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Design | Management | Construction
________________________________________________________________________________________________ Date 21st December 2021 ________________________________________________________________________________________________
IFGL have earlier this year completed the addition of Friends Provident International (FPIL) to their Group, an acquisition which included the FPIL building and site on Arbory Road in Castletown (also known as Royal Court). During and after the acquisition, IFGL resisted the commercial advantages of relocating a substantial portion of the companies functions to the far east, instead wishing to invest and grow the business in the Isle of Man and support the local economy, both in Douglas and Castletown.
This investment requires the provision of additional accommodation for a planned increase in employment and reorganisation of existing resources alongside an improvement to the working environment with a substantial refurbishment of the building. It is anticipated that staffing levels will double from the existing occupation. IFGL are already progressing with these improvements to the existing building and a separate planning application has been submitted for some relatively modest modifications to the building (Application reference 20/01368/B).
The existing car-parking provision is inadequate as outlined later in this document and IFGL, whilst encouraging of alternative means of transport, are certain of the requirement for car parking, having undertaken analysis of and consultation with their staff. They are also keen to ensure that they remain a responsible and considerate neighbour and wish to avoid on-highway parking along long stretches of Arbory Road and in the neighbouring residential estate and are therefore proposing to provide the additional car parking within the curtilage of their own site.
Careful consideration has been given to the provision for carparking, motorbike, pedal cycles and mobility access, together with the design and the environmental impact, and the following proposals aim to satisfy requirements, mitigate the limited environmental impact and maintain the aesthetic of the site with an improved landscaping design. The proposals are described in detail under Item 2 below.
The site the Friends Provident Building is located on Arbory Road, it neighbours The Buchan School to the East and the residential development of Vaarney Yiarg to the north. The residential buildings are visually mostly separated from the building and carparking areas by a dense area of planting which includes mature trees and smaller trees and shrubs planted over the past 25 years.
The existing building on the site was built in 1990 and is used for single-occupancy commercial office space with a fenced plant compound towards the northern end and some smaller out-buildings again to the north
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used for mechanical ventilation plant, diesel tank and general storage. The overall site area is approx. 4 acres, with ‘tarmacked’ access roads and carparking covering approximately 30 percent of it.
The site is not located within a conservation area and there are no registered buildings on the site. There is no flood risk to the site indicated on the MUA maps. It should be noted that none of the trees on site are protected, but trees on the adjacent Buchan School site are.
There have been a number of planning applications for the site, but nothing of any relevance in the past 20 years, other than the recently submitted application for the building modifications referenced above Some context images are included on the next pages.
View of Main Entrance View towards Arbory Road View Along Arbory Road View towards the building View of Carpark towards East View of carpark towards North
The client owns the site indicated by a red line and the densely planted curtilage which can not be developed or built on is bordered in blue. A site plan (2011-SK-001) is attached for reference and below shows a red line site drawing as well as an aerial photograph of the site
Site Plan with red line
Aerial Photograph of the Site
While the site already has a relatively large number of car parking spaces, they are, on a typical working day, fully occupied and additional car parking spaces will be required for the anticipated increase in staff numbers and prevent overspill onto the adjacent highway and neighbouring residential estate. The current site layout accommodates 158 carparking spaces, with a number of visitor’s car-parking spaces located close to the main entrance and the remainder towards the east end of the site, towards The Buchan School. Disabled carparking spaces are allocated, but do not meet current requirements and a limited number of cycle spaces are provided to the side of the building, but appear to be hardly used.
The proposal is for 73 carparking spaces to be added to bring the total number to 231 spaces. Further justification for the number of spaces is included under item 3. below.
As many spaces as possible (30 no.) have been located as an extension to the current car park area towards the north eastern end of the site where they are least visible and least affect neighbouring properties. The remaining car parking spaces (43 no.) are proposed at the opposite end of the site, along Arbory Road (where ca 10 to 15 additional carparking spaces were originally envisaged and approved, we believe), then turning into the centre of the site. These spaces are located in closer proximity to residential properties, but along a busy road with street lighting and traffic already in place and the changes to the layout from earlier proposals leaves the larger existing trees along the road undisturbed to minimise the visual impact of the proposed carparking.
The below diagram indicates the location of the additional carparking spaces.
The carparking spaces have been kept compact in size and match the existing carparking bays. This has assisted in keeping the area of hard standing as small as possible to minimise tree removal and will also assist with uniform occupation of the various carparking areas.
As the site includes a large number of trees, a certain amount of tree removal to accommodate the increase in hard standing area is inevitable, but the proposed carpark locations have sought to minimise the loss of trees as much as possible and landscaping proposals and remedial works are further outlined under item 2.3 below to mitigate the effects of the scheme.
New disabled carparking spaces of compliant size will be located in close proximity to the main entrance with all access routes along the way having low level kerbs for ease of access for wheelchair users. Together with the new DDA compliant entrance lobby and accessible WC and shower facilities proposed as part of the application for the building modifications, this will allow users of all abilities equal ease of access and use of the building.
Carparking bays and driveways are proposed to be tarmac in line with the existing carparking areas with falls to follow the topography of the site for surface water drainage. Some pavements and pedestrian entrance areas directly adjacent to the buildings will have block paving, again following/complimenting the existing materiality.
New additional motorcycle spaces are located in proximity to the entrances within the carpark area and visitors cycle hoops are provided as well as new staff cycle enclosures towards the north of the site. Further information on the number of spaces required and provided is included under item 2.4. New showers areas inside the building are also provided to encourage staff to use other modes of transport as much as possible.
Whilst there is little/no current demand for electric vehicle chargers with their current staff, IFGL are keen to encourage their use and they have chosen to install the infrastructure for future installation, with ducting provided for upto 16 cars to assist in the transition to electric vehicles.
Other options of accommodating the required carparking spaces were also considered during the design process, but not pursued further; providing a second layer of parking by adding a deck structure in for example, would require substantially more building work and have more impact on neighbours, trees and habitat as well as causing noise and visual impact during construction and in the future as an elevated level of lighting, even in the centre of the site, would be more visible to neighbours.
The sequencing of the works has also been taken into account and the intention would be to build the new carpark areas first to free up the carparking spaces at the back of the site and allow these works to the carpark to be carried out without office staff having to park elsewhere in the vicinity for several weeks or months.
As the site includes a large number of trees, a detailed tree survey has been undertaken by Manx Roots. Their scope included both a review of the existing vegetation on site to determine any removal, cutting back and maintenance required for safety or other reasons as the site is currently very overgrown and also a survey in respect of the planning application for the development activities which will form part of this application.
Their report comprises three stages: The Data Collection and presentation of tree constraints, The Arboricultural Assessment and the Tree Protection Plan and Arboricultural Method Statement and is attached for reference and in support of the application.
While both proposed carparking locations require the removal of trees, they mainly remove relatively young, fast growing trees of limited ecological value, many of which were not well looked after by the previous owners of the site. The areas with more mature trees along the curtilage of the site which will be of higher value for wildlife and do provide visual separation for the residential properties to the north are not impacted on by the planning proposals, but some tree removal and substantial cutting back of vegetation will still be required to assist the health and continued growth of the existing trees and plants.
A diagram of the tree removal is included below and in the set of application drawings, tree impact drawings are also included in Manx Roots report submission submitted with the application.
We have during the design development process taken the opportunity to review our proposals with both Manx Roots and also with Charles Harrison from DEFA. Both agreed that the proposal of adding additional parking at the back towards the Buchan School (where parking is visually least sensitive) and along the road side (where additional carparking spaces were originally proposed and where light pollution already exists) is the right approach and has least impact on neighbouring residential buildings and habitats.
Their relatively minor comments have been incorporated into our drawings and documents.
The proposals also include the relandscaping of the various areas affected by the proposed development and include a number of trees to replace those that require removal, some along Arbory Road but mainly along the back of the carpark towards The Buchan School.
Tree and planting proposals are being developed in more detail with Prescott Associates Landscape Architects to ensure that suitable species are selected to mitigate the loss of trees and to provide screening where required, promote canopy cover and ensure that the visual amenity provided by the tress and planting is maintained.
In the areas directly surrounding the building, a number of low-level planters will be removed and replaced with lawn areas and new planters to ensure an environment that remains attractive, but is also easier to maintain.
New bin and cycle enclosures are also proposed towards the north of the site in close proximity to the current plant enclosures to provide suitable spaces for these ancillary requirements. All enclosures are proposed to be steel framed with timber cladding to blend into the landscape in this location and are indicated on the detailed drawings also submitted.
The details of the landscaping proposals will be available in January 2021 and can be submitted as an addendum to this application or conditioned.
We have consulted with highways during December 2020 to ensure that requirements have been taken into consideration and incorporated their advice where required. It should however be noted that the scheme is an extension of an existing private car park and some of the guidance/comments are not applicable to private car parking.
Overall, we therefore do achieve the minimum spaces required for all categories and numbers are summarised in the table below.
We would like to reiterate that the scheme is a private carpark and at the moment there is only 1 member of staff with mobility issues who occasionally visits from the Douglas office. At present, none of their currently labelled disabled spaces are compliant in width of length and while their current location directly opposite reception is convenient, there is not sufficient length to accommodate the required 6m length without compromising the main access rout to the carpark. The new proposals provide 3 no. fully compliant spaces in the new carparking area to the south west, located as close to reception as is possible. Two further spaces within the existing carpark could, with use of adjacent pathways be considered of sufficient size and FPIL would of course increase provision further in the future if staff profiling requires this.
It achieves more than is needed by the client who overall has a very young staffing profile.
We have however allowed for the ductwork for future vehicle charging points to be incorporated in the scheme. The intention is for this to run below ground along the north east side of the building, allowing for a future provision which can then easily be made available should the need arise. The infrastructure would allow for up to 8 no double charging points serving up to vehicles to be incorporated to assist staff in the transition to electric cars should this become a need at a later date.
| Category | Min Number required | Number Existing | Total Number Proposed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carparking - Visitors | n/a | 7 no. | 7 no. |
| Carparking - Staff | 1 per 50 sqm / 40 no. | 158 no. | 224 no. (73 additional) |
| Bicycles - Visitors | 1 per 1000 sqm / 2 no. | n/a | 4 no. (4 additional) |
| Bicycles - Staff | 1 per 200 sqm / 40 no. | 6 no. (not secure) | 20no. (16 additional) |
| Motorcycles - Visitors | 1 per 1000 sqm / 2 no. | n/a | 4 no. (4 additional) |
| Mobility Impaired Spaces | 5% of all spaces for public carparks | 3 no. (not compliant size) | 3 no. (fully compliant size) |
| Electrical Vehicle Charging Points | Up to 10% | n/a | Infrastructure for up to 16 spaces to have EVCP |
Lighting to the carparking areas is proposed in line with the already existing carpark lighting in form of lighting columns to all carpark areas
Lighting bollards were considered as an option, but considered ineffective in carparking spaces. Lighting columns will include shrouds were required to angle the light away from neighbouring properties, but the newly proposed lighting columns are not in closer proximity to neighbouring buildings than those already in existence.
The new lighting installation will follow ILP guidance for the reduction of obtrusive light and, similar to the existing lighting, it will be on a timer setting and sensors and only illuminated when required to avoid light pollution.
Waste bins are currently located along the main access route into the carpark space, close to reception and while this is a convenient location, they are visually unattractive.
A new bin store enclosure is proposed towards the back of the building to keep waste storage contained. It is at a similar distance from the side entrance as the current facilities are from the reception entrance and carry distance for the cleaning staff will only be very marginally increased.
Access routes around the site are of sufficient width for a waste collection vehicle and no further issues are expected.
| Category | Min Number required | Number Existing | Total Number Proposed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carparking - Visitors | n/a | 7 no. | 7 no. |
| Carparking - Staff | 1 per 50 sqm / 40 no. | 158 no. | 224 no. (73 additional) |
| Bicycles - Visitors | 1 per 1000 sqm / 2 no. | n/a | 4 no. (4 additional) |
| Bicycles - Staff | 1 per 200 sqm / 40 no. | 6 no. (not secure) | 20no. (16 additional) |
| Motorcycles - Visitors | 1 per 1000 sqm / 2 no. | n/a | 4 no. (4 additional) |
| Mobility Impaired Spaces | 5% of all spaces for public carparks | 3 no. (not compliant size) | 3 no. (fully compliant size) |
| Electrical Vehicle Charging Points | Up to 10% | n/a | Infrastructure for up to 16 spaces to have EVCP |
IFGL currently have 180 staff in Castletown and this will be increasing by September 2021 to 289, and increase of over 100 staff members. There will also be more regular visitors as staff will be travelling between their Douglas and Castletown sites and as their Group functions (IT, Change, Risk, Compliance, Audit) will reside in the Douglas office, but visit the Castletown premises fairly frequently.
General guidance for 1 carparking space per 50 sqm office space may be workable in Douglas where staff may live in close enough proximity to walk or cycle to work and benefit from a multitude of frequent and reasonably direct public transport options. In other parts of the island, the carparking numbers achieved by this ratio would mean that the majority of staff cannot find parking and may be unwilling to work in these locations. IFGL have carried out a survey of where their staff will travel from which is included below and indicates that staff will be coming from all over the island and while staff are encouraged to use public transport, they can’t be mandated to and for most it would involve taking more than one bus, making it an inconvenient and lengthy process. It should be noted that the majority of the current 180 staff in Castletown live in the South of the island and that despite this, the current car park is generally at least 80% full.
The requested number of carparking spaces in this application is based on a similar percentage of future employee (80%) being reliant on car use, leaving little or no spare capacity for visitors.
IFGL are a diversified employer and support part-time and term-time employment to make best use of the available island employment pool. They wish to support their staff members who arrive later in the morning for family reasons, school drop off etc. they are keen that they are not disadvantaged through not being able to park close to the office premises.
IFGL are also mindful of local residents and are keen that their staff are not forced to use the neighbouring residential estate as an unofficial overflow car park or of excessive on-street parking along Arbory Road, both of which would result in complaints to them and the local commissioners and very quickly would become a nuisance to neighbours and the wider community.
It should be noted that if the new proposed carparking spaces were not allocated on site and the same number of cars would park along Arbory Road and the neighbouring residential estate, where currently no parking restrictions are in place, one side of the Arbory Road from just past the turn off the By Pass Road to well past the Buchan School would, at peak times, be occupied by cars. This would impact on movements of buses, school traffic and local users considerably and is undesirable from IFGL’s point of view. Parking along the road would potentially also affect visibility / vision splays at junctions and further slow down traffic movement.
Using public carparking is also not a long-term option: the closest public carparking spaces are a considerable walk away off Farrants Way opposite the Methodist Church and limited in numbers – all other carparking in Castletown is time limited and using those up would take away valuable parking from shops and other public uses.
IFGL have reiterated that if they are not able to provident sufficient parking for their staff, it will limit their ability to recruit and retain staff and they may have to consider other options, such as outsourcing some of the customer services and other functions to off-island locations. They would like their move to Castletown to be seen as a positive investment in the South.
IFGL SURVEY OF ANTICPATED STAFF
The below table indicates that locations of where staff members are anticipated to come from on the island, once the office is fully occupied.
| Andreas Baldrine Ballabeg Ballasalla Braddan Castletown Colby Crosby Douglas Eairy Foxdale Glen Maye Glen Vine Jurby Kirk Michael Laxey Lezayre Lonan Onchan Peel Port Erin Port St Mary Ramsey Ramsey Santon St Johns St Marks Sulby West Baldwin<br><br> | 4 2 4 8<br><br>2<br><br>23 21<br><br>3<br><br><br>88 1<br><br>1<br><br>2<br><br><br>1<br><br>1<br><br>2<br><br><br>2 1 1<br><br><br>29 18 37 17 13<br><br>1 3 1 1<br><br>1<br><br>2<br> |
|---|---|
| Grand Total | 289 |
The applicant’s agent has undertaken pre-application consultation with the planning officer and information for both the building improvements and the carpark areas were submitted in October 2020.
Comments were received raising concerns predominantly with the amount of carparking located along the south-western site boundary along Arbory Road and in response to the comments, proposals now being submitted were modified to move carparking spaces towards the centre of the site, away from the site boundary and the neighbouring residential properties, reduce the number of carparking spaces and minimise the removal of some of the larger trees along Arbory Road.
As outlined above, this brings the total number of carparking spaces to the minimum IFGL would want them to be to ensure they have sufficient number to make their new base in Castletown fully workable while avoiding on street parking becoming a nuisance for neighbours and the wider community.
| Andreas | 4 |
| Baldrine | 2 |
| Ballabeg | 4 |
| Ballasalla | 8 |
| Braddan | 2 |
| Castletown | 23 |
| Colby | 21 |
| Crosby | 3 |
| Douglas | 88 |
| Eairy | 1 |
| Foxdale | 1 |
| Glen Maye | 2 |
| Glen Vine | 1 |
| Jurby | 1 |
| Kirk Michael | 2 |
| Laxey | 2 |
| Lezayre | 1 |
| Lonan | 1 |
| Onchan | 29 |
| Peel | 18 |
| Port Erin | 37 |
| Port St Mary | 17 |
| Ramsey | 13 |
| Ramsey | 1 |
| Santon | 3 |
| St Johns | 1 |
| St Marks | 1 |
| Sulby | 1 |
| West Baldwin | 2 |
| Grand Total | 289 |
APPENDIX A - DRAWING LIST The following architectural drawings are included within the information pack:
The following information by Manx Roots are also included:
It should be noted that a separate application has been submitted for the Building Modifications – Submitted 1st December 2020, Planning Application: 20/01368/B
Copyright in submitted documents remains with their authors. Request removal
