Officer Report 12/01688/A

Application No.: Case Officer Site Address: Applicant Recommendation: Approval in principle for a residential development including main highway access Former Lancashire Hotel, Furness Cottage and land to rear of former Lancashire Hotel Newtown New Castletown Road Santon Isle of Man Haven Homes Limited 12/01688/A Miss S E Corlett To REFUSE the application ## Planning

Officer's Report

THIS APPLICATION IS REFERRED TO THE PLANNING COMMITTEE AS PART OF THE SITE IS NOT DESIGNATED FOR DEVELOPMENT AND AS SUCH THE PROPOSAL IS NOT ENTIRELY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE DEVELOPMENT PLAN

The Site

1. The site is a parcel of land which lies on the western side of the A5 Castletown Road as it passes through Newtown - a settlement defined as a village in the Strategic Plan (Spatial Policy 4). The boundary of the settlement is not defined but visually commences at the junction of the Mount Murray Back Road and ends at the application site on the western side of the A5 and "Devsden" on the eastern side and the application site on the western side of the road. The village has more built development on the western side of the road than the eastern side, with linear housing alongside the A5 and three small clusters of development the public sector housing of 1-20, Newtown estate and the private estate of Ballanoa Meadow (numbers 1-43). On the eastern side of the road the built development takes the form of individual dwellings and chapel with/stretches of undeveloped space in between. The entrance to Ballavartyn House and associated equestrian facilities is situated on the eastern side of the road between Court farm and Knockfroy Beg.
2. The application site extends back from the A5 by 254 m at its longest. The site presently accommodates Furness Cottage, a two storey traditional Manx cottage which sits close to the footway alongside the A5. Alongside this, and within the site is the former Lancashire Hotel once a public house and more latterly a church meeting place, having been a children's nursery prior to this. The former hotel is a two storey traditional property with a number of single storey annexes. To the south of the building is a hard surfaced area formerly used for car parking, which stretches back from the A5 by around 34 m .
3. To the west of the car parking area is an area of rough ground, some of which has been the subject of tipping which has raised the level of the ground. At the western end of the site, but not within it, is a sewage pump station.
4. Immediately to the north of the site are numbers 11 and 12, Newtown, an associated car parking area, and numbers 33 - 43, Ballanoa Meadow with a small children's play area and the open space to the west of Ballanoa Meadow and provided as part of that development.
5. To the south of the site is an area of open space/countryside with a drainage ditch shown on the drawings as running along the southern boundary although this is not evident on site as viewed from the site which is a couple of metres higher than the field alongside to the south.