The Cabinet Office has today (Friday 26 August 2016) issued an initial consultation which will help to plan for the release of future housing land in Castletown.
The Area Plan for the South includes a commitment to explore potential opportunities for additional housing within Castletown. Work has started on the Castletown Housing Land Review and is focussing on three main areas:
- Housing Need – to better understand the need for additional housing in Castletown;
- Possible Sites – toidentify potentially suitable sites to satisfy that need; and
- A Way Forward – toidentify and implement a pragmatic and practical approach to facilitating those sites being brought forward.
To inform this work, the Cabinet Office has launched an initial consultation to seek feedback on the Provisional Housing Need Assessment, the sites which have been put forward to the Department in response to the ‘Call for Sites’ in 2015 (and other areas which could be considered) and potential ways forward for the project.
An explanatory note, response form, provisional housing need assessment and details of the sites are available on the Government’s Castletown Housing Land Review webpage at www.gov.im/chlr
Completed forms and any supporting material can be emailed to PlanningPolicy@gov.im or posted to Planning Policy Team, Cabinet Office, Sea Terminal, Douglas, IM1 2RF.
John Shimmin, Minister for Policy and Reform, said:
‘Having access to appropriate housing is an important aspect of sustainable growth. The Area Plan for the South provides a clear and supportive framework for investment and development. However, this project responds to an opportunity and a commitment to consider additional sites and housing growth in Castletown.’
Richard Ronan, Minister for the Department for the Environment, Food and Agriculture, added:
‘I am delighted that this critical housing review of Castletown has reached the consultation stage. This review is a unique opportunity for Castletown to sensibly grow its population, which is long overdue, to give the town a real chance to sustain itself socially and economically long into the future and to give our younger generation the opportunity to purchase homes in the town they were brought up in. Much work has been done over the past few years to reach this important stage and it is therefore reassuring that colleagues in the Cabinet Official are responding to this issue. It is important now that local residents, businesses, landowners and other interested parties participate in this consultation.’
The deadline for response forms to the ‘Call for Sites for the East’ is 5pm on Friday 7October 2016.
