BP4

Policy: BP4 - Industrial land retailing exceptions

Business Policy 4: Proposals for Special Industrial Buildings must be accompanied by an Environmental Impact Assessment.

9.2.4 Sites identified as suitable for Industry will generally also be suitable for the storage and distribution of goods, although, depending upon location with respect to other uses, the Department may restrict the goods stored by attaching the following condition:

"The building(s) hereby approved may be used for storage and distribution. Approval does not extend to the use of the site for retail purposes or as a skip transfer station or for the storage or distribution of dangerous goods (as defined in the Road Traffic Act: Road Vehicles carrying Dangerous Goods (Maintenance and Use) Regulations 2000) or coal or items which could give rise to nuisance to adjacent land users by virtue of dust, noise or smell".

9.2.5 The Island's industrial estates have generally been used to accommodate only those uses described in paragraphs 9.2.3 and 9.2.4. More recently however, there has been pressure on Government to permit retailing within industrial areas, particularly those on the outskirts of Douglas. Following the development of the large-span "do it yourself" retail facility by B & Q in the Springvalley industrial estate in the mid 1980s, Tynwald took an immediate stance against out of town retailing by a resolution in 1987 which stated that "Positive steps should now be taken to revitalise existing town and village centres for the benefit of the whole community...and no further major out of town retailing developments should be permitted". The Braddan Local Plan adopted by Tynwald in 1991 reiterated this policy, and successive local and Area Plans have been formulated to concentrate retailing on existing centres in defined settlements - Castletown, Ramsey, Douglas, Peel, Port Erin, Onchan, Kirk Michael, Laxey and Port St. Mary.

9.2.6 Since the adoption of the Braddan Local Plan in 1991, pressure has been growing for the inclusion within industrial areas of a variety of retail-related uses, with some applications being successful. Those which have been successful have generally fallen into one of the following two categories:

1. developments of a retail nature where the items being retailed cannot generally be sold from a high street or town centre location, e.g. motor cars, builders' materials, agricultural equipment and feed; and
2. developments which in themselves are not retail but comprise elements of retail use which are inextricably linked to the primary use of the building or site - e.g. tailor-made clothing or video tapes manufactured on the premises.

However, there are good reasons not only for directing most retail uses to town centre locations but also for reserving industrial land for its designated purpose. It is important to ensure that sufficient suitable land is available for industrial development. In any case, most industrial estates are unsuitable as environments for shoppers. The following policy is therefore appropriate: