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Department of Infrastructure Planning & Building Control Murray House Mount Havelock Douglas IM1 2SF
18th July 2014
Dear Sirs
Re: Planning application for permission for Crossroads Care to occupy units B5 & B6 in Block B of Eden Business Park, Previously approved by PA11/01232/B, Cooil Road, Douglas.
This is a detailed planning application which seeks permission for Crossroads Care to occupy units B5 & B6 in Block B of Eden Business Park. This application has been submitted because during consultation with the planning department, we were advised that Crossroad Care’s proposed uses are ‘Sui Generis’ and therefore would require additional planning consent.
The Eden Business Park is a development of Light Industrial units approved by PA11/01232/B. The development is substantially complete and we understand that considerable interest is being shown by potential occupiers.
Crossroads Care is a Manx registered charity which has provided support to local carers for the past 25 years. Each year the charity provides 60,000 care hours to carers and people with care needs enabling many carers to continue working whilst the cared for remain independent in their own home for longer. In order to provide this essential support the charity employs 90 staff, adding to the local economy and provides over 200 volunteering opportunities every week. Support is given in the cared for’s home, at our Day Centre and in our children’s nursery at Masham Court (Victoria Avenue), and through group work around the island. The charity works with people of all ages from birth through to the elderly who have a serious illness/condition which affects their independent living. The charity also enables Young Carers to have the chance to experience a childhood that others may take for granted and importantly works with education to help them to achieve at school.
The charity has a turnover of £1.3 million and part of the income is derived from the
Crossroads Care A limited company registered in the Isle of Man with registration number 094192C Registered Office Isle of Man Carers’ Centre, 35/36 Derby Square, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 3LW Telephone: (01624) 673103 Fax: (01624) 678636 www.crossroadsiom.org e-mail: [email protected] Isle of Man registered Charity Number 383 Directors: D S Gawne MBE, A J Ardern, M Clague, D Cooke, K Williams
proceeds of its four Douglas based charity shops. Each shop has a paid manager who is supported by a team of approximately 50 volunteers. The volunteers gain work experience and confidence and many move on into paid employment or enjoy their retirement more with the added health benefits that volunteering and physical activity can bring. Our shops also play an important part in helping adults with learning disabilities to gain the necessary skills to feel valued, seek employment and become independent in the local community.
Government is devolving services to the third sector (non-governmental organisation) and as the biggest such organisation on the Island, Crossroad Care is tendering actively for work that could lead to up to 100 more jobs being created in due course and will be needed to support the community. We have, to date, administered our operations from a residential area, in buildings that are in desperate need of modernisation and require significant annual expenditure on maintenance which is a major issue for the charity. We also need to ensure that we have a base that is modern and capable of allow us to deliver our services effectively.
One of our charity shops specialises in selling second hand furniture and due to lack of storage space is unable to hold damaged furniture whilst it is undergoing simple repairs. At present all damaged furniture has to be disposed of. There is also a limit to the amount of donated furniture that we can accept due to current space restrictions.
As the environment is a global issue and the responsibility of us all, individually we are being forced to consider our actions and make the right choices when it comes to throwing things out. As a charity we are recycling more than ever before, and the benefit is that our charity shops have received greater quantities of donated goods, preventing tones of textiles and furniture going to the amenity site each year.
The charity is therefore seeking to move into a suitable unit on a light industrial estate to enable furniture repairs to be undertaken. Adults with disabilities who may not enjoy or be suited to the customer contact in the charity shops would be involved in the process of repairing furniture giving them added skills and a feeling of self-worth whilst providing the charity shop with new stock to also raise more funds.
At present our administration team, of approximately 10 people, is based in two old houses in Derby Square, Douglas which are owned by the charity and have become increasingly difficult to maintain due to their age. The condition of the building presents substandard
working conditions but the charity cannot be seen to spend significant sums of charitable funds on the two properties and seeking funds from other sources for this work is now near on impossible.
To reduce the overheads for the charity as a whole we are proposing to incorporate accommodation for our small administration team within this unit. All support our workers will remain in the community and at the charity's day centre, Masham Court, Victoria Avenue, Douglas so therefore would not be involved in the changes or be located to Eden Park.
Derby Square is an up and coming area with well presented properties selling at around £1 million. The charity is exempt from paying rates on the two properties and therefore if we sold the two houses, not only would they be put back to residential use but it would also increase the revenue for Douglas Borough Council in the form of rates. Parking arrangements in the square and surrounding area would also improve for local residents as at present we have parking for two minibuses directly outside the buildings, as well as undesignated car parking wherever this can be found. It is due to the need for a modern building coupled with the difficulties with parking in Douglas that we need to move the team to the outskirts where there is sufficient parking and will cause less congestion.
As remaining at Derby Square is not an option for the reasons provided, we have sold our properties and need to vacate them imminently.
Our requirements
Over the past 2 years we have explored every avenue in pursuit of suitable premises and our need is for a flexible building which satisfies our intended use and one with perceived quality appeal. Many of our sister charities in the UK have located into business parks and light industrial development as these are the ideal buildings to suit their needs – Warrington is such an example. We have looked at existing light industrial parks but have only found sites which are tired, run down, have poor parking and do not suit our profile and would ultimately require further planning permission based on the planning department's advice.
We feel that the Eden Business Park site ticks all the boxes especially as it means we have space to establish our workshop to restore donated furniture.
Compounding our urgency to find new suitable premises is the potential significant expansion of Crossroads Care as Government seeks to devolve its care to organizations such as ours. It also enables us to train and work with disabled members of the community. In this regard it is important to understand that the layout of Eden Park units is ideal as people can visit discreetly as part of a trip to say the garden centre or Robinsons.
We believe that the mixed use which we need to accommodated is ideally suited to a clean, high quality Light Industrial setting, in particular the workshop element described above. What we are proposing will not generate additional fumes, noise or traffic over and above that which is to be expected from a Light Industrial unit. It will not deprive the town centre of retail trade as we intend to maintain our existing shops and there will be no sales undertaken from our proposed premises. We can only see benefits for all concerned.
We are looking to occupy Units B6 & B5, merged into one, to accommodate our workshop and administrative activities. We are still giving consideration to the inclusion of a mezzanine floor but even if we do not progress with one at this stage, the ability to provide additional floor space in the future would be a benefit to us, and we understand that this will be subject to a further planning application.
The public kindly donate furniture to us for sale in our town centre shops. The furniture will be brought to the proposed building, thoroughly cleaned and repaired to make it suitable for resale. Repairs could take the form of replacing damaged parts like handles, legs, casters, seat coverings, replacing damaged glass to picture frames etc. Whatever is reasonably required to make the most use of what we are given.
Over half of the overall area of the units will be the workshop where the repairs are carried out. The workshop will include an area where newly donated furniture will be stored waiting to be inspected and repair works planned and another area where completed furniture will be waiting to be transported to our shops. A small part of the workshop will be sectioned off for paint and varnish application. We are keen to have a single large space for the workshop as this will provide us with maximum flexibility to manoeuvre and work on large pieces of furniture. It would be very restrictive to try to carry out this industrial operation within a domestic scale building.
Most of the work will be carried out with hand tools with some use of cordless drills and jigsaws etc...but nothing that will cause any level of noise or fumes. We are also intending to make small items like gift cards and arts and craft items for seasonal sale in our town centre shops. We are fortunate to have a strong volunteer base who are always looking for ways to help the charity so a flexible space will be a real bonus to us.
We initially foresee the following staff numbers at the new building at Eden Business Park;
Furniture repair workshop - full time = 1 Furniture repair workshop - part time = 12 volunteers Administration - full time = 8 Administration - part time = 2
However, we expect growth especially as we are bidding to take over key services currently provided by government, and the ability to construct a mezzanine or expand into an adjacent unit, is a major positive benefit for us. It is imperative the building we occupy is flexible and capable of being scaled up.
Many of the carers we help like to remain anonymous and by having one of the units located next to Eden Park Garden Centre it is not obvious as to why someone has entered the business park. Therefore, the carer can visit our office discreetly without having to explain themselves should they want to be private about their caring role as many carers do. Our Day Centre and Nursery at Masham Court, Victoria Avenue, Douglas has a meeting/training room therefore we do not intend to use the Eden Park unit for large regular meetings. A carer's anonymity is extremely important to them and we respect this as the island's only carers organisation.
The Eden Business Park development has planning approval for Light Industrial use. Planning approval was initially granted by the Planning Committee but was taken to appeal by an objector. Following a costly inquiry process, the appointed independent inspector supported the planning committee's decision and recommended the application be approved. The application was subsequently approved by the Minister.
We believe our use to be light industrial. However, during pre application consultation with the planning department, we were advised that our use is 'sui generis' and that a planning application for change of use would be required as it was considered that our uses do not fall completely into any specific single use class, i.e. light industrial. We have previously looked at many other possible buildings; office building in town, large residential properties and commercial buildings but from the advise we have received we would still need to seek change of use planning consent in one form or another. The planning department have previously suggested we occupy separate buildings to cater for the different aspect of our use, but as previously described, this is not efficient use of the charity money on which we rely.
We would highlight again that charities, similar to ourselves occupy buildings in light industrial and business parks in the UK. The UK planning system supports this because of the permitted change of use policy in place there, please see attached General Use Classes Order (April 2014) table attached. The UK planning system permits alternative uses for a building without the need for additional planning approval. Specifically relevant to this planning application, in the UK, B1(Business use) & B8(Storage & Distribution use) up to a maximum of 500sqm, are both permitted to occupy a B2(General Industrial use) building. This policy was expanded recently to further cut down on planning bureaucracy and assist in economic development / regeneration. We believe a change to the Isle of Man planning policy to be similar to the proven to work system in place in the UK would eliminate many of the
planning questions that currently impact on the ability of island businesses to expand and would avoid disadvantageing us compared to adjacent jurisdictions. We understand the policy section of the planning department are currently giving consideration to updating the Isle of Man permitted change of use and use classes policy but at the time of submission, this has yet to be consulted upon.
CONCLUSION
Our proposed use includes a high proportion of light industrial use. The remaining use is associated administration, albeit the number of staff may be higher than expected in a light industrial use building. Our proposed light industrial use will not be acceptable in buildings designated for office use, residential use or any other type of building use without further planning approval so there are no other buildings that are more suitable for our requirements than the one we are looking to occupy. Our occupation of a building at Eden Park should therefore be more acceptable due to our predominant light industrial activity.
Our proposed use will not cause an increase level of harm so in relation to the definition for Class 5-Light Industrial Use, we would comply with the requirement that our operations could occur in a residential setting. The appearance of the building will not alter from what has already being approved.
The Eden Park development is of the high quality, both in design and environment, which we are seeking to project as an organisation. Our moving from Derby Square could revert our existing buildings back to residential use, which would ease the car parking pressures within the square and possibly improve the character of the Square.
Whilst not a planning consideration, but a major consideration for us is the need for a low maintenance building which will keep our outgoings and overheads as small a possible to allow us to make the best use of charitable monies and provide the most care that we can.
The building at Eden Business Park gives us future expansion potential which we need, given the anticipated increased reliance on organisations like ourselves by government.
We hope the supporting information contained in this letter is taken on board in the consideration of our planning application. Should you require any further information, could you please contact our agents.
Yours sincerely
Jackie Betteridge Chief Executive, Crossroads Care
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