Applicant Supporting Statement
In support of my Planning Application, I would like to say that Ballakillmurray farm has been in my family for approximately 107 years and has always been a hard working manx farm.
Seven years ago my Nanna died leaving her share of the farm to my uncle, who had to sell part of the farm in order to pay for her nursing home bill. The farm was divided up and the house and twenty acres were sold off. The farm house and barns were bought by the government and have since been demolished.
My father and I have the remainder of the fields totalling 153 acres which we farm. Presently we farm arable as there is nobody on the premises to look after any animals. We only stopped having livestock when my Nanna fell ill and went to live in a nursing home as it wasn't practical to have livestock and not have anybody live within the farm. We hope to get back to having livestock should we obtain the permission to build our house and sheds in which to put the animals.
As I previously mentioned we farm crops, but that doesn't mean to say that we don't worry about security issues, and because there is nobody on site some people think that they can freely drive their cars around our fields and when we rely on the recent years crop to enable us to carry on for the next year, it can be soul destroying when we see flattened crops which we have worked hard to produce and having someone on the land will be a deterrent to potential damage. Gates are sometimes left open, by people walking through the fields, leaving the crops vulnerable to the nextdoor farms animals. We have had bales of straw stolen and machinery has been messed with, again because of the fact that there is nobody living on the farm.
At the moment I work the farm part time, this is not a situation I like, as my main passion is farming, but I hope to go back to working it full time when we get some livestock. Farming in the Isle of Man seems to be dwindling as it is harder to make a living, and farms being bought by big companies who just want to build large housing estates to make a profit. I would like to see my farm stay in my family and see my son take over when it comes to my retirement, so this application will benefit the next generation and not just for now.
In regards to the security, we have had visits from the police, who advised that they like to visit out of town places where nobody is living to make sure that no-one who shouldn't be there isn't. Although this is very helpful the visits aren't frequent enough to stop people from taking advantage when there is no-one there.
Should our application be successful, it will ease my thoughts on safety issues. At present I am up the farm mainly on my own and if we lived on the premises and should I have an accident, I have a better chance of getting help faster than if I was alone.
My wife and I currently live in Peel, with 2 out of 3 children in a commissioners house. Our eldest daughter has just moved in with my wife's parents as our house is a three bedroom and we really need four. The only way we can afford a house big enough for all of our family, is to apply for planning permission for our own land, as although there are plenty of new developments available in Peel, there is no way we can afford it as the prices are just too expensive.
Thankyou for considering my application
Mr Robert Preston Killey
