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Application No.: 09/00907/R Applicant: Mr Omer Vahaplar Proposal: Variation of condition 4 of PA 99/01898/C regarding opening hours Site Address: 2 Marina Road Douglas Isle Of Man IM1 2HE Considerations Case Officer : Mr Ian Brooks Expected Decision Level: Planning Committee Written Representations Your Ref: NK/KB/20409.001/S 4 Finch Road Douglas Isle Of Man Objects to the proposal Keighley House Apartments 59 Loch Promenade Douglas Objects to the proposal Isle Of Man Flat 2 59 Loch Promenade Douglas Objects to the proposal Objection has been withdrawn Flat 4 59 Loch Promenade Douglas Isle Of Man Objects to the proposal Sam Webbs Castle Street Douglas Isle Of Man Interest expressed Falcon Apartments 56 Loch Promenade Douglas Isle Of Man Grand Design Falcon Shop Arcade Marina Road Douglas Supports the proposal Faze 2 1-2 A Marina Road Douglas Isle Of Man Supports the proposal Consultations Consultee : Highways Division Notes : 25 August 2009 09/00907/R Page 1 of 7 Consultee : Douglas Corporation Notes: No objection. Consultee : Mr N Kaighen Notes: - supports view of Police AL Officer. would raise objections on the grounds that eh extend opening hours may lead to disturbance and anti social behaviour. Consultee : Police Architectural Liaison Officer Notes: comments received
The application site is a hot food takeaway located at No. 2 Marina Road, Douglas. The site is zoned as an area of predominantly shopping use in the Douglas Local Plan.
This application is seeking to vary condition 4 of 99/01898/C so as to extend the opening hours of the existing use to 1.30am Monday to Friday and 4am Saturday and Sunday.
Within the adopted Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2007, the following policies are considered to be relevant in the determination of this application: General Policy 2, Community Policy 7
General Policy 2 states that "Development which is in accordance with the land-use zoning and proposals in the appropriate Area Plan and with other policies of this Strategic Plan will normally be permitted, provided that the development:
Community Policy 7 states "The design of new development and the extension and refurbishment of existing buildings and development must, as far as is reasonably practical, pay due regard to existing best practice so as to help prevent criminal and anti-social behaviour.
The following previous applications are considered relevant in the consideration of this application:
REPRESENTATIONS
Douglas Borough Council fully supports the views expressed by the Police Architectural Liaison Officer in his letter dated 23rd June 2009, and would raise objections on the grounds that the extended opening hours may lead to disturbance and anti-social behaviour.
The ALO has provided the following crime and disorder figures relating to a two year period (June 2007 - June 2009):
A total of 82 report incidents occurred within the Marina Road environment between 2200hrs and 0500 hrs during the two year period
67 incident were classed as disturbances - this includes all categories of assault and public order offences
The ALO has hypothesised that the vast majority of the said offenders will have approached the Marina Road environment on foot and will therefore have either had to pass Harris Promenade or through Castle Street. The ALO have carried out a similar evaluation of the crime report of the said area to enable a comparison of incident rates within the Marina Road environment.
A total of 17 report incidents occurred within the Castle Street between 2200hrs and 0500hrs during the same two year period
12 incident were classed as disturbances - this includes all categories of assault and public order offences
A total of 17 report incidents occurred within the Harris Promenade environment during the same two year period
14 incident were classed as disturbances - this includes all categories of assault and public order offences
The ALO has indicated there has been a significantly higher level of incidents occurring within Marina Road during the midnight to Sam period when compared to the routes giving immediate access to the said area (over eight times as many as within Castle Street and almost five time as many as on Harris Promenade). The only premises that are open during the relevant hours within Marina Road are the two takeaways. The ALO would posit that there is a cogent argument that in remaining open into the early hours of the morning the takeaways are both attracting patrons to the area, and causing them to remain, leading to a concomitant increase of violent disorder. The 'honey pot' effect of the takeaways will encourage persons who would normally take a different route home to enter and
remain (however briefly) within Marina Road. He is also not suggesting that all such persons will commit crime or anti-social behaviour. However, at the very least, an increase of hours as requested will increase the number of people passing through the area, increasing the disturbance, noise, and nuisance caused to nearby residents, impacting upon their quality of life.
The ALO also states that "There are a number of other late-night takeaways located within the Douglas area which have similar permitted hours to the applicant premises, i.e. they must close at 0030 hrs on weekdays and 0300hrs at weekends. I would opine that should the variation be granted it will have the effect of 'opening the floodgates' and will result in most if not all takeaway premises requesting similar variations. The Isle of Man Constabulary has a finite number of uniformed officers serving within Douglas during the relevant time period. The potential for incidents to occur within the vicinity of late-night takeaways (in this case Marina Road) can create unsustainable demands on local policing resources as it requires officers to monitor and remain within the area - to the detriment of the rest of the neighbourhood policing area."
The ALO also wishes to bring to the attention of the committee that it would appear that the applicant premises are continuing to trade outside of permitted hours. His colleagues have noted the premises were open and trading at
The main issue in respect of this application is whether the proposed extension to the opening hours would result in harm to the surrounding environment. This application is a finely balanced case. The area is zoned as area of predominantly shopping use; however, there are residential apartments located directly opposite the application site. There must be a balance whether the proposed opening hours would impact on the residential environment of those apartments. Generally, occupiers of apartments within a town centre location would expect a lower standard of living due to the general activity of a town centre, particularly during the evenings. The existing planning conditions states that "The hot food "take-away" business may not operate between 0030 hours and 0700 hours on Mondays to Fridays, and between 0300 hours and 0700 hours on Saturdays and Sundays". This proposal would mean that the condition would be revised to the following "The hot food "take-away" business may not operate between 0130 hours and 0700 hours on Mondays to Fridays, and between 0400 hours and 0700 hours on Saturdays and Sundays." The difference of opening an extra hour would be very marginal in terms of whether the proposal would generate more noise than the current situation.
In respect of the ALO's concerns about crime and disorder, there are two schools of thought of dealing with crime and disorder, as part of the night time economy, which are 1) to disperse people from the locality as quickly as possible so as to reduce the chances of any crime and disorder, or 2) to concentrate people in one particular local so that the police can monitor the behaviour of people and react quickly to any situations before they escalate into major incident. The Isle of Man Constabulary in this instance prefers to disperse people from this particular location. The ALO has already identified that there is a high crime rate within Marina Road compared to other locations within Douglas; however, the question here is whether extending the opening hours by 1 hour would make any difference to the situation. The behaviour of people at night is unpredictable in that some people go to a take-away to get their food and then quickly disperse but there are others who hang around to eat food and chat with their friends before dispersing from an area. This proposal may also attract more people into Marina Road. It is difficult to assess whether this proposal will increase the recorded crime rate for the area. If people are already navigating through the area, it is considered this proposal will not make any difference to the recorded crime rate.
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