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Application No.: 22/00719/B Applicant: Mr Peter Kneen Proposal: Erection of an agricultural building. Site Address: North West Of Upper Billown Farm West Grenaby Road Ballasalla Isle Of Man IM9 3DP Senior Planning Officer: Mr Jason Singleton Expected Decision Level: Officer Delegation Recommended Decision: Permitted Date of Recommendation: 28.07.2022
C : Conditions for approval N : Notes attached to conditions
Reason: To comply with Article 26 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) Order 2019 and to avoid the accumulation of unimplemented planning approvals.
Reason: the countryside is protected from development and an exception is being made on the basis of agricultural need. As such the building must be used for the purposes for which it is approved.
Reason: The building has been exceptionally approved solely to meet agricultural need and its subsequent retention would result in an unwarranted intrusion in the countryside.
Reason: The application has been assessed on an agricultural basis for storage of arable crops and workshop / machinery storage only for "Upper Billown Farm West" and not for any commercial use.
The proposal is considered to be acceptable in terms of the agricultural need satisfying General Policy 3, and the proposed buildings scale, materials, colour, siting and form would be in accordance with Environment Policy 1 and 15 of the Strategic Plan.
This decision relates to drawings submitted on 13 June 2022, referenced; Labour Calculations Farmed Area Map Location Map Site Plan Structure Details Photos of Site
_______________________________________________________________ Interested Person Status – Additional Persons
None _____________________________________________________________________________
1.0 THE SITE - 1.1 The application site is referred to as 'Upper Billown Farm' Grenaby Ballasalla. The farm yard is characterised by a number of agricultural buildings clustered together and a detached dwellinghouse to the south east corner of the site. Access to the dwellinghouse and the farm buildings is via private track that extends to 1km in length and serves a number of other farms and dwelling houses associated with Agriculture. - 1.2 The agricultural holding extends to 65 Acres and is mainly arable farming with the land used for crops for cereals and agricultural contracting. The farm currently operates on a labour rate of 0.28 standard and units with a range of existing stone buildings on the property which are noted in the supporting statement; "as being unsuitable for modern agriculture due to the lack of suitable facilities and restrictive access". There is an existing steel framed building on site 18.28m x 9.14m. This building is currently used to house some of more expensive machinery (combine harvester, tractors plus some smaller equipment). - 1.3 The agent notes; "The agricultural contracting enterprise primarily provides specialist slurry spreading, combine harvesting, cultivations and crop input (chemical) applications. This enterprise creates sufficient work to employ a full-time person alongside Mr Kneen to assist with the machinery operations".
2.0 THE PROPOSAL - 2.1 Proposed is the erection of an agricultural building measuring a footprint of 33m x 18m, internally bisected in two with one half a workshop and machinery store and the other a grain and straw storage. The proposed building is to be located in field 432300 (to the north of the existing building) which is close to the main steading, allows good access for vehicles without encroaching on the private dwelling.
2.2 The building would be used for the storage of arable crops (grain and straw) before sale to market and also the storage of modern agriculture machinery and the provision of a workshop to maintain the machinery on site. - 2.3 This building would be constructed from a steel 'portal' frame and cladded with box profile plastec wall cladding to all elevations and the roof would be profiled grey fibre cement sheets and would feature 24 roof lights (12 per slope) for natural illuminance on the north and south roof pitches and the only opening are to the front (south elevation facing the existing agricultural barns that would see the use of roller shutter doors and a pedestrian width doorway. - 2.4 The proposed site will be levelled to create a work and yard area with the soil removed to be utilised for creating an earth bank around the building. All excavated material will remain on site. IN addition there are three sycamore trees which would be required to be removed. These would be replaced with 6 new native trees planted on the farm.
3.0 PLANNING POLICY - 3.1 The site lies within an area zoned on the Area Plan for the South (2013) as 'white land' or land not zoned for development and therefore is not designated for any particular purpose. The collection of buildings and the trackway is identified on the map. - 3.2 On the landscape plan the site is noted as 'Incised Slopes' and in the written statement accompanying the plans the site is defined as;
" Ballamodha, Earystane and St Marks (D14) The overall strategy is to conserve and enhance the character, quality and distinctiveness of the area, with its wooded valley bottoms, its strong geometric field pattern delineated by Manx hedges, its numerous traditional buildings and its network of small roads and lanes. The strategy should also include the restoration of landscapes disturbed by former mining activities. Key Views Distant views prevented at times by dense woodland in river valleys and by the cumulative screening effect of hedgerow trees, which tend to create wooded horizons. Open and panoramic views out to sea from the higher areas on the upper western parts of the area where there are few trees to interrupt views".
3.3 The site is not within a Conservation Area or within an area identified as flood risk. There are no defined registered trees or registered trees areas on the Govt maps. - 3.4 Within the adopted Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016, the following policy are considered to be the pertinent relevant policy in the determination of this application:
4.0 PLANNING HISTORY - 4.1 The application site has no planning history that is considered relevant to this application.
5.1 Malew Commissioners 06/07/22 commented with no objection - 5.2 Highways Services 01/07/22 commented with no objection
6.1 There aforementioned policies would indicate there is a general presumption against new development in the countryside, as indicated in Environment Policy 1 and General Policy 3 of the Strategic Plan. The starting point for any development within the countryside (i.e. not zoned for development) is therefore General Policy 3, paragraph F which allows exemption for agricultural buildings and Environment Policy 15, which requires, firstly the Planning Authority to be satisfied that there is agricultural or horticultural need for a new building, sufficient to outweigh the general policy against development in the countryside. Then further assessment to ensure the built form is appropriate in terms of size, scale material and colour with siting and form that is sympathetic to its surroundings without being detrimental to the character and appearance of the countryside. This is also underpinned through Environmental Policy 1 to ensure any development does not adversely affect the countryside. - 6.2 The applicant has provided details through their agricultural agent to confirm they "the farmer/ owner", of land buildings who lives within the farm holding. The site is an active farm with its land holding of 65 acres of land but is also an agricultural contractor (combining). Whilst the proposal is not strictly for the welfare of animals which the policies allow for, the use for the storage of grain and straw as a result of arable farming is equally important as the welfare of animals and the undercover storage of specialist machinery used in conjunction with arable farming would be appropriate use in this instance and an additional agricultural building would accord with GP3f where its use would be used for the conduct of 'agriculture'.
6.3 Having considered the justification and its broad acceptance in principle we further consider the general design and appropriateness of such and the border impact on the site. Environment Policy 15 notes the proximity of the proposal should be sited as close the farmstead as possible and be appropriate in terms of scale, materials, colour, siting and form to ensure they are in keeping with their surroundings. In this case the proposal would be using a proven method of constructing such agricultural buildings using steel frame construction with 'plasitsol' green profiled sheets to clad the vertical elements and the roof pitches in grey fibre cement sheeting with grp roof lights would be seen to reflect the agricultural nature of the building and would be of similar appearance to the existing 'modern' farm buildings and not look out of place in the countryside. - 6.4 In terms of siting, the main farm buildings are all clustered together with the dwellinghouse to the east of the collection of buildings and the surrounding farm lands circling the 'farm yard' as noted on the land ownership plan submitted as part of this proposal. The location of the new building would be sited close to the existing group of farm buildings, albeit to the north in the adjacent filed but this would be immediately adjacent to the remaining farm buildings. The proposed building would be suitable for its intended use in accordance with Ep15. Visual Impact on the countryside - 6.5 The siting of the proposed building as noted above would confirm the location is not one of open countryside but would be read within the context of an existing working farm to which planning policies support for the placement next to existing building groups and replacing an existing building. Given the remoteness from the highway, there would be very limited public views of the building and those achieve views would be read amongst other agricultural buildings of similar type, size and colour, if viewable from the highway.
The addition of this proposed building and its use would confirm to the guidance given in EP15 where it would not be considered to have any detrimental impact upon the wider countryside
(EP1) or would not be considered to harm the character and quality of the wider landscape designation in the APS.
7.1 The planning application has been designed to ensure its siting and appearance has no adverse impact on the character of this site and the wider countryside, or that of the neighbouring property, which has been recommended for approval. - 8.0 INTERESTED PERSON STATUS
8.1 By virtue of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) Order 2019, the following persons are automatically interested persons:
I can confirm that this decision has been made by the Head of Development Management in accordance with the authority afforded to that Officer by the appropriate DEFA Delegation and that in making this decision the Officer has agreed the recommendation in relation to who should be afforded Interested Person Status
Decision Made : Permitted Date : 28.07.2022 Determining officer
Signed : S BUTLER Stephen Butler Head of Development Management
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