230428PCApprovedMinutes

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ügh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Minutes of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Meet­ing Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity HQ, Grant­own on Spey

In per­son

28 April 2023 at 10.00am

Present Gaen­er Rodger (Plan­ning Con­vener) Elean­or Mack­in­tosh (Deputy Plan­ning Con­vener) Kenny Deans Janet Hunter John Kirk Lauren Mac­Cal­lum Xan­der McDade (Board Con­vener) Derek Ross Chris Beat­tie Paul Gibb Rus­sell Jones Bill Lob­ban Douglas McAdam Fiona McLean

In Attend­ance Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning Peter Fer­guson, Harp­er MacLeod LLP Mur­ray Fer­guson, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning & Rur­al Devel­op­ment Ed Swales, Plan­ning Officer (Devel­op­ment Man­ager) Dan Har­ris, Plan­ning Man­ager (For­ward Plan­ning and Ser­vice Improve­ment) Stephanie Wade, Plan­ning Officer (Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment) Emma Bryce, Plan­ning Man­ager (Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment) Emma Green­lees, Plan­ning Sup­port Officer Deirdre Straw, Plan­ning Admin­is­trat­or and Sys­tems Officer Kar­en Arch­er, Press & Cor­por­ate Com­mu­nic­a­tions Officer Catri­ona Strang, Clerk to the Board George Allan, North­east Moun­tain Trust Tessa Jones, Badenoch, and Strath­spey Con­ser­va­tion Group Gus Jones, Badenoch, and Strath­spey Con­ser­va­tion Group Jim Corn­foot, Cairngorm Moun­tain Dave Morris

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Apo­lo­gies Ann Ross Geva Blackett

Agenda Item 1&2 Wel­come and introduction

1. The Con­vener wel­comed all present includ­ing mem­bers of the pub­lic to the meet­ing and apo­lo­gies were noted.
2. Should a mem­ber wish to have a motion they will be joined by Peter Fer­guson in a sep­ar­ate room.

Agenda Item 3 Declar­a­tions of interest

1. Bill Lob­ban declared an interest in Item 5 Reas­on: Dir­ect­or of Cairngorm Moun­tain Limited.
2. Derek Ross declared an interest in Item 9 Reas­on: Pre­vi­ous pub­lic com­ments on Gov­ern­ment Policy on windfarms.
3. Rus­sell Jones declared an interest in Item 6 Reas­on: Busi­ness rela­tion­ship with applicant.
4. Gaen­er Rodger declared an Interest in Item 5 Reas­on: Trans­par­ency a fam­ily mem­ber­ship of Cairngorm Ski Club.

Agenda Item 4 Minutes of Pre­vi­ous Meet­ing and mat­ters arising

1. The minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing, 10 March 2023, held at Mac­Don­ald Aviemore report were approved with no amendments.
2. The Plan­ning Con­vener motioned to move to a con­fid­en­tial ses­sion on con­clu­sion of the pub­lic meeting.

Bill Lob­ban left the room.

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Agenda Item 5 Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 2022/0307/DET (22/03662/FUL) Relo­ca­tion of snow fact­ory and imple­ment­a­tion of related infra­struc­ture at Land 350M SE of Ranger Base Office, Cairngorm Moun­tain, Glen­more, Aviemore Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to conditions

1. Stephanie Wade, Plan­ning Officer (Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment) presen­ted the paper to the com­mit­tee. The Plan­ning Officer high­lighted the change in word­ing to con­di­tion 5.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask points of clar­ity, the fol­low­ing point was raised: a) A mem­ber asked about the impact on the envir­on­ment if the struc­ture is removed from the cur­rent site. Plan­ning Officer con­firmed the cur­rent site is on con­crete with­in the car park and there are no pro­posed changes to the site. b) A mem­ber asked if wood clad­ding of the snow fact­ory had been con­sidered as a way of screen­ing the struc­ture. Plan­ning Officer explained that it had not been pro­posed as part of the applic­a­tion and the recom­mend­a­tion was made on the basis of the struc­tures pro­posed. Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic added that to con­di­tion such a change at this stage would be unlikely to meet the tests of a plan­ning con­di­tion because of the implic­a­tions for the poten­tial tech­nic­al dif­fi­culty such clad­ding would add to the pro­ject. c) A mem­ber asked if the word­ing on Con­di­tion 5 could be enforced if the oper­at­or become insolv­ent. Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning con­firmed that the con­di­tion would be for the landown­ers and would pass to any new landown­er. d) A mem­ber asked for cla­ri­fic­a­tion on the remov­al of the struc­ture if it were not to be used for a 12-month peri­od. Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning con­firmed that the con­di­tion would be that the unit is unable to be used or not being main­tained dur­ing a 12-month peri­od. e) Peter Fer­guson, Harp­er MacLeod LLP con­firmed that enforce­ment of this con­di­tion could be taken against either the site own­er or oper­at­or. If the own­er of the site become insolv­ent, then enforce­ment may become chal­len­ging. f) A mem­ber asked for cla­ri­fic­a­tion that if any new own­ers become insolv­ent would the Crown be liable for the remov­al under the con­di­tion. g) Peter Fer­guson, Harp­er MacLeod LLP con­firmed that insolv­ency is a risk and the cost of enforce­ment of the con­di­tion would be on the plan­ning author­ity. h) A mem­ber asked if a fin­an­cial bond could be part of the con­di­tion to ensure enforce­ment of the con­di­tion. Peter Fer­guson, Harp­er MacLeod LLP con­firmed this

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is pos­sible if there is an enhanced risk to ensure secur­ity, and that this could be triggered at the point of trans­fer of ownership.

1. Robert Evans, Ryden Plan­ning was invited by the con­vener to address the committee.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask points of clar­ity to the speak­er. a) There were no points raised.

3. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report, the fol­low­ing points were raised: b) A mem­ber had con­cerns about remov­al of the struc­ture should there be any change in land own­er­ship due to cli­mate change and would like to see a con­di­tion added that out­side gov­ern­ment own­er­ship would require a bond. c) Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning sug­ges­ted that if mem­bers wished for such a con­di­tion, that officers would work with Peter Fer­guson to ensure an appro­pri­ately worded con­di­tion was included in a decision to approve the application.

4. The Com­mit­tee approved the applic­a­tion as per the recom­mend­a­tion in the Officer’s report and sub­ject to the change to con­di­tion 5 trig­ger­ing res­tor­a­tion and the addi­tion of a con­di­tion requir­ing a secur­ity or bond to imple­ment res­tor­a­tion if own­er­ship of the devel­op­ment changed in future.

5. Action Point arising a) Con­vener, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning and Peter Fer­guson, Harp­er MacLeod LLP to meet to add addi­tion to Con­di­tion 5 for a bond to be secured if change of own­er­ship in the future.

Bill Lob­ban re-entered the room. Rus­sel Jones left the room.

Agenda Item 6 Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 2022/0421/DET (22/05101/FUL) Con­struc­tion of 4.83km forestry track, form­a­tion of passing places, renew­al of bridge at Land 760M NW of Rise­ley Cot­tage, Glen Road, New­ton­more Recom­mend­a­tion: Refuse

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1. Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning presen­ted the paper to the committee.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask points of clar­ity, the fol­low­ing point was raised: a) There were no points raised.

3. Euan Har­ris, agent for Pit­man and Glen­ban­chor Estate, Frazer Gillespie, Cale­do­nia Build­ing Sur­vey­ors were Invited by the con­vener to address the committee.

4. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask points of clar­ity to the speak­er, the fol­low­ing points were raised: a) A mem­ber asked about the area of wood­land to be removed. The applic­ant con­firmed as 80 hec­tares with 15000 tons of tim­ber. b) A mem­ber asked which areas of the forestry were part of the con­ser­va­tion pro­ject. c) A map was shown, show­ing non-nat­ive in light green hatch­ing which will be replaced by nat­ive spe­cies. Dark green is exist­ing plant­a­tion with areas of deep peat­land, SSSI Areas and res­tor­a­tion of river Calder. d) Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning cla­ri­fied for the com­mit­tee that these sites were out­side of the plan­ning applic­a­tion. e) A mem­ber asked for cla­ri­fied about the route selec­tion site and the pro­cess that was under­taken to select this spe­cif­ic route. Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning con­firmed that Park Author­ity had only received full details on this route. f) The applic­ant con­firm that they did look at oth­er routes before com­plet­ing the eco­lo­gic sur­vey on the option presen­ted. Work would start sim­ul­tan­eous both ends and meet mid­point. g) Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning con­firmed that neither High­land Coun­cil nor CNPA had received inform­a­tion on altern­at­ive routes.

5. George Allan, North­east Moun­tain Trust, Tessa Jones, Badenoch and Strath­spey con­ser­va­tion group and Dave Mor­ris were Invited by the Con­vener to address the committee.

6. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask points of clar­ity to the speak­er, the fol­low­ing points were raised: a) There were no points raised.

7. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report, the fol­low­ing points were raised:

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a) A mem­ber noted that they were not happy with the com­ments made by the applic­ant on the integ­rity of Park Author­ity staff and wanted this in the minute. b) A mem­ber con­firmed that a lot of dis­cus­sion took place dur­ing the devel­op­ment of the hill track policy of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan and did not see the policy being com­plied with in the application.

1. The Com­mit­tee refused the applic­a­tion as per the recom­mend­a­tion in the Officer’s report.

2. Action Point arising: — none.

Tessa Jones, Gus Jones, and Robert Events Left the Room Rus­sell Jones Return to the room.

Agenda Item 7 Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 2023/0019/DET (22/05913/FUL) Erec­tion of 3 flats, omis­sion of 3 houses, relo­ca­tion of foot­path and asso­ci­ated works (amend­ment to 05/00209/REMBS) at Horse field to North of Scand­inavi­an Vil­lage, The Aviemore Centre, Grampi­an Road, Aviemore, High­land Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to conditions

1. Stephanie Wade, Plan­ning Officer (Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment) presen­ted the paper to the Committee.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask points of clar­ity, the fol­low­ing point was raised: a) A mem­ber asked if a visu­al­isa­tion of the amended build­ing height were avail­able to see where it would sit in the land­scape. b) Stephanie Wade, Plan­ning Officer con­firmed that no visu­al­isa­tion had been proved by the applic­ant. c) A mem­ber con­firmed that either a site vis­it or visu­al­isa­tion would be bene­fi­cial pri­or to decid­ing. d) A mem­ber asked about impact on pri­vacy of neigh­bours and how this was assessed. e) Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning con­firmed there were guidelines around dis­tance and angles of sight between neigh­bour­ing prop­er­ties that could be used

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when they were in close prox­im­ity but that the dis­tance to oth­er prop­er­ties was much great­er than those stand­ards could be effect­ively applied.

1. Decision deferred until future meet­ing in order to see more detailed visu­al­isa­tions of the pro­posed development.

Agenda Item 8

1. With­drawn by applicant/​agent.

Derek Ross left the room.

Agenda Item 9 Applic­a­tion under Elec­tri­city Act Sec­tion 36 and Sched­ule 8: Applic­a­tion for the pro­posed Clashin­dar­roch Wind Farm Exten­sion in the Plan­ning Author­ity of Moray Coun­cil at Clashin­dar­roch Wind Farm West Of Exist­ing Clashin­dar­roch Wind Farm Approx­im­ately 11kkm South­east Of Dufftown Moray Recom­mend­a­tion: No Objection

1. Emma Bryce, Plan­ning Man­ager (Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment) presen­ted the paper to the Committee.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask points of clar­ity, the fol­low­ing point was raised: a) There were no points raised.

3. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report, the fol­low­ing points were raised: a) There were no points raised.

4. The Com­mit­tee approved the applic­a­tion as per the recom­mend­a­tion in the Officer’s report.

Action Point arising: — none.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ügh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Agenda Item 10 AOC Agenda Item 11 The date of the next meet­ing is Fri­day 9 June 2023 The pub­lic busi­ness of the meet­ing con­cluded at 12.03. Motion accep­ted to move to con­fid­en­tial business.

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