that there is residential development to the south of the site and also that the site is prominent within the village and close to a public footpath, it is important that the scale and design of the development is appropriate to this prominent village centre setting. 17. The triangular part of the site to the north of the currently developed part of the site is not designated for development and it was initially suggested by the Planning Division that the site should remain undeveloped and tidied up for use as public open space. However, there are already significant areas of public open space to the north, and to the east in the form of the public footpath. The site is used from time to time for parking vehicles (see Google Streetview image). ### Conditions 18. If the Inspector is minded to recommend that the application is permitted, it is important that the development incorporates a well designed frontage building to replicate the character and impact that the Farmer's Arms building currently creates. The character of Station Road is such that there is quite dense building at the northern end where the buildings are very close to the road and the development becomes a little more spaced out after the gap where the public footpath crosses the road. As such, it is suggested that there could be a substantial building mass close to the road on the application site with perhaps smaller buildings to the rear. The existing trees around the periphery of the site should ensure that the privacy and amenities of the properties to the rear (Kionslieau and Broogh-ny-Hawin) and those to the south (Cronk-yn-Biljyn). 19. Also, as the site lies alongside a watercourse, it is important that adequate steps are taken to ensure that wildlife and the bankside habitat are not compromised and the application for reserved matters must include a risk assessment relating to this, after consultation with Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture.