Supporting Information Statement

Douglas Corporation

Erection of Borough of Douglas Operational Support Centre, to Include Service Vehicle Parking and Maintenance Facilities, Workshops, Staff Facilities and Office / Administration space – Barley Field, Cooil Road, Braddan.

Statement of Supporting Information

1. Planning approval to use the Barley Field for industrial / business park uses and to provide road and drainage infrastructure has been granted under PAs 01/0110, 01/0111, and 01/1978, and the infrastructure is now in place. Planning approval has also been granted for, amongst other things, a vehicle sales and hire centre (PA 03/0722) and 2 phases of industrial starter units (PAs 03/0419 and 03/0977) on the Barley Field and these schemes are now complete.

1. Douglas Corporation currently provides technical services from a number of small sites, and now seeks to rationalize this arrangement by relocating all such services to the Barley Field in order to provide a modern, efficient service to its ratepayers. The creation of a purpose built operational support centre with the necessary infrastructure and levels of space will achieve this aim.

1. The centre will bring together several elements of the Corporation’s statutory functions. As well as acting as an administrative support facility for combined service provision the centre will also accommodate ICT and back office disaster recovery facilities for the Borough, and will provide training facilities for Corporation staff in order to meet health and safety and CPD requirements. The centre will also provide storage and maintenance facilities, including those required for a range of Corporation vehicles including light vans (20 currently in overall fleet), medium and large vans including tippers/hoists (32), medium and heavy trucks including refuse wagons (7), and road sweepers (5). At present many of these vehicles are used by staff who are on standby and are therefore not parked in a depot overnight, and many also leave the depot in the morning and do not return until the completion of their duties, thus making a minimal contribution to traffic levels.

1. The centre will not accommodate any "dirty" services or waste transfer operations, there will be no noisy activities on site and all vehicles will be washed daily. Parking is provided for staff and visitor cars as well as the larger vans and commercial vehicles that will use the facility. The external compound to the rear of the site will be enclosed by green colour coated fencing, details of which is included with the application. The site will be landscaped as indicated on the submitted drawing, and the building has been designed and finished so as to complement the other buildings on the Barley Field.