Two sites in Braddan have been allocated for house building despite concerns over access and burial grounds.

The report into the area plan for the east inquiry, chaired by Michael Hurley, recommends DBH002 and BH030 at Braddan Road and Ballafletcher Road be zoned for development.

Site DBH002, owned by Hartford Homes, lies to the east of Braddan Road and Peel Road and abuts the Kirk Braddan cemetery is currently in use for agriculture. The second site BH030 is open land which is owned by the Braddan Burial Authority.

In its draft plan, the Cabinet Office estimated the site could see up to 284 homes built on DBH002, raised to 340 by proposed developers, which attracted objections from Braddan Parish Commissioners, Dandara Ltd, Ellis Brown and 326 local people who signed a petition to block the zoning.

Their objections included the coalescence of separate settlements, the loss of productive farmland, and concerns over visual impact, traffic access and congestion, flooding, water supply, school capacity, the effect on wildlife and historic buildings and the lack of need for the development.

Despite concerns over the visual impact, Mr Hurley said he believes the ’site is generally well contained’.

He added: ’The proposed housing would be prominent when seen from parts of the adjacent cemetery; and it would also be apparent from a section of Ballafletcher Road to the north, and from some of the residential areas to the east and south.

’However, in most close views, it would be well screened and relatively inconspicuous. In long views from further afield, it would be unlikely to have more than a limited adverse impact.’

Mr Hurley said that he believes the best access point to the site was through the wall on Braddan Road.

The Cabinet Office and Department of Infrastructure have both said they wanted two access points however one of these would be from Ballafletcher Road and across site BH030.

While agreeing it would be beneficial for two access points, Mr Hurley said that he is ’conscious’ that BH030 is owned by the burial authority and ’may not be available for development of any sort within the plan period’.

He added: ’I am not convinced that reliance on access from Braddan Road would give rise to such serious highway problems as to justify the deletion of the proposed allocation of site DBH002.’

An issue that may curtail later applications for the DBH002 site is capacity levels at Braddan Primary School.

In his report, Mr Hurley noted that the Department of Education, Sport and Culture has asked for land to be reserved on the site to allow for a new school, however he said this is a matter for the DESC and developers and not his report.

Mr Hurley went on to say that if space is reserved for a school, the housing yield would fall from about 340 to about 300 homes.

The largest issue will likely remain to be the land owned by the burial authority, which had queried whether the allocation of the land could result in it being compulsory purchased from underneath it.

Mr Hurley said: ’The allocation of land in a development plan does not necessarily imply its compulsory purchased. It would be for the landowner to decide whether to make that land available for development.’