Brief Planning Statement

1826.02

NEW GARDEN AND LANDSCAPE WORKS

At

SUNNYBANK HOUSE,

WEST BALDWIN

BRADDAN

for

DOWNSTREAM LIMITED

BRIEF PLANNING STATEMENT

19/01017

Sunnybank House is owned by Downstream Limited, which is controlled by Ms Jessup and Mr Holloway ("the Holloways"). Sunnybank House was purchased directly from the developer in December 2010. At this time the garden area had not yet been finalised by the developer and was left as a rough and uneven patch of land, as opposed to a lawn. Sunnybank House was used from December 2010 to March 2017 as the Holloways residence on the Isle of Man ("IoM"), although for periods of that time they lived in London. From March 2017 onwards Ms Jessup moved back to the IoM on a permanent basis and from April 2018 Mr Holloway moved back to the IoM on a permanent basis. The Holloways now use Sunnybank House as their family home and intend to for the foreseeable future.

By April 2018 Ms Jessup was pregnant (and has subsequently had a baby girl) and bearing in mind the condition the developer had left the garden in, the Holloways decided that they should take steps to repair the area. The Holloway's received advice from another consultant, who had met informally with the department, and received the oral advice that works to the garden areas were within the residential curtilage and as such, the landscape works would not require planning approval.

The idea was to create:

• a level garden area on which the Holloways baby girl could in the future play safely without risk of inadvertently falling onto/accessing the West Baldwin Road or injury given the condition the garden was left in by the previous owner/developer;
• bio-diversity through the planting native species of wildflowers, shrubs and trees, as opposed to grass; and
• a space that it is respectful of the locality, in terms of topography, planting and visual impact.

Having undertaken some initial work, and the landscape contractor (Quest Limited) were of the view that the existing topsoil on the garden area was not of a suitable depth for planting or lawn.

It is thought that this area of the property was stripped of topsoil (and indeed other soil) during the works for the fill to the area where the barn was constructed (Please see Photograph 1 an aerial image taken during the construction works on the house which shows the area of site strip extending through this garden area). Therefore, topsoil had to be imported to support the seeding of the new lawn area and new belt of understorey planting. The fill to the level lawn area is sloped downwards at the planted belt edge. To make the lawn area more level there has been a small amount of cutting into the existing slope to create a new embankment feature, giving the lawn a visual backdrop on its top edge with the planted understorey belt giving the lawn a backdrop to the bottom of the site. Please see Photographs 2 to 5 for the extent of incomplete works to date.

The Applicants believe they are increasing the biodiversity of their land, whilst creating a space that it is respectful of the locality, in terms of topography, planting and visual impact. Therefore, the Applicants respectfully request that planning approval is granted.

1826-02 landscape works planning statement