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Application History An application for a replacement dwelling at Gatekeepers Cottage, situated at Ballawoods Halt was originally approved under PA 18/00197/B in April 2018. This application offered a new and unique building not seen before on the Isle of Man. Its design being distinct in its roof coverings, in its wall finishes and in its unconventional window apertures.
The existing Gatekeepers Cottage building at the Ballawoods railway halt has been replicated on the opposite side of the railway line, as per the planning approval and is almost complete.
The construction of Gatekeepers has been underway for three years, however, due to the complex and unusual nature of this building, work has been slow and more recently due to the recent pandemic, work on site ceased for a one year period.
This break in the construction programme has brought about a reconsideration of the best use for the current building under construction.
Photographs included as part of this planning application indicate the current construction stages of Gatekeepers.
Proposal The current application seeks the approval of a new Green Powered restaurant accessible by users of the Isle of Man Steam Railway, coach tourists and by all of the Island’s residents and visitors. Dr Taylor’s accompanying statement offers more information on the Green theme proposed for this project.
Aside from the vitally important Green approach associated with future alternative fuel and power sources to be utilised, this application would involve some slight, yet important, atheistic alterations over the scheme approved under PA 18/00197/B
Proposal floor plan alterations. In order to form a new restaurant within the existing envelope under construction, the application proposes some additions and alterations to the current approval.
The addition of an extension to provide working kitchen accommodation to the west end of the current construction and to the lower ground floor garage area is associated with the new Green Energy kitchens, all being situated invisibly below the existing approval ground levels. (See photo below for location of proposed extension)
This below ground addition allows the cottage to be viewed as approved currently albeit with the slight roof pattern changes. The previously approved garage area would be the primary kitchen area, extended to the west and towards the railway line to facilitate a food preparation area, plant room, staff changing and food storage as indicated.
The garage door would be changed to become the entrance and window into the new kitchen and the existing lower entrance door would be the guest entrance area. The remaining areas below the main cottage building above would be given over to two private dining rooms, reception welcome area and the toilet facilities.
The open nature of the ground floor above would lend itself well to tables set out around the feature Foxdale granite spiral staircase. Patrons would have access out to both the railway elevation and to the rear and outdoor table area, situated over the kitchen facilities below. Above this floor is the open mezzanine with vaulted ceiling above, looking over to the floor below.
External appearance The proposal would receive some important detailed external alterations to the buildings appearance from those approved originally.
Dr Taylor with his team have been developing a new roof shingle, again in copper as the original application but of a new design which incorporates large hexagonal shingles embossed with the triskelion shape for extra strength and set to the vertical roof section between the elliptical roof windows.
The remaining shingles to the sloping roof elements would comprise of simpler, smaller rectangular shingles, embossed with Dr Taylor’s Bi metal element shape for extra strength. Both shingles types would be in a patinated vert-de-gris colour as before.
As in the original application, a swathe of tree and shrub planting is proposed to the north and north west of the proposal, containing the building in a natural landscape backdrop when viewed from the railway line. This copse will contain a mix of native manx trees Rowan, elder, laurel, birch, chestnut, sycamore, hawthorn, blackthorn, as well as conifers, bushes, gorse and bramble which continue the tree belt to the north east of the building as the previously approved landscaping scheme.
Visibility Splay. Drawing 1206R 04 shows the visibility splays from the existing site access, egress point and is supported by photographs 1-7
The splays shown on the approved application afforded a 2.4m x 120m splay onto the main road with ample width to facilitate two passing vehicles at the entrance point. One entering the access lane and one leaving.
It is recognised that the use now proposed would have a greater frequency of vehicular movements, however with the creation of the new bypass roundabout close to this existing access, vehicle speeds at this point have been greatly reduced.
This roundabout has had the effect of slowing traffic as it approaches and leaves the roundabout. It is anticipated also that this stretch of road will have its current unrestricted speed limit reduced to 50mph.
Parking Provision The new Green Restaurant is within walking, cycling, electric cycling and electric scooter distance of the 400 or more new residences being built in the adjoining field.
There is no parking provision within the strategic plan which allows the provision of parking spaces associated with rural restaurants. Nevertheless we have looked to the amount of covers provided on the floor plans and worked the car parking requirements from there.
The restaurant proposes 40 covers inside with 20 outside on the terrace. The 40 spaces internally would be catered for with one car per couple attending. With the other forms of transport accessing the proposal, it is felt that this number would be sufficient.
Steam railway visitors. Discussions have taken place with the Isle of Man Steam Railway Authority with a view to recreating the Ballawoods Halt of old, with a new platform to the relocated Gatekeepers Cottage. These discussions have been welcomed by the steam railways authority and train visitors from the south of the Island and from the Douglas area will be able to access the restaurant directly from the halt platform to have food in the restaurant. Train visitors will obviously not require vehicle parking spaces.
Coach visitors. Room for coach parking and turning will be available as indicated in the old farm silage store and farm vehicle turning area, which served previously the Ballawoods Farm when it was in operation as well as being the original access road to the Turkeyland Quarry lorries carrying the stone and concrete products away from the Island. The access road will receive a continuation of the current tarmacadam access road which will run 20m past the vehicle parking area as indicated.
This area currently contains an amount of excavated soil material which is to be utilised in the ground build ups and planted areas.
Staff parking. Staff parking will be allocated this new parking area also with the provision of nine spaces. It is anticipated that there will be five people in the kitchen area, the head chef, two other chefs and two persons in food preparation. There would be one server per floor with a head of house at reception also.
Due to the proximity of the restaurant to Ballasalla, the existing residential areas and the new 400 houses under construction, a path and cycle way is proposed from the closest estate roadway. Cycle parking will be accommodated at the cottage also.
In the future it is also intended to provide Green Electrical Bicycle and Electrical Scooter charging points.
Deliveries. There is a dedicated delivery area adjacent to the kitchen entrance area with vehicle turning also.
Visitor Parking. We feel that the provision of 27 dedicated patron car parking spaces in total will be sufficient due to the availability of other forms of transport which gives access to Gatekeepers. 24 spaces are located close to the restaurant with a covered walkway from the furthest parking area down to the entrance level. An additional 3 spaces are located alongside the staff parking in the coach park area.
Included in the 27 patron spaces are two disabled parking spaces opposite the restaurant entrance door and six of the car parking spaces shown would be electric vehicle charging points - which in the future would also be powered by local Green Electricity.
Dr Taylor feels that the proposal to provide a restaurant would be of more benefit to the island than a single dwelling unit. It would offer a benefit to Railway users, to residents of the immediate area and as a tourist destination, providing a Green economic benefit at a time when such tourist attractions are so vitally needed.
This development is driven by Dr Taylor's desire, in a small way, to assist the Isle of Man in moving forward to a Green Future. This planning application for a Green Restaurant precedes Green Energy applications due to be submitted in the coming weeks which will bolster the reasoning behind this Green application.
I bought the Land and Farm at Ballawoods in July 2009 and wondered what to do with the Halt Cottage that came with this purchase. It was impossible to enter the cottage by the door as when the Iris scheme pipe was installed under the railway, the track was moved about a metre towards the cottage. The front porch was knocked down and the railway fence was then re-erected close to the cottage wall across the access door making any use or renovation impossible. Starting with new designs in 2016, after three various applications, planning permission was finally granted in 2018 for the construction of a new Cottage out of huge stones complete with a copper shingle roof. Progress on this project has been slow with the special requirements to install the internal stone staircase and huge coins, the largest weighing in at almost 7 tons. Once complete, the new Cottage building will be unique and create a great new tourist attraction that can be seen from the Steam Train as it passes just south of the Cottage through the Ballawoods land. It will be an even better tourist and local attraction for visitors and locals to see and touch the internal stone staircase, the sparkling Foxdale Granite coins and the 360 million year old carboniferous limestone of the walls - similar to the stone used for Castle Rushen. Two years ago I decided to sell my unique home Arragon Mooar and invest the proceeds into Green Energy developments on the Isle of Man that I hope will inspire other Manx residents as well as the Government. My thoughts have been further motivated by the following new considerations:-
I wish to change the use of the new Ballawoods Halt cottage from Residential to become the first Green Restaurant in the Isle of Man and possibly the World. Once complete, the housing estate in the adjoining field to Ballawoods farmland will have over 400 houses with no apparent provision for an integral restaurant. The thousand or so new residents that will live in the Reayrt Mie estate are within walking distance of the new Ballawoods Restaurant. After Lady Isabella, the second most important tourist attraction on the Island is the Isle of Man Steam Railway. The steam locomotives are fired by Welsh high grade steam coal and the pit in Wales that produced that coal has now closed. The UK has pledged to cease all coal burning by 2024 and the Isle of Man will likely follow that lead. Discussions are already taking place as to where a museum for the 160 year old locomotives will be sited as they will no longer be able to operate without that coal on the Douglas to Pt Erin track. I am in the process of assembling a team to redesign the Isle of Man locomotive boilers to run on Green Hydrogen without changing their appearance so they will still cross the Manx
landscape delighting tourists and local children, still going chuff, chuff, chuff emitting solely Green Steam. To my knowledge, there is no production of Green Hydrogen currently on the Isle of Man hence the necessity to collect solar and wind energy to produce Green Electricity to run the Green Restaurant and turn any spare Green Energy into Green Hydrogen to run the Isle of Man steam locomotives. The crisis with using oil and gas from Russia has confronted Europe in general and the Isle of Man in particular, making it even more important that the Isle of Man become self sufficient as far as possible. Using solar and wind Green Energy would help us do that. I believe that the conversion of the Ballawoods Halt cottage into a Green Restaurant would be a small but useful step on the path towards helping the island move forwards in an increasingly Green World.
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