Planning Officer Report Recommendations

Planning Report And Recommendations {{table:269659}} ### Considerations {{table:269657}} ### Written Representations We have received no private representations for this application. ### Consultations {{table:269658}} ### Policy

Officer’s Report

The site represents the curtilage of an existing cottage which has been the subject of recent extensions. Also within the site is a detached garage in the south eastern corner of the site. The site lies on the eastern side of the road leading from Cornaa to Ballaglass Glen.

Proposed here is the erection of a dwelling to be located alongside the road at the lower end of the site. This accommodation is intended for the parents of the applicant.

When the applicant discussed this with me prior to the submission of the plan, I advised that our concerns would be in connection with the land use designation of the site and access in terms of the access into the site and the capability of the existing road network to accommodate the additional traffic.

The site is designated on the 1982 plan as Woodland and within a wider area of High Landscape Value and Scenic Significance. In such areas further development is not normally approved. Whilst the area could loosely be described as a collection of buildings with some sense of space, it has no name and no mains facilities and a poor network of roads serving the area.

However, DoT have not objected to the application which surprises me. The Ballaglass Road suffers from limited forward visibility and steeply sloping gradients with narrow widths. I can't see how they can recommend that there are no adverse traffic impacts, despite requiring the installation of a traffic mirror - the applicant could do this anyway if access is presently poor.

The accommodation is required for the applicant's parents: his father suffers from emphysema and he would like to be on hand. Emphysema can involve regular visits to doctors and the hospital and oxygen and being in this location which is relatively inaccessible at the best of time will not lend itself to emergency access to or from hospital for the applicant or ambulances. The house has been extended and, if the applicant's father were to pass on, as he suggests he may at some time, the applicant's mother could move into the house.

I do not feel that the applicant's circumstances are sufficient to warrant overturning the land use designation policy against this development. It is not in a sustainable location and could establish an unfortunate precedent for similar development elsewhere in this vicinity.

Recommendation

Recommended Decision : Refused

Date of Recommendation : 12.08.2004

Conditions and Notes for Approval / Reasons and Notes for Refusal

C : Conditions for approval N : Notes attached to conditions R : Reasons for refusal

• : Notes attached to refusals

R 1.

The site lies within an area which is not designated for development on the 1982 Isle of Development Plan (Planning Scheme) Order. As such, whilst the Planning Committee sympathises with the applicant's desire to have his parents living close by, this development would contravene the land use planning policy for this rural area. In addition, development in this isolated area would not be in the interests of sustainable development (there is no mains drainage available to the site, no public transport within easy walking distance of the site and the road network is poor with steeply sloping road of narrow width and limited forward visibility) and would establish an unfortunate precedent for further development in this area.

Decision Made : ...

Committee Meeting Date : ...

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