This Must Stop

The owners of the former Lord Street bus depot site must stop people parking there or the DoI will seek legal action to make them.

Mr Thomas was quizzed on the development in Tynwald this morning.

Lord Street Development SPV Limited bought the former bus station site from the public in May 2020, with plans to build a hotel, seven-screen Omniplex cinema, bar/restaurant/cafe units, 20 flats and about 300 car parking spaces. However, no work has ever commenced.

During the pandemic, the site was used for emergency parking when border checks were introduced in the adjacent car park next to the Steam Packet building.

However, since then the site has been used as a free-for-all car park, with drivers able to park there without paying and without fear of a parking ticket as it is private land.

After questions from Jason Moorhouse (Arbory,Castletown and Malew) Mr Thomas told Tynwald: ‘The owner has not reinstated any barriers to the parameter of the site to prevent vehicles accessing the site. The department has been in recent dialogue with the owner of the site about the development programme and also the unacceptable use of the site for vehicle parking.

‘The department does not support the use of the site as an unmanaged car park and his written to the owners on a number of occasions asking them to discontinue this. The site was sold with the express intention that this area was to be developed in accordance with the planning approval in 2020.’

Following further questions from Mr Moorhouse and Daphne Caine (Garff), the minister said: ‘If the owner does not close the area to motor vehicles, then the Department of Infrastructure will be left with no alternative but to resolve the issue through the judicial process.’

Development

The Minister was also pressed to give a date on when the site will see some action, especially on the bus station that was originally required to be built within 26 months of the date of the agreement May 4, 2020. However, it isn’t clear what impact Covid has had on that agreement.

Answering questions in Tynwald, Mr Thomas was evasive over the date this is now due, but said he expects the developer to make an announcement on the matter shortly.