Erection of multipurpose Community Centre incorporating Braddan Commissioners offices / headquarters with associated car parking and landscaping (comprising amendments to PA 16/00601/B)

Why Was This Approved?

• ✓Amended design and reduced floorspace relative to extant 2016 approval judged acceptable
• ✓Mixed-use community hub with health, leisure, nursery, and civic functions
• ✓Parking provision accepted on basis of staggered operating hours across uses
• ✓Access to 56 adjacent GP Surgery spaces available after 5pm for peak evening demand
• ✓Office use restricted by condition to Braddan Commissioners only
• ✓Conditions securing tree-planting, pedestrian crossing, and boundary landscaping
• ✓parking
• ✓scale

The proposal is for a largely two-storey community hub on an open, undeveloped site at the Strang Crossroads. The building would house Braddan Commissioners' offices, a retail pharmacy, optician, dental practice, children's nursery, soft play facility, café/restaurant, multi-purpose community hall, and a gym/yoga and pilates studio. A prominent rotunda element would contain the soft play area at ground floor and a function/meeting room above, usable for conferences, public meetings, and weddings. This application amended an extant 2016 approval (16/00601/B), with changes including a revised footprint and exterior design, a reduction in floorspace of 172sqm, a narrowing of the sports hall by 1.13m with a reduction of 160 seats, and an amended internal layout. The key planning issues were parking adequacy and traffic impact. The Highway Authority accepted that the varied operating hours of the different uses meant peak demand would not coincide, and that access to 56 spaces at the adjacent Palatine GP Surgery after 5pm provided additional flexibility.

The Planning Committee approved the application because the mix of uses and the amended design were both found acceptable. Parking provision, though below the raw Strategic Plan calculation, was judged adequate given the staggered operating hours of the different uses and the availability of adjacent GP Surgery spaces in the evenings. Conditions were attached to secure tree-planting, a pedestrian crossing, landscaping, and to limit the office use to Braddan Commissioners.

Policies Assessed (1)

Conditions (6)

1. 1

   Condition 1

   1. The development hereby approved shall be begun before the expiration of four years from the date of this decision notice.

2. 2

   Condition 2

   2. Other than the 'Function / Meeting Room', the office space hereby approved and as shown on Drawing P/10-11 Rev D (date-stamped as having been received 3rd August 2017), shall be used by Braddan Parish Commissioners only, and shall not be offered for use by any other party.

3. 3

   Condition 3

   3. The 'Function / Meeting Room' shall not be used as permanent office space.

4. 4

   Condition 4

   4. No development shall be commenced until a hard and soft landscaping scheme has been submitted to and approved in writing by the Department. Such a scheme shall include details of all walls, fences, trees, hedgerows and other planting which are to be retained; details of all new walls, fences and other boundary treatment and finished ground levels; a planting specification to include numbers, size, species and positions of all new trees and shrubs, the location of grassed areas details of the hard surface treatment of the open parts of the site, and a programme of implementation. All hard and soft landscaping works shall be carried out in accordance with the approved details. The works shall be carried out prior to the occupation of any part of the development or in accordance with the programme agreed in writing with the Department. Any trees or plants indicated on the approved scheme which, within a period of five years from the date of planting, die, are removed or become seriously damaged or diseased shall be replaced during the next planting season with other trees or plants of a species and size to be first approved in writing by the Department. All hard landscape works shall be permanently retained in accordance with the approved details.

5. 5

   Condition 5

   5. Prior to the building hereby approved coming into use, details of the siting and design of a pedestrian crossing on Braddan Road, Strang shall be submitted to and agreed in writing with the Department. The installation of the pedestrian crossing shall be carried out in accordance with the approved details. The pedestrian crossing shall be installed and ready to use prior to the building hereby approved coming into use.

6. 6

   Condition 6

   6. Prior to the building hereby approved coming into use, samples of the materials and colours of those materials shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Department.

Planning History (2)

Documents (44)