Loading document...
1.1 Hillcrest is a detached bungalow, built in the 1970s and which sits on the south western side of the Balnahow Road which links Ballacregga Farm to the east with the Old Castletown Road (A25) to the north. Footpath 318 runs along the road in front of the site then passes down the lane to the east of the agricultural building which sits next to Hillcrest (see Planning History). This footpath is part of the Road ny Foillan long distance footpath.
1.2 Access to the site is from the A25 using the junction opposite Oatlands Cottages where a single vehicle width road passes Thie ny Hawin and Withaney before turning 90 degrees to pass across the bridge over the steam railway line and then proceed uphill. The road passes a junction with another narrow road which is for vehicles associated with the Meary Veg Sewage Treatment Works then proceeds past Cregsweld on the south to Hillcrest also on the south side of the road. The road continues past Hillcrest, then turns to head east through Balnahow Farm and on to Ballacregga Farm.
which sits on the south side of Port Soderick. The farm group at Balnahow Farm comprises the original farmhouse, a range of stone outbuildings which have been converted to residential accommodation and a further dwelling, Greenfields. 1.3 The application site comprises the curtilage of Hillcrest together with 25 acres of land which sit across the road (one field) and to the side and rear of the dwelling (three fields).
2.1 The dwelling was approved in 1973 under IDO 34987. It has not been physically altered since its construction.
2.2 The approval was subject to a number of conditions, three of which were as follows: 6. (Standard agricultural worker's condition) no specific working can be seen on the microfiche 7. The proposed dwelling must be retained as part of the agricultural holding and not be sold or let off separately.
2.2 At the time of the application, and the later application for Greenfields (see below, the farm was managed by Mr. Frederick Moore (the applicant's father) and his two sons, Messrs John (the applicant) and Edward Moore)(the applicant's brother). At that time, Balnahow farmhouse was the only dwelling on the farm. Hillcrest was first occupied by the applicant and his wife, Nora between 1976 and 1980. Mr. and Mrs. Moore Senior and John and Nora swapped occupancy of their houses (Hillcrest and the original farmhouse) in 1980 and then swapped back in 2016. 2.3 The application for Greenfields which came after that for Hillcrest, involved discussion with the then Agricultural Advisor who noted that the addition of Greenfields would effectively provide three dwellings for a farm which really justified only two dwellings. 2.4 More recently, planning approval was granted for the erection of an agricultural building to the south east of the dwelling. 16/01084/B related to the site which is shown in this current application 25 acres. It was noted in the officer's report for that application that Hillcrest and the land associated with it had formerly been associated with Balnahow Farm but that the buildings and land had been sold off separately. 2.5 Other applications in the vicinity are highly relevant to the current proposal:
Withaney lies to the north of the application property and was approved on the basis that the intended occupants had up until recently then, farmed at Meary Veg Farm which had been sold to Government for the creation of the sewage treatment works. They were tenants of Meary Veg and at the time of the purchase of the farm, Mr. Oates, was not in particularly good health and would not have been able to continue farming somewhere else. It was recommended by those supporting the application that his knowledge however would be useful as a self-employed rural worker in the area and he and his wife wished to remain in this part of the Island where they had lived for a large part of their lives. Mrs. Oates still resides in the property. The dwelling was approved in principle and detail subject to a condition which required that, "The occupation of the proposed dwelling must be limited to persons whose employment or latest employment is or was employment in agricultural in the Island and including also the dependants of such persons aforesaid." This condition was removed upon application 16/00330/VAR.
This property lies to the rear of Withaney on the lower part of the access road and this too was approved with an agricultural occupancy condition, the farm associated with this property also being Meary Veg. The occupancy condition imposed under 88/04466/B and 91/00535/B was removed under 18/00406/B. In this assessment, the Planning Officer noted that:
The planning history of the dwelling is set out above but of equal relevance is the history of the other properties within the vicinity. In this area there are a surprising number of dwellings with agricultural occupancy conditions - seven (Withaney, Thie ny Hawin, Hillcrest, Greenfields, Balnahow Farm, Ballacregga Farm and farm bungalow (which may not have a specific occupancy condition attached to it as no planning history has been identified for this property). Slightly further afield, Oatlands Farm has four dwellings associated with it and Ballaquiggin Farm, formerly had two. The two properties at Ballaquiggin had the conditions removed under PA 00/00245/B and are now the subject of redevelopment proposals, along with the adjoining properties, under PA 16/00351/A, having previously been approved for the same scheme.
And It is understood that Balnahow Farm is managed in a traditional manner - the owner farming the close lying land and land further out from the farm is let out, Ballaquiggin Farm is now entirely tenanted out to a farmer in Ballasalla who has a farmhouse and had planning approval for two further dwellings on that farm, together with a range of farm buildings, operated by a family and using casual labour when required. Ballacregga is a low output holding which is stocked only to manage the landscape and uses some contracted labour when required. Oatlands Farm is understood to be becoming more agriculturally active, being owned and occupied by a young farmer.
Ballacregga Farm to the east has two properties, one of which has a specific agricultural occupancy condition (PA 88/01250/B). The main dwelling here was approved to be replaced where the original dwelling had no such tie but a condition was considered to be appropriate. This has since been effectively removed through the granting of a Certificate of Lawfulness for use of the dwelling as a private house (13/00581/LAW). Ballacregga is a low output holding which is stocked only to manage the landscape and uses some contracted labour when required.
Greenfields which sits alongside Balnahow Farm yard was approved under IDOs 41421 and 51877 where it was personal to the applicant's brother, Edward Moore (F.E. Moore) (the applicant's brother) and his then fiancee, Miss Mair Williams and an agricultural occupancy condition as well as a condition which required that the dwelling was retained in association with the agricultural holding. An application was submitted for a Certificate of Lawfulness of use as a residential dwelling, 07/00884/LAW stating that the former Miss Williams who became Mrs. Moore, had lived in the property since its construction and continued to do so even following her husband's passing in 1993. This application was declined on the basis that as a dependent of the original agricultural worker, Mrs. Mair Moore's occupancy of the property would not be in breach of the original occupancy condition.
A further application was submitted, 15/00641/VAR for the removal of the occupancy condition, by Mrs. Mair Moore, but the application was withdrawn before a decision was taken.
The farm was shown as follows in the application for Greenfields in 1980:
This farm group was the subject of a series of applications which saw approval granted to the conversion of the stone outbuildings to residential use, notably 17/00563/B. The Officer noted in her report that:
The location plan defined the land associated with these new dwellings as only the land immediately surrounding the existing buildings with none of the adjacent fields included either in the proposal or indicated as being part of the land owned by the applicant.
This property is not subject to any occupancy condition and has recently been the subject of alterations and extensions (13/91523/B and 17/00091/B) which have been implemented.
3.1 Proposed is the removal of the three conditions which were imposed on the original approval, effectively removing the requirement for the property to be occupied by the applicant's late father, Mr. F. Moore, for the property to have to be associated with the original agricultural holding and for it to be occupied by persons employed in agriculture.
4.1 The condition requiring the residential use of the site to be exercised only by Mr. F. Moore cannot be complied with as Mr. Moore's has passed away in 1983 as has his dependent widow who passed in 2007: his children, one of whom is the applicant, are no longer dependents. It is also considered inappropriate to attach a condition which requires the occupation of a property forever by a particular person as in most cases, the property will outlast the occupant.
4.2 The condition which requires the dwelling to remain associated with the farm holding cannot be complied with as following the passing of Mr. and Mrs. Moore Snr, the farm was split into different parcels for inheritance with some parties having part shares in some of the land and some of the buildings. Mr. Moore Snr retired in about 1970 and his two sons farmed Balnahow. On the passing of Mr. Moore Snr, Balnahow was left to Mrs. Moore Snr for her life and then equally between their three children on her death. On the passing of Mr. Edward Moore, (the applicant's brother), his 1 / 3 share of Balnahow was inherited by his two sons. His brother's share of Hillcrest was inherited by his brother's widow who lives up the road. John bought his late brother's half share of Hillcrest from his widow in 2016 and received the 25 acres around the dwelling as a part of the family settlement. 4.3 The father's estate sold the rest of Balnahow including the farmhouse and buildings to the farmer at Southampton Farm whose company sold the farmhouse and buildings to a developer but retained the fields only. The applicant retained 25 acres and Hillcrest as part of the settlement and the rest of the land was sold and is now being managed in association with other neighbouring farms (Ballashamrock and Southampton Farms) with the farm buildings and farmhouse at Balnahow sold off separately. As such, through no fault of the applicants, they cannot comply with the condition which sought to prevent the house from being sold off from the farmland and buildings as defined in the original application and in any case, it is not considered good practice to attach such conditions these days as the planning system cannot control land ownership. 4.4 The applicant who, with his wife, Nora, who are the current occupants of Hillcrest and who use the 25 acres associated with it, comply with the occupancy condition which requires that the property is occupied by persons engaged or last engaged in agriculture. However, they are both 76 years of age and they wish to have things in order for their future and seek to have the property unencumbered by restrictive conditions when the property needs to be sold either when they need or choose to move or when they no longer require it. More importantly, it is submitted that a) there is no justification for the continued application of the condition given that the land now associated with Hillcrest is insufficient on its own for a full time agricultural worker and b) that there is no requirement for farm workers' dwellings in the area as all those working on the adjacent farms have sufficient accommodation. The property is not particularly well located in terms of accessibility to other parts of the Island and when the application for the removal of the condition attached to The ny Hawin was removed, that property was offered for sale with the estate agent advising that none of those who were interested in the property could have occupied it in accordance with the occupancy condition. 4.5 It is highly relevant that the farm house and farm buildings with which Hillcrest was originally associated has not only ceased to be used for agricultural purposes but also that the Department has approved the conversion of the outbuildings to other uses and in so doing, considered that those buildings were redundant for their original (agricultural) purpose. This land is now farmed in association with Ballashamrock and Southampton Farms and when Balnahow Farm land was purchased for use in association with these farms, the outbuildings and farmhouse were also purchased and then sold off separately to a developer who converted these buildings to residential accommodation. The owner of Southampton Farm was contacted prior to the submission of this application along with that of Oatlands Farm to see if they would wish to acquire the property in association with their operations. No response was received from Oatlands Farm: the owner of Southampton Farm responded, indicating that "Subsequent to the dwellings being built at both Southampton Farm and Ballashamrock Farm, we have expanded the farm size considerably with the purchase of the majority of the land associated with Balnahow Farm. If any housing with an agricultural occupancy tie applicable to it were to become available within the area, we would consider our options available at that time."
TOWN PLANNING CONSULTANCY 4.6 We would suggest that if there is a need for additional housing in association with Ballashamrock and Southampton Farms at the present time, then a dwelling (Balnahow Farmhouse) and a range of outbuildings which were capable of being converted to residential accommodation were available to them when they were purchased then sold off, perhaps indicating that then at least it was envisaged that there was not a need for a further dwelling in association with these farms. The applicant, John Moore and his wife, Nora have three children, one of whom is not living on the Island and none of whom is currently nor likely to be in the future, involved in agriculture. 4.7 It is clear that circumstances have changed significantly in this area, since the approval of agricultural dwellings in association with Balnahow and Meary Veg Farms and the removal of the agricultural occupancy conditions on Withaney and Thie ny Hawin confirm that there was certainly no longer a requirement for agricultural properties at the time of those applications. The applicants would suggest that nothing has changed in that respect since then and as such, the agricultural occupancy condition attached to Hillcrest should similarly be removed. The way land is managed has also changed since the dwelling was originally approved, with some farms making use of contractors to do certain jobs like silage making, slurry spreading with tankers and baling, reducing the need for permanent staff and on farm housing. Before Hillcrest was erected there were five farm houses on the road, now there are 13 dwellings, two with agricultural occupancy conditions attached. 4.8 Whilst it is customary for applications to remove an agricultural occupancy condition to have evidence of the property having been offered for sale with the condition fully visible, so as to demonstrate whether there is a demand for agricultural worker's dwellings at the present time, it is not the applicants' intention to sell the property at the present time so it would be disingenuous of them to put Hillcrest on the market. They would hope that the evidence they have presented demonstrates that there is no agricultural demand or need for the dwelling and that the condition should be removed. 4.9 The Strategic Plan provides advice on the application and removal of agricultural occupancy conditions, stating the following: 8.9.4 Such a condition will not usually be removed on subsequent applications unless it is shown that the long-term need for dwellings for agricultural workers, both on the particular farm and in the locality, no longer warrants reserving the dwelling for that purpose. 4.10 We believe that we have demonstrated that there is no longer a need for dwellings for agricultural workers in this area, as has been demonstrated with the removal of the conditions on Withaney and Thie ny Hawin as well as the Certificate of Lawfulness of Use of Ballacregga Farm and that the three conditions referred to in paragraph 2.2 applied to the original approval should no longer be applied.
Sarah Corlett 31n.01.22
Copyright in submitted documents remains with their authors. Request removal
