Applicant Access Proposal Letter

Mr F K Crowe Bishopscourt Farm Kirk Michael Isle of Man IM6 2EY

2 February 2008

In my letters dated 17 August 2007 and 28 September 2007 I have previously described the difficulties I face moving agricultural machinery and modern size straw bales to and from fields 234201 and 221294. These fields are currently separated from the remainder of my holding and the road transport network by the disused Peel to Ramsey railway line and I must use a narrow under bridge constructed through the railway embankment between fields 234202 and 234201. The limitations in use of this access route places limitations on the machinery I must use, a requirement for the double handling of large /bulky materials when transporting them through the narrow bridge and the use of extreme care to avoid damaging the bridge which is in a poor condition.

In 2005 I believe the Isle of Man Water Authority submitted a planning application for the removal of this bridge to facilitate the installation of a new water main along the disused railway line. I am informed this application was refused to preserve the structure for heritage reasons. I was not involved in this application because although the railway line was constructed on land which originally formed part of Bishopscourt Farm, it is still owned by the Isle of Man Government and maintained by the Department of Transport.

Heritage considerations have to date prevented the removal of this bridge, and the widening of the bridge or construction of a new bridge which is designed in keeping with all the heritage and aesthetic considerations would be extremely expensive and financially unviable. The remaining option is to construct a route over the railway.

This would involve the lowering of the railway embankment by 1 metre and the creation of a 1 in 8 access track over the railway. The design is shown in cross section on drawing numbers BC/01/A, BC/02/A and BC/03/A.

The plan is to provide a useable 1 in 8 metre gradient access track over the railway embankment close to the compacted field access. This would reduce the length of construction into the adjoining fields and allows the reuse of excavated material from the railway line in the construction of the new access route. In cost terms this offers the most cost effective way of forming this new access track between my fields.

This is located half way along the field where the embankment is 2.5 metres high and a natural rise exists in field 234202. This will have a maximum gradient of 1 in 14 on the public right of way. The Department of Transport minimum standards for a footway in a housing estate for disabled access is 1 in 12.

Public Utility service apparatus are not located within the disused railway line and are located in my fields at the toe of the existing embankment. The build up of materials to facilitate the access over the railway line will ensure these services are at a sufficient depth to protect them from the passage of agricultural machinery.

The existing railway embankment is a man made feature in the countryside. It is visible from the A3 Kirk Michael to Ballaugh road at isolated locations through the roadside boundary vegetation and from the Michael to Orrisdale road at isolated locations where the roadside turf hedge rise less than 1.5 metres high. The lowering of the railway embankment and the consequential reductions in the height/length of the access track serve to limit the visual impacts of the planning application proposals on the surrounding countryside.

The visual impact to the public using the railway line once grass has established adjacent to the access track will be limited to the length of the ramp from the adjoining fields an the change in level on the railway line. These two issues are competing factors and the embankment should be lowered to reduce the length of the ramp into the field which has the advantages of limiting the scope of a new man made structure within the landscape and it will be less visible from the neighbouring roads as described above.

The presence of the established trees around Bishopscourt prevent the railway line and my access track proposal being visible from the public rights of way on the hills to the east of Bishopscourt and the Baltic road.

Yours faithfully