CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DRAFT MINUTES OF THE PLAN­NING COMMITTEE

Held in Dee/​Spey rooms, via Video Con­fer­ence on 27^th Janu­ary 2023 at 09.30 am

Mem­bers Present:

Dr Gaen­er Rodger (Con­vener) Elean­or Mack­in­tosh (Deputy Con­vener) Chris Beat­tie Geva Black­ett Bill Lob­ban Derek Ross John Kirk Rus­sell Jones Ann Ross Janet Hunter

Xan­der McDade Doug McAdam Wil­lie McK­enna Dr Fiona McLean Wil­lie Mun­ro Judith Webb Deirdre Fal­con­er Anne Rae Macdonald

In Attend­ance:

Emma Bryce, Plan­ning Man­ager, Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment Stephanie Wade, Plan­ning Officer, Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning Peter Fer­guson, Harp­er McLeod LLP Emma Green­lees, Plan­ning Sup­port Officer Edward Swales, Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer Dan Har­ris, Plan­ning Man­ager Alan Atkins, Plan­ning Officer, Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment James Ade, Clerk to the Board Catri­ona Strang, Clerk to the Board

Apo­lo­gies None

Agenda Items I & 2:

Wel­come & Apologies

1. The Con­vener wel­comed all present and no apo­lo­gies were noted.

Agenda Item 3:

Declar­a­tion of Interest by Mem­bers on Items Appear­ing on the Agenda

1. John Kirk noted for trans­par­ency in Item 5. Reas­on: A fin­an­cial interest as he has a per­man­ent let.

Anne Rae Mac­Don­ald noted for trans­par­ency in Item 5.

Reas­on: A fin­an­cial interest as the fam­ily busi­ness in East­er Ross has a short-term let cot­tage, out with park. Busi­ness is also a mem­ber of Go-Rur­al Agri-Tourism.

Doug McAdam noted for trans­par­ency in Item 5. Reas­on: A fin­an­cial interest as he has a short-term let cot­tage out with park.

Bill Lob­ban noted for trans­par­ency in Item 5. Reas­on: A mem­ber of a loc­al author­ity that has dis­cussed and intro­duced the inten­tion to pro­duce a short-term let con­trol zone.

Rus­sell Jones noted for trans­par­ency in Item 5. Reas­on: A mem­ber of a loc­al author­ity that has dis­cussed and intro­duced the inten­tion to pro­duce a short-term let con­trol zone.

Agenda Item 4:

Minutes & Mat­ters Arising from the Pre­vi­ous Meeting

1. The minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing, 9^th Decem­ber 2022, held video con­fer­en­cing were approved with no amendments.

Agenda Item 5:

Badenoch and Strath­spey short-term let con­trol area policy consultation.

1. Gav­in Miles, head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning, presen­ted the paper to the Com­mit­tee on behalf of Dan Har­ris, Plan­ning Manager.
2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask points of clar­ity, the fol­low­ing point was raised: a) A mem­ber asked for cla­ri­fic­a­tion on wheth­er the policy needs to be linked to the Nation­al Park devel­op­ment plan. Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning cla­ri­fied that this is non-statu­ary policy and decisions would be based on this policy, which provides a frame­work, and the facts of the applic­a­tions. b) A mem­ber asked for cla­ri­fic­a­tion on wheth­er points 1 – 4, p.2 of the paper, lays out the cir­cum­stances under which short-term lets would be con­sidered accept­able. Head of Stra­tegic plan­ning con­firmed this. c) A mem­ber asked for cla­ri­fic­a­tion on wheth­er policy only applies to exist­ing prop­er­ties not new builds. Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning cla­ri­fied that the policy could also be applied to a new build.
3. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report, the fol­low­ing points were raised: a) Mem­bers raised con­cern on con­flict arising from prop­er­ties in rur­al areas being over 800 metres away from act­ive travel links. Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning gave assur­ance that the cri­ter­ia with­in the policy need to be taken into con­sid­er­a­tion but are not an exhaust­ive list. Addi­tion­ally, the cri­ter­ia are things that would nor­mally be taken into con­sid­er­a­tion in plan­ning applic­a­tion and a prag­mat­ic approach is needed. b) A mem­ber raised con­cerns that a loc­al paper sug­ges­ted short-term let plan­ning applic­a­tions have already been approved though had believed that they would be stalled to later in the year. Addi­tion­ally, paper sug­gests that ser­vice departments
4. The Com­mit­tee Agreed to officers sub­mit­ting response to the con­sulta­tion that wel­comes the pro­posed plan­ning policy.
5. Action Point arising: i. Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning to add note to say a there may be con­flict in rur­al areas and prag­mat­ic approach will be taken in these cases.

Dan Har­ris arrived at 10.00

Agenda Item 6:

Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment feed­back on CNPA plan­ning per­form­ance frame­work report 2021/2022

1. Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning presen­ted the paper to the Committee.
2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report, the fol­low­ing points were raised: a) A mem­bers asked how pre­applic­a­tion advise affected staff­ing resources and if it saved time later in the applic­a­tion pro­cess. Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning respon­ded that broadly pre applic­a­tion advise helps the pro­cess over­all and reflects a bet­ter product com­ing to the plan­ning committee.
3. Mem­bers thanked plan­ning team for their effort, note pos­it­ive inde­pend­ent feed­back from the Scot­tish Government.
4. Action Point arising: None.

Agender Item 8:

AOB

1. Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning noted that Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 was approved by the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment earli­er in Janu­ary and is expec­ted to be adop­ted on 13^th Feb­ru­ary. There will then be fur­ther sec­ond­ary legis­la­tion to imple­ment all parts but

the Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy with­in NPF4 that is rel­ev­ant to decisions at the next Plan­ning Com­mit­tee will be applied with­in the reports to committee.

1. Judith Webb’s last Plan­ning Com­mit­tee, Con­vener and mem­bers thanked her for 2 terms and con­tri­bu­tions over the last 8 years.

Agenda Item 9:

Date of Next Meeting

1. The date of the next meet­ing is Fri­day 10^th March 2023 Online.
2. The pub­lic busi­ness of the meet­ing con­cluded at 10.21 hours.