Design Statement

:technical drawing services

1900546

4 College green, Castletown, (07624) 363822 [email protected] www.TechDraw.im

30/04/19

Design Statement

Applicant: Mr William Mc Dowell. Proposal: New dwelling with associated parking. Land off lane at rear of 15 Westminster Drive, Douglas, Isle of Man Previous planning application number: 19/00913/B Planning officer: Mr Owen Gore Decision: Refused on 12.02.19

Drawing from the reasons for refusal in the last application mentioned above, the new design for Mr McDowell's retirement home has addressed these issues adequately and are listed below.

1. The previous design did not have adequate parking area and did not provide satisfactory amenity standards itself. The new design has increased the area of hard standing to the front of the property and the installation of a turntable parking space intended for sites with restricted areas such as this site.

1. By squaring up the footprint of the house, and reducing the size to 63m², maximum use can be made of the site whilst maintaining walkways either side of the dwelling leading to a small walled courtyard. This would be an easy maintenance back yard using evergreen planting, raised bed for easy access, and permeable paving creating an area for the occupants' amenity.

1. The outlook from the principle rooms have been improved by the living area's 3.5m glazed doors and windows to the rear, opening out onto the decked courtyard. 4 large windows either side of the living room and the open plan living design will make sure there is sufficient daylight entering these rooms. These windows will look onto an attractive painted wooden fence. The large bedroom windows on the first floor are south facing and have the pleasant outlook over the garage roof and green areas, and to the trees in the distance, to the rear of Westminster drive houses.

1. The form, scale, design and landscaping is sympathetic to the surrounding area. The overall design is very low impact. The impact on 13 Westminster drive garden would be minimal with this very simple, natural slate, roof design. The front of the house draws on some of the design elements in the surrounding houses such as

pebble dash, render bands and the circular window on the first floor. The natural slate roof is in keeping with some of the surrounding properties.

1. As this will be a retirement home for Mr \& Mrs McDowell the comings and goings from this house will be very minimal.
2. The bin in the bin shed will need to be moved weekly to the agreed space for refuse collection already used by other residents of Westminster drive.

Overall, this new design is very sympathetic to its surrounding s and great care has been taken to account all the issues raised in the last application. The site is zoned for residential, and with its position at the bottom of the lane as opposed to the rear of any of the properties along Westminster drive, this site would be suited to a small, low impact, dwelling. The proposed dwelling follows the traditional nature of properties found along Westminster Drive. It is also important to note that Westminster Drive does have a variety of properties and styles from a number of periods and arguably the introduction of the proposals would be additional to this.