Planning Officer Parking Comments

Department of Local Government and the Environment Rheynn Reiltys Ynnydagh as y Chymmyltaght

Murray House, Mount Havelock, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 2SF Email: [email protected] Tel: (01624) 685906 Fax: (01624) 686443

Director of Planning and Building Control M.I. McCauley, M.R.T.P.I.

Please reply to Miss Sarah Corlett, BSc (Hons) MRTPI, Planning Officer

Our Ref: SEC/05/01779 20th October, 2005

Mr. P. Chadwick, Savage and Chadwick, 24, North Quay, Douglas, IM1 4LE.

Dear Mr. Chadwick,

Re: PA 05/01779 - Conversion of existing restaurant to an apartment and erection of an attached block of six apartments with ten parking spaces and communal bin store, former Chablis Cellar (now Saffron), 19 and 21, Bank Street, Castletown

I refer to the above application which is to be considered shortly by the Planning Committee.

Whilst the amended scheme appears to address the Inspector’s concerns in respect of the town house and impact thereof, the scheme does not appear to satisfactorily address his concerns regarding the car parking arrangement where he states that

> “As a result, it might be difficult to get into (or out of) wide-bodied vehicles that are parked next to one another, and longer cars might encroach into the manoeuvring area when parked. It seems to me that the layout of the parking area would be tight and awkward. Vehicles might not be able to turn easily in the limited space available, and some drivers would probably be tempted to exit into Hope Street in reverse gear, at a point where visibility would be restricted. That would planning give rise to a road safety hazard” (paragraphs 38 and 39 of the inspector’s report into PA 04/1046).

Whilst we have discussed the varying requirements for car parking space dimensions, I would confirm that I have always worked to the standard of 2.4m by 4.8m as set out in the New Metric Handbook in normal circumstances and as such the parking spaces shown comply with this. However, the distance between the end of any parked vehicle and the restriction directly opposite this in the direction in which the vehicle will exit is normally required to be no less than 6m. In this case some of the spaces (numbers 10, 9 and 6 have less than 5m and 8, 7 and 4 have less than 4m in which vehicles can exit the spaces and I do not believe that this is sufficient to enable a reasonably sized vehicle to be able to get out of these spaces.

I would recommend that you reconsider the parking arrangement in respect of the above comments. It may well be that it is not possible to provide the amount of car parking shown but it would be preferable to have fewer spaces which are usable than more which are not.

I am awaiting the comments of the Department of Transport Highways and Traffic Division and have received objections from a number of residents and Castletown Commissioners, many of whom are concerned at a range of issues, some of which were dealt with in the previous application.

Yours sincerely,

Miss Sarah Corlett Planning Officer