Planning Officer Roof Tile Memo

Memomandrum To: Ian McCauley, Director of Planning and Building Control From: Ian Brooks, Planning Officer 12th December 2006 ## 06/00585 – Erection of a dwelling on side garden, 29 Sartfell Road, Douglas In April of this year, an application was submitted for the erection of a new dwellinghouse on a site adjacent to 29 Sartfell Road. The application was granted planning permission on 27th June 2006 subject to conditions. The approved plans indicated that the roof tiles for the proposed development were to be Marley Monarch, which is a concrete inter-locking grey roof tile. Marley have ceased to manufacture the Monarch roof tile, which apparently ceased production almost 8 months ago. This has put the developer into a difficult situation. Technically, if the developer puts a different roof tile onto the new dwellinghouse it would be contrary to the approved plans and would then invalidate the planning permission for the new dwellinghouse. I consider there are two options available to overcome the problem. These are as follows: i) invite a new planning application to amend the roof tile for the development, or ii) treat the attached email as a request as a minor amendment to the planning permission. I consider that option 1 to be too bureaucratic and unnecessary considering the proposed amendment does not impact on any neighbouring properties. If the plans had not made any mention of the proposed materials a condition would have been attached requiring samples to be submitted and approved by the planning authority. Any change in the use of materials would have been dealt by a discharge of condition. I therefore consider the most appropriate course of action is to consider it as minor amendment to the approved plans. On that basis, I shall now assess the appropriate use of the new roofing material. The developer is proposing to use a Marley Modern concrete tile which is a concrete inter-locking dark grey roof tile. I have inspected the site and the properties in the vicinity of the site. There are a variety of roof type from natural slates and concrete tiles in the vicinity of the site. On either side of the site, the properties have different roof materials. One of them has concrete and the other is slate. I consider the proposed material as a replacement to the Marley Monarch is acceptable and would not look out of place within the street scene. I therefore recommend that it be treated as a minor amendment and that the details submitted to be acceptable.