Statement of Supporting Information

Dandara Commercial Ltd

0901834

Variation of Office Use, Park House Annex, Isle of Man Business Park, Cooil Road, Braddan

Statement of Supporting Information

1. The Isle of Man Business Park Service Centre includes a public house, preschool nursery and a food take-away, as well as Park House and its annex. Whilst the annex was originally approved as a retail unit it has only ever been used in conjunction with Park House as offices for "the management, administration and development" of the Isle of Man Business Park. The annex is not physically attached to Park House, and adjoins the food take-away a short distance to the north. It is served by four dedicated parking spaces to the front of the building, as well as shared spaces within the main Service Centre car park. Upon the buildings no longer being required for the administration and development of the Business Park planning approval was granted under PA 03/00917 to allow both Park House and its annex to accommodate "office based use in accordance with the original Business Park approval", i.e. "corporate headquarters of a single company which utilises the new information technologies and services other park uses".

1. Whilst Park House is currently used in accordance with the approval granted under PA 03/00917, the occupier does not require the use of the annex. In a letter dated 23rd May, 2006 the Director of Planning confirmed that a separate planning approval would not necessarily be required for the annex to be occupied by a separate company from that using Park House, but the limited size of the annex and the nature of the planning conditions attached to PA 03/00917 have resulted in it remaining unoccupied.

1. This application seeks approval to vary the office use of the annex in order to take account of its size and location. The limited floor area of approximately 138 sq.m net does not easily lend itself to "corporate headquarters" use, but more to office use by financial or professional services. Office buildings of

1 The approval notice for PA 03/00917 is attached at Appendix 1

2 Letter from Director of Planning is attached at Appendix 2

much greater size than the annex have more recently been approved and developed on the Business Park (PA 05/01686) without restrictive conditions in respect of office type and in this instance, particularly given that the annex is an existing office building within the public service centre and is of limited size, we do not believe that the proposed use would compromise the principle of the Business Park or have a negative impact upon commercial areas elsewhere. We would suggest that an appropriately worded condition may restrict the use of the annex office space to "a single company which offers financial or professional services or falls within Use Class 4 (Offices)".