230811PCApprovedMinutes

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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

Hybrid 11 August 2023 at 10.30am

Present Gaen­er Rodger (Plan­ning Con­vener) Elean­or Mack­in­tosh (Deputy Plan­ning Con­vener) Kenny Deans Rus­sell Jones Sandy Brem­ner (Board Con­vener) Steve Mickle­wright Fiona McLean Bill Lob­ban Douglas McAdam Chris Beat­tie Paul Gibb Han­nah Grist John Kirk Xan­der McDade Derek Ross Geva Blackett

In Attend­ance Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning Peter Fer­guson, Harp­er MacLeod LLP Ed Swales, Plan­ning Officer (Mon­it­or­ing & Enforce­ment Officer) Emma Bryce, Plan­ning Officer (Devel­op­ment Man­ager) Dan Har­ris, Plan­ning Officer (For­ward Plan­ning & Ser­vice Improve­ment) Emma Green­lees, Plan­ning Sup­port Officer James Ade, Clerk to the Board

Apo­lo­gies Ann Ross Lauren Mac­Cal­lum Janet Hunter

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Agenda Item 1&2 Wel­come and Apologies

1. The Con­vener wel­comed all present includ­ing mem­bers of the pub­lic and apo­lo­gies were noted.

Agenda Item 3 Declar­a­tions of Interest

1. Bill Lob­ban declared an interest in Item 8 and Item 11. Reas­on: Elec­ted Mem­ber of the applic­ant, The High­land Coun­cil, and Dir­ect­or of Cairngorm Moun­tain (Scot­land) Ltd. respectively.

2. Rus­sell Jones declared an interest in Item 8. Reas­on: Elec­ted mem­ber of the applic­ant, The High­land Council.

Agenda Item 4 Minutes of Pre­vi­ous Meet­ing and Mat­ters Arising

1. The minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing on 9 June 2023 held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, Grant­own on Spey were approved with no amendments.

Agenda Item 5 Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 2022/0305/DET (22/04176/FUL) Erec­tion of 21no dwell­ings at Nethy Bridge Sta­tion Yard, Sta­tion Road, Nethy Bridge, High­land Recom­mend­a­tion Refuse

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

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask for clar­ity. The fol­low­ing point was raised: a) A mem­ber asked if more than 25% of the dwell­ings could be afford­able. Gav­in Miles, the Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning, respon­ded that the developer only had to make 25% of the dwell­ings afford­able due to Cairngorms Nation­al Park Policy.

3. Ron Laing the applic­ant, Elean­or Mor­ris­on from the Enviro­Centre and James Fraser a sup­port­er, presen­ted to the committee.

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1. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report. The fol­low­ing points were raised: a) A mem­ber ques­tioned the uncer­tainty around flood risk mod­el­ling and wheth­er there was a way to aver­age the con­sult­ants’ and the Scot­tish Envir­on­ment­al Pro­tec­tion Agency’s mod­el to find a more accur­ate estim­ate. Elean­or Mor­ris­on respon­ded that the con­sult­ants’ mod­el had been veri­fied against recor­ded flood­ing. Sim­u­lated mod­els were 10 cm out com­pared to his­tor­ic floods and there­fore it was the con­sult­ants’ pro­fes­sion­al opin­ion that their mod­el was more real­ist­ic than the Scot­tish Envir­on­ment­al Pro­tec­tion Agency’s. b) A mem­ber noted that there had pre­vi­ously been plan­ning per­mis­sion for a devel­op­ment at this site and asked what had changed from the Scot­tish Envir­on­ment­al Pro­tec­tion Agency’s per­spect­ive between applic­a­tions. Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning respon­ded that when Scot­tish Envir­on­ment­al Pro­tec­tion Agency did their nation­al flood risk map­ping, a large part of Nethy Bridge was shown to be at risk of flood­ing. Elean­or Mor­ris­on added that when the ori­gin­al flood risk assess­ment was under­taken, a lower cli­mate change allow­ance was used, which the Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Agency had now increased. c) A num­ber of mem­bers noted that while parts of Nethy Bridge have been flooded in the past, this site had not been with­in liv­ing memory. Mem­bers also noted that the pro­posed devel­op­ment was appro­pri­ate for Nethy Bridge which is in need of more homes and afford­able hous­ing and that the devel­op­ment was more bene­fi­cial to Nethy Bridge than the extant plan­ning con­sent incor­por­at­ing six much lar­ger houses.

2. The Con­vener adjourned the meet­ing for 10 minutes to allow the pre­par­a­tion of an amend­ment to the Officer’s recommendation.

3. The meet­ing recom­menced at 11.35am.

4. Bill Lob­ban put for­ward an amend­ment to approve the applic­a­tion on the fol­low­ing grounds. This was seconded by John Kirk. The amend­ment pro­posed was as fol­lows: a) The applic­a­tion be approved on the basis of the detailed flood risk assess­ment provided with the plan­ning applic­a­tion that demon­strates the site is not at risk of flood­ing and there­fore com­plies with Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Policy 10 and the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work Policy 22. b) That all oth­er issues that remain unre­solved can be con­trolled or man­aged through appro­pri­ate conditions.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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c) That an addi­tion­al con­sid­er­a­tion in determ­in­ing the applic­a­tion is that the site has an extant plan­ning per­mis­sion sub­ject to con­di­tions for a devel­op­ment that would provide less bene­fit to Nethy Bridge.

1. The Com­mit­tee voted unan­im­ously in favour of the amend­ment, resolv­ing to approve the applic­a­tion sub­ject to con­di­tions and refer­ral to the Scot­tish Ministers.

2. Action Point arising: i. Officers to refer the applic­a­tion to Scot­tish Ministers.

Agenda Item 6 Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 2022/0241/DET (22/03005/FUL) Alter­a­tions and exten­sion at Mac­don­ald High­land Hotel, The Aviemore Centre, Grampi­an Road, Aviemore, High­land, PH22 1PF Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to conditions

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

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

3. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report. The fol­low­ing points were raised: a) Mem­bers noted they con­sidered the pro­posed modi­fic­a­tions and exten­sion were an improve­ment to the exist­ing build­ing. b) A mem­ber asked wheth­er there would be con­di­tions to man­age the roof plant­ing shown on visu­al­isa­tions. The Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning con­firmed that there were already con­di­tions that cov­er land­scap­ing and biod­iversity enhance­ments. Anoth­er mem­ber quer­ied wheth­er the ice rink will be moved and if there is anoth­er site avail­able for it. The Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning noted that the ice rink was cur­rently a tem­por­ary struc­ture and he under­stood that the oper­at­or was in dis­cus­sion with the applic­ant around find­ing a suit­able per­man­ent site.

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

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Agenda Item 7 Plan­ning Per­mis­sion in Prin­ciple 2022/0328/PPP (22/04462/PIP) Erec­tion of hol­i­day apart­ments at land west of Cairngorm Hotel, Aviemore, High­land Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to conditions

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

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask for clar­ity and the fol­low­ing point was raised: a) A mem­ber asked what would come back to the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee if the plan­ning per­mis­sion in prin­ciple was approved. Gav­in Miles, The Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning replied that all the con­di­tions set out in the officers’ report would require one or more plan­ning applic­a­tions to be made that would be called in and would need to be approved by the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee in the nor­mal way before any devel­op­ment could start.

3. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report. The fol­low­ing point was raised: a) Mem­bers agreed that the cur­rent build­ing serves no pur­pose and that approv­ing the applic­a­tion in prin­ciple would still allow the Com­mit­tee to decide the detail of any pro­pos­al to build on it.

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

5. Action Point arising: — none.

12.20pm Bill Lob­ban and Rus­sell Jones left the meeting.

Agenda Item 8 Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 2023/0056/DET (23/00410/FUL) Erec­tion of 12no houses at former Aviemore Primary School, Milton Park, Aviemore, High­land Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to conditions

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

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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1. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask for clar­ity and the fol­low­ing points were raised: a) Mem­bers ques­tioned the lim­ited num­ber of units and the small garden sizes. The Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning explained the Com­mit­tee that the risk of pos­sible flood­ing had restric­ted the area of land that was avail­able to devel­op. a) A mem­ber ques­tioned wheth­er the park­ing pro­vi­sion would be opened up to exist­ing neigh­bours. The Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning con­firmed that the wider park­ing would be avail­able to cur­rent res­id­ents and increase the over­all park­ing capa­city. b) A mem­ber quer­ied if the bike and bin stor­age could be loc­ated out­side of gar­dens. The Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning answered that the bin and bike stor­age meets the Council’s guid­ance, but the Coun­cil are nor­mally respons­ive to ten­ants’ requests to change if necessary.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report. The fol­low­ing point was raised: a) While the major­ity of Mem­bers were happy to sup­port the applic­a­tion, two Mem­bers had reser­va­tions, con­cerned that there would be a risk of addi­tion­al flood­ing to oth­er prop­er­ties. The Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning assured Mem­bers that the Scot­tish Envir­on­ment­al Pro­tec­tion Agency and High­land Council’s Flood Risk Team had con­sidered the detail care­fully and were sat­is­fied that with the com­pens­at­ory flood stor­age meas­ures pro­posed, the pro­pos­al would not increase flood risk to oth­er properties.

3. The Con­vener adjourned the meet­ing for 10 minutes to allow the pre­par­a­tion of an amend­ment to the Officer’s recommendation.

4. The meet­ing recom­menced at 1.15pm.

5. Derek Ross put for­ward an Amend­ment to refuse the applic­a­tion on the fol­low­ing grounds. This was seconded by Xan­der McDade. In their opin­ion, the applic­a­tion: a) Had not demon­strated that all the risks of flood­ing had been under­stood and addressed; and it had not been demon­strated that there would not be a reduc­tion in flood plain capa­city. b) It had not been demon­strated that the devel­op­ment would be safe when oper­a­tion­al con­trary to the Nation­al Plan­ning Framwork4 policy 22 and policy 10 of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. c) It would not provide suf­fi­cient amen­ity to res­id­ence for devel­op­ment to the site coun­try to Policy 3 of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan or Nation­al Plan­ning Framwork4 Policy 14.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

1. Elean­or Mack­in­tosh pro­posed the Motion to approve as per the Officer’s recom­mend­a­tion and this was seconded by Sandy Bremner.

2. The Com­mit­tee pro­ceeded into a vote. The res­ults were as follows:

Chris Beat­tie	MOTION	AMEND­MENT	ABSTAIN
Geva Black­ett	✓
Sandy Brem­ner	✓
Kenny Deans	✓
Paul Gibb	✓
Han­nah Grist	✓
John Kirk	✓
Steve Mickle­wright	✓
Elean­or Mackintosh	✓
Douglas McAdam	✓
Xan­der McDade		✓
Fiona McLean	✓
Gaen­er Rodger	✓
Derek Ross		✓
TOTAL	12	2

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

2. Action Point arising: — none.

01.20pm Bill Lob­ban and Rus­sell Jones returned to the meeting.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Agenda Item 9 Pri­or Approv­al 2023/0189/DET (23/01439/PNO) Pri­or approv­al for forestry related build­ing works (non-res­id­en­tial) at Land at Crath­ie Lodge, Lag­gan, New­ton­more. Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to conditions

1. Edward Swales, Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer (Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment) 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 of clarification.

3. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report. The fol­low­ing point was raised: a) A Mem­ber ques­tioned wheth­er this track could be used for sport­ing activ­it­ies and if the track was the appro­pri­ate level needed. Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning, respon­ded that officers were sat­is­fied the track pro­posed was con­nec­ted to and related to the asso­ci­ated wood­land plant­ing and that once built it could be used for any pur­pose requir­ing access.

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

5. Action Point arising: — none.

Agenda Item 10 Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 2023/0210/DET (23/01967/FUL) Reten­tion of ten wig­wam accom­mod­a­tion units at Spey­side Trust Bad­aguish Out­door Centre, Glen­more, Aviemore, PH22 1AD Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to conditions

1. Edward Swales, Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer (Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment) plan­ning presen­ted the paper to the Committee.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask for clar­ity and the fol­low­ing point was raised: a) A Mem­ber ques­tioned wheth­er pets were allowed on site. The Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer respon­ded that sig­nage on the site sug­gests dogs must be on

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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leads at all times. Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning added that the man­age­ment plan applies to the camp­ing ground res­id­ents of the site, the oper­at­or can­not stop people passing through the site who may have dogs.

1. Tessa and Gus Jones of the Badenoch and Strath­spey Con­ser­va­tion Group presen­ted to the committee.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report. The fol­low­ing points were raised: a) Mem­bers were con­cerned by the pho­tos presen­ted by Tessa Jones of the site, allegedly show­ing breaches of their vis­it­or man­age­ment plan. Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning replied that officers would invest­ig­ate the alleged breaches and report back to the board. He noted that the alleged breaches raised can­not be dealt with by this plan­ning per­mis­sion. b) Mem­bers noted the recent change in trust­ees and man­age­ment of the oper­at­or but ques­tioned wheth­er a reduced dur­a­tion of plan­ning per­mis­sion was needed to bring a more per­man­ent solu­tion. The Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning respon­ded with the view that the min­im­um time that it could be reas­on­ably reduced to would be 18 months. The Plan­ning Con­vener noted the Committee’s con­sensus to amend the per­mis­sion from 3 years to 18 months.

3. The Com­mit­tee approved the applic­a­tion as per the recom­mend­a­tion in the Officer’s report, redu­cing the dur­a­tion of plan­ning per­mis­sion from 3 years to 18 months.

4. Action Point arising: i. Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning will con­sult the applic­ant on breaches of the vis­it­or man­age­ment plan and report back to the board.

Bill Lob­ban left the meet­ing at 02:40pm.

Agenda Item 11 Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 2023/0243/DET (23/02572/FUL) Form­a­tion of moun­tain bike track link (includ­ing tem­por­ary con­struc­tion access) and related infra­struc­ture at Land 560M SE of Cairngorm Moun­tain, Glen­more, Aviemore Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to conditions

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

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

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report. The fol­low­ing points were raised: a) There were no points of dis­cus­sion points.

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

4. Action Point arising: — none.

Bill Lob­ban entered the room at 02.45pm AOCB

1. The Plan­ning Con­vener informed the Com­mit­tee that it was Stephanie Wade’s last plan­ning com­mit­tee as she is leav­ing at end of the month, and wished her well in her new role.

2. Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning, informed the board that the new Gairn­shiel Bridge, pre­vi­ously gran­ted plan­ning per­mis­sion by the Com­mit­tee had opened for traffic that day.

3. Dan Har­ris, Plan­ning Officer, informed the board that the Cairngorms Park Author­ity had launched its online Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan con­sulta­tion, which con­sists of an online inter­act­ive map which the pub­lic can use to provide evid­ence, identi­fy plan­ning issues and ideas. Mem­bers asked for this to be shared with the Committee.

4. Action Point arising: i. Plan­ning Officer to share the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan con­sulta­tion with com­mit­tee members.

5. Date of next meet­ing: 22 Septem­ber 2023

The Com­mit­tee Con­vener raised a motion to move to a con­fid­en­tial ses­sion to con­sider approv­ing con­fid­en­tial minutes and con­sider two items for decision busi­ness relat­ing to plan­ning enforce­ment action. The pub­lic busi­ness of the meet­ing con­cluded at 02.50pm.