Erection of a timber built residential, recreational, educational and leisure facility with services for mentally and physically disabled persons and their carers with car park and amenity woodland

Why Was This Withdrawn?

• ✓Site zoned as open space for registered woodland, not for development
• ✓St Johns Plan 1999 identified the area as a Landscape Improvement Area
• ✓Concerns over tree loss, risk to bat populations, and loss of rural character
• ✓Potential to set a precedent for tourist developments in rural areas
• ✓Plans were amended during the process, including removal of a cantilevered walkway
• ✓Application ultimately withdrawn before a formal decision was issued
• ✓character
• ✓trees
• ✓ecology
• ✓precedent
• ✓Land Use Zoning = "Open Space for particular purposes" i.e. Registered Woodland
• ✓St Johns Plan 1999 - recognised area as 'Landscape Improvement Area'
• ✓It is not zoned for development
• ✓Possibility of using area for coach park removed
• ✓Tree Loss
• ✓Risk to bat populations
• ✓Loss of rural character
• ✓Increasing the mass of 'development' around the Tynwald Mills complex
• ✓Potential to set precedent for other tourist developments in rural areas

This application sought permission to erect a timber-built facility providing residential, recreational, educational, and leisure services for people with mental and physical disabilities and their carers, along with a car park and amenity woodland. The site is the former Department of Transport Depot adjacent to Poortown Road, a vacant and overgrown plot extending northwards to Ballig Bridge and westwards to Tynwald Mills. The officer recommended refusal on the grounds that the land is zoned as open space for registered woodland and is not allocated for development. The St Johns Plan 1999 also recognised the area as a Landscape Improvement Area. Additional concerns raised in the officer report included tree loss, risk to bat populations, loss of rural character, increased development mass around the Tynwald Mills complex, and the potential to set a precedent for tourist or leisure development in rural areas. Amended plans were submitted during the process, including the removal of a cantilevered walkway and the formation of a footpath link adjacent to the mill race.

The application was withdrawn by the applicant on 15 December 2005. The officer had recommended refusal, with key concerns including that the site is zoned as open space for registered woodland and is not zoned for development, and that the St Johns Plan 1999 recognised the area as a Landscape Improvement Area.

Policies Assessed (2)

Documents (135 · 1 superseded)