Planning Statement Conversion Apartments

Approval in Detail Conversion of a private residence into 4 No. Self-Contained Apartments at 31 Hutchinson Square, Douglas

for

Mr & Mrs D Williams

Planning Statement

Job No. 1.1679

McGarrigle + Jackson architects and urban designers

Prepared by: McGarrigle + Jackson 19 Mount Havelock Douglas IMI 2QG Tel: 01624 628141 Fax: 629334 email: [email protected] 281009 DoLGE 09 01772 web: www.mcgarrigle-jackson.com

27th October 2009

Initial
Appeal
Amended
Returned

I. 01 The present application seeks detailed approval to convert No. 31 Hutchinson Square, presently a private dwelling house into 4 No. self-contained apartments. 1.02 The premises are within the Hutchinson Square conservation area, but are not registered. 1.03 The present dwelling is large with already a separate apartment on the 3rd floor level, which forms self-contained accommodation for the previous owners family. 1.04 The present dwelling as stated, is large with presently 8 No. bedrooms. The former use is likely to have been a guesthouse. 1.05 The building is basically sound with all services available. The building has the basics of adequate circulation and means of escape, both horizontally and vertically to service the proposals without undue structural alteration. 1.06 The topography of the area is such that the rear lane to the properties is some 2.500 above the level of the ground floor rear yard, which is reached by steps. There is therefore, little opportunity to provide significant car park provision at the rear. However, the proposals indicate that 2 No. new car parking spaces can be created by the demolition of the roofs to the single storey parts of the rear outlet, providing direct access from the rear lane both to parking and also for the occupants of the first, second and third floors. Our client intends to occupy the ground floor of the premises and will have sole access from the present Hutchinson Square entrance. 1.07 The work envisaged is all to the rear of the property. 1.08 The use of Hutchinson Square can be described as mixed. Nos. 27 and 28 is a guesthouse, which recently received planning approval in principle to convert the premises to 7 No. apartments. No. 26 is a nursery and No. 30 is the Shenn Valley Care Home. No. 29 is long-term boarding accommodation. Nos. 32-34 are private residences. 1.09 None of the properties have integral parking, the present proposal is to provide 2 no. spaces where there are presently none. The owner of the property will also be entitled to a ' Q ' residents parking permit on Hutchinson Square. I. 10 A traffic survey recently carried out in the immediate vicinity observed that peak parking occurred between 8 pm and 8 am with a further peak around 5 pm when children from the nearby nursery were being picked up. The northwest side of the square has a capacity of 36-38 vehicles, at no time was this capacity reached, even at peak times, with occupancy at 1 pm being around a third capacity. From observation, it is evident that there is generally parking available in the nearby vicinity at any time.

I.II As has been noted there are presently 8 bedrooms to this property and it is intended to reduce this to 6 with the consequential possibility of reduction in overall occupancy numbers. The location of the property is also in close proximity to the town centre, promenade, and local bus routes, making the apartments attractive to both young and old persons who are not necessarily vehicle owners and who would be happy to use public transport. I. 12 We believe the application would provide good quality accommodation of a type and in a location, which responds to current planning policy, is a suitable use and will enhance, improve and extend the life of a basically sound property within a conservation area.