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1068/02/8.6/gl/tls
Brian Sinden Planning Department DOLGE Murray House Mount Havelock
7 January 2005 Dear Sir Ref: Proposed Sheltered Housing Complex to replace existing church hall with associated car parking, new access road, landscaping and the creation of a car park for sole use of church members at Sr Ninian's Church, Laurenton View, Ballaquayle Road, Douglas.
We have pleasure in enclosing a revised application for the above. You will be aware that the previous application was turned down for the following reasons;
We would record that since the previous scheme was refused, a considerable amount of additional consultation and scheme development work has occurred and has resulted in the enclosed application.
The following has been undertaken;
A meeting was held with Mr Peter Kelly of the 'Advisory Council on Planning and the Environment,' together with the Planning Officer and the Conservation Officer, and advice was given on how the scheme should be further developed. Subsequent meetings and consultation have been held with the Planning Department as the scheme has developed, with the result that in early November 2004, the scheme was informally presented to members of the Planning
Committee for comment. These comments were positive, with the advice that the revised scheme should be submitted.
The changes to the scheme include the splitting up of the original 'horse shoe' arrangement into 3 separate blocks, to firstly reduce the scale of the development and secondly to allow for views between the individual buildings. Further consideration has been given to the use of materials and form and the comments from both the Planning Committee (relayed by the Planning Officer) and Mr Kelly have been taken on board. The use of facing brick has been eliminated, replaced with a more traditional stone work and render.
A meeting was held on site on the 20th October 2004 with Mr Chaulk of DAFF, to discuss his department's concerns. From inspection, Mr Chaulk agreed that the trees that he was particularly concerned about were those situated in Nobles Park and that the scheme, as previously submitted, had in fact no impact on these trees. However, it was agreed that consideration be given to some of the larger trees located next to Nobles Park, on the development site. Mr Chaulk asked that a 6 metre wide zone, measured from the centre of the 'larger' trees be identified where no building work is to be carried out, to avoid damage to the tree roots. Mr Chaulk confirmed that he was happy that some of the smaller trees would be lost, as they were immature self seeders and could be easily replaced. The 6 meter zone has been adopted on the site plan, with no building works to occur within this area.
With regards the frontage on to St. Ninian's Road, Mr Chaulk suggested that it would be worth considering replacing the existing line of mixed planting with a beech hedge, as this would provide an all year round vision screen. Both options have been indicated on the submitted plans for the Planning Committee's consideration.
It would be our intention to accept Mr Chaulk's offer of further advice when consideration is given to firming up the planting scheme for this development.
We are aware that the Water Authority have confirmed that they now have the capacity to service new developments within this area.
We believe that the scheme as submitted is a sensitive response to the site and its settings and an appropriate solution to a site which we understand from St. Ninian's Church, is much needed to remedy the issue of 'scruffiness' of the exiting site. In the long term, we believe
that the development will be a good neighbour to the Church and the local residents and improve the environment of this important area.
If you would like to discuss any aspect of this application further, please do not hesitate to contact the writer. In the mean time, we would offer our sincere thanks to your Department for your assistance on this project.
Yours faithfully
George Li For and on Behalf of Cornerstone Architects
Encs:
Cc: James Greenhalgh, Hartford Homes David Roberts, St Ninian's Church
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