Plans for a major redevelopment scheme have been approved for a second time by the island’s planning committee despite ongoing concerns about parking, landownership and affordable housing.

Manx Development Corporation’s Westmoreland Village scheme proposed for a site bordered by Demesne Road and Westmoreland Road, comprises 133 new homes split across apartments, townhouses, small blocks of flats and a senior living block.

It also includes a new scout hut/community pavilion, and refurbishment and extension of Crookall House as offices.

The plan (23/00291/B) was supported by the narrowest of margins in February, with the application carried by the casting vote of committee chairman Rob Callister MHK.

Concerns then centred on the issue of off-street parking with only 89 car spaces being provided - the Strategic Plan specifies it would require 214.

The application was approved subject to a legal agreement but this week it was back before the planning committee which heard that it had not been possible to complete that agreement.

This was because despite spending millions buying up property, MDC does not yet own or control the whole of the site.

The owners of number 44 Westmoreland Road have not agreed to sell and were not willing to sign the legal agreement needed to allow the development to commence.

A second issue concerned the provision of affordable housing. MDC’s intention had been to offer the whole of one block to Douglas City Council - but the local authority has not formally committed to purchasing the units.

This week, by three votes to two, the planning committee reconsidered the application and approved it with amended conditions.

Amended conditions specify that that MDC cannot commence development until it owns the entirety of the site and that a minimum of 10 units be offered to the Department of Infrastructure if the sale of the 42 units in block E to Douglas City Council do not go ahead. MDC would then have to pay a commuted sum for the balance of the affordable housing requirement.

Objector Stephen Moore told the committee: ‘This is simply an over-intensive development in the heart of a community that does not want it and seemingly cannot afford it.

‘Parking and transport issues remain controversial. MDC does not control all the land within this site.’