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Application No.: 20/01477/B Applicant: Mr Richard Wadsworth Proposal: Creation of 73 additional car parking spaces with tree replacement and landscaping works Site Address: Royal Court Arbory Road Castletown Isle Of Man IM9 1RA Principal Planner: Miss S E Corlett Photo Taken: 27.01.2021 Site Visit: 27.01.2021 Expected Decision Level: Planning Committee Recommended Decision: Permitted Date of Recommendation: 15.03.2021 _________________________________________________________________
C : Conditions for approval N : Notes attached to conditions
Reason: To comply with Article 26 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) Order 2019 and to avoid the accumulation of unimplemented planning approvals.
Note: nesting opportunities could be incorporated into the landscape plans or be provided in a separate plan. Nest boxes should face in a north-easterly to north-westerly direction and can be located on the building or on suitable trees, but away from direct artificial lighting. The use of a few entrance hole boxes suitable for starlings is encouraged. Though swifts are not known to nest on site (swifts are reliant on our buildings for nesting and use holes in and around our roofs), we would also encourage the installation of swift nest boxes high up under the eaves on the northern elevation of the building as an enhancement for wildlife.
Reason: to enable the development to comply with Environment Policy 4 of the Strategic Plan.
potentially affecting nesting or breeding birds has been submitted to and approved by the Department and the development must be undertaken in accordance with these details.
Note: the advice of DEFA's Ecosystems Policy Office is recommended in respect of the above. Reason: to enable the development to accord with Environment Policy 4 of the Strategic Plan.
Reason: The landscaping of the site is an integral part of the scheme and must be implemented as approved.
This application has been recommended for approval for the following reason. The development is considered to accord with General Policy 2, Environment Policies 3 and 4 and Transport Policy 7 of the Strategic Plan.
This decision relates to drawings 2011-PL-001, 2011-PL-002, 2011-PL-3011, 2011-PL-3013, 2011-PL-3021, 2011-P-3022, 2011-P-3023, 2011-P-3024, TRE-161220, TRW-161220, TSE29920r1, TSW-29920r1 all received on 21st December, 2020 and PL467-02 received on 15th February, 2021 and 2011-PL-3010A received on 11th February, 2021
_______________________________________________________________ Interested Person Status – Additional Persons
None _____________________________________________________________________________
THIS APPLICATION IS REFERRED TO THE PLANNING COMMITTEE AT THE REQUEST OF THE HEAD OF DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT
1.1 The site is the curtilage of an office building which sits on the eastern side of Arbory Road immediately to the south of the residential estate of Y Vaarney Yiarg and Rheast Barrule. To the south east is a residential property - Cronk my Chree which sits in a sizeable garden and a public footpath linking Arbory Road with the housing and to the south east of this is the Buchan School and opposite the site, on the other side of the road is a line of residential properties which all face the application site. - 1.2 The office building sits roughly centrally in the plot with an area of car parking between the building and the road but mostly between the building and the footpath. There are mature trees around the boundaries of the site which border the housing, Cronk my Chree and the footpath. - 1.3 The building and front car parking spaces can be seen clearly from Arbory Road whereas the existing timber fence running along the north western side of the footpath generally screen the buildings and parked cars from view from there although the existing trees along that boundary are visible and contribute to the enjoyment of the footpath which is otherwise quite narrow with a stone wall on the Buchan side and the timber fence on the application site side.
These trees can be seen from the entrance to the Buchan, across the open space in front of those buildings as well as a backdrop to the front lawn of Cronk my Chree.
2.1 Proposed is the creation of additional car parking to serve the office building. The supporting information explains that the applicant company has recently acquired Friends Provident International which included the application site. The applicant says that they resisted the commercial advantages of moving a substantial portion of the business to the far east and instead are seeking to invest in and grow the business on the Isle of Man and support the local economy in both Douglas (their current other premises are in the Business Park which is in Braddan). This results in an increase in employment and reorganisation of existing resources along with an improvement in the work environment (the site has been the subject of a recent application for works to the office building on the site (see Planning History). They anticipate staff levels doubling from the current occupation levels. - 2.2 They have incorporated motorcycle and bicycle parking into the scheme. They describe the existing building as having been erected in the 1990s and all of the existing 158 spaces on site are usually occupied. They have tried to locate as many new parking spaces as possible (30) in an extension to the "north eastern" (actually the south eastern) end of the site where they are the least visible with the remaining 43 at the other end of the site along Arbory Road which, whilst closer to existing residential properties, are also alongside a busy road with street lighting and traffic and leaving the larger trees alongside the road undisturbed. It is notable that the parking closest to Arbory Road has been significantly re-arranged as a result of preapplication discussions to minimise the visual impact and loss of trees. - 2.3 Accessible spaces have been provided close to the entrance. Whilst the recommended standard is 5% of provision should be accessible, they do not believe that this is applied to private developments and at present only one member of staff has mobility issues who occasionally visits from another office. At present none of what are supposed to be accessible spaces are compliant with the required width or length and there is insufficient length within the car park to accommodate these full length without compromising the accessibility of the other spaces. Three fully compliant spaces are to be provided and two further spaces within the car park could be considered of sufficient size if the adjacent footpath is also included. Whilst there is no significant demand for electric charging points, these have also been facilitated to allow up to 8 charging points into the scheme. New showers have also been incorporated into the building to encourage more sustainable travel. - 2.4 The applicant explains that they considered a multi storey car park but concluded that this would cause more impact on neighbours, trees and habitat and would involve substantially more building work and could involve an elevated level of lighting which would be more visible by neighbours. They also gave consideration to the sequencing of the works and to create the new spaces to free up the spaces at the rear of the site where the new spaces will be added in. - 2.5 The applicant acknowledges that there will be significant tree loss and have engaged the services of Manx Roots and note that most of the trees are young, fast growing trees which are of limited ecological value and many of which were not well looked after, They describe the areas with more mature trees along the curtilage of the site to the north are not impacted by the proposal but may need some removal and cutting back in the interests of good tree management. They also refer to pre-application discussions with DEFA's Arboricultural Officer who agreed that the proposal of adding additional parking at the back towards the Buchan and along the road is the right approach and has the least impact on neighbouring properties and habitats. - 2.6 The landscaping scheme involves the replacement of existing planters with new areas of lawn and new planters which should be easier to maintain along with new bin and cycle enclosures. More detailed landscaping information will be available in January 2021.
2.7 They refer to the scheme relating to a nett floor area of 2,200 sq m and refer to a town centre parking ratio of one space to 50 sq m although note that this does not apply to out of town locations. They refer to a ratio of one bicycle parking space per 1,000 sq m of floor space for short stay visitors (they are providing 4)and 1 space per 200 sq m for long stay or staff (they are providing 20). Motorcycle parking is required at 1 space per 1,000 sq m of floor space and there are four proposed. - 2.8 They confirm that the exit visibility remains unchanged and is of a sufficient size to accommodate the increase in movements which will result from the proposed development. - 2.9 In terms of lighting, the new areas will be lit as are the existing on timer and sensor settings. They considered bollard lighting but this was considered ineffective for car park areas. The lighting columns will include shrouds to direct light away from neighbouring properties and the new columns are not any closer to residential property than are the existing. - 2.10 They propose a new bin store which is further from the public gaze and access routes around the site are of sufficient width for a waste collection vehicle. - 2.11 In terms of justification for the parking they advise that the company currently has 180 staff in Castletown but in September this will be increasing to 289 with more regular visitors and staff travelling between their two sites. Whilst the parking ratio for town centres is one per 50 sq m, the Castletown site does not benefit from many staff being close enough to cycle or walk to work and whilst staff are encouraged to take public transport, this cannot be insisted upon and whilst around half of the 180 staff currently live in the south of the Island, the car park is generally 80% full. They have undertaken a survey of the projected staff working at the site and their place of accommodation and wish to accommodate those who may need to start at particular times due to childcare and do not wish their function to have parking overspilling into the adjacent residential estate. The closest public car parking spaces are not particularly close. - 2.12 The scheme will introduce hard surfaced car parking in an area which is currently lawn, skirting around the existing trees alongside the site and the building. - 2.13 22 individual trees and a further 64+ contained within groups will be removed to facilitate the development and a further 9 which are deemed unsuitable to retain. These trees to be removed for whatever reason are whitebeam, ash, alder, elm, willow, rowan, pines, hawthorn, oak, birch and sycamore. Areas of root protection area (RPA) will be taken up by hard surfacing and care needs to be taken when excavating here. The most significant loss is immediately alongside the footpath and to the north east of Cronk my Chree where almost all of the trees will be removed and in their place new trees planted Three of the four trees within the car park area are to be retained. Four of the existing trees which sit adjacent to Arbory Road to the north of the site entrance are to be removed and trees planted in their place in between the new car parking spaces. - 2.14 A follow up tree assessment is to be carried out by a suitably qualified arboriculturist immediately following the completion of the development and cyclical duty of care tree surveys will be carried out to identify foreseeable risks posed to the trees. - 2.15 The applicant has now provided a planting scheme including species and positions of trees and plants to be introduced. PLANNING POLICY
3.1 The site lies within an area designated on the Area Plan for the South (2013) as Offices. The Strategic Plan sets out parking standards to be complied with in accordance with Transport Policy 7, stating that offices should be provide with one space for every 50 sq m of nett floor space and out of town offices one space for every 15 sq m of nett floor space.
3.2 The Area Plan states that
"6.5.1 The Office sector is of major significance to Castletown, as the Town has the third largest office provision on the Island behind Douglas and Ramsey. This provision is mainly taken up by the Insurance sector. Although the highest demand for new office space is likely to be centred on Douglas, it is anticipated that there will continue to be a requirement for new office accommodation in Castletown due to its attractive character, the existing business presence, and proximity to the Airport. Existing office provision within Castletown is centred upon various properties within the Town and the Red Gap site occupied by Friends Provident."
"6.5.3 It is considered that future office development within the South may be accommodated primarily by using existing buildings."
3.3 Castletown sits in the second tier down in the settlement hierarchy and is a service centre where development is concentrated to provide regeneration and choice of location for housing, employment and services. The town's ability to provide employment opportunities is constrained by the historic nature of the town centre and road network. Whilst there are a number of individual units in the town centre, they are generally small in scale. There are no industrial estates within the town boundary or opportunities for such for the same reason other than the established timber yard which sits at the outskirts of the town centre off Alexandra Road. It is relevant that there is no other land designated for relatively large office development in the south other than in the Strategic Reserve site and Ronaldsway Business Park opposite Isle of Man Airport. - 3.4 As such, the following parts of the Strategic Plan are relevant:
General Policy 2: "Development which is in accordance with the land-use zoning and proposals in the appropriate Area Plan and with other policies of this Strategic Plan will normally be permitted, provided that the development:
3.4 The Department has recently published the Residential Design Guidance (March 2019) which provides advice on the design of new houses and extensions to existing property as well as how to assess the impact of such development on the living conditions of those in adjacent residential property. Whilst the proposed development is not residential, the means of measuring impact on adjacent residential property is relevant to this application. - 3.5 Environment Policies 3 and 4 afford further protection to trees and ecology.
3.6 More generally, Strategic Policy 1 requires that development optimises the use of unused and under-used land and ensuring efficient use of sites as well as being located so as to utilise existing and planned infrastructure, facilities and services. The whole Strategic Plan supports and encourages sustainable development and in particular, Strategic Policy 10 directs new development to locations which promote a more integrated transport network and where this minimised journeys, especially by private car, makes best use of public transport and encourages pedestrian movement. PLANNING HISTORY - 4.1 The site has been the subject of a number of applications for alterations including the siting of temporary buildings within the grounds to accommodate office space. The most recent application, 20/01368/B proposed alterations to the building including internal works. REPRESENTATIONS - 5.1 Highway Services initially commented that there is a high dependency on motor vehicles with little in the way of information to demonstrate that efforts are being made to promote sustainable travel. Bus improvements, provision for electric vehicles and expansion of the accessible spaces should be undertaken along with an increase in the number of accessible spaces (01.02.21). They comment further on 25.02.21, noting the explanation of the proposal and whilst they are unwilling to provide alternative car parking sizes, additional accessible spaces and electric vehicle charging points which would enable the proposal to better comply with their criteria and the Government's strategic objectives and allow users to have greater choice, even without these facilities they consider that there is no adverse impact on highway safety subject to "Planning taking account of their influences on user amenity, equalities, low emissions and sustainable travel.
5.2 DEFA Ecosystems Policy Office consider that the risk to bats from the proposed tree removal is low but there is a high likelihood of risk to nesting birds. They recommend that the species of trees to be introduced is provided before a decision is taken and that consideration be given to native species where possible. They recommend that a variety of open fronted and entrance hole nest boxes are erected on the site to compensate for the loss of mature trees and nesting opportunities which will take some time to mitigate as the new trees grow. They also recommend that tree removal is undertaken outside the bird nesting season (March to August inclusive) (08.02.21).
5.3 No comments have been received from Castletown Commissioners although they were consulted on 15.02.21. - 5.4 The Department's Arboricultural Officer commented twice on 12th March, 2021 first stating that "The proposal requires a large amount of early mature trees located adjacent to the Buchan schools boundary. As the trees haven't reach maturity and can be easily mitigated and the department does not object to the tree removal. This is the same with the small number of trees to be proposed to be removed at the front of the building. G4 is made up of a mixture of small trees and overgrown shrubs, many of which wouldn't require a licence under the Tree Preservation Act 1993 (TPA) to be removed." The second representation follows the consideration of the applicant's additional planting information and states:
"The replacement tree planting plan (DWG NO. PL467-02) shows a good species mix which will help the diversity in the area. The planting specification for the boundary with the Buchan School, has incorporated some heavy Standards Acer pseudoplatanus 'Spaethii', these tree will provided some instant impact and with the correct maintenance will quickly mitigate the proposed tree removal. The Alnus are a vigorous species so will grow quickly and further reduce the impact. The proposed planting adjacent to Arbory Rd contains some Pinus nigra and when they are mature will be large and make a prominent group of trees. The Sorbus will provide some colourful low level partial screening of the proposed
alterations. I feel the replacement tree planting plan contains sufficient information that shows how they intended to mitigate for the proposed tree removal."
6.1 The issues in this case are whether the proposed parking spaces, which are not required by the Strategic Plan parking standards would result in any environmental, visual or ecological harm or damage to the living conditions of those in adjacent dwellings or the amenities of the public footpath (General Policy 2), and if they would result in harm, whether there are any benefits which would outweigh this harm. It is also relevant to consider whether what is proposed optimises the use of the site (Strategic Policy 1) and accords with the sustainable aspirations of the Plan (inter alia, Strategic Policy 10).
6.2 The site is located within the town boundaries of Castletown but is not within the town centre where most of the land is designated as Mixed Use. This is specifically designated as Offices and in terms of parking standards, it is considered more appropriate to apply the out of town standard than the town centre one, given that the site is not as close to public parking spaces as is the Mixed Use area nor is it surrounded by other office or commercial uses. - 6.3 The proposed sq m of the building is somewhere in the region of 2,200 which would result in the requirement for 146 parking spaces applying the 1 in 15 sq m test although it is notable that a number of offices within the Braddan Business Park have increased their parking provision (Zurich Ltd have approval for an office with a parking ratio of 1 space per 12 sq m as initially approved and RL360 (the other site operated by the current applicant) have approval for a multi level car park to increase levels from 103 to 176 (16/00284/B) having outgrown the original provision of parking on the site.
6.3 It is therefore considered not unreasonable for the parking provided to be more akin to what is being required and provided in the out of town offices. Whilst the standard is for one space per 15 sq m, the experience in Braddan is that many offices are seeking to increase this and what is proposed here would be nearer to one space per 9.5 sq m. - 6.4 As there is an apparent exceedance of the standard, it is considered whether there is any harm resulting from this as there is no policy which presumes against the provision of parking spaces over and above the standards in the Strategic Plan as the standards are currently minimum not maximum. Appendix 7, paragraph A.7.2.1 talks of the environmental objectives of the plan and that the standards set out in it may need to be revised in the future. Whilst this then discusses a potential to reduce the requirement for parking in the town centre, there is nothing to explain what may happen in out of town locations and the approvals for higher parking provision in Braddan would suggest that this is not objectionable in principle. The potential over-provision of spaces will not prevent sustainable travel being used but may make it easier for users to choose their own private motor car rather than a more sustainable method of travel to work. If the spaces in the future become redundant, it would be possible to introduce additional landscaping within the site. - 6.5 The impact on trees would be lessened if the number of spaces were fewer. However, the applicant has indicated that there will be up to 289 staff at the premises and what is proposed represents less than one space per person. Whilst it is always preferable for staff to come to the site using sustainable forms of transport - walking, cycling or public transport - what is proposed will facilitate that more than does the current situation through the introduction of secure parking and it is understood that the previous application and internal changes are to introduce showers within the building. - 6.6 It is, perhaps relevant to consider what would happen if there are too few spaces provided in association with this office use. In town centre locations, the under-provision of parking spaces can be accommodated by public spaces in car parks and on street and where there is usually a regular and frequent bus service. In this case whilst there may be a regular bus
7.1 It is considered that the proposed additional parking provision is acceptable and not in conflict with any Strategic Plan policies and any adverse impacts can be mitigated by additional planting, nest boxes and the timing of the works, thus complying with General Policy 2, Environment Policies 3 and 4 and Transport Policy 7 of the Strategic Plan. INTERESTED PERSON STATUS - 8.1 By virtue of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) Order 2019, the following persons are automatically interested persons:
8.2 The decision maker must determine:
8.3 The Department of Environment Food and Agriculture is responsible for the determination of planning applications. As a result, where officers within the Department make comments in a professional capacity they cannot be given Interested Person Status.
I confirm that this decision has been made by the Planning Committee in accordance with the authority afforded to that body by the appropriate DEFA Delegation and that in making this decision the Committee has agreed the recommendation in relation to who should be afforded Interested Person Status.
Decision Made : Permitted Committee Meeting Date: 29.03.2021
Signed : S CORLETT Presenting Officer
Further to the decision of the Committee an additional report/condition reason was required (included as supplemental paragraph to the officer report).
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