Other priorities for Cabinet Office

There’ll be no expansion of a conservation area in Douglas any time soon, because the Cabinet Office has other priorities.

Chief Minister Allan Bell was responding to a question for written reply from West Douglas MHK Chris Thomas in the House of Keys this week.

Mr Thomas asked who’d make the decision to extend the protected area around Selborne Drive after the Department of Infrastructure was asked to do so last April.

As of this year, however, conservation areas have been the responsibility of the Cabinet Office.

In his answer, Mr Bell said the Selborne Drive Conservation Area had been set up in 2003 and the DoI had been asked to review its boundaries last year.

At the time, the department said it had no immediate plans to take any action – and the chief minister said the Cabinet Office was in a similar position.

He said the office had other priorities, including the Island’s Strategic Plan Review, draft Development Orders for new employment land sites, and work on area plans.

Mr Bell said that meant there’d be no changes to Selborne Drive’s conservation area for the time being.