ABOUT ME

Sarah Corlett BSc Hons, MRTPI
Independent Town Planning Consultant

I have lived on the Isle of Man since I was only a few months old, educated at Onchan Primary, Ballakermeen, St. Ninian’s and Park Road Secondary schools before going to Edinburgh to study Town and Country Planning at Heriot-Watt University and was awarded a 2:1 BSc Honours degree in 1989.

After graduating, I spent almost a year at the University of Idaho on the Ella Olesen Scholarship. I returned to the Island in 1990 and started working for Isle of Man Government in what was then Department of Local Government and the Environment, as a Planning Assistant. I became a Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute in 1992 and have remained a Chartered Planner ever since.

Sarah Corlett BSc Hons, MRTPI

I stayed in Government as the Planning function moved from DLGE to Department of Infrastructure and finally to Department for Environment, Food and Agriculture, working up through being a Planning Officer, Senior Planning Officer and finally Principal Planner before retiring in 2021.

Throughout my time working for Government I have been involved in the preparation and adoption of a number of local plans in the 1990s and assisting the Planning Policy team in the earlier stages of the Area Plan for the South in 2013. The majority of my work for Government has been involved with planning applications, applications for Certificates of Lawfulness and applications for Registered Building and Advertisement consent – writing reports, making recommendations, liaising with both applicants and objectors as well as local authorities, various parts of Government and statutory authorities, presenting cases to Planning Committee and Planning Appeal Inspectors and I have represented the Department in Court for enforcement matters. As a Principal Planner I was also responsible for determining applications under delegated authority.

I fully understand how important planning is:

  • to the Island, it is a function that protects its natural and historical assets which make it a beautiful and sustainable place in which to live and work and to visit but also seeks to ensure that on a smaller scale, that development is not harmful to those who will most closely experience it
  • to an applicant it may be something which will change their lives – additional living space, a new house – their dream home or a business premises
  • to a neighbour it may be a potential threat of something that will change their lives for the worse by impinging on their light or outlook or creating something noisy or unneighbourly.
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I believe in an honest and straightforward approach: I would never, nor would I be permitted to by my professional accreditation to the Royal Town Planning Institute, take a view or make a representation which I did not fully professionally endorse and I also do not believe in wasting people’s time and money or unreasonably raising a client’s hopes. If something is unlikely to be successful, whether this be a development or an objection to it, I would have no hesitation in making this clear.