Sunset Lakes Manager's Lodge Planning Statement

Background

In December 2014 approval was granted for the development of the fishing complex at Sunset Lakes, comprising of 5 fishing lakes, 4 holiday cottages, a café, a shop and an education centre together with a maintenance area consisting of 3 breeding tanks, 2 workshops, 3 sheds and a well/borehole.

The construction of the facility has been completed and it has been operational since Spring 2018

In 2018 an application was made and approved, in October, for the change of opening hours of the café from 05.00 to 21.00 hrs , as originally approved in 2014, to 07.00 to 23.00 hrs to reflect the operational times of the other facilities in the complex.

The Proposal

The proposal, the subject of this application is for the construction of a manager's lodge with an office/reception area.

The lodge will be constructed in a timber form to match the other structures in the complex, particularly the holiday cottages.

The location proposed is adjacent to the site roadway serving the café, shop and holiday cottages, giving access to the fishing lakes and close to the entry to the complex. This gives good visibility of the reception/office for those coming to stay in the lodges and for other visitors to the site. It also provides an overview of the site for the manager. The orientation is designed to give the view not only from the office/reception but also from the manager's living/dining/kitchen area of his/her accommodation especially towards the fishing lakes for security reasons.

The lodge will comprise of a reception/office for meeting and greeting of visitors and occupants of the holiday cottages together with a management base for the complex and a linked family type of unit of 3 bedrooms ( 2 double and 1 single) and a lounge, dining and kitchen to provide accommodation for occupation by a manager and his/her family thus providing a full time on site management presence. This level of provision will allow recruitment and retention of a suitable manager.

The connecting door between the office/reception area and the manager's accommodation allows the locking off of the office/reception for its independent access and use by staff covering for the manager's holiday periods. These will be taken off season at which time the member of staff on duty will be able to occupy one of the holiday units to continue to provide the full-time on-site management function.

Sunset Lakes, Ballagyr Lane, Peel Proposed Manager's Lodge Statement to Accompany Planning Application Ellis Brown Architects

Presently management staff can be on site during daytime, working in and out of the shop element of the complex, but can only carry out periodic spot checks in the evenings and at night, which is not considered sufficient for security.

A full time presence is regarded as essential by our client particularly with respect to the security of the complex with particular regard to the lakes and the fishing stock, being mindful of the recent incident at the fish farm in Kirk Michael and the damage to stock which occurred there.

Our client is prepared to accept conditions linking this manager's lodge and its occupation to the Sunset Lakes complex and in that regard will accept a repeat of condition 2 of the 2014 approval, with suitably amended wording in any approval granted for the manager's lodge, which condition stated that:- "All the buildings and structures on the site (excluding the lakes) hereby approved shall be removed and the land restored to its former condition in the event that they been vacated for a period of two years and are no longer required for the use for which permission has been granted"