A controversial plan to demolish a 150-year-old Manx cottage and replace it with a two-storey home in Port Erin has been refused by planners.

The proposal, 18/00593/B, by Karl Hayes at West View Cottage, Tower Road, provoked several letters of objection from neighbours but was supported by the local authority.

The current building occupies 34% of the site but this would rise to 80% in the proposed development.

Planners turned the bid down saying the size and position of the proposed home would have an ’adverse impact on the living conditions’ of those in Rowan Cottage due to ’overlooking and overshadowing of the garden, side windows and conservatory and the outlook from Thie ny Broogh’.

Also planners said the proposal ’fails to demonstrate that satisfactory visibility splays can be provided’.

One neighbour who objected to the proposal said it was ’out of proportion for the plot and architecturally inconsistent with the majority of properties on that part of Bradda hillside’.

And they said the large glass windows would ’fundamentally change the historic character of that very public part of Bradda Road’.

They said the cottage must be retained as part of Manx cultural heritage and be given a preservation order.

Another objector wrote that planning bosses ’should consider whether it is consistent within our collective desire to preserve the natural beauty and architectural integrity of the Bradda Road/Bradda Head area to grant over intensive and demolition-based planning applications’.

Port Erin Commissioners had supported the plan, saying there are various house types in the area.