The planning committee is to make a site visit to the derelict Castletown Golf Links Hotel, before a final decision is made on Dandara’s application to redevelop it.

At their meeting earlier this week the committee unanimously voted to reject the application, following the recommendation from planning officers to refuse it.

The site visit - which is expected to take place sometime before the committee’s next meeting on November 29 - was ordered by planning committee chairman Claire Christian MHK, who, although she agreed with the refusal, believed one should be made before a final decision was made.

In 2017, Fort Island Developments Limited (FIDL), which is part of the Dandara group, proposed a four-star hotel with leisure and spa facilities, and 40 residential flats for the site.

Earlier this year FIDL amended its plans after the planning directors recommended the application (17/01265/B) be refused.

These changes mainly sought to address concerns from the highways division, with no significant material alternations to the designs.

The planning director had previously raised concerns including noise, parking space issues, and the environmental impact considering the development’s size.

The director also cited concerns about the long-term commercial viability of the hotel, saying that the planned one ’appears to lack elements that would make it a quality destination hotel’.

Speaking against Dandara’s plans at this week’s planning committee meeting Derbyhaven Residents’ Association chairman Tim Cullen talked of ’widespread’ opposition from residents and naturalists.

He said: ’Langness is a place of natural beauty and a very special asset to the island that needs to be protected.

’Just imagine looking out from the Sound Café and seeing a large apartment block like this on the Calf, which is accorded the same Biosphere status as Langness.

’The only difference between Langness and the Calf is the anachronism that technically makes the hotel enclave a brownfield site.

’The reason it is designated as brownfield is that when the first hotel was built there 125 years ago, few people cared about the environment. It is unimaginable that permission would be granted for a new structure in 2021 if it was a greenfield site.’