DEC Officer Report

PLANNING OFFICER REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION

Application No.: 24/00659/C Applicant: Miss Kyra Chantelle Parsons Proposal: Additional use of dwelling for the running of a beauty business Site Address: 18 Ballakermeen Drive Douglas Isle Of Man IM1 4HN Planning Officer: Vanessa Porter Recommended Decision: Permitted Date of Recommendation: 12.08.2024

Conditions and Notes for Approval

C : Conditions for approval N : Notes attached to conditions

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

Reason: To comply with Article 26 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) Order 2019 and to avoid the accumulation of unimplemented planning approvals.

• C 2. The area of the building to be used for beauty treatments shall be limited to that shown highlighted yellow on the location plan, dated received 11th June 2024 forming part of the application and the use hereby permitted shall not extend into any other part of the premises.

Reason: To minimise the disturbance to adjacent residential occupiers and to protect the residential character of the locality.

• C 3. The use hereby approved shall only be for the benefit of Miss Parsons while they are resident at 18 Ballakermeen Drive, Douglas and no staff may be employed and/or work at the premises.

Reason: Although the specific details of this application have been found acceptable, any change to its operation will require fresh assessment.

• C 4. Notwithstanding the provisions of the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 2013 (or any Regulations revoking and/or re-enacting those Regulations with or without modification) no advertisement on or within 18 Ballakermeen Drive may be displayed without the prior submission and approval of advertisement consent. Reason: To control development in the interests of the amenities of the surrounding area.

• C 5. The business shall not operate outside of the operational hours stipulated in the application. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday - 10am till 3pm Thursday - 12pm till 7pm Saturday - 10am till 5pm Reason: In the interest of protecting neighbouring living conditions.
• C 6. Notwithstanding the provisions of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 2019 or Town and Country Planning (Change of Use) (Development) (No. 2) Order 2019 or any order amending, revoking or re-enacting these Orders, the building hereby approved shall be used only for the purpose hereby approved (beauty therapy) and shall not be used for any other purpose within Use Class 1.1 without the express grant of planning approval from the Department.

Reason: To enable the Department to consider the implications of any subsequent change of use on the amenities of the area.

• C 7. For the avoidance of doubt, should the summerhouse cease to be used for the business use hereby approved as specified in Condition 3 of the approval, the summerhouse may either be removed or only be used for purposes incidental to the enjoyment on the main dwelling house at 18 Ballakermeen Drive.

Reason: To enable the Department to consider the implications of any subsequent change of use on the amenities of the area.

This application has been recommended for approval for the following reason.

Due to the small scale capacity the use of the garden shed by the applicant for home working as a beautician is considered acceptable. Overall the proposal is unlikely to cause adverse harm to the amenity of neighbouring residents and generally meets the aims and objectives of General Policy 2 of the Isle Strategic Policy (2016), Business Policy 1 and Transport Policy 7 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016.

Plans/Drawings/Information;

This decision relates to the following plans and drawings, date stamped received on 11th June 2024;

• o Application Form
• o Location Plan
• o Photograph of work area
• o Photograph of summerhouse
• o Floor Plan _______________________________________________________________

Interested Person Status

Additional Persons None _____________________________________________________________________________ Officer’s Report THE APPLICATION SITE

1.1 The application site is within the curtilage of 18 Ballakermeen Drive, Douglas which is a semi detached two storey dwelling situated to the East of Ballakermeen Drive. - 1.2 To the rear of the property is a tired garden which has a summerhouse situated upon it. Due to the location of the property, there is no off street parking situated with the site. THE PROPOSAL

2.1 The current planning application seeks approval for the use of the existing summerhouse to the rear of the property for the use as a beauty business. The proposed opening hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 10am to 3pm, Thursday 12pm to 7pm and Saturday 10am to 5pm. PLANNING HISTORY - 3.1 There are no previous applications on the site which are relevant to the assessment of this application. PLANNING POLICY - 4.1 The site lies within an area zoned as "Predominantly Residential" on the Area Plan for the East, Map 4 - Douglas. The property is not within a Conservation Area or a Flood Risk Zone.

4.2 In terms of the Strategic Plan (2016) the following Strategic Policies are the most relevant.

• - Strategic Policy 9 and Business Policy 10 set out that retail provisions are only to be permitted in established town and village centres.
• - Business Policy 1 which sets out that the growth of employment opportunities throughout the Island will be encouraged.

4.3 The following Strategic Policies are also relevant;

• - General Policy 2 which sets out general 'Development Control' considerations which are arguably relevant even where a proposal is not in accordance with the land-use designation, the wider impact (the amenity of local residents or the character of the locality) and parking/access/highway safety.
• - Community Policy 2 sets out that new community facilities should be located to serve the local population and be accessible to non-car users, and should where possible re-use existing vacant or underused buildings.
• - Transport Policy 7 in connection with Appendix 7.6 which sets out the requirement for parking standards. REPRESENTATIONS

5.1 The following representations can be found in full online, below is a short summary;

5.2 Highway Services have considered the proposal and state in part, "Highway Services consider that the additional demand for one parking space within the areas highlighted to be acceptable, and not cause unacceptable levels of on-street parking or significant road safety issues." (25.06.24) - 5.3 Douglas Borough Council have considered the application and state "no objections." (28.06.24) ASSESSMENT

6.1 The main issues to consider in the assessment of this planning application are:

• - principle of the development (land use designation, SP9 & BP10)

• - neighbouring amenity (GP2)
• - highway safety (GP2 & TP7)

- 6.2 PRINCIPLE

• 6.2.1 In the first instance when looking at the principle of the use of a summerhouse, it should be acknowledged that permission has been approved and refused for the operation of a business from a residential property, throughout the Island. In fact the Government's Permitted Development Order permits a number of business operations to be run from a dwelling, these including child minding (up to 6 children), Bed and Breakfast (up to 3 bedrooms) and an occupant of a dwelling can operate any business from home (no visitors/staff allowed) via a home office within the property.
• 6.2.2 No.18 Ballakermeen Drive, is situated within a site zoned as 'predominately residential' and as such the change of use of part of the property would not comply with the land use designation within section 3.1, however the application site will majority stay as a dwellinghouse. There are also no alterations proposed to the property as such there will be no visual impact on General Policy 2 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 based on the proposed small scale use.
• 6.2.3 Further issues in terms of the principle is the possible impact on the nearby town centre. It is generally presumed that new commercial uses will be directed towards existing commercial areas. However, the impact of a single employee operating in this location is unlikely to draw materially harmful levels of trade away from the town centre. Moreover, such small businesses could enable the growth of a business that would eventually achieve a sufficient turnover as to encourage its moving into larger, more attractive and more appropriate commercial premises in that town centre in due course.

- 6.3 NEIGHBOURING AMENITY

• 6.3.1 Concerns can be raised by such proposals, namely relating to the impact upon on-street parking provisions (discussed below) and noise & general disturbances through people coming and going from the site. The applicants are the full time occupants of the property, living within the other rooms within the property and will be the only employee working from this address.
• 6.3.2 As such overall, due to the nature of the business, with only a single client at a time and no noisy activities being carried out, it is considered unlikely that there will be a significant impact on the neighbouring properties.

- 6.4 HIGHWAY SAFETY

• 6.4.1 Turning toward the proposed change of use and the lack of off street parking to the site. Generally applications for such a proposal would require at least one space for the occupants of the dwelling and one space for clients which would be coming to the property. Due to the location of the property within the streetscene, there is no off street parking associated with the dwelling. This could potentially raise issues, especially due to the rear of the property, where the general parking for the dwellings along Ballakermeen Drive park, being a rear ally which serves both the dwellings along Ballakermeen Drive and the properties to the West of Ballakermeen Avenue. Having visited the site, the rear alleyway only has enough space for one row of cars, which is generally full and a turning point to the rear.
• 6.4.2 Whilst the above would generally mean that such an application would be refused on a lack of parking available, it should be noted that the dwelling is situated within an overall site which has a wide range of on-street parking available, which ranges from the Western side of Ballakermeen Drive all the way through to where Ballakermeen Drive meets Ballakermeen Close.

• 6.4.3 With the above in mind and noting not only that Peel Road is a major road into Douglas, which means that public transport is often and reliable, and also noting the comments made from Highway Services, it is deemed in this instance that the on street parking would be acceptable.
• 6.4.4 Another issue which could arise from such a proposal, would be with regards to the additional traffic movements of the proposed customers to the site, especially noting that the requested hours of operation are proposed till 7pm on a Thursday, when most occupants of the surrounding dwellings would be at home and not at work, or out for the day. The road itself is busy with general traffic which use it as a through road to get to the rear of Ballakermeen High School or further onwards to Hawarden Avenue/ Woodbourne Road, as such there is already a general amount of traffic within the area of the site, this means that the additional proposed traffic in relation to the proposal is unlikely to be noticed. CONCLUSION

7.1 For the above reasons the proposal is considered to comply with General Policy 2, Business Policy 1 and Business Policy 7 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 and therefore acceptable. INTERESTED PERSON STATUS - 8.1 By virtue of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) Order 2019, the following persons are automatically interested persons:

• (a) the applicant (including an agent acting on their behalf);
• (b) any Government Department that has made written representations that the Department considers material;
• (c) the Highways Division of the Department of Infrastructure;
• (d) Manx National Heritage where it has made written representations that the Department considers material;
• (e) Manx Utilities where it has made written representations that the Department considers material;
• (f) the local authority in whose district the land the subject of the application is situated; and
• (g) a local authority adjoining the authority referred to in paragraph (f) where that adjoining authority has made written representations that the Department considers material.

8.2 The decision maker must determine:

• o whether any other comments from Government Departments (other than the Department of Infrastructure Highway Services Division) are material; and
• o whether there are other persons to those listed above who should be given Interested Person Status

I can confirm that this decision has been made by the Acting Head of Development Management in accordance with the authority afforded to that Officer by the appropriate DEFA Delegation and that in making this decision the Officer has agreed the recommendation in relation to who should be afforded Interested Person Status

Decision Made : Permitted Date : 14.08.2024 Determining officer

Signed : A MORGAN Abigail Morgan Acting Head of Development

Management

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