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Ballapaddag, Cooil Road, Braddan, Isle of Man
February 2020
Delta Planning 1 Chester Court, High Street Knowle, Solihull, B93 0LL Tel: 01212851244 www.deltaplanning.co.uk February 2020
1.1. This statement has been prepared by Delta Planning on betalf of Robinson's Limited to support a detailed planning application for the development of a Cold Store at Robinson's, Ballapaddag, Cooil Road, Braddan. 1.2. This statement provides relevant information in support of the planning application. Section 2 provides a description of the site and its surroundings, Section 3 outlines the planning history of the site, and Section 4 describes the development proposals. Section 5 provides an overview of the planning policy context and Section 6 provides a summary of pre-application consultation. Section 7 provides an assessment of the development proposals against relevant planning policies and finally, Section 8 provides a summary and conclusions. 1.3. In addition to this Planning Statement, the planning application is accompanied by the following documents:
2.1. The application site extends to approximately 2.93 hectares and is located at Robinsons Distribution Centre, Ballapaddag Cooil Road, Braddan. Robinson's is a wholesale fresh produce provider. The current business operations include a food storage and distribution centre and florist pack house. 2.2. The site is located within Braddan Parish and is located around 3.5 km to the west of Douglas town centre. The application site is bounded by Cooil Road to the north, a new car dealership known as Jacksons is situated to the east, and agricultural land to the south. Riley's Garden Centre and Eden Business Park light industrial units are situated to the west of the site. The site is accessed via Cooil Road. 2.3. The wider Robinson's site comprises of largely developed land with existing buildings and car parking. The location of the proposed cold store currently comprises of gravel and hardstanding areas. The building will be located in between the existing Robinson's warehouse and the new car showroom to the east. 2.4. In terms of the surrounding area, the site forms part of a large commercial area which also includes the Isle of Man Business Park and Spring Valley Industrial Estate. The majority of uses within the area are corporate offices or industrial/storage uses. There are also retail uses including B\&Q, Curry's/PC World and Pets at Home, together with other commercial uses including car dealerships, trade showrooms, and car hire centres.
3.1. The proposed cold store is situated within the Robinson's site which has an extensive planning history. Robinson's first obtained permission for thei! packaging and distribution business at Ballapaddag in 1989. This has been subject to a number of extensions and alterations between 1996 and 2005. 3.2. In regard to the area of land in question, in 2006 part of the site was granted consent for change of use for a hardstanding area for the parking of vehicles belonging to 4WD Hire Centre for a temporary period of 6 months (application reference: 05/92237/C). 3.3. More recently, within Robinson's site a pack house and floristry centre was granted permission in August 2017 (application reference: 17/00671/B). 3.4. In regard to the immediate surrounding area, in April 2017 a multi franchise car dealership was granted consent immediately to the east of the application site. The car dealership has since been constructed and is known as Jacksons (application reference: 17/00230/B). To the west of the site there is a light industrial development granted permission in 2013 under reference 11/01232/B. 3.5. It is clear from the above that the site is surrounded by existing development with existing buildings adjoining either side of the site.
4.1. Robinson's is one of the Isle of Man's oldest family businesses which was established over 125 years ago. The core of Robinson's business is food services and flowers. Robinson's supply over 5,000 different product lines to over of businesses, schools, hospitals and caterers throughout the Isle of Man. The company spends on Manx produce and over with Manx companies. Robinson's is a major business on the Island employing over 170 people. 4.2. Robinsons is a critical hub for all Manx produce and is currently desperately short of space to store its produce. The Island's current cold store facilities are spread inefficiently across four facilities, two of which are temporary and the main freezer is considered inadequate. There is also a cold store facility situated off Island, but this facility is difficult to monitor and is subject to shipping disruption. It is noted that the proposed cold store would reduce disruption and transportation risks associated with sea crossings and therefore enhance the Island's food security. 4.3. The demand for the proposed cold store is not only from Robinsons, which has doubled frozen foods sales in three years, but also from hospitals, schools, local companies, and supermarkets on the Island. There is also demand from off Island franchises such as Costa, McDonalds, Starbucks and UK supermarkets. In addition to this, it is noted that there has been an enormous widening range of frozen foods, including celiac and gluten free foods which requires increased picking space and traceability. Overall, the additional frozen food demand has resulted in Robinson's experiencing operational complexities due to the size of the existing cold store facilities. 4.4. It is considered that the proposed cold site is a natural expansion of the existing business at Robinson's Distribution Centre. Robinson's has considered potential alternative sites for the cold storage facility; however, an off-site cold store would generate increased costs associated with multi-site occupation and would be financially and operationally unviable. The proposed cold store facility will support the existing operations at Robinson's and there is vacant land available on site to accommodate the facility. 4.5. Furthermore, the site benefits from being located within close proximity to suppliers and a large commercial user base. The site has excellent transport links to the rest of the Island with Cooil Road connecting to the wider road network of the Island. The proposals would therefore support the Government's 2050 Energy Emission Reduction targets. The energy saving from the enhanced efficiency of a new cold storage facility, along with a considerable
reduction in transportation movements would contribute to a substantial reduction in carbon emissions. 4.6. The proposals would also support the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture (DEFA) 'Food Business Development Strategy for the Isle of Man 2015-2025'. The strategy was produced in response to a Tynwald Motion of January 2014 which sought options to grow the contribution of the food sector to the Isle of Man's economy. The strategy seeks to achieve sustainable growth in the industry over the next ten years and sets out a delivery plan with a number of next steps which includes improved communication with policy makers, local industry, food start-ups, local and UK retailers and distributors. 4.7. Overall, there is a clear national need for a new cold store facility on the Island. The details of the proposed cold store are outlined below.
4.8. The proposed development comprises a cold store facility, the description of development is as follows:
Erection of a Cold Store warehouse and ancillary offices/welfare facilities together with extension and reorganisation of site car parking, extension of cycleway to Cooil Road and associated landscaping works. 4.9. The total built floorspace is 2,049 sq.m (GIA). The facility is energy efficient and would utilise state of the art latest green technology. 4.10. The proposed facility will be accessed via the existing access off Cooil Road. The proposals also seek to extend and reorganise the existing on-site car parking to provide 96 car parking spaces and 51 van parking spaces. The scheme also includes seven loading docks located along the western side of the building. A shared footway and cycleway is proposed adjacent Cooil Road which will form part of the Isle of Man active travel plan. 4.11. A detailed description of the proposals is provided in the submitted Design and Access Statement.
5.1. In accordance with Section 10(4) of the 1999 Town and Country Planning Act, development proposals will be considered in light of the policies set out in the development plan, relevant planning policy statements, development orders or development procedure orders and all other material considerations. 5.2. The current development plan comprises the 1991 Braddan Local Plan and the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016. It is noted that the 1991 Braddan Local Plan is now out of date. It will shortly be replaced by the Area Plan for the East which was published in draft in May 2018 and is now at an advanced stage having been through examination and considered by an Inspector. It is anticipated to be adopted early 2020. Given its advanced stage, the application proposals will principally be assessed against the policies and proposals within the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 and the Draft Area Plan for the East. 5.3. An overview of the relevant policies in the Isle of Man Strategic Plan and Draft Area Plan for the East is set out below.
5.4. The Isle of Man Strategic Plan was adopted in February 2016 and covers the period up to 2026. The Plan outlines the Department's general policies in respect of the development and other use of land on the Island. 5.5. The Strategic Plan sets out the following Strategic Aim for the Island: "To plan for the efficient and effective provision of services and infrastructure and to direct and control development and the use of land to meet the community's needs, having particular regard to the principles of sustainability whilst at the same time preserving, protecting, and improving the quality of the environment, having particular regard to our uniquely Manx natural, wildlife, cultural and built heritage." 5.6. Central to this over-arching Strategic Aim is the concept of Sustainable Development which, put simply is the idea of ensuring a better quality of life both now and in the future. The Plan refers to a widely used definition: "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." 5.7. The Plan sets out a number of strategic objectives with regard to resources, the environment, economy, transport and communication and social matters. With regard to the economy, the Strategic Plan sets out a number of objectives, the following are relevant to this application:
a) To maintain and improve the viability, vitality and diversity of the economy by enabling improved employment opportunities. b) To ensure that sufficient land and property in terms of location, size and type is available for employment purposes. c) To safeguard and provide for the needs of existing and new locationdependent businesses. 5.8. The following strategic policies are of most relevance to this application:
5.9. To achieve its vision and strategic objectives, Chapter 5 of the Strategic Plan 'Island Spatial Strategy' (ISS) sets out a spatial vision which aims to focus new development within existing towns and villages or in sustainable urban extensions, avoiding coalescence of settlements and maintaining their local identity.
5.10. In regard to development outside of areas zoned for development, General Policy 3 allows a number of exceptions, including where development is recognised to be of overriding national need in land use planning terms and for which there is no reasonable and acceptable alternative. 5.11. In terms of the Island's settlement hierarchy, Spatial Policy 1 identifies Douglas urban area as the main employment and service centre for the Island. Spatial Policy 5 requires new development to be located within the defined settlements. 5.12. Given the characteristics of the application site and nature of the proposed development, the following policies contain in the Strategic Plan are considered to be relevant:
5.13. The Braddan Local Plan was adopted in July 1991. Given the age of the plan, its policies are substantially out-of-date. 5.14. In the Local Plan the application site is shown as open space (agriculture) on the Proposals Map and is located outside of the settlement boundary. This policy pre-dates much of the commercial development that now surrounds the application site. 5.15. Paragraph 13.1 highlights that "The essentially rural nature of the District contains major areas of high landscape value. This was recognised in the 1982 Plan". The 1982 Isle of Man Development Plan designated Areas of High Landscape Value. The application site was not specifically identified. Paragraph 13.3 of the Braddan Local Plan, however, states that "The rural areas of the Braddan Parish District will be designated as being of high landscape value". 5.16. Paragraph 13.4 of the Local Plan establishes a presumption against development in the open countryside apart from a number of exceptions listed at Paragraph 13.2 or sites required for national strategic reasons or for essential agricultural purposes. The proposed site and development do not satisfy any of these exceptions. 5.17. It is noted that the context of the site has now wholly changed with the development of Robinson's Distribution Centre and Jacksons Car Dealership to the east of the application site. The proposed cold store will therefore be situated between existing development and not in open countryside. It is considered that the policies within the Braddan Local Plan are out of date within regard to this site and that the policies in the draft Area Plan for the East are more relevant to the application proposals. This is set out below.
5.18. The Draft Area Plan for the East was published on 25th May 2018. The Plan has since been through examination and the Inspectors Report was published on 25th November 2019. The Plan is due to adopted early 2020 and covers the
period up to 2026. The Draft Area Plan for the East elaborates on the broad policies and proposals set out in the Isle of Man Strategic Plan. 5.19. Within the Plan, the application site is allocated for industrial use and the site is wholly contained within the newly defined existing settlement boundary for Douglas. It is noted that there was no challenge or objection to the proposed land use designation or settlement boundary in this location during the consultation on the plan, nor during the examination, and the Inspectors Report contains no recommendations for any changes to the designation relating to the site. It is therefore clear that in the final adopted Area Plan the application site will be within the existing settlement boundary and allocated for industrial use. It is considered that this should be given considerable weight in the determination this application. 5.20. The settlement hierarchy and policy approach is outlined in Section 2 of the Plan. Douglas is identified as the main centre. The spatial policy approach is for Douglas urban area to remain the main employment and services centre for the Island. 5.21. Overall, the objective for the Area Plan is to: "Seek to ensure that the policies of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 are fostered through appropriate land use and development planning proposals and policy statements which link relevant environmental, social and economic factors together in the interest of net community benefit and sustainable development." 5.22. Section 3.4 of the Draft Plan sets out a spatial vision statement for the East. In regard to Douglas, amongst other things, the vision states: "Douglas will continue to grow as the commercial, social and cultural heart of the Island remaining the prime focus for development and growth. It will continue to be a thriving capital rich in historic interest with an international outlook which will grow to accommodate the demands for new employment opportunities within and close to the Town in a coordinated way. As the economic hub of the Island, it will maintain its role as the leading retail, entertainment, employment, sporting and learning centre ..." 5.23. In order to achieve the spatial vision, the Plan sets out a number of desired outcomes, of these the following are of relevance to this application:
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