**Document:** DEC Officer Report **Application:** 21/00627/LAW — Certificate of Lawful Development for the installation of replacement windows and roof slates **Decision:** Certificate of Lawful Use/Devel Approved **Decision Date:** 2021-07-02 **Parish:** Braddan **Document Type:** report / officer_report **Source:** https://planningportal.im/a/24067-braddan-10-lower-dukes-road-lawful-use-certificate/documents/1030946 --- # DEC Officer Report **Application No.:** 21/00627/LAW **Applicant:** Mr Dominic O'Driscoll **Proposal:** Certificate of Lawful Development for the installation of replacement windows and roof slates **Site Address:** 10 Lower Dukes Road Douglas Isle Of Man IM2 4BJ Principal Planner: Mr Chris Balmer **Expected Decision Level:** Officer Delegation **Recommended Decision:** Certificate of Lawful Use/Devel Approved **Date of Recommendation:** 28.06.2021 _________________________________________________________________ ## Conditions and Notes for Approval C : Conditions for approval N : Notes attached to conditions C 1. There is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the iinstallation of replacement windows and roof slates and referred to in the information received on 01.06.2021 have been in existence for a period of four years and as such, the Department may not issue an enforcement notice due to the provisions of Town and Country Planning Act 1999 Schedule 4 Part 1 paragraph 3(a). Plans/Drawings/Information; This decision relates to the location and site plans and photographs and other supporting information all received on 01.06.2021. _______________________________________________________________ ### Interested Person Status – Additional Persons ## N/A _____________________________________________________________________________ ### Officer’s Report 1.0 INTRODUCTION - 1.1 The application seeks a Certificate of Lawful Development for the installation of replacement windows and roof slates. The application seeking the Certificate of Lawfulness was submitted on 01.06.2021. This means the relevant 4 years for consideration is from - 01.06.2017. 1.2 In accordance with the provisions of Schedule 4, Part 1, paragraph 3 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1999 ("the Act"), a development carried out in breach of planning control shall become immune from enforcement action after a certain period of time, provided that formal enforcement action has not already been taken. The relevant time periods are set out below: - a) in respect of a breach of planning control consisting of the carrying out without planning approval of building, engineering, mining or other operations in, on, over or under land, after the end of the period of 4 years beginning with the date on which the operations were substantially completed; - b) in respect of a breach of planning control consisting of the change of use of any building to use as a single dwelling house, after the end of the period of 4 years beginning with the date of the breach; - c) in respect of any other breach of planning control, after the end of the period of 10 years beginning with the date of the breach. 1.3 Section 24 of the Act makes provision for the submission and issuing of a Certificate of Lawfulness to establish the lawfulness of a breach of planning control. - 1.4 An application for a Certificate of Lawfulness is determined on the basis of fact. Unlike an application for planning approval, it is not concerned with land-use planning considerations or the impacts of the development upon the public realm. - 1.5 The principal test is whether, on the balance of probabilities, the breach of planning control has occurred continuously for the given period. The burden of proof rests with the applicant and their evidence must be both precise and unambiguous. If the Planning Authority has no evidence of its own to contradict that provided by the applicant, then provided that the applicant's evidence is sufficiently precise and unambiguous, a Certificate of Lawfulness may be issued. It is not usually necessary for the Planning Authority to corroborate the applicant's evidence. ## - 2.0 THE APPLICATION SITE 2.1 The application site is the residential curtilage of 10 Lower Dukes Road, Douglas which forms part of a traditional mid terrace of dwellings located on a south eastern side of Lower Dukes Road, within a wider area of residential properties within Douglas. - 3.0 THE PROPOSAL 3.1 The planning application seeks approval for the Certificate of Lawful Development for the installation of replacement windows and roof slates. - 4.0 PLANNING HISTORY 4.1 There are no previous planning applications which are considered relevant in the assessment and determination of this application. - 5.0 REPRESENTATIONS 5.1 No comments received at the time of writing this report. 6.0 ASSESSMENT / SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE PROVIDED 6.1 In terms of whether the conservatory has been in place for more than 4 years form the date of submission the Department considers that it has. Whilst the evidence supplied by the applicants is useful, the most relevant piece of evidence is via Google Street View which was taken in 2010. Within this it is clear the replacement windows (applicants advise these where installed 27 years ago) which are seen today, were in situ in 2010, hence longer than the required 4 year period. 6.2 The replacement slate roof was undertaken on a "like for like" basis (i.e. slate for slate). The applicants did have a pre application meeting with the Principal Planning Officer who advise it was potentially like that such works would have been considered as a repair and would not have required a planning application. However, the applicants have sought this being included to avoid in any delays should they wish to sell the property in the future. Again - from Google Street View and the photographs of the property today it does appear as the slate roof now is what was in place in 2010 (slate tiles and roof ridge is the same). - 7.0 CONCLUSION 7.1 On the balance of probabilities, the evidence sufficiently demonstrates that the installation of replacement windows and roof slates have been in situ for more than 4 years and as such, the Department may not issue an enforcement notice due to the provisions of Town and Country Planning Act 1999 Schedule 4 Part 1 paragraph 3(a) and it is recommended that a Certificate of Lawful Development is granted. - 8.0 RECOMMENDATION 8.1 It is recommended that the application for a Certificate of Lawfulness is agreed. - 9.0 INTERESTED PARTY STATUS 9.1 As the application is for a CLU this is not required to be assessed _____________________________________________________________________ I can confirm that this decision has been made by the Head of Development Management in accordance with the authority afforded to that Officer by the appropriate DEFA Delegation and that in making this decision the Officer has agreed the recommendation in relation to who should be afforded Interested Person Status Decision Made : Certificate of Lawful Use/Devel Approved Date : 01.07.2021 Determining officer Signed : S BUTLER Stephen Butler Head of Development Management ## Customer note ## This copy of the officer report reflects the content of the file copy and has been produced in this form for the benefit of our online services/customers and archive records. --- *Data sourced from the Isle of Man public planning register under the [Isle of Man Open Government Licence](https://www.gov.im/about-this-site/open-government-licence/).* *Canonical page: https://planningportal.im/a/24067-braddan-10-lower-dukes-road-lawful-use-certificate/documents/1030946*