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Application No.: 22/00782/A Applicant: JR Creer Ltd Proposal: Approval in principle application for the erection of tourist and craft units and creation of motorhome overnight parking facility reserving siting, internal layout, drainage, design, means of access, landscaping and external appearance for future consideration Site Address: Field 430575 (now 435235) Opposite Outbuildings Middle Cordeman St Marks Country Park Cordeman Road St Marks IM3 3AJ Planning Officer: Mr Richard Boyt Expected Decision Level: Planning Committee Recommended Decision: Refused Date of Recommendation: 24.01.2023 _________________________________________________________________ Reasons for Refusal R : Reasons for Refusal O : Notes attached to reasons R 1. The proposed development of tourism accommodation and facilities in an unzoned, countryside location will unacceptably harm the rural character of the local landscape and place an unsustainable reliance on the use of the private motor vehicle for accessing the location. The proposals are not one of the exceptional types of development listed in Policy GP3 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 and are contrary to Policies BP11, BP12, BP13, BP14 and BP15 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016.
_______________________________________________________________ Interested Person Status – Additional Persons
It is recommended that the following Government Departments should be given Interested Person Status on the basis that they have made written submissions these do relate to planning considerations:
Drainage (DOI) Tourism (DFE)
It is recommended that the following should not be given Interested Person Status as they are considered to have sufficient interest in the subject matter of the application to take part in any subsequent proceedings:
Thalloo, Cordeman Road, St Marks
as they are not within 20m of the application site and the development is not automatically required to be the subject of an EIA by Appendix 5 of the Strategic Plan, in accordance with paragraph 2B of the Policy. _____________________________________________________________________________
1.0 THE SITE - 1.1 Site The application site is a hardstanding area and part of a field on the southern side of Middle Cordeman Farm, now called St Marks Country Park. The Park consists of several buildings including a house, barns, a former farm shop which is now a café/hub and various small 'farm park' attractions.
The public access road to the Country Park is from Cordeman Road to the south east of the farm around 1 km north of the hamlet of St Marks. The venue hosts parties and events and has 3 tholton holiday cottages remotely situated around the fields.
The application site is situated in remote open countryside in the central southern part of the island, with the Stoney Mountain plantation to the north and a scattering of relatively small pastoral farms and houses in the locality with no larger settlements nearby.
The land has no special ecological or landscape designations and can be characterised as open incised slopes (D14 in the Landscape Character Assessment). The locality has a low level of scattered human habitation, some equestrian activity and primarily pastoral farming.
2.0 THE PROPOSAL - 2.1 The proposal is in principle for increasing the tourism activities at St Marks Country Park by developing 6 tourism chalets, motorhome parking for around 6 vehicles, camping and 4 or 5 craft studios. An indicative plan provides a potential layout and shows the chalets as being 2no one bedroom units and 4no two bedroom units. However, the planning statement with the application states these might be 2, 3 and 4 bedroom units.
The wider aims of the proposal are stated in the planning statement to be to make St Marks Country Park a top tourist attraction within the island to rival and compete with similar sites in the UK.
3.0 PLANNING HISTORY - 3.1 04/02285/B - Farm shop - permitted on review 06/00303/B - Agricultural building - approved 06/00830/B - two farmhouses - refused
4.0 DEVELOPMENT PLAN POLICIES - 4.1 General Policy 3 - Development outside of areas zoned for development - with criteria for what types of development may be acceptable in the countryside - 4.2 Business Policy 11: Tourism development must be in accordance with the sustainable development objectives of this plan; policies and designations which seek to protect the countryside from development will be applied to tourist development with as much weight as they are to other types of development. Within the rural areas there may be situations where existing rural buildings could be used for tourist use and Environment Policy 16 sets out the circumstances where this may be permitted. - 4.3 Business Policy 12: Permission will generally be given for the conversion of redundant buildings in the countryside to tourist use providing that the development complies with the policies set out in paragraph 8.10. - 4.4 Business Policy 13: Permission will generally be given for the use of private residential properties as tourist accommodation providing that it can be demonstrated that such use would not compromise the amenities of neighbouring residents. - 4.5 Business Policy 14: Tourism development may be permitted in rural areas provided that it complies with the policies in the Plan. Farmhouse accommodation or quality self-catering units in barn conversions and making use of rural activities will be encouraged but must comply with General Policy 3 and Business Policies 11 and 12. Other forms of quality accommodation in rural areas will be considered, including the provision of hostels and similar accommodation suitable for walkers but must comply with General Policy 3 and Business Policies 11 and 12. - 4.6 Business Policy 15: In new Area Plans, the Department will seek to identify buildings and sites which are redundant for tourist use, and will propose new uses therefor.
5.0 REPRESENTATIONS Copies of representations received can be viewed on the Government's website. This report contains summaries only. - 5.1 Malew Commissioners - no objections - 5.2 Department of Infrastructure Highway Services - no significant negative impact subject to cycle parking and EV points being included. - 5.3 DOI Drainage - no drainage to the public highway - 5.4 Visit Isle of Man Agency - comments that they have a tourism accommodation growth objective to 2032, but have too little information to comment in detail. - 5.5 One letter of objection from a resident on Cordeman Road to the east objects on the grounds of increased traffic and congestion at changeovers.
6.0 ASSESSMENT - 6.1 Background Middle Cordeman Farm, now known as St Marks Country Park has been incrementally developed by the applicant over the last 20 years with about one planning application a year being submitted, some relating to retrospective proposals.
Officers have visited the Park and did not witness any substantial farm operations taking place, although surrounding fields appeared to be grazed. Most of the buildings on site now are in use for the operation of the Country Park, which is essentially a farm park open to the public around summer weekends. The former farm shop is now a café hub at the centre of the farm park and there are pet animals in the buildings and rare breed farm animals (sheep, geese, donkeys, goats etc) in the field.
It is not known if the farm animals are part of a commercial agricultural operation (ie the production of food), but there was no evidence of commercial farming during the site inspection aside from haylage feed and a couple of tractors.
Since 2016, there has been permission for tholtons and other tourism accommodation, albeit these are located away from the central farm building grouping. These have been visited and appear ready for tourism rentals, although no one was staying when they were visited. It is apparent that these rental units are very new.
The farm park has evolved in increments over time and at present is a very small-scale and occasional attraction to visitors that is closed in the winter and open at limited hours in the summer. There is no explicit planning permission granted for a change of use from an agricultural use to a leisure use, but with various earlier permissions, the change of use is not considered of great concern. There is one farmhouse on site which is understood to have an extant farm worker tie condition which must be complied with.
This outline proposal is for a sizeable expansion of the site to what might be described as a holiday park. It relates to land directly south of the main group of former farm buildings and would inevitably end any opportunity for neighbourly farming operations in the main buildings and yard.
There are plans for access by campervans and potentially 4 bedroom holiday dwellings on the land, which would be of substantial size, perhaps larger than the term chalet suggests.
The Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 is very clear in policy BP11 that the protection of the unzoned countryside from built development applies to tourism as much as any other type of development. The preferred method of providing new tourism away from the main settlements will be provided in traditional building conversions or the diversification of farmhouses and other rural dwellings. New built development in the countryside threatens the rural landscape which is the very reason that the Isle of Man is such an attractive tourism destination in the first place. Whilst the proposals are situated adjacent to a farm building grouping, St Marks Country Park is in an isolated landscape position, visible in long distance views and largely inaccessible without using a private vehicle. It is not close to any nearby villages and it is not close to many other tourism attractions, pubs or shops who might economically benefit from the new visitors. Indeed future visitors could turn up on the ferry with a load of food in hand and spend largely nothing aside from the holiday rental fee.
The proposals for new tourism accommodation, craft workshops and camping activity do not meet any of the encouraged types of rural accommodation laid out in Business Policies 11 to 15 of the Strategic Plan and as such are contrary to Development Plan policy.
The Visit the Isle of Man Agency highlight that they are seeking 500 new non-serviced, distinctive, eco-friendly accommodation units in the next ten years, but these proposals do not meet that standard and even if they did, planning policy is such that such new developments would be expected in sustainable locations. St Marks Country Park is not considered a sustainable location as it relies on the use of private vehicles, places built development in the open countryside and provides little connection or benefit to other nearby attractions or tourism related businesses.
The proposals would result in rural development of a holiday accommodation park based around existing activities at the property which would be in conflict with the tourism policies of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan which protect the countryside for its own sake and encourage sustainable patterns of human activity.
6.3 Other material considerations
The proposals are made in principle, so matters of design and amenity are of diminished relevance. As has already been stated, the building of chalets and craft studios and the introduction of campervans and tents would have a negative impact on the rural character of the area and would adversely affect the landscape. In terms of local residential amenity, being a remote site means that holidaymakers could stay at the farm park without harming local living standards, although there is a derelict farmhouse directly to the east of the application site which could experience significant disturbance if reoccupied.
Access to the park is on quiet rural roads which have plenty of capacity and no safety concerns. The Department of Infrastructure do not raise objections on highway matters.
The site has little ecological value and no substantial vegetation such as trees. The applicant suggests that large amounts of landscape planting would be made, but this would be detailed consideration later. This does not overcome the objections raised about landscape impact.
7.0 CONCLUSION - 7.1 The proposals relate to new built development which would transform St Marks Country Park into a small holiday park. The application site is in the countryside and not zoned for development and therefore Policy GP3 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 applies that sets out exceptional criteria where development may be permitted. The proposals do not meet any of these criteria and are therefore contrary to this policy. The applicant's representative have informally argued that the development should be recognised as of overriding national need (criteria (g) of GP3), however there is no recognition that small scale new build tourism chalets, craft cabins and camping are of national need.
In terms of Strategic Plan tourism policies, there is a specific reference to avoiding permitting new tourism accommodation in the countryside. These proposals are clearly at odds with planning policy in this regard.
The proposals are considered to be inappropriate development in the countryside, with an over reliance on the private car and would denigrate the rural character of the landscape. The proposals do not accord with the controls on rural development set out in Policy GP3 and are at odds with the sustainable objectives set out Policies BP11 to BP15 which provide guidelines of what type of tourism accommodation will be supported.
8.1 By virtue of the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) Order 2019, the following persons are automatically interested persons:
I confirm that this decision has been made by the Planning Committee in accordance with the authority afforded to that body by the appropriate DEFA Delegation and that in making this decision the Committee has agreed the recommendation in relation to who should be afforded Interested Person Status.
Decision Made : Refused Committee Meeting Date: 13.02.2023
Signed : Jason Singleton Presenting Officer
Further to the decision of the Committee an additional report/condition reason was required (included as supplemental paragraph to the officer report).
Signatory to delete as appropriate YES/NO See below
Application No. : 22/00782/A Applicant : JR Creer Ltd Proposal : Approval in principle application for the erection of tourist and
craft units and creation of motorhome overnight parking facility reserving siting, internal layout, drainage, design, means of access, landscaping and external appearance for future consideration
Site Address : Field 430575 (now 435235) Opposite Outbuildings Middle Cordeman St Marks Country Park Cordeman Road St Marks IM3 3AJ
Presenting Officer As above (correct manually if not the case officer)
At its public sitting on the 30 January 2023, the Planning Committee agreed that a site visit was necessary to assist in its consideration of this application.
Accordingly at the end of its meeting the Members concluded that the visit will be held on Monday 6th February 2023 at 9.30am.
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