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1.0 Introduction 2.0 Planning History 3.0 Site & Surroundings 4.0 Highway Issues 5.0 Services 6.0 The Proposal 7.0 Planning Policy 8.0 Consultations 9.0 Summary
Appendices:
The need to replace the existing Castletown fire station with a new fire station to serve Castletown and Ballasalla was identified in “Business Case for a Replacement Fire Station in Castletown”, prepared by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) in 2010 and approved by the Treasury. In particular the existing station is ageing and lacks the space and training facilities required to function as a 21st century fire station.
Hugh Logan Architects (HLA) were approached in early 2011 to carry out a feasibility study for a replacement fire station for Castletown that identified various sites within the Ronaldsway Industrial Estate that are within the ownership of the Isle of Man Government.
DHA and the Isle of Man Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) identified the Ronaldsway Industrial Estate as the preferred location for the new fire station as this would bring the fire station closer to the “major risks” in this station’s area, these being located in the Ronaldsway and Balthane industrial estates. The fire station would also be better situated to provide backup for the airport’s own fire fighters. Furthermore, the 2011 census and the Area Plan for the South indicate that Ballasalla’s population will be approaching that of Castletown’s in the future, a fire station at Ronaldsway will not only provide better coverage for Ballasalla, but also increase the catchment area for potential retained fire fighters.
HLA were approached in early 2014 to carry out a feasibility study for the incorporation of Ambulance Service accommodation within the proposed fire station. A 2014 addendum to DHA’s 2010 Business Case cites recent co-location of emergency services in the UK and the advantages of adopting a joined up blue light strategy. Relocation closer to the Ambulance Service’s busiest locations would also lead to reduced response times (cf. Appx. A).
The site has extant planning permission for the erection of a fire station with associated parking and training facilities, P.A. 13/91065/B. This had been referred to the Council of Ministers (pursuant to S.D. 0238/13¹ §10(1)(b)), recommended for approval by the appointed Planning Inspector and subsequently approved 20th November 2013.
2.2 The same application stated a comprehensive case for the selection of the site, with reference to DHA's 2010 business case, subsequently summarised at §5 of the Inspector's Report (cf. Appx. B).
2.3 Overall, how the proposal was summarised at §23 of the Report is notable:- “In short, this is a commendable proposal, well thought out and meeting a demonstrable need in a more than satisfactory manner.”
3.1 The selected site has an area of approximately 4050m², exclusive of the adjacent footpath. The footpath has nevertheless been included within the application boundary upon the advice of the Department of Infrastructure’s Highways Division, given the proposed works in forming two site accesses and the removal of an existing lay-by.
3.2 The selected site is roughly rectangular in shape with four sides facing northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast. The site is generally flat with a change in level of 1 metre between the highest and lowest points at the eastern and western extremes.
3.3 The site is bounded to the northwest by Forrest House, the headquarters of Strix Limited, to the southeast and northeast by an industrial estate access road and associated footpath, and to the southwest by the vacant remainder of the selected site. Beyond the road to the northeast direction is the Ronaldsway Aircraft Company and over the road to the south-east is a planted area which screens the industrial estate from the main A5 Douglas to Castletown road.
3.4 At present the site is grassed and is understood to have not been previously developed. There is no substantial vegetation on the site. There is a hedge along the northeast boundary within the Forrest House site.
4.1 The Ronaldsway Industrial Estate is accessed via the roundabout at the junction of the airport exit and the main A5 Douglas to Castletown Road.
4.2
The proposed building will have a drive through arrangement so that both fire appliances and ambulances will exit the site onto the road to the northeast and return via the entrance from the road to the southeast. Whereas the 2 N° fire appliance bays are provided in parallel, each with their own access and egress door, the 2 N° ambulance bays are provided in series, nose-to-tail, thereby sharing an access door and an egress door. The southeastern entrance will also provide both the entrance and exit for the transport of Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) and Ambulance Service, for which on-site parking provisions have been made. This arrangement is preferred by both services as it allows responding emergency vehicles to leave without crossing the path of incoming vehicles.
4.3
The chosen site is located on a right angled corner which raised issues of visibility for both the entrance and exits from the site. Consultation has previously made with the Highways Division (cf. Appx. C) who initially requested that a visibility splay of 90m x 2.4m be maintained at both entrance/ exits, but later agreed that the visibility splay towards the corner could be reduced to 70m x 2.4m as the corner would reduce traffic speeds. This visibility splay remains identical to that indicated under P.A. 13/91065/B. The necessity to maintain these visibility splays has created an area of 780m² (approximately 19% of the total site) within which no structure can be built and any landscaping must be kept under 1m in height.
4.4
The proposed fire and ambulance station requires 25 N° parking spaces for motor vehicles. 18 N° of these represent the maximum number of fire fighters required to man the appliances in the event of an emergency call-out. The remainder are provided to satisfy the respective Ambulance Service requirement. As some of the retained fire officers are tradespeople, it has been requested that some of the spaces be large enough to accommodate vans; these are numbered 01-09 on drawing 1231-201D. 2 N° of the spaces provided are for motorcycles and an additional 4 N° spaces are provided for bicycles.
4.5
The parking spaces are divided into two parking areas, one adjacent to the main building to the east and one adjacent to the training area to the south. It is proposed that the latter be formed using grass reinforcement mesh grids which, whilst helping to improve the appearance of the site, will also reduce the net area of hardstanding. The increased parking requirement has been facilitated by extending the southwestern site boundary by some 10m, also necessitated by the re-positioning of the building (cf. §6.2)
5.1 Electricity, Telecom, Gas and Water services are all located under the pavement adjacent to the road to the northeast, whereas only the telecoms services continue along the road to the southeast.
5.2 There are two possibilities for connection to the public foul water sewer. The nearest is approximately 75m to the southeast at the airport and would involve excavating a 3.3m deep trench across the main Douglas to Castletown Road. The appointed consultant engineer has therefore recommended connection to the second possible location, which although 200m away, requires only shallow excavation across soft ground within government ownership.
5.3 There is an existing, adopted 225mm diameter surface water drain running along the southeast edge of the site (cf. Engineer’s drawing 1093-113C). Investigation has taken place and found it suitable for use by the proposed fire and ambulance station. The Isle of Man Water and Sewerage Authority have requested that, due to the large paved area, the surface water pass through a petrol interceptor and be attenuated within the site prior to entering the storm water sewer. The consultant engineer has confirmed that this can be accommodated.
6.1 The primary factors considered to establish the proposed building’s location (cf. Proposed Site Plan 1231-201D) had been the turning diameter of a fire appliance, the provision of a drill training area and the maintenance of the visibility splays at the exits. A further consideration that later moved the building in a southwesterly direction was a request from Strix Ltd to ensure that the new building not obscure the view of the ‘Strix’ sign over the main entrance to their headquarters, as viewed from the airport terminal exit (cf. Sight-line Plan 1231-202).
6.2 With reference to the fire station previously approved, P.A.13/91065/B, the proposed building has extended to the northwest in order to make provision for 2 N° ambulances within the appliance hall. Likewise, the building has extended to the north-east, with some minor internal re-arrangement, in order to make ambulance crew provisions. These extensions have prompted further movement to the southwest in order to maintain the established visibility splay and views towards the ‘Strix’ sign.
6.3
The proposed building is to be expressed in two distinct parts which will be clearly identifiable from the outside. The taller accommodation block will be two stories tall and will contain the changing facilities, plant, offices and crew rooms of both services. The lower part to the northwest will house the 2 N° fire appliances presently accommodated at the existing Castletown Fire Station and also the 2 N° ambulances currently accommodated at the Southern Ambulance Station at Port Erin. The proposed building has a footprint of 437m² and a maximum height of 8.1 metres.
6.4
The ground floor of the accommodation block will contain the changing facilities, equipment servicing, plant/stores and toilets. Ambulance accommodation, comprising of an office, crew room and kitchenette, is located in a single storey annex to the northeast. The main entrance faces the car park with a secondary entrance to the side elevation providing direct access to the personal protective equipment room (PPE room). A fire exit door is provided to the Ambulance Service accommodation. Due to the amount of lockers and racks that will be required by the users, it has been decided that masonry walls would provide the most robust wall construction. An opening privacy window is provided to the locker room to allow natural light and rapid ventilation. An important consideration for the FRS was the speed by which the firefighters can get from their cars to the appliances via the PPE room.
6.5
The upper floor of the accommodation block contains the FRS office, training room and crew room and kitchenette. The training room is a much larger room than the other two, and will therefore benefit from a greater floor to ceiling height. This extra ceiling height has generated the monopitch roof form.
6.6
The appliance bay will be of an industrial construction and appearance. The bays have been designed to allow for over a metre of clear access space to the sides of vehicles, and a further metre on the side walls to accommodate storage requirements. The doors are to be red with glazing as commonly used by the FRS.
6.7
The external works consist of concrete aprons to both sides of the appliance bays, two car parking areas, access road and footpath around the building's perimeter. The apron to the southwest of the appliance bays has been enlarged so that it may function as a drill training area.
6.8 Within the drill training area will be located a 10 metre tall drill tower and to the northwest will be a walled secure training area. The drill tower will have some communication equipment attached to it.
6.9 A bin store has been located to the east of the drill training area. Otherwise locating the bin store adjacent to the northern concrete apron could potentially lead to the obstruction by any parked refuse wagon of responding emergency vehicles.
6.10 To the east of the main entrance will be an emergency generator. The intention of the FRS is to re-use the existing generator located outside the existing fire station in Castletown.
6.11 As the first floor of the building is for the use of firefighters, who by the nature of their activity are able bodied, the client does not feel that they can justify the expenditure of installing a lift to the first floor. FRS acknowledge that they have a community role and at times the station will be open to the public, therefore the building will have level access, an ambulant disabled staircase and a disabled WC to meet the requirements of part M of the Building Regulations.
6.12 There is existing planting along the north-west boundary within the Strix site and additional planting is proposed along the southwest boundary. No planting higher than 1 metre will take place along the road side boundaries in order to maintain visibility requirements of the Highways Division.
7.1 The principal planning policy documents relating to this site are the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2007² (the Strategic Plan) and the Area Plan for the South³ (the Area Plan).
7.2 Strategic Plan Community Policy 9 states in full:- “Favourable consideration will be given to applications for new fire stations in or near to new or expanded residential areas.”
Map 4 of the Area Plan shows a substantial expansion of both Ballasalla and the Balthane Industrial Estate and a redesignation of Ronaldsway as a Business Park.
7.3 The Planning Department has confirmed that a fire station is an acceptable use in a business park. The proposed site has been classified as Industrial/ Business Park on Map 5 (Castletown) that accompanies the Area Plan.
8.1 Although the building is not on a flight path, airport management has requested that the drill tower stand no taller than 20m. The proposed drill tower is 10m in height and there will be some communication equipment attached. The tower and the communication equipment will not exceed the 20m height restriction (cf. Appx. D).
8.2 Both The Sefton Express and The Ronaldsway Aircraft Factory have been consulted and to date have expressed no concerns.
8.3 Strix Limited has been consulted and had previously expressed concerned about the visibility of their sign from the main exit at the airport, which had led to the proposed fire station being rotated 11° and moved 2 metres towards the southwest, in order that their sign remain fully visible from the main entrance to the airport. This rotation has been maintained following the addition of Ambulance Service accommodation and the building has moved a further 1m to the southwest to preserve this sight-line (cf. §6.2).
8.4 Highways Division has been consulted and their requested visibility splays have been maintained (cf. §4.3).
8.5 The Water and Sewerage Authority has been consulted and surface water attenuation and petrol interceptors will be incorporated into the scheme as required.
9.1 The existing Castletown fire station is in need of replacement. The anticipated growth of Ballasalla and the proximity of the Balthane and Ronaldsway Industrial Estates makes the proposed location ideal for dealing with incidents in the area as well as recruiting retaining fire fighters.
9.2 The site was considered the most suitable of the five sites that were selected in the initial feasibility study. The proposal makes the best use of the site while taking into consideration the requirements of the Highways Division and the neighbouring landowners.
9.3 The proposed new building will be able to accommodate the equipment required by a modern fire station as well as providing the welfare and training facilities to a standard that the present fire station lacks.
9.4 The proposal accords with Community Policy 9 of the Strategic Plan 2007 and the site’s land use designation on Map 4 of the Southern Area Plan.
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