A failed planning application could be the spark that ignites a review of the area plan for the south, seven years after it was finalised.

It comes after Hartford Homes and Castletown Commissioners lost an appeal against a planning decision on the construction of 48 homes at Knock Rushen.

The application was for an area of land included in the Castletown Housing Land Review, an ’add-on’ to the Southern Plan, which was intended to help allow development in the town for sites that were not considered or rejected in the area plan.

In a planning inspector’s report on the Knock Rushen appeal, the land review was deemed to carry less weight than the development plan. This has frustrated commissioners, who want more family homes to be built to keep Castletown a ’sustainable’ community.

The planning inspector, Michael Hurley, said he did not believe ’that a separate housing need for Castletown (distinct from the general housing need for the south as set out in housing policy (3) of the strategic plan) has been established or adequately quantified’.

Mr Hurley, who chaired the inquiry into the area plan for the east which is due before Tynwald in July, said: ’I do not consider that the proposed development could reasonably be described as a sustainable urban extension as described in housing policy (4) of the strategic plan, as no provision is made for it in the development plan.’

He added: ’Furthermore, given the recent reduction in housing need published in the draft area plan for the east and taking into account the findings of the interim Census 2016, which reported a decrease of 1.4% of the island’s population since 2011, it is not considered that there is a need for additional houses and the proposal would therefore be contrary to general policy (3) of the strategic plan.’

Following the Knock Rushen decision, the commissioners’ chairman’ Richard McAleer’ called the land review a ’wasted exercise’, and asked for the Cabinet Office to amend the area plan.

Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas says this is being considered, but insists he views the land review as a ’success’.

Mr Thomas told local democracy reporter Ewan Gawne that the land review achieved what it set out to do that said that Mr Hurley’s report was ’very valuable’.

He added: ’I only ever said this was a material considering when we invited applications. And I think what we’ve learned from this is that the development plan process is paramount.

’And now, we need to go through the whole development plan process for the Castletown area as part of a review for the area plan for the south and whether we can do that, when we can do that and how we can do that is a matter under live consideration at the moment and I’m pleased to engage with Castletown Commissioners and others about that.’