**Document:** Officer Report
**Application:** 23/00397/LAW — Certificate of Lawfulness for residential curtilage at Braaid Farm
**Decision:** Certificate of Lawful Use Declined
**Decision Date:** 2025-03-03
**Parish:** Marown
**Document Type:** report / officer_report
**Source:** https://planningportal.im/a/55986-crosby-braaid-farm/documents/1101645

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# Officer Report

## PLANNING OFFICER REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS

**Application No.:** 23/00397/LAW
**Applicant:** Ms Clarissa Beadman
**Proposal:** Certificate of Lawfulness for residential curtilage at Braaid Farm
**Site Address:** Braaid Farm Top Road Crosby Isle Of Man IM4 4HJ
**Planning Officer:** Vanessa Porter
**Recommended Decision:** Certificate of Lawful Use Declined
**Date of Recommendation:** 18.02.2025 _________________________________________________________________ Reasons for Refusal R : Reasons for Refusal O : Notes attached to reasons R 1. Based on the evidence which has been submitted as part of the application, it is considered that on the balance of reasonableness it has not been adequately demonstrated that the use of the area provided within the red line drawing on the provided affidavit as residential curtilage, for a period of time in excess of 10 years. As such it is recommended that the application be refused and a Certificate of Lawful Development not be issued.

_________________________________________________________________ Interested Person Status None

_________________________________________________________________ Officer’s Report INTRODUCTION

1.1 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.

1.2 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. - 1.3 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. - 1.4 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 Department to corroborate the applicant's evidence. APPLICATION SITE

2.1 The application seeks a Certificate of Lawful Use in respect of a new residential curtilage at Braaid Farm, which is a detached dwelling situated within its own grounds to the North of Top Road. Two public footpaths run near to the site, one immediately to the west running along the access from Eyreton Cottages and the other forming part of the Millennium Way running across the field to the south of the house. The land holding also includes land to the north, east and south of the site. - 2.2 The application seeking the Certificate of Lawfulness was submitted on 4th April 2023. PLANNING HISTORY

3.1 The application site has had several previous applications; PA84/00695/B - Renovation and restoration of existing farmhouse - Permitted PA87/04709/B - Conversion of garage to form study - Permitted PA89/00015/B - Erection of Conservatory - Permitted PA05/01485/A - Approval in principle for the construction of new farm dwelling, conversion of existing dwelling into single tourist accommodation cottage, removal of two nissen barns and alteration to residential curtilage - Refused PA05/92180/B - Demolition of existing dwelling, garage and nissen barns and construction of a replacement dwelling and garage - Permitted

- PA07/00176/B - Increase of floor area and alterations to window profiles to approved replacement dwelling and garage (Amendment to 05/92180/B) - Refused at Appeal
- PA08/01170/B - Alterations and erection of single storey link extension - Permitted
- PA09/01172/B - Installation of roof lights to dwelling under construction - Permitted PA09/01929/B - Alterations and erection of a single storey link extension (comprising amendment to 08/01170/B) - Permitted PA13/91183/B - Erection of agricultural building - Permitted

- PA19/00101/B - Alterations, relocation of garage doors to rear garage elevation, installation of windows to existing garage door openings and creation of screen wall to existing courtyard and parking to rear of garage - Permitted
- PA20/00301/B - Construction of an agricultural building - Permitted PA20/00861/B - Erection of extensions and remodelling of existing dwelling with associated landscaping and extension of residential curtilage - Permitted PA22/00840/B - Drill a borehole to test for a viable portable water supply to replace existing shallow spring - Permitted PA22/01240/B - Demolish existing dwelling and build a replacement dwelling - Permitted PA24/00191/C - Change use of existing shed from agricultural to domestic storage (retrospective) - Pending.

REPRESENTATIONS

4.1 Marown Commissioners have considered the application (21.04.24) and have no objections. SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE PROVIDED - 5.1 The application has been submitted with the following evidence (in no order):

- i. Application Form
- ii. Covering Letter
- iii. Residential curtilage aerial photographs
- iv. Drawing No. 208/008
- v. Email to Mr Paul Thornley with additional information, dated 31st March 2023 & 4th April 2023 Additional information was requested and received on the 20th December 2024 which included an Affidavit from Clarissa Beadman (the current owner) and additional aerials of the site.

## ASSESSMENT

6.1 Considering this application, the applicant seeks to reply on the fact that the land within the given red line boundary has been used as residential curtilage for a minimum of 10 years to establish a residential use can be considered lawful, as set out in Part 4, Section 24(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1999.

6.2 The evidence provided includes the additional of aerials and an affidavit from the current owner who rented the property from 2017 and then bought the property in 2021. They have provided a red line drawing to go with the application to show which parts of the property have been used as an extension to the existing residential curtilage. - 6.3 The aerials provided as part of the application range from 2009 to 2023, of which for the benefit of doubt and to prove 10 years, the 2012 and earlier aerials have to be used as the evidence for this application. - 6.4 When looking at such applications historic applications are also taken into account, where for this site there have been numerous, with there being mainly three different red lines for the property. The most notable for this application is the extension of the residential curtilage which was part of PA20/00861/B. This revised curtilage included the existing terrace to the front which is now a turning point for parking and what was supposed to be parking in the rear but has never been formally used as and land to the East of the site. - 6.5 The case officer in charge of the 2020 application, states the following in part regarding the revised residential curtilage, "6.9 In looking to the current arrangement there has been some extensive (albeit not quite successful) tree planning south of the house which is now shown to be removed from the red-line boundary. The red line is to channel the access and driveway up to the house and to encapsulate the dwelling and provide access space into the rear garaging area. The boundary will scooping south below the house taking in an already lawned garden area and then follow the field boundary along the eastern edge to provide a natural defined edge." On this basis this was the curtilage which was approved under the 2020 approval. - 6.6 Within the Planning Statement (2020 application) provided with the above application the agent on behalf of the applicant states with regards to the revised residential curtilage, "2.16 It is clear that the road and area around the existing house have not been laid out in accordance with the original Application so it has been agreed with the case Planning Officer that, in order to draw a line under those inconsistencies, it would be appropriate to set out the current Application Site based on the established physical features on site, as illustrated in diagram 3 on drawing number 208/903, this application does not propose any fundamental changes to the existing landscaping." - 6.7 Turning towards the Western side of this application for the extended residential curtilage, there is a large expanse of land which is proposed within the residential curtilage, of which

- there are currently two agricultural barns, one approved under PA13/91183/B (approved 6th December 2013) and one under PA20/00301/B (approved 19th May 2020), if these are indeed supposed to be within the residential curtilage it brings forward whether there was indeed an agricultural need for such structures as the 2013 application was for a feed store and the 2020 application was for a sheep shed.
- 6.8 Overall based on the information provided, part of the proposed new residential boundary includes area in which could not viably be residential boundary due to the recent planning applications, and even if the agricultural component of use has ceased (of which the conditions upon these applications should then be taken into account), there is virtually nothing before me to indicate the intensity, extent or scale of the incidental residential use, to the extent of the residential curtilage via a red line drawing provided within the most recent affidavit.

## CONCLUSION

7.1 Whilst the applicant has provided additional aerials to demonstrate the use, these are not clear enough and these are not a minimum of 10 years required for a Certificate of Lawfulness and based on the balance of probabilities, the affidavit in this case is not enough evidence to swing the balance of probability to prove the enlargement of the residential curtilage.

7.2 The onus of proof in this application is with the applicant, with the evidence having to provide sufficient precise and unambiguous evidence to justify, on balance of probability that the whole area within the red line drawing has been used as residential curtilage. - 7.3 Is considered on the balance of probability that the change of use has not been in situ for a minimum of 10 years to establish that the change of use can be considered immune from the issue of an enforcement notice.

RECOMMENDATION

8.1 The information provided is not sufficient to demonstrate a revised residential curtilage. INTERESTED PARTY STATUS - 9.1 As the application is for a CLU this is not required to be assessed. There is no right to appeal against this decision.

I can confirm that this decision has been made by the Acting 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 and/or rights to appeal.

Decision Made: Certificate of Lawful Use Declined Date: 25.02.2025 Determining officer

Signed : A MORGAN Abigail Morgan Acting Head of Development Management

Customer note This copy of the officer report reflects the content of the office copy and has been produced in this form for the benefit of our online service/customers and archive record.

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*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/55986-crosby-braaid-farm/documents/1101645*