| Description | A sequence of registers recording applications for development submitted for approval as part of the Isle of Man Government Town and Country planning and control system.
Applications for planning approval were submitted to the Development Board (1936-1956) and its successors, the Local Goverment Board (1956-1986) and the Department of Local Government and the Environment (1986-2010). Applicants were required to submit plans of the proposed development alongside the application.
Planning applications were given a reference number upon submission to the Development Board and are listed in the registers in reference number order.
The standard information captured for each application is:
-date of receipt by the Board;
-name and address of the applicant;
-location of proposed works;
-description of works, with landscape references;
-date of consideration by the Planning Committee or Special Planning Committee;
-date of approval/refusal;
-conditions to which approval was subject/reason(s) for refusal;
-date of the final decision, if the application went to Review/Appeal stages;
-additional notes and comments made by the Committee.
In the back of most of the volumes, occupying the last few pages, are registrations of a special sequences of applications related to Douglas No. 1 (New Street Area) Planning Scheme Order 1936 and No. 2 (Ballakermeen and Ballabrooie Estates) Planning Scheme 1939 schemes. The register for 1985-1986 compiles all applications related to Douglas No. 2 Planning Scheme at the end of the volume.
A number of types of records were created as part of the planning application process, including: this sequence of planning registers; a set of index maps (catalogue reference S90); minutes of the Planning Committee (catalogue referene S92); and the planning applications themselves (catalogue reference S10). Paper planning registers were replaced by an electronic database in the mid-1980s. |
| Administrative History | The Development Board was created, under the Local Government Board, through section 4 of the Town and Country Planning Act, 1934. This Act was passed in response to the Housing Act 1924, which had as an objective 'to provide for the erection of houses for the working class'. The Town and Country Planning Act would 'enable schemes to be prepared and carried into effect for development and planning of land' whilst preserving the Island's natural assets and ensuring a safe urban density was maintained to inprove sanitation and living conditions.
The first task of the Development Board was to create a process to control the Island's development. In 1936 it passed its first regulations under the original 1934 Town and Country Planning Act. The Town and Country Planning (Interim Development) Regulations, 1936, defined documents that must be submitted to the to the Development Board to apply for permission to develop land. This was followed by the 'Town and Country Planning Amendment Act, 1936', which allowed the Development Board to create Interim Development Orders (IDO).
After World War 2, a chain of changes, reorganisation and expansion took place within the governmental structure. A Planning Committee was created by the Local Government Board, through the powers vested in them by section 12 and the First Schedule to the Boards of Tynwald (No. 2) Act, 1952, by enacting the Town and Country Planning (Interim Development) Regulations, 1956. The Planning Committee continued the duties exercised by the Development Board. A person or organisation that wished to develop land would submit an application. The required contents of the application were summarised in section 5, 'Application to Develop', of the Town and Country Planning (Interim Development) Regulations, 1956.
The Planning Committee functions were reviewed under the Isle of Man Planning Scheme (Development Plan) Provisional Order 1982, and in 1986, the Local Government Board, including the planning function, was absorbed by the Department of Local Government and the Environment. A Planning division was created to administer the Town and Country planning functions. In 2010, the Planning Division became part of the Department of Infrastructure, and in 2015, became part of the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture. |
| Custodial History | Prior to 1998, records in this series were held by the planning division of the Department of Local Government and the Environment. On 30 Sep 1998 (C123) and Jan 2008 (C526), the registers were deposited at the Isle of Man Public Record Office for temporary storage under section 3(8) of the Public Records Act 1999. They were fully transferred to the Isle of Man Public Record Office under section 3(4) of the Public Records Act 1999 in 2015 (accession A26 and A34). |