The Cabinet Office The Town and Country Planning Act 1999 The Draft Area Plan for the East Incorporating the local authority areas of the Borough of Douglas, the district of Onchan and the Parishes of Braddan, Garff (Laxey and Lonan Wards only), Marown and Santon Written Statement Draft Published 25th May 2018 Foreword Our Island is a special place to live and work. Good planning can keep it that way. That is why Government committed to bringing an Area Plan for the East into operation by the end of 2019 as one of the priority actions for planning in its Programme for Government 2016 - 2021. This will sit alongside the Isle of Man Strategic Plan, planning guidance and procedures to provide a framework for how Douglas and the surrounding settlements grow and change in coming years, replacing all extant plans. Publication of this draft area plan is the next step in a process which commenced in February 2017 with the preliminary publicity consultation. Further evidence is presented and analysed. Highlighting “the significance of land classification and re-classification” during the area plan process was a recommendation of the Planning Select Committee I chaired after I picked up a Tynwald Hill Petition for Redress about planning in 2016. So raising awareness of this significance is an important aim of this document and of this foreword. Preparing new plans takes time but it is vital to get it right. I would like to thank all those who have contributed so far and your participation is welcomed and invited as we move towards a Public Inquiry and eventual adoption of the Plan by Cabinet Office and approval in Tynwald Court. Chris Thomas Minister for Policy and Reform 1 Contents Chapter 1. An ‘Area’ approach to Plan making .........................................................................3 Chapter 2. The Role of the Area Plan for the East .....................................................................9 Chapter 3. Spatial Vision in the East ....................................................................................... 15 Chapter 4. Landscape – Character and Appearance ................................................................ 19 Chapter 5. The Natural Environment ..................................................................................... 36 Chapter 6. The Urban Environment........................................................................................ 49 Chapter 7. Transport and Utilities .......................................................................................... 59 Chapter 8. Employment ......................................................................................................... 72 Chapter 9. Town Centres ....................................................................................................... 85 Chapter 10. Tourism ................................................................................................................ 94 Chapter 11. Open Space and Recreation, Education, Health and other Community Facilities ..... 99 Chapter 12. Residential ......................................................................................................... 104 Chapter 13. Comprehensive Treatment Areas ........................................................................ 125 2 Chapter 1. An ‘Area’ approach to Plan making 1.1 What is an Area Plan? 1.1.1 The Cabinet Office has responsibility, afforded to it by Section 2 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1999, to prepare the Island Development Plan. The purpose of this Plan (which is separated into two types) is to set out the general policies in respect of the development and other use of land on the Isle of Man and also to identify the proposals which relate to specific places or localities, depending on the particular plan area. The two types of plan prepared and which make up the Island Development Plan are: a Strategic Plan, and one or more Area Plans 1.1.2 The Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 (“the Strategic Plan”) was approved by Tynwald on 15th March 2016, coming into operation on 1st April 2016. The Strategic Plan sits at the top of the hierarchy in terms of statutory development plans on the Island and any Area Plans produced must be in general conformity with the Strategic Plan. 1.2 The implementation of Policy set out in the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 1.2.1 This Draft Area Plan for the East elaborates on the broad policies and proposals set out in the Isle of Man Strategic Plan relating them to precise areas of land. The content of the Plan has been drafted taking into account the Call for Sites exercise carried out in 2016, the Preliminary Publicity Consultation (published in 2017 and again for additional sites in 2018) as well as other evidence collated throughout this period. 1.2.2 The Area Plan is made up of a Written Statement (this document) and a series of Maps. The Written Statement contains ‘Proposals’ which are either site specific or more in the nature of a policy statement for a specific area. 1.2.3 A number of ‘Recommendations’ are also included. These are statements of intent where the Cabinet Office has no direct control over implementation. They are intended to act as encouragement to other Departments/bodies to work together to take action on or to deliver on particular matters/policy statements. 1.3 How many Area Plans will there be? 1.3.1 It is the intention to produce a limited number of Area Plans. There is already an Area Plan for the South which covers Castletown, Port Erin, Port St Mary, Rushen, Arbory, and Malew. 3 1.3.2 This Plan, to be known once approved as – The Area Plan for the East – represents the second in the series which will be supplemented in the next few years by Area Plans for the North and West. Current legislation allows an area plan to relate either to the whole of the Island or to such part as may be specified therein and so there could, in the future, be a different number of area plans to that originally anticipated. For instance, the North and West Plans could be combined or a decision could be made to produce one all-Island Area Plan. The geographical coverage of the area plans thought most likely at the time of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 20071 was identified in the Island Spatial Strategy (Chapter 5) of the Strategic Plan which was carried forward to the Strategic Plan 2016. The Plan coverage of the Plans for the South, North and West is set out below: Table 1. Area Plan Coverage Area Plan Coverage Borough of Douglas, the district of Onchan and the Douglas and the East Parishes of Braddan, Garff (Laxey and Lonan Wards only), Marown and Santon Parishes of Rushen, Arbory and Malew, Villages of The South Port Erin and Port St Mary and the town of Castletown Peel and the West Peel, and the Parishes of Patrick, German, and Michael Ramsey and the Parishes of Andreas, Ballaugh, Ramsey and the North Bride, Jurby, Lezayre, and the Maughold Ward of Garff 1.4 The Area Plan for the East’s geographical context 1.4.1. The Plan Area for the East, as defined on Map 3 includes Douglas, Onchan, Braddan, Garff (Laxey and Lonan Wards only), Marown, Santon, Braddan and adjoins the Parishes of Malew, Patrick, German, Michael, Lezayre and Maughold. Whilst these adjoining Parishes fall within other Plan areas, they also form part of the immediate geographical, topographical, and social context of the Eastern Area. The Department has therefore had regard to this context in the formulation of the Draft Plan. A diagram showing the geographical scope of the Area Plan is provided below. 1 This was replaced by the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 4 Scope of the Area Plan for the East 5 1.5 Stages in Plan Preparation 1.5.1 The publication of the Draft Area Plan for the East represents a key milestone in the process of producing a new development plan.2 The stages are set out below in Table 2. Table 2. Stages in Plan Preparation Date Stage Main Activities 2016 Call for Sites Evidence gathering Public Consultation Opportunity to submit sites for consideration February Preliminary Publicity Setting out of matters to be addressed 2017 Public Consultation Publication of: Baseline information Draft Site Assessment Reports on 187 sites Base maps Supplementary Consultation on 35 additional sites May 2018 Publication of Draft Plan Publication of: for the East Draft Written Statement Public Consultation Draft Maps Supporting Evidence Papers Summary of responses raised during the preliminary publicity consultation Future Stages Examination at Public Inquiry Adoption of Draft Plan by Cabinet Office Approval of Area Plan by Tynwald Publication of Final Area Plan 1.6 Documents which make up the Area Plan for the East 1.6.1 The Draft Area Plan is made up of this Written Statement, which sets out the background to the various topics together with some detailed Proposals and Recommendations, and a set of Maps which illustrates the localities and sites. 2 Schedule 1, Development Plan Procedure, Town and Country Planning Act 1999 6 1.6.2 For this Draft Plan, Maps are provided at both large and small scale. Maps such as the Constraints Maps showing community, infrastructure and environmental constraints, the Landscape Character Assessment Map and the Proposals Map are better shown in small scale. The settlement maps have been produced in a larger scale. Two Maps of different scale are used for Douglas. The Maps illustrate the Proposals described in detail in the Written Statement and identify specific (numbered) sites, referred to as ‘Proposal Sites’ or ‘Strategic Reserves.’