APL Planning Statement

Planning Statement In Respect Of Change Of Use Of Storage Unit To Industrial Use Including Car Repairs And Preparing Vehicles For Scrappage By Others, Unit 298A, Jurby Industrial Estate, Jurby Im7 3Bd

• 1.0 The site
• 1.1 The site is the curtilage of unit 298A within Jurby Industrial Estate which sits to the south west of the A14 which links Sandygate with Jurby village and the A10 coast road.
• 1.2 Jurby Industrial Estate is spread across approximately 13ha and comprises a range of industrial uses as well as a cafe and two motor museums. Currently the occupants include Brian Walmsley joinery, AGH Ltd IPTruck Parts (IOM), BPD (precast concrete products), Jurby Concrete Plant, Elliot Container Storage, Farmers’ Combine (agricultural products storage), McCavanagh Timber Frame, Island Aggregates Materials Testing, Office Equipment Centre, Teare Meat products, Happy Dog image solutions, Eco Friendly Plastering, Fynoderree, Northern Fuels and JR Garage.
• 1.3 The industrial units are on the site of former RAF buildings, some of which still remain and are protected (see Planning Policy Section below) and to the south and south west of the buildings are various kart circuits and the former runways are used for motor vehicle racing and testing (karts, cars and motocycles/sidecars).
• 1.4 Jurby Concrete Plant sits directly opposite the site to the north west. The applicant’s former premises, now condemned, sit to the north east with hard surfaced roadways abutting the site to the north, west and south with an area of grass to the south east.

• 2.0 The proposal
• 2.1 Proposed is the change of use of the site from its approved use as storage to the repair of motor vehicles including the preparation of end of life vehicles for scrappage which does not involve the actual scrapping of the vehicles but rather the removal of certain re-usable body parts - tyres, audio systems, exhaust systems etc - not dissimilar to a process where these parts would be replaced as part of a repair.
• 2.2 The applicant formerly occupied the unit immediately to the north of the site for around 23 years but was informed in 2022 that the building in which he was carrying out the business, was condemned and he was moved to the application site. He was not advised that this unit had permission under its original planning approval, for storage and that a change of use was required. He has also had to re-apply for his waste disposal licence which relates to the area of his operations which involve breaking cars in preparation for scrappage, which is undertaken elsewhere, by others.
• 2.3 The operation involves both vehicle repairs and breaking. Both processes involve both vehicles being brought to the site by their owners as well as the applicant going out to collect the vehicles where the vehicles are capable of repair. Vehicles being repaired are then parked within the curtilage and collected by their owners, or taken back to their owners. Vehicles for scrappage are processed - ie their re-usable parts are removed - and the vehicles are parked in front of the building on the forecourt and are collected almost immediately when they are ready, by an appropriate scrap business. Once a vehicle is ready, the scrap merchant is contacted and they come and collect it.
• 2.4 The site incorporates both the building which is solely occupied by the applicant for his business, together with the entrance driveway and a further hard surfaced area to the north which is used for parking. Adjacent to this parking area are storage containers which are not associated with the applicant or his business.

• 3.0 Planning policy
• 3.1 The site is within an area designated on the Isle of Man Planning Scheme (Development Plan) Order 1982 as Airfield (the green diagonal lines within the blue edging below), which reflects its most recent use at that time although it was some time earlier that the RAF had had a presence in Jurby or it was used as an aerodrome.

• 3.2 This is the only adopted plan for this part of the Island although there have been two draft documents which have studied the area and proposed changes to these land use designations. Jurby Village Study
• 3.3 This was a document prepared and adopted by the Department at the time (1990s) amongst which was a proposal for the re-designation of the industrial area as Industry (black vertical lines).
• 3.4 This plan was not progressed beyond Department adoption stage. More recently Cabinet Office, which is the Government Department responsible for the formulation of development plans, has issued a draft Area Plan for the North and West which will, if and when adopted, replace all of the adopted development plans in its area and in this case, the Isle of Man Planning Scheme (Development Plan) Order 1982.

Draft Area Plan for the North and West

• 3.5 The draft Plan which was issued in June 2022, was intended to be the subject of a public inquiry in the Spring of 2023 with adoption later that year or early 2024. This has not happened but it is understood that Cabinet Office intends to hold a public inquiry between March and May 2024 with Tynwald consideration and adoption following on afterward.
• 3.6 As this plan is still at a relatively early stage in the adoption process, it has little or no weight as a material consideration. It is, however, useful to consider its contents, particularly given the anachronistic adopted land use designations which have been overtaken by the evolution of the area into an industrial estate (see Planning History Section below).
• 3.7 The draft Area Plan proposes the designation of the industrial estate as Industry (the purple coloured area below) following the recommendation in the earlier Jurby Village Study.

• 3.8 The Written Statement which accompanies the draft Plan refers to the industrial estate as an area of employment (paragraph 11.1.5) which will contribute towards the supply set out in the Employment Land Review of 2017 (paragraph 11.5.1 and Table 11). The Written Statement also contains a development brief which sets out criteria which will be applied to “any new planning applications” for the estate including a demonstration of how the development complies with the Jurby Initiative and a master plan for the whole estate. It refers to the need for the inclusion of “suitable environmental information” for any developments which are likely to have a signifiant effect on the environment, noting the adjacent ASSI (see below). The inclusion of measures to promote active travel is also required.
• 3.9 The document also contains maps which show critical environmental and infrastructural constraints. The Environmental Constraints Map shows areas of ecologically important land, one of which abuts the building (the orange diagonal stripes below).
• 3.10 The Infrastructural Constraints Map shows the route of high voltage cables running under the land to the north but none within the application site.

• 3.11 A number of the existing buildings within the estate are recognised for their historical importance, all relating to the aviation and military history of the airfield. They are shown shaded purple on the map below. The application site circled red below, is not one of these.
• 3.12 There are no trees, Registered or otherwise within the site.

• 3.13 The site is not shown as being at risk of flooding on the national flood risk maps although there are areas shown as being at risk of surface water throughout the estate which are understood to show where there can be areas of standing water after periods of prolonged rainfall. The car parking area to the north of the site is shown as such as well as the area to the south west of the building and the estate road.

Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016

• 3.14 The Strategic Plan identifies Jurby as a Service Village and also refers to it as one of the major employment areas on the Island (paragraph 4.4.1). The key Island Spatial Strategy for the north includes the regeneration of Jurby in line with the Jurby Village Study. Spatial Policy 3 states that Area Plan policies for Service Villages will accommodate appropriate increases in employment opportunities.
• 3.15 The Strategic Plan encourages use of industrial land for these purposes (Strategic Policies 6 and 7, Business Policies 1, 2, 5).
• 3.16 The Strategic Plan also sets out general standards of development to be applied to all proposals which accord with the land use designation (arguably they should be applied to all developments regardless of their land use designation):

General Policy 2: 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:

• (a) is in accordance with the design brief in the Area Plan where there is such a brief;
• (b) respects the site and surroundings in terms of the siting, layout, scale, form, design and landscaping of buildings and the spaces around them;
• (c) does not affect adversely the character of the surrounding landscape or townscape;
• (d) does not adversely affect the protected wildlife or locally important habitats on the site or adjacent land, including water courses;
• (e) does not affect adversely public views of the sea;
• (f) incorporates where possible existing topography and landscape features, particularly trees and sod banks;
• (g) does not affect adversely the amenity of local residents or the character of the locality;

• (h) provides satisfactory amenity standards in itself, including where appropriate safe and convenient access for all highway users, together with adequate parking, servicing and manoeuvring space;
• (i) does not have an unacceptable effect on road safety or traffic flows on the local highways;
• (j) can be provided with all necessary services;
• (k) does not prejudice the use or development of adjoining land in accordance with the appropriate Area Plan;
• (l) is not on contaminated land or subject to unreasonable risk of erosion or flooding;
• (m) takes account of community and personal safety and security in the design of buildings and the spaces around them; and
• (n) is designed having due regard to best practice in reducing energy consumption.

• 4.0 Planning history
• 4.1 The site itself had planning approval under 91/04146/B for the erection of a building for storage.
• 4.2 More recent applications by the Government for upgrading of the estate and provision of a new access road were also approved. The inspector considering the most recent of these in the vicinity of the application site, 08/00587/B noted simply that the site was designated for Airfield but was used as an industrial estate but that no harm would come from the proposal and recommended that the application was permitted.
• 4.3 A more recent application for signage close to the site was also approved, the inspector noting that “the site has established and authorised use as an industrial estate although it is still identified as an ‘Airfield” on the 1982 Plan”.
• 4.4 The estate generally has been the subject of numerous applications, many of which saw permission granted for industrial uses which would or had the potential to have impacts in terms of traffic and noise:

• 07/00178/B - erudition of industrial unit (Brian Walmsley joinery): the inspector notes that “The site is entirely suitable for the proposed industrial workshop. It is surrounded by similar development”. This was approved subject to conditions, only one of which related to its use, that being that the building shall be used only for the purposes of an industrial workshop.
• 08/00119/B - erection of palisade security fencing, unit 248 - this was approved. The inspector notes, “There is no planning policy which directly allocates the airfield at Jury as an industrial site. However, as a matter of fact it is accepted to be so; the Strategic Plan encourages the growth of employment opportunities in Business

• Policy 1, and the facilities necessary to enable Hut 248 to be used productively would accord with that policy. Whilst the development does not accord with the zoning of the site as an airfield, it nevertheless appears to me that the General
• Policy 2 of the SP is relevant. The relevant considerations in that policy are that the development should respect the site and surroundings in terms of its siting, layout, scale, form and design: should not adversely affect the character of the shrouding landscape, and should not prejudice the use or development of

adjoining land. In my view this proposal accords with these policies, and should be permitted.”

10/00587/B - erection of a factory unit with associated parking. The inspector for this application states that “More up to date and realistic policy is contained in the adopted Strategic Plan, in which Jury is designated as a “major employment area”.

• 05/00243/B - erection of factory unit with associated services - permitted
• 06/00611/B - Alterations and refurbishment to hangars and provision of hard standings to create compound areas. This application was subject to the Isle of Man Planning Scheme (Development Plan) Order 1982 Written Statement which generally presumed against the outside storage of materials (the Strategic Plan contains no such presumption) but the inspector concluded that the appearance of the compounds and external storage was accepted in their context, were “not likely to have much visual impact in the wider landscape provided that the height of the stored materials is controlled”. This application was permitted.

• 4.5 It should be noted that the applications determined after 2008 were subject to the same Strategic Plan policies as any current application. Whilst the Strategic Plan was revised in 2016, the only material changes made were to the population and housing projections and not to any other policies.

• 5.0 Assessment
• 5.1 The site is not designated for industrial use; however, existing and authorised use of the surrounding area, together with the conclusions of decision makers for previous applications, confirms that the industrial use of this site together with the remainder of the industrial estate, is acceptable. Furthermore, the Strategic Plan confirms the status of Jurby as a Service Village and major employment area. The fact that the applicant was operating his proposed business a matter of metres away from the application site up until a year ago is also considered relevant, particularly as the land for both premises is owned and rented to the applicant, by Government (Department for Infrastructure).
• 5.2 It is considered that the use proposed for this approved storage unit is consistent with the authorised land use designation as Industrial. The activities proposed are associated with car repairs and even though the applicant also breaks vehicles for onward scrappage by others, those processes involve similar if not identical activities to car repairs. The only difference is that the broken vehicles will sit outside the unit, often without key elements such as wheels, bumpers, exhausts, but this is usually very short term - often hours pending collection by the chosen scrap merchant (usually Birchall’s who operate from Andreas Airfield which is approximately 9km away).
• 5.3 The industrial estate accommodates a range of users including those which involve the operation of heavy and noisy machinery. The site is opposite Jurby Concrete Plant which has existed on this site since the 1990s.
• 5.4 The area also accommodates Jurby karting and race tracks.
• 5.5 As such, whilst the site is relative close to residential and community property (it is 63m to the south of the shop, houses and slightly further from the primary school), it is within an area which accommodates uses which are or have the potential to create noise and traffic. The proposed use has already been undertaken within a unit which is closer to these neighbouring non-industrial uses without apparent issue and rented to the applicant by Government. As such, the proposal is not considered to result or have the potential to result in an impact which is unacceptable for the area.
• 5.6 The proposed use is considered to be industrial and not special industrial as it is not considered to be “particularly offensive by reason of noise, smell, vibration, smoke, soot, ash, dust, grit, or fumes, or dangerous by reason of the storage or use of

• dangerous or inflammable material, or inimical to public health by reason of vermin or other causes” (Strategic Plan paragraph 9.2.3) and indeed none of the other applications for industrial development referred to above, described their proposed activities as such. Similarly the development is not considered to result in such impacts as would necessitate an Environmental Impact Assessment (Environment Policy 24 and Business Policy 4). Whilst the operation involves the very short term storage of vehicles to be scrapped, this is an insignificant area of the site (one or two vehicles) relative to the overall area and the number of other vehicles on the site at any one time and as such is not considered to warrant an Environmental Impact Assessment (Appendix 5 - “(j) other projects”). No oil or other substances are emitted from any vehicles awaiting collection for scrap and they have no adverse environmental impact other than perhaps their appearance, although as stated above, they are on site for a very short period of time.
• 5.7 The proposal is generally screened from the main road to the north by the existing sod hedge and naturalised gorse and in addition, the applicant’s former unit sits between the application site and the road. As such, the building and its curtilage are generally well screened from public view.

• 5.8 Whilst they are visible from within the industrial estate, this is seen within a landscape of industrial buildings, external storage and externally parked vehicles of various sizes and types and from the west the site is completely hidden by the concrete plant.
• 5.9 The use is existing and as such it can be demonstrated that the area available to the applicant is sufficient to accommodate the vehicular parking generated by the activity - both in terms of the vehicles being processed and those associated with staff and deliveries.

• 6.0 Summary
• 6.1 Jurby is a major employment area and a Service Village. The site lies within an authorised industrial area which accommodates a range of industrial uses including those involving the production of concrete, timber framed building components, vehicle repairs, joinery processes and with the back drop of a race track for motorbikes, sidecars and karts.
• 6.2 What is proposed is a relocation of a business a matter of metres across the estate road, a business which had operated on this site for 23 years, into a more modern building which is fit for purpose and with a greater area of hardstanding for vehicular parking.
• 6.3 The proposed use of this approved storage building have an acceptable visual, aural and environmental impact considering its context and former operation closer to the main public highway and will continue to utilise an existing building and provide employment and a service to the north of the Island where there is generally only a small amount of sites where this type of activity can occur.
• 6.4 We would submit that the proposal results in no adverse environmental impacts and accords with the authorised use of the area and would be an acceptable development.

Sarah Corlett 04.01.24