Loading document...
Application No.: 13/01290/LAW Applicant: William Christian Proposal: Lawful use application for use of the site for vehicle, equipment and material storage and waste transfer station for tipping road sweepings, trimmings, top soil and excavated road materials, inert and organic vegetation Site Address: Land At Ellerslie Depot Old Church Road Crosby Isle of Man Case Officer : Miss Jennifer Chance Photo Taken: 03.01.2014 Site Visit: 03.01.2014 Expected Decision Level: Officer Delegation
Site 1.1 The site is an area of land that extends in a linear fashion westwards from Old Church Road in Crosby. Adjacent to the land in question are a number of buildings used by Government as a depot. The land sits within the valley near to a watercourse.
Planning History n.b. the planning history listed relates to the site and to the adjacent land.
3.1 The application has been amended to seek a lawful development certificate for the 'use of the site for vehicle, equipment and material storage and waste transfer station for tipping road sweepings, trimmings, top soil and excavated road materials, inert and organic vegetation.' The accompanying drawings have been amended to show the location where tipping occurs and the location vehicles and materials are stored. - 3.2 The supporting statement asserts that: The site was given planning approval in 1993 for a tip/waste transfer station; vehicles have been stored on the site for a minimum of 10 years, the DOI has leased the land for 21 years. The Water Authority have used part of the site as a compound as have DLGE, annual auctions are conducted by Central Marts; the site has been continually used for access by William Christian including access through the deport throughout this time; other contractors have stored containers and equipment on the site throughout the past 10 years. Evidence Submitted
4.1 Lease between DHPP and Mr and Mrs Christian 3/12/1992 for 5 year rental periods commencing 1992 and ending 2017. Clause 3 of the lease states that 'The Department shall permit the demised premises to be used only as a Department Depot including the storage of plant and materials and for associated purposes relating to the department works operations and for no other purpose without the consent in writing of the Lessor first obtained…' Letters received: - 4.2 David North (former Minister of DHPP) of 18 Glen Vine, site has been used by DOI (DHPP) for storage and tipping. In 1991 a lease was agreed between DOI and signed by the Chief Executive and Minister for formalise the situation. - 4.3 G A Halsall (former director of works of DHPP) Compound was in use in 1982 to park highway construction plant and equipment and to store and stockpile highway materials. The site was used to dispose of inert road materials but this practice ceased due to environmental concerns. A bund mound was placed along the compound to provide a visual barrier to screen the compound from land to the north. It remained an important facility up to my retirement in 2005 and to my knowledge still continues to be so. - 4.4 Coolingel Farm. The site has always been in existence as a tip, storage area for plan, machinery and vehicles firstly by the highway board, then DHPP and now DOI. - 4.5 G.A Walmsley (former engineering works manager of DHPP). I can confirm that the site has been continuously used as a tip/transfer site for plant/machinery and equipment since 1985 and perhaps for longer. - 4.6 C.D. Groundworks have used site for tipping waste, e.g. soil, hardcore, excavation materials and surplus landscaping for more than 10 years and have also stored machinery on the site over this period with the permission of William Christian. - 4.7 KG Services have used the site for the disposal of material, soil, hardcore etc for longer than 10 years. - 4.8 Alan Dentith has used Ellerslie Depot for tipping and disposing of excavated material for over 10 years.
4.9 Phil Corkish has used the site over 10 years for tipping, disposing of excavation material, hard-core, garden materials, vegetation and soil and site clearance materials. - 4.10 Rev Janice Ward. Confirms that the depositing of excavation material, soil, trees and roots have been taken from Marown Church, Marown Vicarage and Marown Church Hall over the past 10 years and deposited at Ellerslie Tip by the permission of Mr Christian. - 4.11 Ballawilleykilley Farm has been using the tip and depot for over 10 years for tipping and disposing of excavation material, hard-core, garden material, vegetation and general soil and site clearance material along with general farm waste. Photographs - 4.12 Aerial photographs have been submitted from 1993 onwards. The relevant date is 2003 and the photograph from that date shows vehicles and perhaps machinery parked or stored along both sides of an access was. The area where the tip would be is not clear. The 2006 aerial photograph shows the same although it shows a slightly different land form where the tip would be. The 2012 plan shows cars/plant parked or stored along the site. The area of the tip has extended beyond that in previous applications into a new field. Representations
5.1 Marown Parish Commissioners: No objections to the application being approved. The Planning Unit - 6.1 On Friday October 10 2014 I visited Ellerslie Depot with a view to finding out the use of the buildings on the adjacent site and their relationship with the application site. The purpose of this was to establish the 'planning unit' as part of consideration of the application.
6.2 I met with Kevin Jones, an officer in the Operations Division of Fleet Management, who has worked at the site in excess of 20 years, and Gary Saunders, a Construction Manager of the Highways Division who has also worked from the site at Ellerslie for a period of 10 or so years. Mr Jones and Mr Saunders accompanied me on my site visit and responded to my questions regarding the purpose of and occupancy of each building. - 6.3 There are 7 buildings on the site that I refer to. I shall describe them in order from the most easterly to the most westerly.
6.4 The land surrounding the building was primarily a concrete apron, used for manoeuvring and car parking. There was also underground storage of diesel and gas for the vehicles stored in the application site. - 6.5 In the application site was: some staff parking, Government vehicles (primarily DOI), metal fencing, cones, traffic lights and other material storage. I saw no vehicles or equipment that appeared to belong outside of Government. - 6.6 I questioned Mr Jones and Mr Saunders on the operation of Ellerslie Depot, specifically whether the Government owned land where the buildings are, operates separately and discretely from the application site or whether the one is dependent on the other. They responded to say that the staff in the depot are in charge of the vehicles and equipment, the people driving the vehicles put in their wages slip to the office, fill up from the fuel storage, fill up from the salt barn, eat in the canteen and so on. If a vehicle is waiting to be serviced or waiting for a part, then the vehicle is parked in the application site and so on and so forth. Both men stated that it would be difficult to operate if the functions in the two areas were physically in different locations on the island. Burdle & Another v Secretary of State - 6.7 'In determining what was the appropriate planning unit, a useful working rule was to assume that it was the whole unit of occupation, unless and until some smaller unit could be recognised as the site of activities which amounted in substance to a separate use both physically and functionally. Tests:
Firstly, whenever it is possible to recognise a single main purpose of the occupier's use of his land to which secondary activities are incidental or ancillary, the whole unit of occupation should be considered.
Secondly, it may equally be apt to consider the entire unit of occupation even though the occupier carried on a variety of activities and it is not possible to say that one is incidental or ancillary to another. This is well settled in the case of a composite use where the component activities fluctuate in their intensity from time to time, but the different activities are not confined within separate and physically distinct areas of land.
Thirdly, however, it may frequently occur that within a single unit of occupation two or more physically separate and distinct areas are occupied for substantially different and unrelated purposes, In such a case each area used for a different main purpose (together with its incidental and ancillary activities) ought to be considered as a separate planning unit.
7.1 The information received in terms of letters and aerial photographs indicate clearly that the site has been used for the storage of vehicles and highway works related machinery for a continuous period of 10 years or more. There are no planning approvals that relate to this use and thus it is concluded, that on the balance of probability, the use for the storage of vehicles and plant is lawful. The planning applications that relate to the site show the red-line including the buildings that lie to the south-east and this indicates that these all form one planning unit; that the uses are intertwined, the storage of vehicles and machinery is related to the use that occurs within the buildings.
7.2 From what I saw on site and from my questions of Mr Jones and Mr Saunders, I would conclude that the application site and the neighbouring depot function as a single planning unit taking into account the tests set out in the case of Burdle (given above). I believe that the activities carried out in the depot buildings are connected to the vehicle and equipment storage and that the vehicle and equipment storage is necessary for the functioning of the remainder of the depot. - 7.3 The use of the land for tipping and waste was granted permission by the 1992 approval. The site for which tipping had been granted was greater than that which has been used, but there is no requirement that the whole site is used. However, the remainder of the area has been used for the parking of vehicles and machinery, not in accordance with that approval. Furthermore, the approval was subject to conditions that it be for DHPP only, that no approval is given for the tipping of farm waste and the site is fenced and gated so as to control unauthorised access. These conditions have not been complied with and given this information I consider that either this approval is no longer the one under which the site operates, or the conditions attached thereto have not been complied with for a period of 10 years. - 7.4I have borne in mind that Section 6(2)(b) sets out 'the deposit of refuse or waste materials on land involves a material change in its use, notwithstanding that the land is comprised in a site already used for that purpose, if (a) the superficial area of the deposit is extended, or (b) the height of the deposit is extended and exceeds the level of the land adjoining the site. However the site is a waste transfer station, and has been for over 10 years whereby material is tipped, but removed away again and therefore the land is not extended. - 7.5 Letters have been submitted to indicate that green waste has also been deposited here, but it appears that much have this may have been in the area just outside of the application site, and I am not convinced that the site has been used for organic waste. Recommendation
8.1 That the use of the site for vehicle, equipment and material storage; and the use of part of the site as a waste transfer station for road sweepings, trimmings, top soil and excavated road materials is lawful. It is concluded that the site forms part of a wider planning unit together with the neighbouring buildings known as Ellerslie Depot, however, the application is limited to the site in red and does not extend to the area where the buildings are which is in Government ownership. It is noted that this area is excluded because it is not in the ownership or interest of the applicant, and that permissions have been given for the buildings, consequently a Certificate of Lawfulness is not required for that area.
8.2 That the continuation of the use of the site in the area hatched in black for a waste transfer station for inert materials is lawful.
Recommended Decision: Certificate of Lawful Use Approved
Date of Recommendation:
03.01.2014
C : Conditions for approval
C 1. The submitted application reference PA13/01290/LAW contains evidence sufficient to demonstrate that the land at Ellerslie outlined in red and the area hatched in black both shown on drawing no 1020/PL01 Rev D have been used for the purposes specified in Schedule 1 of this notice for a period in excess of 10 years.
I confirm that this decision accords with the appropriate Government Circular delegating functions to Director of Planning and Building Control /Head of Development Management/ Senior Planning Officer.
Decision Made : Certificate of Lawful Use Approved Date :1st December 2014 Determining officer (delete as appropriate) Signed :…………………………………….. Chris Balmer Senior Planning Officer Signed :…………………………………….. Sarah Corlett Senior Planning Officer Signed : Michael Gallagher Michael Gallagher Director of Planning and Building Control Signed :…………………………………….. Jennifer Chance Head of Development Management
Copyright in submitted documents remains with their authors. Request removal
