38234

Quirk, Voirrey

From: Darleen Greenwood [email protected] Sent: 14 May 2015 15:09 To: DOI, Planning Subject: Fw: Recent Planning Applications.

Dear Planning Department

Please see comments below from Commissioner Alec Merchant the approved planning representative for PSM Commissioners.

Additionally, with regard to PA15/00456/B Mona Cottage, we would like an extension of the comment date please. Port St Mary Commissioners' next meeting will be held on 27 Wednesday. Mr Merchant would like to discuss this application with all the Commissioners.

Kind regards Darleen

Darleen Greenwood CIHM Cert. CIH 4 Housing Officer Port St Mary Commissioners Town Hall The Promenade Port St Mary Isle of Man IM9 5DA

[email protected] (01624 832101)

From: Alec Merchant [email protected] Sent: 13 May 2015 15:21 To: Darleen Greenwood Subject: Recent Planning Applications.

Hello Darleen,

Sorry not to have been in touch sooner with my responses. Here are my thoughts -

Applications 15/00480/D and 15/00452/D, no objections.

There is one planning application though, 15/00453/B, where there is information contained in the supporting documentation that raises issues that require comment, irrespective of whether we support the planning application or object. I refer to the application in respect of St Mary's House in the High Street.

One immediate matter of note is the Architect's information that an earlier draft plan was abandoned because of advice from the Planning Office that the proposed new rear facing dormer windows were "out of balance". I mention this because in another recent application re 2 The High Street, a neighbouring property I had noted that proposed dormer windows could appear "unbalanced in proportion to each other" but that I had decided not to oppose the application because there were very few vantage points from which it would be visible. That Planning Application was approved without any requirement for modification.

I raise the issue now because St Mary's House is, if anything, even less visible from ground level. There seems to be an inconsistency in approach and advice from the Planning Department.

I also note that the Planning Department have a concern that the intended alterations "should not detract from" a neighbouring Listed Building, the Sail Loft. It is difficult to imagine that any alterations to St Mary's House could detract from the Sail Loft on the scale of the impact achieved by the new build structure constructed by the owner of the Sail Loft in what had been the adjacent walled garden and also the "infill" garage/workshop with first floor patio which now has an added glazed kitchen extension which was not part of the original planning application. The overall effect is to reduce and obscure the visibility of the long side wall which had classic "Georgian" proportion sash windows on three floors, which have now been built against (the ground floor garage) or been turned into a door way as access to the first floor glazed kitchen extension.

On behalf of Port St Mary Commissioners I would also like to point out that the "new build" development next door to the Sail Loft was allowed to exceed the footprint of the original walled garden. It now occupies an area of ground which had previously been "public open space" occupied by Commissioners benches and has also had the effect of narrowing the entrance of footpath up to the High Street alongside the former Northern Lights Stores.

Please forward these observations to the Planning Department.

I have no objection to planning application 15/00453/B providing the modifications to not impinge on the privacy of neighbouring properties. It is difficult to get a sense of the spatial relationships between the neighbouring properties from ground level at the rear of the property.

Regards,

Alec Merchant.