DEC Officer Report

PLANNING OFFICER REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION

Application No.: 22/00964/LAW Applicant: Mr Stuart Ashford Proposal: Application for certificate of lawfulness for long term residential usage of property Site Address: Boundary Cottage Nassau Road Regaby Ramsey Isle Of Man IM7 4AL Principal Planner: Mr Chris Balmer Expected Decision Level: Officer Delegation Recommended Decision: Certificate of Lawful Use/Devel Approved Date of Recommendation: 15.09.2022

Conditions and Notes for Approval

C : Conditions for approval N : Notes attached to conditions

C 1. On the balance of probabilities, the evidence sufficiently demonstrates that the converted Chapel building which was originally used as a tourist unit only, has been absorbed by the main dwelling and used in association with the main dwelling (Boundary Cottage) as one single dwelling on the site and referred to in the information received on 25.07.2022 has been in such use for a period of four years and 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 therefore it is recommended that a Certificate of Lawful Development can be issued.

Plans/Drawings/Information;

This decision relates to the location and site plans and photographs and other supporting information all received on 25.07.2022. _______________________________________________________________

Interested Person Status

Additional Persons

N/A _____________________________________________________________________________ Officer’s Report

1.0 INTRODUCTION - 1.1 The application seeks a Certificate of Lawful Development for the long term residential usage of property. The application seeking the Certificate of Lawfulness was submitted on 25.07.2022. This means the relevant 4 years for consideration is from 25.07.2018. - 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 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 on the basis of 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 has occurred continuously for the given period. The burden of proof rests with the applicant and their evidence must be both precise and unambiguous. If the Department has no evidence of its own to contradict that provided by the applicant, then provided that 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 APPLICATION SITE - 2.1 The application site is Boundary Cottage, Nassau Road, Regaby, Ramsey which is a detached single storey property located on the north side of the Nassau Road and east of Regaby Crossroads.

3.0 THE PROPOSAL - 3.1 The planning application seeks approval for the certificate of lawfulness for long term residential usage of property. From the submission it appears that the within the site was a former chapel which gained permission (84/0660) to be converted to a tourist unit. There are then two following permissions to extend this (88/02308 & 93/07119) to extend this to provide additional living accommodation. The submitted information indicates that the applicant then used the extension as the main house and the chapel as tourist accommodation up to 2005 at which point they used all elements of the building as a single residential dwelling. The original chapel conversion did not include residential use although has been used as such since 2005.

4.0 PLANNING HISTORY - 4.1 There are no previous planning applications which are considered relevant in the assessment and determination of this application.

5.0 REPRESENTATIONS - 5.1 The owner/occupier of is Ballavarteen Farm, Nassau Road objects and comments;

• "This application worries me in several regards and I accept that my worries may be due to a lack of confidence in using computers but here goes. From the information that I have found online I am far from certain that there has ever been any more than planning permission in principle for much of the construction at Boundary Cottage though confusingly there does seem to be permissions to add extensions to an un-licensed building. My first main concern is the chapel that was on the site. There has been an application for its development in principle and no more. The chapel and a little bit of Regaby's history has been demolished and the site built on. If this has been done with the full and considered consent of the Planning Authority it is disappointing, hopefully necessary and most important lawful. Along Nassau Road from Regaby Crossroads to Grenaby Road there appear to have been several applications to build dwellings all of which have been refused. I find it very worrying that two properties owned by the applicant have been built the first of which is only now it is being sold is looking for retrospective permission. The second property which is situated between Boundary Cottage and Billey Millish and is at yet completed I can find no planning consents for this property only refusals though I would refer you to my opening sentence. My concerns here are that the applicant is serially making a complete fool of the planning and building regulation authority, damaging our heritage and at the risk of sounding dramatic profiting from unlawful acts, on this basis I would ask the Planning Authority to look at this application closely…".
• 5.2 The owner/occupier of is Billey Millish, Nassau Road, Regaby, Ramsey objects to the application (12.09.2022); "This was never a conversion but a demolition and construction of a dwelling far in excess of what was approved, done in a deliberate manner to circumvent the planning process. The applicant is attempting the same trick in moving to the adjacent property he has constructed for this purpose. Please examine this very carefully whereupon the deception can be clearly identified. Planning law should not be flouted in this fashion."

6.0 ASSESSMENT / SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE PROVIDED - 6.1 In terms of whether the property has been used as a dwelling for more than 4 years from the date of submission the Department considers that it has. The evidence submitted includes;

• o Various Rates Bills;
• o Various Insurance Letters - including Home Insurance for the property (4 bedrooms) in November 2021
• o Pension Related letters addressed to the property;
• o Driving Licences including the address of the property;
• o Vehicle Licences letter;
• o Various letters from Government Departments;

6.2 It is clear the property (extension elements) has been used as a dwelling; the question is whether the chapel element which was approved in the 1980's for tourist accommodation has been used as part of the dwelling as well for the last 4 years. The submitted existing floor plans (dated 2022) show the main dwelling (extension element and a section of the chapel used as kitchen of main dwelling) and the former Chapel which is attached; albeit does not have an internal doorway from the main dwelling into this converted chapel which is annotated on the floor plans as "visiting relatives accommodation". This section of the building front the submission was used for tourist purposes until 2005 when this ceased albeit this ceased on the 12th February 2007 (Tourism Cancellation Letter). Since this time the area has been used as accommodation with the Main dwelling; albeit planning permission was never sought for this. - 6.3 Evidence provided clearly demonstrates that the main part of the dwelling (extension elements and a small element of the former chapel- kitchen area) has been used as a dwelling for a number of decades up to current day. The question of whether the entire former chapel element is less clear as the evidence provided which is significant, only relates to "Boundary

Cottage" which as a single address is difficult to ascertain what this includes. However, given a third of the floor area of the chapel is part of the main dwellings accommodation and the remaining is attached, and from the information provided, it is considered that it is reasonable and likely that the former tourist element has been absorbed by the main dwelling and used in association with the main dwelling as one single dwelling on the site.

7.0 CONCLUSION - 7.1 On the balance of probabilities, the evidence sufficiently demonstrates that the former tourist unit within the converted Chapel building, which was originally used as a tourist unit only, has been absorbed by the main dwelling and used in association with the main dwelling (Boundary Cottage) as one single dwelling on the site and has been used for more than 4 years and 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 Use 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 CLU 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: 09.09.2022 Determining officer Signed : J SINGLETON Jason Singleton Principal Planner

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