APL Planning Statement

Proposed Second Floor Extension To Existing Storage Facility Jurby Industrial Estate.

Statement to accompany the Planning application

January 2024

A photograph showing a paved yard with multiple stacks of shipping containers illuminated by floodlights at dusk.

Introduction.

This statement is to support the application for the creation of a second storey floor level over the immensely successfully Self Storage facility situated on the land adjacent to unit 273 in Jurby Industrial Estate. The existing facility currently provides 66 Storage container’s over two levels, which are leased to members of the public. At present my client has been successfully operating the facility at full capacity for some time and demand is continuing to growth with waiting lists stretching for months, with no guarantee of units becoming available.

The Site.

The application site is already operating as a bespoke purpose built self storage facility situated to the left hand side of unit 273. The existing site is approximately 44m long x 28m wide, containing 66 permanent Shipping containers in a tidy and professional Manor offering safe, dry storage to local businesses and residents.

Photos of the existing facility can be found in appendix A.

The Proposal.

Various options were explored while trying to resolve the issue of expansion for the existing facility, and in depth discussions were held with the DOI in regards to potentially leasing additional land the left hand side of the existing storage facility, unfortunately this land is zoned for another future development and cannot be leased by us. Therefore the only option we have available is to go up another level.

As such the client is looking to create a second story level over the footprint of the existing self-storage facility, these works would include the provision of a cargo lift and covered walkway in the centre. This would allow my client to increase to number of units available to the public from 66 over two levels to 96 over 3 levels, as shown in the proposed drawings submitted with the planning application. The right hand side of the plot is to remain as a vacant hardstanding to allow for loading and unloading.

Storage and Clientele Initially when we first started this venture we expected the vast majority of clients to be private individuals storing mainly house hold items, with a few containers going to trades.

However, from our current leasing records we are providing storage facilities, to a number of Retail, Construction/Tradesmen, Commercial Offices, Digital Entertainment, Event management companies and Fitness companies.

Having had discussions with some of our clientele, they have confirmed that the presence of this facility has allowed them to successfully expand from mainly small home startups, into small to medium-sized businesses while maintaining relatively low overheads.

Given that the storage facility is providing local business the opportunity to grow, it is argued that the very presence of this facility is providing an indirect benefit to the local economy, allowing my client to expand his existing business is giving him the opportunity to grow along with many potential future startups.

Staff The running of the storage facility is to be operated mostly remotely and there are still no plans to have any permanent staff on site, however since opening the facility we have had regular maintenance staff attending the site, along with office-based staff working from another location, the current facility is providing employment for 3 members of staff.

Vehicle movements Given that the proposed new plans involve an approximately 30% increase in storage containers with no planned increase in the existing car parking areas, advise was sought from the “Self Storage Association United Kingdom” who have release the following document (Appendix A) “Traffic Patterns for Self Storage”

The SSA summarise the requirement of parking for storage facility of this size is 6.5 Vehicles per day “As the table below indicates on average there are less than 7 cars per 100 units, entering a site over the whole day. With customers staying an hour on average, most sites would only ever have 2 or 3 cars per 100 units on site at any given time.”

In order to more accurately determine the likely use of our own facility we conducted a two-week continuous traffic count via the CCTV, and found that Saturdays were our busiest day with an average of 10.5 cars over the 24hr period (Friday 00:00 to Saturday 00:00). Saturday 18th experience the most traffic movement for a 24hour period with 11 vehicles visiting the site, however Saturday the 11th was our most congested day over the two week study was specifically is between 1pm and 2pm with a total of 4 vehicles present at once. This traffic data confirms that our current level of car parking for up to 13 vehicles is sufficiently capable sustaining the proposed 30% Increase in terms of traffic movements.

Details of our traffic study is appended for review by the highways board.

Conclusion

We believe that the proposed development is in-keeping with the proposed use of the site and its surrounding areas. We believe we have undertaken sufficient analysis of the existing traffic movements on site and likely impact of the highways network, and can not see any reason for why this application would be deemed to be suitable in its current location. Therefore we are hopeful of a swift and positive review.