Loading document...
Fields 234227 & 234228 Glebe Farm Main Road Kirk Michael Isle Of Man IM6 2HD.
Change of use of land to create a camp site, creation of hard standing for camping vehicles with associated electric hook up points, installation of cladding to and relocation of existing toilet / wash facilities and erection of an attached motorcycle shelter, relocation of a wooden structure to provide a café and social area and construction of decking.
This document was written on behalf of the applicants by the secretary of Glebe Farm to provide further information and clarification to planning application 20/00175/B, including the outlining of possible environmental impacts as a result of the proposed development.
The land associated with this planning application is already licenced to run as a temporary campsite during the TT and MGP. The licence gives permission for 65 pitches during these times. Although this is still a relatively small number of pitches in relation to many other temporary campsites on the island, the applicants propose to reduce the amount of pitches to 45 - including 10 motorhome pitches - when operating outside of the TT and MGP. This decision was taken to ensure that, whilst still being able to provide an adequate amount of pitches for visitors, the site does not become overcrowded and to limit the amount of traffic to/from the site. This will be reviewed annually to ensure the site is meeting the demands of its visitors. The toilet and wash facilities currently on site, including the waste disposal for these facilities, are believed to be more than suitable for the amount of pitches available.
The applicants wish to open the campsite for a maximum of 10 months of the year. The 2 months in which the campsite will be closed for will allow for maintenance work to be carried out on the site and to provide downtime for staff. It is desired that there is no planning condition on which 10 months the site is open for, as this will depend on the demand from customers. The applicants will review the sites opening period annually to ensure they are meeting the demands of their customers. For example, customers may wish to visit the site during the winter/christmas period when other outdoor activities and sites are unavailable due to the season and weather conditions. Should a planning condition be implemented which only permits the site to open for 10 months of the year but with flexibility on which months it is operational, the applicants will be content with this.
The site, during the proposed 10 months in which it will be operational, will be 'open' 24/7. However, the applicants will advise customers to refrain from entering/leaving the site between 10pm - 7am to avoid causing unnecessary nuisance to local residents and the surrounding wildlife. Movement to/from the site during these 'quiet times' will predominantly be for reasons such as leaving to catch a ferry crossing or arriving to the island on an early/overnight ferry.
As proposed, the applicants wish to open a cafe as part of the site. The planned opening times for the cafe will be 7am - 3pm monday - friday and 8am - 2pm Saturday/Sunday. It is believed that the proposed opening times will meet the needs of customers using the site but will also refrain from taking trade away from other local businesses. The applicants hope that those customers who do visit the site, whilst using the proposed cafe, will also support other local businesses, such as visiting the Dovecote tea room for afternoon tea and the Mitre pub for evening meals. To encourage this, the cafe will only be offering basic food services such as breakfasts, bacon/sausage baps etc.
The applicants are aware that the signage previously used to notify approaching visitors to the entrance of the site were of poor quality and somewhat ineffective in providing guidance to visitors. The site came under the applicants ownership in June of 2019 and the poor signage was one of the issues noted when reviewing the various work requiring attention across the site. It is planned that,
should the application be granted permission, the applicants will seek to purchase new signage of a greater quality which will be relocated to more suitable and affective areas approaching the site. This is to not only make those looking for the site aware of its entrance, but also to make other road users aware of the entrance ahead. It is hoped that this will encourage those road users approaching the site to acknowledge that there may be vehicles slowing, turning off or joining the main road at the junction ahead.
Further signs will be placed at the entrance/exit of the site, advising visitors to approach the joining of Orrisdale Road with caution and to be aware of oncoming traffic ahead at the junction joining the Orrisdale road to the main A3 road.
One of the main atractions of the proposed site is the easy access to the heritage railway footpath. It is of great importance to the applicants that this access is made available to all visitors to the site, whether it is for camping purposes or otherwise. The applicants are also aware that there is no designated footpath leading off of the main A3 road footpath along the Orrisdale Road towards the site entrance. However, a total of 5 fence stiles have been present along the front banking of the site for some time and are frequently maintained. This will allow pedestrians to gain easy access to the site without having to travel along the Orrisdale road to the main entrance to the site. Access to the site can also be gained from the other entrance to the property - Glebe Farm - which is located alongside the EVF filling station. This entrance is mainly for private use but access is available for those pedestrians who are unable to use the stiles along the main road footpath due to mobility issues. The access to the site from the stiles will provide a direct route across the site to then give access to the heritage footpath. This will not only make it easier for pedestrians wishing to access the footpath but also provide a safer route to the site and footpath than having to travel along Orrisdale road where no footpath is present.
It has become apparent that, due to the proposed plans, a number of individuals are concerned that the site will become a permanent 'campervan park' should the application be accepted. The applicants wish to make those who share these concerns aware that this is not the intentions of the application and the site will not provide any residential/permanent pitches for any individual. All customers, regardless of the type of accommodation they are occupying whilst on site, will be subject to a 28 day non residency restriction. This means that all customers will be restricted to a maximum 28 day continuous stay on the site. No individual, vehicle or so on will be permitted to stay on the site for any longer than 28 days continuously. The applicants are happy for this restriction to be secured with a planning condition shoud the application be approved. This decision is to ensure that the site does not become a long term/full time campervan park or a permanent pitch for customers, although frequent customers who wish to visit the site on numerous occasions throughout the operational months are welcomed.
There has been a number of concerns regarding the safety of the site entrance in relation to the traffic passing along the Orrisdale road and main A3 road into/out of Kirk Michael village. I would like to direct those who may share these concerns to the response submitted by the highways division to planning application 20/00175/B on the 29th April 2020.
Due to the location of the site, which is situated next to the main A3 road into/out of Kirk Michael village, there is already a substantial amount of traffic which passes the proposed site on a daily basis. This includes many tourists and/or local residents who are travelling to other campsites on the
island as it is a main travel route for most traffic. It is believed that, although the proposed site will cause a slight increase in the amount of traffic turning into the Orrisdale Road to access the site, the impact this will have on current traffic flow and road safety is minimal. Especially as in most instants, the vehicles entering and exiting the site will only be doing so once when arriving and again when leaving the site.
The surroundings of the site are dense with wildlife habitation and vegetation. Although some areas of land in relation to the proposed developments are to be repurposed which may result in the loss of vegetation and wildlife habitation. However, the proprietors plan to incorporate as much of the already present habitation into their development as possible and to further enhance the biodiversity across the site. A landscape plan has been submitted to the planning office prior to this document which gives details of the applicants plans to increase vegetation and encourage wildlife habitation across the site.
Vegetation management will be of great importance to ensure that, although the site remains maintainable and fit for purpose, there is no loss or continued reduction to vegetation and habitation across the site. The applicants are keen horticulturalists and the welfare of the wildlife and vegetation across the site is of great importance to them, for the benefit of both the environment and those visiting the site.
During the initial development of the site, use of small scale construction machinery may cause short term adverse visual impact to the landscape, however the work will be undertaken in a manner sympathetic to the surrounding area to reduce the visual impact to landscape character and will be for only a short period of time prior to the opening of the site. Once the planned development work is completed, including the relocation/errection of the cafe area, there will be little to no requirement for any machinery to be used or be present on the site, or at least not in view of those visiting and/or traveling past the site.
The planned developments, including relocation of wooden structure and cladding of current facilities with extensions, will also be undertaken in a manner sympathetic to the surroundings. Natural materials such as wood will be used widely across the site where development is planned to assist the planned structure(s) to blend into the surroundings better and to reduce the visual impact of the structures on the site.
Vehicles visiting the site may also cause an adverse visual impact and as a result the applicants are prepared to enforce a range of procedures to reduce this as much as possible. As mentioned in the above statement regarding capacity and non residency restrictions, there will be a limited number of visitors permitted to use the site at any one time. The number of pitches for camping vehicles, which are believed to be the greater cause for a negative visual impact, are limited. This is, whilst providing sufficient pitches for the site to be viable and to provide adequate facilities to the public, to minimalise the visual impact the vehicles may have on the surroundings. The location of the camping vehicle pitches was considered in great depth to determine which area of the site will be best suited for this purpose. It was decided and now proposed that the camping vehicle pitches will be located at the far side of the site. This decision was made due to the area being bordered with high hedgerow/gorse which will act as a buffer between the camping vehicles and the landscape beyond. The hedgerow, particularly when camping vehicles are parked in front of it, creates a wall along the far side of the site, blocking the view of the fields behind. Using this hedgerow as the buffer for the camping vehicles means that the vehicles will not look as though they are as out of place as they would if parked in an open field area. It is believed that, if they were to be parked in a central area of the site, the camping vehicles would have a greater adverse visual impact on the landscape due to being surrounded by open area, rather than being bordered by the buffering hedgerow.
Noise emanating from the development area may cause temporary disturbance to local residence in close proximity to the site whilst development work is undertaken, however it is believed that the noise pollution generated by the work undertaken will be minimal due to the proposed work not requiring substantial construction machinery and the length of time that would be required for the development work to be completed.
Once the site is open and in use, it is believed that the proposed campsite will have little negative impact on the surroundings as a result of noise pollution. This is due to a number of noise related rules being enforced thoroughly by the proprietors to ensure any noise emanating from the site is within socially acceptable reason. There will be a set time period in which visitors are advised not to create unnecessary noise on the site by means of playing music, social gatherings etc to remain considerate to others using the site and those residents in close proximity who may be affected by the noise generated. Should visitors continue to create unnecessary noise or noise at such a level which is not socially acceptable and within reason, then they will be dealt with accordingly to comply with the rules put into place to reduce noise pollution. Local residents may suffer from nuisance caused by noise generated from visitors arriving/leaving the site however restrictions on opening hours and recommended arrival/departure times will reduce this significantly.
Due to the site offering pitches for camping vehicles as well as those travelling to/from the site in vehicles, this will of course give an increase to the pollution emitted into the local air from vehicles travelling to/from the site. However, given that the site is positioned alongside an existing and well used main road and that vehicles will be entering/exiting the site very few times during their visit, it is believed that the proposed developments will not have a negative impact on air quality locally or globally.
The proposed site is currently registered as agricultural land and is grassed with a stone/hardcore driveway. Due to the limited numbers of pitches available and with the amount of land proposed, this will allow the applicants to manage which areas are used at various times to allow the grass to grow and remain healthy rather than reuse the same area repeatedly which could cause a negative impact to the land. The land will be maintained by the applicants to ensure it is kept in good healthy. One area of the land is proposed to be used as a parking area, it is evident that this area will be susceptible to greater impact as a result of vehicles passing and repassing over it regularly. The applicants will monitor this area of land, in particular the entrance gateway to the area, to determine what steps may need to be taking in the future should the land be negatively impacted to an extent of deterioration. However, as with the areas which are proposed for camping use, the area for parking is more than substantial for the amount of vehicles which will utilise it even when at full capacity. Again this gives the applicants the flexibility to segregate areas for use at alternate times to minimise the impact on the land.
With the proposed developments, including the opening of a permanent campsite and cafe, the volume of waste generated from the site will increase. The applicants will provide a waste disposal area which will contain recycle bins for various materials and general waste bins. This is to encourage visitors to recycle the waste they generate whilst visiting the site and to make it easier for the applicants to then recycle the waste correctly to reduce the amount of general waste from the site. The applicants plan to obtain a large commercial bin/commercial waste collection for the waste produced from the proposed site and its facilities. Reuseable products will be used where appropriate across all areas of the site to further reduce the amount of waste generated and, where this is not possible, the applicants aim to use only recycleable products/materials to reduce the
impact that the waste generated may have on the environment. No waste will be disposed of in any way that could cause an immediate environmental impact, and recycling will be heavily promoted across the site.
Food waste generated from the proposed cafe will be disposed of into composting bins when possible and any other waste will be disposed of correctly as per governing guidelines. Used cooking oil will also be contained and disposed of correctly.
Waste water - along with all waste outlets from the toilet/wash facilities, cafe and camping vehicle waste disposal point - will be collected into a septic tank which will be monitored and emptied regularly. The applicants will provide a disposal point for camping vehicles to empty holding tanks of waste into the sites septic tank to then be correctly disposed of. This is to prevent the possibility of visitors emptying their vehicles holding tanks incorrectly or in an area not fit for purpose which may cause a negative impact on the environment.
Although the proposed development does incur some possible environmental impacts, it is evident that these impacts are only minor and can easily be kept under control with ongoing supervision. It is believed that the proposed developments will increase tourism and employment in the local area as well as being of significant economic benefit to other businesses in the village of Kirk Michael.
Copyright in submitted documents remains with their authors. Request removal
View as Markdown