Planning Justification Statement

D.N. Taylor, 38 Demesne Road, Planning Application August 12

09th August 2012	Thursday	8 spaces
10th August 2012	Friday	7 spaces
11th August 2012	Saturday	7 spaces
13th August 2012	Monday	5 spaces
14th August 2012	Tuesday	5 spaces

There were two reasons provided for the refusal of planning application 8/00761/12, which were:

1. The proposed development would not be served by any off-street parking and as such would intensify existing on-street parking in an area where on-street parking is already a problem. Accordingly the application fails to comply with Transport Policy 7 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2007.

1. The provision of bedrooms without a natural source of light would provide an unacceptable level of amenity for future occupiers of the proposed flats which is judged to be contrary to Housing Policy 17.

With reference to 1 above,

At the end of Appendix 7 of The Transport Policy 7 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2007 it states that,

"These standards may be relaxed where the development:

(d) is within a reasonable distance of an existing bus route and it can be demonstrated a reduced level of parking will not result in unacceptable on street parking in the locality."

Existing Bus Routes.

There are 12 routes servicing either or both ends of Demesne Road which provide, Monday to Friday, a total of 209 journeys, per day, either to or from Douglas town centre. Such a level of service is considered, by transport strategic analysis to be of a high level urban provision.

Parking

Once I became aware of Highways objections under the Transport Policy 7 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2007 I undertook a specific survey of the parking of vehicles in Demesne Road. I consider the highest frequency of parking would exist between 5:58 and 7:24pm being on average the time span which would include residents having returned home from work and before they would possible go out for the evening.

I assessed the parking within 50 metres of 38 Demesne Road which included part of Demesne Road and the side road leading to the Jane Crookall. I attach photographs of the parking available each digitally dated with a covering photograph of an atomic clock to validate the time taken. The photographs show on average 7 spaces clear and the photographs can be provided (by request) in an electronic digitised form confirming the exact time and date each photograph was taken.

15th August 2012 Wednesday 4 spaces 16th August 2012 Thursday 9 spaces 17th August 2012 Friday 7 spaces

The owner resident, Mr Stephen Moore, of 40 Demesne Road will substantiate that to his personal knowledge the previous occupants of the property, which were staff of the Mount Murray Hotel, Santon, had at least 5 cars between them at all times during the period 2002 and 2012. He also confirms he was not aware this caused any undue issues of parking within the area. This allied to the fact there is parking available (refer photographs) would substantiate his statement.

Other salient facts

The property is existing and the Transport Policy 7 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2007 states:

"The Department will require that in all new development, parking provision must be in accordance with the Department’s current standards"

I would argue I am not applying for a new development but a conversion or change of use on an existing development consequently Transport Policy 7 should not be applied. Housing Policy 17, however, specifically refers to the conversion of existing buildings to form flats. In that it states adequate space can be provided, if practical, for car parking. A review of the property would show this is not practical with the only way of providing space to park two cars would be to demolish the rear annex to the property. This would in turn clearly change the aspect of the building and as a consequence be contrary to the conservation policy currently in force.

A review of Demesne Road show there are 44 properties in total of which 38 are in flats or apartments some 86% of gross and with parking clearly available (see photographs). This belies the current belief that converting properties to flats increases the volume of cars; this is clearly not the case. Given that 86% of the properties are now established as flat or apartments maintaining 38 Demesne Road as a house would not be in keeping with the area.

With reference to 2 above

The plans from 12/00761/B have been amended to allow a natural light source into each and every bedroom, which will satisfy Housing Policy 17.

The main house, ground floor, is shown to be reverting back to its original concept of a Living Room combined with a dining room, albeit in this case the dining room will be a kitchen dinette. It will however allow the integrity of the interior features to be maintained in keeping with the conservation policy.