APL Statement

Proposed additional 16 Storage units, Existing Storage Facility Jurby Industrial Estate.

Statement to accompany the Planning application

July 2024

A photograph showing a row of stacked shipping container self-storage units situated in a paved industrial yard at dusk.

Introduction.

This statement is to support the application for the creation of 16 Additional Self Storage units situated in the existing carpark of the facility in Jurby Industrial Estate. The existing facility currently provides 66 Storage container’s over two levels, at present the storage facility is operating at maximum capacity and has been for some time and demand is continuing to growth with waiting lists stretching for months.

In January 2024 the client attempted to alleviate this demand by applying for planning permission to erect a second storey on the existing facility in order to increase the number of available units, however this was subsequentially refused.

However, having liaised with Highway services over the previous application it was clear that the carparking facilities at the Jurby Storage facility were over generous and that additional units could be installed in the carpark without having a negative effect.

The Site.

The application site is already operating as a bespoke purpose built self storage facility situated to the left hand side of unit 273. The existing site is approximately 44m long x 28m wide, containing 66 permanent Shipping containers in a tidy and professional Manor offering safe, dry storage to local businesses and residents.

Photos of the existing facility can be found in appendix A.

The Proposal.

Various options were explored while trying to resolve the issue of expansion for the existing facility, and in depth discussions were held with the DOI in regards to potentially leasing additional land located to the left hand side of the existing storage facility, unfortunately this land is zoned for another future development and cannot be leased.

As such the client explored the option to create a second story level over the footprint, unfortunately this level of development was deemed to unsuitable, and the planning application was refused.

Having discussed the previous scheme in depth with Highway Services it was agreed that given the use of this site as a unmanned Self Storage facility, and not a “Storage and distribution” Business it should not be compared to the standards for carparking issued in Appendix 7 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan. But the requirement of carparking would be based on guidance from received by “Self Storage Association UK” and Actually Traffic Data evidence Collected from the site instead.

This decision to re-evaluate the parking requirements has meant that the No. of Carparking spaces can be reduced from 13 to 9 and still meet the requirements set out Allowing my Client to redevelopment a portion of the site otherwise underutilised into additional storage units.

Storage and Clientele Initially when we first started this venture we expected the vast majority of clients to be private individuals storing mainly house hold items, with a few containers going to trades.

However, from our current leasing records we are providing storage facilities, to a number of Retail, Construction/Tradesmen, Commercial Offices, Digital Entertainment, Event management companies and Fitness companies.

Having had discussions with some of our clientele, they have confirmed that the presence of this facility has allowed them to successfully expand from mainly small home startups, into small to medium-sized businesses while maintaining relatively low overheads.

Given that the storage facility is providing local business the opportunity to grow, it is argued that the very presence of this facility is providing an indirect benefit to the local economy, allowing my client to expand his existing business is giving him the opportunity to grow along with many potential future startups.

Staff The running of the storage facility is to be operated mostly remotely and there are still no plans to have any permanent staff on site, however since opening the facility we have had regular maintenance staff attending the site, along with office-based staff working from another location, the current facility is providing employment for 3 members of staff.

Vehicle movements The proposed development would provide 82 Self storage containers with 9 parking spaces. This ratio of units to carparking spaces would comply with the advice received from the “Self Storage Association United Kingdom” who have release the following document (Appendix B) “Traffic Patterns for Self Storage”

The SSA summarise the requirement of parking for storage facility of this size is 6.5 Vehicles per day as the table below indicates on average there are less than 7 vehicle per 100 units, entering the site during regular access hours,

“With customers staying an hour on average, most sites would only ever have 2 or 3 cars per 100 units on site at any given time.”

In order to more accurately determine the likely use of our own facility we conducted a two-week continuous traffic count via the CCTV for the period 10th November to the 23rd November,

This Data confirmed that Saturdays were our busiest day with an average of 10.5 cars over the 24hr period (Saturday 00:00 to Sunday 00:00). Saturday 18th November experience the most traffic movement for a 24hour period with 11 vehicles visiting the site, however Saturday the 11th was our most

The image displays a data table outlining the average number of vehicles per day based on the number of self-storage spaces.

congested day over the two week study, specifically between the hours of 1pm and 2pm with a total of 4 vehicles present at once. This traffic data confirms that our current level of car parking for up to 9 vehicles is sufficiently capable sustaining the proposed 24% Increase in terms of traffic movements.

Details of our traffic study is appended for review by Highway Services.

Conclusion

We believe that the proposed development is in-keeping with the proposed use of the site and its surrounding areas. We believe we have undertaken sufficient analysis of the existing traffic movements on site and likely impact of the highways network, and can not see any reason for why this application would not be deemed to be suitable in its current location. Therefore we are hopeful of a swift and positive review.