Peel Town Commissioners’ Press Statement 24 April

The Peel Town Commissioners considered the latest Draft of the Area Plan for the North and West at their last Board meeting. At this meeting the Commissioners resolved to notify the public of the major amendments proposed within this document which is scheduled to be considered at a public inquiry in July 2024. The major changes impacting Peel, which have been recently introduced by the Cabinet Office following the public consultation undertaken on 24 June 2022, include:

• An additional 35.8 hectares of agricultural land on the outskirts of Peel is now proposed for predominately new housing development.
• Minimum housing densities are now proposed these are:

1. 160 dph (dwellings per hectare) in service centre settlement (Peel and Ramsey)
2. 45 dph in service centre settlement conservation areas (Peel Conservation Area)
3. 35 dph on greenfield sites in or abutting service centre (newly zoned land on Peel outskirts)

For the public consultation in 2022 the high average density of 19.5 dph and a peak density of 41 dph was specified for Peel

• A maximum of 350 dph (dwelling per hectare) of the net developable area is now specified.
• Using the minimum dwelling per hectare density specified for the land newly zoned on the outskirts of Peel this will provide for a minimum of 1,253 new properties. This is in addition to the minimum 400 properties already included during the public consultation in 2022.
• No estimates are now specified for overall numbers of properties to be delivered between 2011 and 2026 in each region. The 2026 date for this Draft Plan must coincide with the approved 2016 Strategic Plan. An estimate of 770 properties were originally distributed to the whole of the West region during the public consultation in 2022.
• No long-term solution for the removal and processing of Peel Harbour silt has been developed. Instead the Draft Plan proposes the continued use of the Peel harbour silt lagoon on important land zoned for employment. This proposal (Waste Proposal 1) alongside the retention of the silt lagoon at Rockmount in Waste Proposal 2 will see the lagoons retained for the foreseeable future even though planning consent for both these facilities have now expired.

The Commissioners believe these late major changes to the Area Plan is contrary to the information provided during the public consultation in 2022 and could not have been reasonably foreseen by anyone participating in this consultation. The Commissioners have resolved to make a request to the Cabinet Office and their Minister to undertake a further public consultation on these and all other fundamental Draft Area Plan amendments prior to holding the proposed inquiry currently scheduled for July 2024.

End.