The Planning Process

The Town and Country Planning system in the Isle of Man has evolved over seventy years. The Town and Country Planning Act 1999 was the most recent stage in that evolution, providing a new planning framework to meet the needs of the Island in the 21st Century.

All sections of the new legislation were applied from 1st November 2005. Copies of the legislation are available to download from the table below, or in hard copy, for a fee, at the offices of the Department. See contacts page.

The main changes to the administration of planning applications received after 1st November 2005 were as follows:-

The applicant or their agent are required to:-

submit four copies of the application form and supporting documents. The fourth copy will be retained as a public copy for scrutiny at the Department counter until any determination of the application becomes final. At that time, the counter copy will be returned to the applicant or their agent.
advertise the application at the site by affixing a Site Notice and to furnish a copy of the same Notice to the land owner or occupier/tenant (if not the applicant). These Notices will be provided by the Planning Office. A copy of the same Notice will be issued to the Local Authority for their own purposes.
return the certificate P2 (A2 in the case of adverts) to confirm that the Site Notice has been placed for a minimum period of 21 days. Failure to return this certificate will cause delays in the consideration of the application.

Since these changes were made the Department has gone out to consultation to seek views on the changes. This is explained on our Latest Review page.

Further advice on the process of making a planning application is available on our Making an Application page, which also includes a specific guide in the downloadable documents.

In addition

The extent of Permitted Development was increased. See our Permitted Development page.
Agendas and minutes of the Planning Committee are now available for public reference - see our meetings of the Planning Committee page.
Applications considered by the Planning Committee are done so in a public forum
Representations made (letters of objection) along with the recommendation and reports of the Planning Officers are now available for public scrutiny. See Making Comment/Objection.
The level of authority and those decisions which may be made under officer delegation have been increased.
There will be no further planning reviews

The Appeal process remained the same as that practised under the old administration. However, as the review stage, any person in receipt of a formal decision Notice who disagrees with the conditions/reasons attached to that decision, and who has third party powers to contest the same, may submit an Appeal within 21 days of the date of the Notice. Appeals must be submitted in writing to the Minister of the Department.

For further information, please use the link to Initial Decision and Appeal under the old administration. Also, in the case of Appeals, see Article 9 under the Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) Order 2005, in the document table, below.

Please note also, that there are 2 sets of Certificates of Lawful Use or Development Regulations; the Regulations approved by Tynwald in May 2005 and the Regulations, containing a minor amendment, approved by Tynwald in October 2005. See the table at the bottom of this page to view or download these Regulations, or our Making an Application page to download an application form for a Certificate of Lawful Use or Development.

The following legislation, which is available in the documents table below, was approved by Tynwald either in May or October 2005, and came into effect on 1st November 2005.

Legislation approved by Tynwald in May 2005

The Town and Country Planning (Development Procedure) Order 2005; The Registered Building Regulations 2005; The Town and Country (Certificates of Lawful Use or Development) Regulations 2005; The Planning and Waste Disposal (Concurrent Proceedings) Regulations 2005; and The Town and Country Planning (Registers) Regulations 2005.

Legislation approved by Tynwald in October 2005

The Town and Country Planning (Permitted Development) Order 2005; The Control of Advertisement Regulations 2005; The Town and Country Planning (Freeport Development) Order 2005; and The Certificates of Lawful Use or Development (Amendment) Regulations.

Downloadable Documents