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AruplsleofMan R \& R DellBorg PA 03/00192/B Construction of New Access Road to Farmhouse at Knocksharry Farm Review Submission
Review Submission
Ove Arup \& Partners Isle of Man Ltd Cameo House 19 Duke Street Douglas Isle of Man IM1 2BB Tel +44 (0)624 673445 Fax +44 (0)1624 661859 www.arup.com
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1.1 Topographical Description ..... 1 1.2 Safety Aspects ..... 1
2.1 Planning History ..... 3 2.2 The Proposed New Access (an assessment) ..... 3
Little if anything of the Knocksharry Farm complex is visible to northbound traffic on the A4 anywhere south of the farm exit and there are no other indications that a major farm exit may lay ahead. As the road nears the farm, the A4 rises over a hillock, and then enters a cutting, where is starts to slope, followed by a bend to the left; no more than 25 m from the farm exit. The road then continues curving beyond it. The steep left bank of the cutting and the curve in the road block out any view of the farm exit from the A4. Therefore, to anyone lacking local knowledge there is nothing to alert them of the hazards ahead until the busy farm exit suddenly springs into view no more than in front of them.
When southbound traffic crosses the stream at the bottom of a steep-sided deep ravine called (Glion Broigh) or Glen Booie it enters Knocksharry territory. To the left lies a contiguous block of land of some 400 acres of Knocksharry land and to the right a coastal strip of land some 100 acres also owned by the farm. The farmstead is situated in the extreme southwestern corner of all this land. From Glen Booie in the north to past the Knocksharry farmstead in the south the views from the A4 are very restricted. Glen Booie is the starting point for a footpath that runs along the eastern side of the A4 all the way to the junction with the switchback. At Glen Booie the A4 starts a long steady climb past the entrance to Knocksharry farm a kilometre away.
The road rises through a precipitous cutting, with no views on either side save the steep banks. As the road emerges from this cutting by the drive into the Ballanyare farmstead, the eyecatching bit of scenery is the steep-sided Knocksharry tops, a hill that rises some 100 m above the coastal plain. The views of the coastline are limited. Sod-banks topped by vegetation obscure the view from the road. To the right the roadside vegetation blocks the view of the Knocksharry fields. The copse in which the farmhouse is set can only be glimpsed briefly.
There then follows a gentle curve to the right and then another to the left. The apex of this left curve is the location the Department of Transport (DoT) has chosen as the safest point of exit from Knocksharry farm. Thereafter the road passes a disused quarry to the left as it enters a pronounced right-hand bend into a tree-lined stretch shaded on the left by an overhanging canopy of trees struggling up the steep hillside, and to the right by a sod hedge topped by trees and shrubs. The A4 emerges from this bend and straightens out some 125 m away from the farm exit, which is obscured by the line of trees to the right and therefore still unsighted at this point. Instead, it is the busy junction between the A4 and the Swichback, primarly used as a Peel by-pass, which catches the attention.
The Switchback gives access to the steep track, that leads up to Knocksharry tops, at present the only way to reach the farmland to the east of the A4 from the farmstead exit. The farm exit still does not come fully into view until the A4 has passed the junction with the Switchback and entered the long right hand curve, taking it past the present farm exit.
This issue should not be whether the new drive meanders across the Knocksharry fields (a misrepresentation of facts) or whether the driveway is adequate (the grounds for one objection). These objections are extravagant and irrelevant dissembling, and do not address the real issues namely; road-safety at the point of access; the safety of the hill track; and whether livestock should snake its way in and out of the farm, when it is neither practically or economically feasible to provide staff in adequate numbers required to perform this intricate manoeuvre safely. The circumstances, which should determine the issue, are these :-
This is the scene, a tractor pulling a loaded sheet trailer with destination Peel creeps out of the drive. As it slowly crawls on to the A4 it completely blocks the road. Imagine the horror of a driver, unfamiliar with the area, approaching the farm exit on the northbound half of the carriageway at precisely this moment of time, travelling perhaps at speeds of 50-60 mph through the left-hand bend, and then only 8 or at best 10 m ahead, being suddenly faced with the unexpected sight of a road blocked by a monster tractor train.
It could have been a flock of sheep or a herd of cows spread out over the width of the road on their way to the Switchback and Knocksharry tops. To reach the track leading up to Knocksharry tops, all farm traffic, animals and vehicles, turn left on exiting the farm and the proceeds along the A4 for some 30 m to the junction with the busy Switchback, where the traffic has to negotiate a sharp turn to the right into the Switchback, and then proceed along the Switchback for another 30 m whereafter it turns hard left onto the steep track leading to Knocksharry tops. This track is very steep as it rises 100 m in height over a distance of some 500 m . The track has been cut out of the hillside and the bedrock breaks through the track surface over a stretch of some 100 m where the track runs alongside the disused quarry with a sheer drop down from the roadside. This track is a raging torrent of water in a downpour and an icerink in the winter. The foregoing are not contrived events; these are some of the actual incidents over the past years.
As illustrated above moving livestock to Knocksharry tops is a hazard to all users of the A4 including livestock and farmhands. Animals are better moved across a road, than along it. When crossing a road from one field to another dogs can be used aggressively to rush the stock across the road. Moving animals along a road is a slow and tedious business. Sheep and cattle moved in large numbers tend to trail idly over the full width of the road making them difficult to control. Livestock trailing along a narrow track are easily spooked. Pressurise them and they break into panic and pandemonium breaks out. Animals run off in all directions up the A4 towards Peel or Kirk Michael, or along the Switchback towards St Johns. To slalom a herd of cows or a flock of sheep along a trail snaking, left, right, left again and the using dogs to urge them into a reluctant climb of a steep hill with a precipice at one side is a Sisyphean task. In 1988 a shepherd attempted to move 200 sheep single-handedly with the aid of three dogs. One dog terrorised the lead ewe, which spooked and turned round and ran into the sheep behind, they all panicked and stampeded into the rest of the flock with a loss of 40 sheep, which fell to their death into the disused quarry.
In the past, large movements of stock in and out of the farm were made reasonably safe by dispensing three farmhands to stop traffic approaching the farm on the A4 from the south and north and down the Switchback. In all 8 or 9 individuals would be involved in any such movements. Staff are no longer available in such numbers, and even if they were it would be unaffordable.
The realisation that a new entrance was essential came with the enlargement of the farm in 1988-89 from approximately 300 to some 1200 acres. The capacity to sustain larger flocks and herds grew by a factor of 4 , which in turn led to further investments in the farm infrastructure. The conjoint effect was a dramatic rise in the number of movements of traffic in and out of the farm entrance. The odds suggested that the incidence of accidents at the entrance would rise exponentially. To avert objections from the DoT the department was consulted before a planning application was submitted. At that time the DoT insisted on a new access road to the farm and selected the site with the best sight lines for a farm exit to the A4. The Department also wanted to see a splayed entrance, a widening of the farm track at the point of entry and exit, so as to allow exiting and entering vehicles to pass. It wanted roadside vegetation clearer for better sightlines, and a heightened visibility of vehicles and farm machinery waiting to exit on to the A4.
On a later occasion in 2002 in connection with a separate planning application for a change of use and an extension to the garage at Knocksharry Cottage 1, which at that time used the same access and exit point as the farm, the DoT stipulated in its conditional consent, that the driveway to Knocksharry Cottage 1 must be permanently closed to all direct vehicular access from the A4 as this was a highly dangerous point of exit.
The DoT chose the location of the new farm entrance. It is bereft of the many problems associated with the existing exit and is therefore much safer. It is almost opposite the gently climbing track leading to upper Ballanayre and Knocksharry tops, which is a great help. The least intrusive route for the new drive was carefully laid out by making the fullest possible use of existing farm tracks, which will constitute some of the completed drive. Planning permission is of course not a requirement for the use of existing track. This application is therefore solely concerned with the proposed new entrance and the last or approximately 160 m of the link-way from the new entrance off the A4 to the existing track.
Where the drive leaves the farmyard it circles the shed on an existing track. There will be no apparent changes to this segment of the link-way, wherefore it will be no more visible in the future than it is today. This segment is completely out of view from the A4. At the farmhouse the drive will join up with the 2nd segment, namely the existing drive from the farmhouse, which runs along a tree-lined, long-established track, which will constitute more than half of the drive. The coastal footpath known as Raad ny Foillan runs some 30 m below both these tracks. Because of the difference in levels a person standing on the footpath today, peering up the slope towards the farm, cannot actually see the tracks from the footpath. You would have to stand above the track to see it. Not even the most discerning observer will detect any change in the landscape, whether standing on the A4 or the coastal footpath, simply because there will have been no visible change. The first and second segments will be joined to the proposed new entrance via the third segment at the end of the existing tree lined farm drive.
The third segment, with which this application is concerned, starts from the farm and runs initially at an appropriate angle of 70 degrees towards the A4 on the southern side and in front of the shrubs and trees, which form the boundary with the northern neighbouring field until halfway up where it will cross over to the northern field, towards the A4. It will then turn left and run parallel with the approximately 2 m high bank of the A 4 for some 60 m , whereafter it ascends and turns right to the junction with the A4.
Southbound traffic will move on the far side of the road to the proposed new entrance, as will pedestrians whether proceeding northwards or southwards, as this is the side where the footpath runs. The A4 is in continuous climb from Glen Booie to the existing farm entrance and beyond. The slope, width and camber of the road and the trees and dense shrubs growing on top of the sod banks, lining the far side of the A4, will blank out views of thefields fronting the farmhouse until the A4 is well past the proposed new entrance. Moreover, the proposed drive will run at ground level some 2 m below the level of the A 4 out of sight to southbound vehicular traffic. A pedestrian would have to cross the A4 peer through the vegetation and look back to even catch a glimpse of the 160 m stretch of new track with which this application is concerned. The only element of the layout highly visible to pedestrians and all passing vehicles will be the new entrance, but then that is the precise object of the exercise.
The section of the A4 between the new access point and the present entrance to Knocksharry farm is well screened by mature trees and shrubs. In fact the vegetation is so dense, that the illusion, when viewing the route of the A4 from the Knocksharry fields, is that the traffic appears to float past on the bed of vegetation, which borders this section of the A4, and there is no suggestion of the existence of a busy road, were it not for passing traffic, which intermittently flickers into view between the trees. The illusion will probably extend to the new track. The track will not be seen from the A4 only farm traffic moving along it. Additional planting of evergreens along this stretch of new track will help to disguise the track surface. Clear of the present entrance to Knocksharry farm, northbound vehicular traffic would only catch the briefest glimpse of the last quarter section or 40 m or so of the new track, immediately before it joins the tree-lined farm drive.
Only the wide section at the entrance from the A4 will be surfaced in concrete. The remainder, same as the rest of the new link road, will be running at surface level on a bed of hardcore that will be surfaced with chippings. The whole of the link-way will be served by a french drain, which will be discharging into the farms existing drainage system. As already mentioned, there will also be additional planting of evergreens.
Planning permission for the new entrance and drive was granted in 1991 as part of a package for an extension to the farmhouse. As in the case of the extension, part of the new drive was constructed expeditiously, namely the stretch from the garage to the gates at the opposite end of the house. Some further work to the drive was started in the fields at the end of the treelined track as shown on the plan exhibited herewith. Work on the drive was suspended for the same reasons as work on the house had to be suspended, namely due to a legal dispute. When the renewal of the planning application for the drive and the new access was submitted, the earlier plan was modified to reduce the visual impact of the drive in the landscape and make it more sympathetic to its rural setting by :-
At the recent Appeal Hearing of the Planning Committees' refusal to approve a renewed planning permit for the extension to the farmhouse, the inspector, Mr G Farrington had inter alia this to say :- "However I cannot ignore the planning history and, in particular, the fact that a larger extension of less traditional appearance was granted approval in . As demonstrated by the appellants, the relevant planning policies and guidance are unaltered from 1991 and little has changed on the ground .... Implementation of the approved extension was commenced timeously. Indeed that part of the proposed extension containing the stairwell was completed. Such works if carried out within four years of the grant of approval today, would normally guarantee the life of the permission in perpetuity. That this does not apply to PA90/1792 is due to a condition requiring the completion of development within four years. It is common ground that the current proposal is preferable as regards both size and elevational appearance to the extension approved in 1991. All in all, in the absence of any significant change in policy or circumstance, I am satisfied based on the planning history that the appellants were reasonable entitled to expect that the proposed development would be approved .... In this case I have not been persuaded that there is sufficient justification to warrant the withholding of permission for what in effect is an enhancement of a previously approved development". We would submit that all of the foregoing quote has at least equal application to the Planning Committees' recent refusal to approve our clients' plan for a new access road to Knocksharry farmhouse and farm.
Our clients' genuine motivation to resolve a real safety issue and some true agricultural needs, cannot be questioned and is best demonstrated by their willingness to expend a not immodest sum to replace the existing drive.
In an effort to ensure, that the new access road will be as sympathetic to the sensitive rural surroundings as is possible without compromising the safety aspect or the agricultural need, very real care and thoughtful planning have gone into the preparation of these plans, which shows that our clients are not unsympathetic to the aesthetic values involved. They do however place the ethics of life, limb and animal welfare before aesthetics.
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