APPROVED COM­MIT­TEE MINUTES

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

APPROVED MINUTES OF THE PLAN­NING COMMITTEE held at The Com­munity Centre, Nethy­bridge on 28 June 2019 at 11.15am

Mem­bers Present

Elean­or Mack­in­tosh (Con­vener) Xan­der McDade Car­o­lyn Cad­dick Wil­lie McK­enna Deirdre Fal­con­er Ian McLar­en Pippa Had­ley Dr Fiona McLean Janet Hunter Wil­li­am Mun­ro John Kirk Dr Gaen­er Rodger John Lath­am Derek Ross Douglas McAdam Judith Webb Peter Argyle (Deputy Convener)

In Attend­ance:

Gav­in Miles, Head of Plan­ning & Com­munit­ies Dan Har­ris, Plan­ning Man­ager (For­ward Plan­ning & Ser­vice Improve­ment) Stephanie Wade, Plan­ning Officer Edward Swales, Mon­it­or­ing & Enforce­ment Officer Katie Crerar, Plan­ning Officer Peter Fer­guson, Leg­al Adviser, Harp­er MacLeod LLP Alix Hark­ness, Clerk to the Board Dot Har­ris, Plan­ning Sup­port Officer

Apo­lo­gies: Geva Black­ett Anne Rae Macdonald

Agenda Items I & 2: Wel­come & Apologies

1. The Con­vener wel­comed all present and apo­lo­gies were noted. The Con­vener wished Geva Black­ett a speedy recovery.

APPROVED COM­MIT­TEE MINUTES

Agenda Item 3: Minutes & Mat­ters Arising from the Pre­vi­ous Meeting

1. The minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing, 24 May 2019, held in The Lecht Ski Centre were approved with no amendments.

2. The Con­fid­en­tial minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing, 24 May 2019, held in The Lecht Ski Centre were approved with the following/​no amendments.

   • At Para 3c.: Typo ​‘imme­di­ately’ should read ​‘Imme­di­ate’

3. There were no mat­ters arising.

4. The Con­vener provided an update on the Action Point from the pre­vi­ous meeting:

   • Action Point at Para 49i) Closed – Officers con­firmed the CNPA’s objec­tion to the pro­posed devel­op­ment to the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Energy Con­sents Unit.

5. Action Point Arising: None.

Agenda Item 4: Declar­a­tion of Interest by Mem­bers on Items Appear­ing on the Agenda

1. There were no interests were declared.

Agenda Item 5: Applic­a­tion for Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion (2019/0121/DET) Ret­ro­spect­ive resur­fa­cing of hill track At Land 2890m NW of Carn Sgu­lain, New­ton­more Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve Sub­ject to Conditions

1. The Con­vener advised Car­oline Web­ster, Savills (Agent) and Tessa & Gus Jones, Badenoch & Strath­spey Con­ser­va­tion Group (Object­ors) were present to address the Committee.

2. Edward Swales, Mon­it­or­ing & Enforce­ment Officer presen­ted the paper to the Committee.

3. Car­oline Web­ster, the Agent was invited to address the Com­mit­tee. She gave a presentation.

APPROVED COM­MIT­TEE MINUTES

1. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask points of clar­ity. The fol­low­ing was raised: a) Could it be con­firmed that no new tracks were being pro­posed? Car­oline Web­ster con­firmed that the applic­a­tion con­cerned exist­ing tracks and some sec­tions did not need any work at all. b) If the work was done in 2017, what was the reas­on why the applic­a­tion had not been sub­mit­ted earli­er? Car­oline Web­ster advised that it had taken time to pull togeth­er the neces­sary plans and inform­a­tion to make the applic­a­tion. c) Had geo­tex­tiles been used before? Car­oline Web­ster advised that they wanted to try it. It had been used in park­ing areas in urb­an areas.. d) With regards to the geo­tex­tiles was the inten­tion to put over the exist­ing veget­a­tion or screed away to install it. Car­oline Web­ster con­firmed that it is installed on top as it sup­posed to pro­tect the exist­ing ground surface

2. Tessa Jones of Badenoch & Strath­spey Con­ser­va­tion Group gave a presentation.

3. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask point of clar­ity. The fol­low­ing was raised: a) If the use of con­di­tions would make a track like that shown in her present­a­tion would that be sat­is­fact­ory? Tessa Jones con­firmed that it would be. b) Would a tri­al for the plastic geo­tex­tiles be accept­able? Tessa Jones said that BSCG didn’t con­sider the use of plastic geo­tex­tiles accept­able.. c) Did BSCG accept that the applic­a­tion could only be appraised on its mer­its? Tessa Jones agreed and advised that they had hoped the con­di­tions could be revised/​changed. d) With regards to the plea of using strictly tra­di­tion­al meth­ods, what would it entail? Tessa Jones advised that it would involve cre­at­ing the smal­lest size neces­sary, whilst accept­ing that it would not be veget­ated ini­tially but would over time and would involve the drain­age being prop­erly done.

4. The Con­vener thanked the speakers.

5. Edward Swales was invited to come back on a point raised dur­ing present­a­tions: a) Could it be con­firmed that the con­di­tions in the report were inten­ded to cre­ate a track sim­il­ar to that shown in Tessa Jones’ present­a­tion? Ed Swales con­firmed that was the intention.

6. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report, the fol­low­ing points were raised: a) Con­cern raised regard­ing the tri­al use of plastic geo­tex­tile for the turn­ing circle. Could con­di­tions be added to address the tri­al if it was not suc­cess­ful? Gav­in Miles, Head of Plan­ning and Com­munit­ies advised if the turn­ing circle did not work as con­sen­ted, the applic­ants would need to change it to a more con­ven­tion­al track con­struc­tion which could require a plan­ning application.

APPROVED COM­MIT­TEE MINUTES

b) Con­cern raised regard­ing the intro­duc­tion of plastic geo­tex­tile to con­struct the turn­ing circle with the risk of micro plastic wash­ing away into the envir­on­ment as time goes on. Gav­in Miles, Head of Plan­ning & Com­munit­ies advised that the geo­tex­tiles being pro­posed had been used else­where for vehicle use but added that a con­di­tion could be added to exclude the use of this mater­i­al. c) Com­ment made that the mesh seemed to work else­where, was any guid­ance avail­able from the Gov­ern­ment on the use of such a product? Gav­in Miles said there was not. He advised that the man­u­fac­tur­ers would have a spe­cific­a­tion for the product that was inten­ded for vehicle use. How­ever, he noted that most plastic would degrade over time when sub­ject to weath­er and pres­sure from vehicles. d) Con­cern raised that a tri­al using this type of geo­tex­tile would not be suit­able. e) Sug­ges­tion made to explore the use of wool based tex­tile that may be more envir­on­ment­ally friendly albeit a more expens­ive solu­tion. f) What was the grade of the mater­i­als being pro­posed? Edward Swales advised that the sup­port­ing inform­a­tion described it as being of heavy duty grade.

1. The Con­vener noted the committee’s con­cerns and asked Peter Fer­guson, Leg­al Adviser, Harp­er MacLeod LLP to advise. Peter Fer­guson con­firmed that a con­di­tion could be imposed on the use of mater­i­als for the turn­ing circle.

2. The Com­mit­tee agreed to approve the applic­a­tion as per the Officer’s recom­mend­a­tion with the addi­tion of a con­di­tion pre­vent­ing the use of plastic mater­i­als for the turn­ing circle.

3. Action Point arising: i. Addi­tion­al con­di­tion to be added to decision notice.

Agenda Item 6: Applic­a­tion for Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion (2019/00134/DET Erec­tion of hut and sit­ing of com­post­ing toi­let At Gab­hean Bad­den­gorm Wood, Car­rbridge Recom­mend­a­tion: Refusal

1. The Con­vener advised that Tessa & Gus Jones, Badenoch & Strath­spey Con­ser­va­tion Group (Object­ors) were present to address the Com­mit­tee but it as the applic­a­tion was recom­men­ded for refus­al it was agreed that their present­a­tion was not required.

2. Stephanie Wade, Plan­ning Officer presen­ted the paper to the Committee.

3. The Com­mit­tee were con­tent with the Plan­ning Officer’s recommendation.

APPROVED COM­MIT­TEE MINUTES

1. The Com­mit­tee agreed to refuse the applic­a­tion sub­ject to the reas­ons stated in the report.

2. Action Point arising: None.

Agenda Item 7: POST COM­MIT­TEE UPDATE Applic­a­tion for Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion (2018/0140/DET) Applic­a­tions 03/00046/FULBS and 08/​00038/​FULBS_​under Sec­tion 42 to vary Con­di­tion I of Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 08/00038/FULBS to extend time lim­it for fur­ther 10 years At Broom­hill Quarry, Dul­nain Bridge, Grantown-on-Spey

1. Gav­in Miles, Head of Plan­ning & Com­munit­ies presen­ted the paper to the Committee.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask points of clar­ity. The fol­low­ing was raised: a) If the agree­ment was now draf­ted was it just a case of pen being put to paper? Gav­in Miles con­firmed that was the case.

3. The Com­mit­tee agreed to refuse the plan­ning per­mis­sion unless the asso­ci­ated res­tor­a­tion bond is secured by 26 July 2019.

4. Action Point arising: None.

Agenda Item 8: POST COM­MIT­TEE UPDATE Applic­a­tion for Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion (2018/0151/DET) Recom­mence­ment and exten­sion of quarry At Land At Carn Dhom­h­nu­ill Bhain

1. Gav­in Miles, Head of Plan­ning & Com­munit­ies presen­ted the paper to the Committee.

2. The Com­mit­tee agreed to refuse the plan­ning per­mis­sion unless the asso­ci­ated leg­al agree­ment was secured by 26 July 2019.

3. Action Point arising: None.

Item 9: Action Pro­gramme Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 – Action Pro­gramme Review

APPROVED COM­MIT­TEE MINUTES

1. Katie Crerar, Plan­ning Officer presen­ted the paper to the Committee.

2. The Con­vener invited the Com­mit­tee to dis­cuss the report, the fol­low­ing obser­va­tions were made: a) How was the involve­ment with schools going ahead? Katie Crerar explained that the team would do more work on it fol­low­ing the next stage of LDP pre­par­a­tion. b) Praise for a com­pre­hens­ive report which allows the Board to be bet­ter informed on what is going on in each com­munity. c) Ref­er­ence made to land­scape toolkit in the report, what was that? Gav­in Miles advised that it was an advice tool accessed via the plan­ning pages of the Author­ity web­site which breaks down the land­scape char­ac­ter areas and what areas are sens­it­ive to change. d) A plea was made to make the nat­ur­al her­it­age work­shop inter­est­ing to part­ners to their involve­ment. Gav­in Miles agreed and advised that a date for the work­shop had been set.

3. The Com­mit­tee approved the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Action Pro­gramme Review 2019 for publishing.

4. Action Point arising: None.

Item 10 Plan­ning Ser­vice Per­form­ance Update

1. Gav­in Miles, Head of Plan­ning & Com­munit­ies presen­ted the paper to the Committee.

2. The Con­vener invited the Com­mit­tee to dis­cuss the report, the fol­low­ing points were raised: a) The Con­vener provided a word of cau­tion that it was import­ant not to com­pare the Authority’s per­form­ance against oth­ers as our num­bers are so small any dis­crep­ancy could impact greatly on the stat­ist­ics. b) Were there any bespoke tools for record­ing devel­op­ment remotely that could be used in future to sup­port mon­it­or­ing and enforce­ment? Gav­in Miles advised that cur­rently, the real­time and high res­ol­u­tion data, as well as the com­plex data pro­cessing was too expens­ive but that it may well be cheap­er or freely avail­able in future.

3. The Com­mit­tee noted the intern­al plan­ning ser­vice mon­it­or­ing res­ults out­lined in the paper.

4. Action Point arising: None.

APPROVED COM­MIT­TEE MINUTES

Agenda Item 11: Any Oth­er Business

1. The Con­vener high­lighted to the Com­mit­tee that a com­plaint about the CNPA’s hand­ling of the Beachen Court had been received. She explained that it had been com­plex and had went through all the CNPA’s com­plaint invest­ig­a­tions pro­ced­ures. The com­plain­ant had not been happy with the out­come of that and had taken the com­plaint to the Scot­tish Pub­lic Ser­vices Ombuds­man (SPSO). The SPSO’s invest­ig­a­tion was now com­plete and they had issued their decision report. They had not upheld any of the points made in the com­plaint about officers or Plan­ning Com­mit­tee hand­ling of the case. It was agreed that this was good news for the Authority.

2. Gav­in Miles provided the fol­low­ing updates: a) The Plan­ning Bill passed through par­lia­ment the pre­vi­ous and would lead to changes that were broadly sim­il­ar to those ori­gin­ally pro­posed by Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment. b) Noti­fic­a­tion received of Fetteresso (Aber­deen­shire) wind­farm applic­a­tion that has now been made to the Energy Con­sents Unit. As it was a long way from the Cairngorms Nation­al Park (20km) and the CNPA and SNH had pre­vi­ously respon­ded at the scop­ing stage to explain that it was unlikely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant impact on the Nation­al Park it was not neces­sary to com­ment again.

3. Action Point arising: None.

Agenda Item 12: Date of Next Meeting

1. Fri­day 16^th August 2019, Albert Hall, Ballater.

2. Com­mit­tee Mem­bers are reques­ted to ensure that any Apo­lo­gies for this meet­ing are sub­mit­ted to the Clerk to the Board, Alix Harkness.

3. The pub­lic busi­ness of the meet­ing con­cluded at 12.25.