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Application No.: 18/00813/C Applicant: Department Of Infrastructure, Transport Services Proposal: Additional use of school car park for the parking of up to two minibuses (retrospective) Site Address: New Foxdale Primary School Mines Road Foxdale Isle Of Man IM4 3EX Planning Officer: Miss Lucy Kinrade Photo Taken: 04.12.2018 Site Visit: 04.12.2018 Expected Decision Level: Officer Delegation Recommended Decision: Permitted Date of Recommendation: 13.05.2019 _________________________________________________________________
C : Conditions for approval N : Notes attached to conditions
C 1. The proposed additional use of the site for the parking of minibuses, hereby approved, shall be restricted to within the hatched area shown on the submitted Site Plan. This area shall be restricted to a maximum of 2 minibuses parked on the site at any one time.
Reason: To ensure that there is no further loss of parking for the wider use of the site as a school.
This approval relates to location plan, site plan, 1 x site photograph and supporting statement received 02/08/2018, and an email from the applicant dated 25/04/2019. _______________________________________________________________
It is recommended that the following Government Departments should be given Interested Person Status on the basis that they have made written submissions relating to planning considerations:
1.1 The site specific to this application is an existing area of car parking situated within the grounds of Foxdale School, Mines Road, Foxdale. The existing parking area sits between the main road and the school building/playground. The parking area is accessed via a small layby and is 18m long and around 5m deep and providing 7 perpendicular car parking spaces. - 1.2 This area of parking is predominately used by parents for the dropping off and picking up of school children during school time. There is a second parking area towards the rear of the site used by school staff. - 1.3 The application indicates that the existing lay by parking area has been used for the parking of one DOI minibus since January 2018.
2.0 THE PROPOSAL - 2.1 The current application seeks approval for the additional use of the car park for the parking of up to two minibuses at the site. - 2.2 Included within the application is a statement from the Department of Infrastructure (DoI) which states that the minibuses form part of 'bus vannin' although are operated separately to the big bus section. In total the minibus section operated 33 vehicles ranging between 9 - 16 seats. These minibuses offer services to DESC, DHSC for the transport of school children and students to various sites across the Island, along with adult and elderly patient transfers, the minibuses also provide a commercial service to the Sea Terminal and a demand service to the North. The vehicles are generally out all day but there may be some days when they are not required and could be parked all day. There will be no requirement to wash, maintain or refuel the vehicles at the site. - 2.3 The supporting information provided by the applicant states that the site has been used for parking of one vehicle since January 2018.
3.0 PLANNING HISTORY - 3.1 There have been a number of similar applications submitted for the additional use of sites across the Island for the parking of DOI minibuses, those considered materially relevant to this application are:
4.0 PLANNING POLICY - 4.1 The site is designated on the Foxdale Local Plan as an 'Area for Civic, Cultural & Other Special Use - Primary School'. - 4.2 The minibuses are not for sole use by the school, but they are to be located within an existing and established area of car parking. There are no specific policies in relation to this type of development and perhaps it is therefore most appropriate to consider the general standards towards development as set out in General Policy 2. - 4.3 General Policy 2 states (in part):
"Development which is in accordance with the land-use zoning and proposals in the appropriate Area Plan and with other policies of this Strategic Plan will normally be permitted, provided that the development:
5.0 REPRESENTATIONS Copies of representations received can be viewed on the government's website. This report contains summaries only. - 5.1 Patrick Commissioners - no objection to the proposal in principle assuming that the Headteacher and DESC have given permission and that the applicant carries out a suitable risk assessment (dated 14.09.2018) - 5.2 DoI Highway Services - Do Not Oppose (29/08/18) -The minibuses would not be maintained, cleaned or refuelled on the site. The proposal would not change the existing access arrangements onto the A24 Mines Road and there should be sufficient room on the site to accommodate 2 parked minibuses so the proposal should not create any new highway issues. - 5.3 The Police Crime Reduction & Architectural Liaison Officer provided comments on the application dated 20/08/2018 and 20/11/2018, initially the comments raised concern with regards to the increased likelihood of criminal damage and theft of fuel as a result of these expensive vehicles being parked out of hours and during darkness. While the school has some CCTV this is directed to the building and not the car park. The officer suggests that larger town centre car parks with bespoke CCTV should be used. Subsequent comments received from the officer stated that the concerns had been discussed with the DOI and that these risks had been taken into account in their business risk and the rational for the vehicles being sites at government owned locations and that security specs would be explored. The officer indicates that their immediate concerns had been satisfied.
6.0 ASSESSMENT - 6.1 The proposal is for the additional use of part of Marown School car park for the parking of up to two minibuses. The fundamental issues to consider in the assessment of the application are (i) whether or not the principle is acceptable particularly in terms of the impact on the day to day operations of the school, (ii) whether there would be any visual impacts, (iii) whether there would be any highway safety issues and (iv) whether or not there would be any community or safety concerns as a result of the vehicles being parked overnight.
6.2 The minibuses are intended to serve a range of purposes and are not specifically for use by the school, although will provide services to The Department of Education, Sport and Culture (DESC) which operates the Island's schools and the University College Isle of Man and The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) which includes healthcare as well as social services for adults and for children and families. Alongside this the busses will also provide an on demand commercial service to the general public and ports services. The minibuses are to be located at various sites across the Island and within close proximity to the route which they will serve and in reasonable distance from their drive. This operation is likely to reduce the need for long journeys (both staff and vehicles) and expected to help create a more sustainable and energy efficient process.
6.3 The existing car parking area provides space for school visitors and a pick up and drop off zone for parents and in facilitating the primary use of the site. The demand and use of the car park varies throughout the year and is reflective of the day to day demands of the school. The proposal must not adversely affect or jeopardise this primary use. - 6.4 During the site visit there were no minibuses parked on the site. The matters of the application were discussed with the representative of the school and it was reiterated that the current proposal was for up to 2 minibuses. The school representative explained that on occasion they would see one minibuses at the site but it was usually gone by the time most staff and children arrived to school, it was asked if there was capacity for buses to park within the staff parking area towards the rear, however the representative said that parking is already nearing capacity there and that should two minibuses ever be parked there during term time that this could cause issues for staff parking. The representative stated that the layby is often occupied by resident's vehicles overnight and that the minibuses would likely be no different and to date they have had no issues in terms of parking provision at the site. - 6.5 Parking overnight and the parking of minibuses outside of school term time is not of any concern in this case, and generally the minibuses are to be off site during core school hours. In understanding the impact of 2 minibuses being at the site and the consequential loss of parking it was sought that the applicant provide a parking space plan and sizes of the minibuses to understand whether the buses could be parked perpendicular. A revised plan was not received although the applicant confirmed that the largest vehicle was 7.3m long and that these could not be parked perpendicular, therefore worst case scenario the buses would occupy almost all of the 18m long layby. - 6.6 The minibuses are to mostly operate during the day and therefore it's unlikely that both minibuses would be on the site during core school hours. While the 18m parking area could be fully occupied, there still remains some space for the pick-up and drop of off children. In any such case it would be in the applicants best interest to ensure that no issues arise as a result of the proposal which could see the land owner (DESC) revoking their use of the site. This would fall to a civil matter outside of planning. - 6.7 The use is partially in accordance with the land use designation and although the new license includes the use for 'commercial' uses this mostly relates to the diversification for uses associated with other Government Departments. On balance it is considered that the additional parking of 2 minibuses within the existing car park would in principle be acceptable.
6.8 The existing area is already established as a small layby parking area where there is a general level of acceptability for the parking of vehicles. The proposed minibuses are larger than the average motor car and will undoubtedly be more noticeably from the road, although the existing roadside wall and soft landscaping helps to mitigate views. It is not expected to result in such an adverse visual impact above the current situation as to warrant a concern or refusal.
6.9 The proposal does not result in any changes to the existing access and while traffic coming into and out of the site may increase this is not expected to result in any detriment or adverse impact on traffic flows or highway safety in the local area. In this respect the proposal is considered to be acceptable.
6.10 A representative from the Police initially highlighted concern for the vehicles being left unattended overnight and being susceptible to criminal damage or theft. Subsequent comments indicate that discussion had been undertaken between the Police and DOI stating that this element of risk had been taken into consideration and that security would be explored
by the DOI. The parking area is not controlled and access can be achieved at all times, the parking of the minibuses is not expected to cause any community safety issues, and that minibuses parked here would be done so at the applicants own risk.
7.0 CONCLUSION - 7.1 The number of minibuses included in the description is a maximum that can be parked on the site and not necessarily the expected number of vehicles at all times. On balance the additional use is considered to be acceptable and not to cause such an unacceptably impact on the established school use of the site as to warrant a refusal, and in any case it would be in the applicants best interest to ensure no problems arise through the parking of their minibuses on this site. Visually the proposal is not so far removed from the current car park use and existing landscaping helps to soften the appearance from the public highway. No highway safety issues are expected and the parking of the vehicles here overnight would be at the applicants own risk. - 7.2 For the above reasons and as set out in 6.0 of this report the proposal is considered to comply with General Policy 2 and recommended for approval.
8.0 INTERESTED PERSON STATUS - 8.1 By virtue of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) (No 2) Order 2013 Article 6(4), the following persons are automatically interested persons:
8.2 The decision maker must determine:
I can confirm that this decision has been made by the Head of Development Management in accordance with the authority afforded to that Officer by the appropriate DEFA Delegation.
Decision Made : Permitted Date : 17.05.2019 Determining officer
Signed : S BUTLER Stephen Butler Head of Development Management
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