A plan to build six town houses on Maine Road in Port Erin will transform a run down area and maximise the potential of a town centre site, according to the local authority, which submitted the application.
The application, 15/00120/A is for approval in principle of the scheme on what is a car park and coastguard store owned by the commissioners and a house, Whitestones, owned by Sally Hoyle, who lives in Halifax.
The car park ‘is falling into a poor state of repair and there is no funding available to repair such an underused facility,’ said the authority.
They added: ‘It is used infrequently for day to day parking and has become an unofficial long term parking facility for people with motor homes and camper vans etc, which the commissioners wish to discourage.’
The property, Whitestones, built in the 1930s and up for sale, ‘requires substantial modernisation to bring it up to current standards’.
The plan is to demolish Whitestones and the coastguard store and build six two-storey houses fronting Maine Road with two parking spaces and a garden for each property behind.
Commissioners’ chairman Ged Power said: ‘In these times we have got to examine all the revenue opportunities that are at the disposal of Port Erin Commissioners and this piece of land is defunct as a car park. If you are looking at what that area was like, it was an eyesore for some considerable time. The plans will mean in the near future we will have significant improvements for that neighbourhood.’