Officer Report

Application No.: 21/00303/LAW Applicant: Mr Keith Richardson Proposal: Certificate of Lawful development for the removal of a chimney stack and installation of replacement roof slates Site Address: Ballarich 1 Salisbury Street Douglas Isle Of Man IM2 3HS Planning Officer: Mr Peiran Shen Expected Decision Level: Officer Delegation Recommended Decision: Certificate of Lawful Use/Devel Approved Date of Recommendation: 21.05.2021 _________________________________________________________________

Conditions and Notes for Approval

C : Conditions for approval N : Notes attached to conditions C 1. There is sufficient evidence demonstrating that the chimney was not in situ and the replacement roof was in situ from April 2017.

Plans/Drawings/Information;

This decision relates to the submitted documents, applicant's statements, location plan, site plan, photo and google street view photos date-stamped as having been received on 5th March 2021.

_______________________________________________________________ Interested Person Status – Additional Persons

None _____________________________________________________________________________

Officer’s Report

1.0 INTRODUCTION - 1.1 The application seeks a Certificate of Lawful Development in respect of the removal of a chimney stack and installation of replacement roof slates. The application seeking the Certificate of Lawfulness was submitted on 5 March 2021. This means the relevant 4 years for consideration is from 5 March 2017. - 1.2 In accordance with the provisions of Schedule 4, Part 1, paragraph 3 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1999 ("the Act"), a development carried out in breach of planning control shall become immune from enforcement action after a certain period of time, provided that

formal enforcement action has not already been taken. The relevant time periods are set out below:

• a) in respect of a breach of planning control consisting of the carrying out without planning approval of the building, engineering, mining or other operations in, on, over or under land, after the end of the period of 4 years beginning with the date on which the operations were substantially completed;
• b) in respect of a breach of planning control consisting of the change of use of any building to use as a single dwelling house, after the end of the period of 4 years beginning with the date of the breach;
• c) in respect of any other breach of planning control, after the end of the period of 10 years beginning with the date of the breach.

1.3 Section 24 of the Act makes provision for the submission and issuing of a Certificate of Lawfulness to establish the lawfulness of a breach of planning control. - 1.4 An application for a Certificate of Lawfulness is determined based on fact. Unlike an application for planning approval, it is not concerned with land-use planning considerations or the impacts of the development upon the public realm. - 1.5 The principal test is whether, on the balance of probabilities, the breach of planning control occurred in excess of four years ago. If the Planning Authority has no evidence of its own to contradict that provided by the applicant, then provided if the applicant's evidence is sufficiently precise and unambiguous, a Certificate of Lawfulness may be issued. It is not usually necessary for the Planning Authority to corroborate the applicant's evidence.

2.0 THE SITE - 2.1 The application site is the residential curtilage of Ballarich, 1 Salisbury Street, Douglas.

3.0 THE PROPOSAL - 3.1 The planning application seeks approval for the Certificate of Lawful Development for the removal of a chimney stack and installation of replacement roof slates.

4.0 PLANNING HISTORY - 4.1 Installation of a flue from new wood burning stove was APPROVED under PA 17/00460/B.

5.0 REPRESENTATION - 5.1 No representation has been received at the time of the report (21/05/2021).

6.0 ASSESSMENT / SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE PROVIDED - 6.1 In terms of whether the removal of a chimney stack has been taken place and the installation of replacement roof slates has been in place for more than 4 years from the date of submission, the Department considers that it has. Whilst the evidence supplied by the applicants is useful, the most relevant piece of evidence is photos attached with PA 17/00460/B. Within this, it is clear the chimney was not in situ in 2017 and the replacement roof was in situ in 2017. PA 17/00460/B was validated 24 April 2017, hence longer than the required 4 year period. Furthermore, the applicants included a 2014 receipt for the works. These facts would tie into the applicant's comment in terms of when the work was completed

(2014).

7.0 CONCLUSION - 7.1 On the balance of probabilities, the evidence sufficiently demonstrates that the chimney was not in situ and the replacement roof was in situ for more than 4 years. As such, the Department may not issue an enforcement notice due to the provisions of Town and Country Planning Act 1999 Schedule 4 Part 1 paragraph 3(a) and it is recommended that a Certificate of Lawful Development is granted.

8.0 RECOMMENDATION - 8.1 It is recommended that the application for a Certificate of Lawfulness is agreed.

9.0 INTERESTED PARTY STATUS - 9.1 As the application is for a CLD this is not required to be assessed. _____________________________________________________________________

I can confirm that this decision has been made by a Principal Planner 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 : Certificate of Lawful Use/Devel Approved Date: 26.05.2021 Determining officer

Signed : C BALMER Chris Balmer Principal Planner

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