231208APPROVEDPublicPCMinutes

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

8 Decem­ber 2023 at 9.30am

Present Chris Beat­tie (Plan­ning Con­vener) Elean­or Mack­in­tosh (Deputy Plan­ning Con­vener) Kenny Deans Sandy Brem­ner (Board Convener)

John Kirk Bill Lob­ban Lauren MacCallum

Vir­tu­al Fiona McLean Han­nah Grist Steve Mickle­wright Derek Ross

Xan­der McDade Ann Ross Geva Black­ett Paul Gibb

Apo­lo­gies Rus­sell Jones Peter Cos­grove Duncan Miller

In Attend­ance Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning Peter Fer­guson, Harp­er MacLeod LLP Emma Bryce, Plan­ning Man­ager (Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment) Edward Swales, Mon­it­or­ing & Enforce­ment Officer Kath­er­ine Crerar, Plan­ning Officer (Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment) Emma Green­lees, Plan­ning Sup­port Officer James Ade, Clerk to the Board

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ügh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Agenda Item 1&2 Wel­come and Apologies

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

Agenda Item 3 Declar­a­tions of Interest

1. John Kirk declared an interest in Items 6 and 7

Agenda Item 4 Minutes of Pre­vi­ous Meet­ing and Mat­ters Arising

1. The minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing on 10 Novem­ber 2023 held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, Grant­own on Spey were approved with no amendments.

Agenda Item 5 Applic­a­tion for Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 2021/0227/DET (21/02889/FUL) Erec­tion of 7 houses, res­taur­ant, and pro­duc­tion build­ing at Laraig View, Aviemore, High­land, PH22 1QD Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve Sub­ject to con­di­tions and a leg­al agree­ment to secure afford­able hous­ing and com­muted sums towards afford­able hous­ing and primary edu­ca­tion facilities

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 points were raised: a) A Mem­ber asked for clar­ity on how the devel­op­ment will meet the com­mit­ment to 45% afford­able hous­ing. The Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning respon­ded that in this case a com­bin­a­tion of two on-site afford­able units and a com­muted sum pay­ment to the hous­ing author­ity to sup­port deliv­ery of afford­able hous­ing was being pro­posed and would meet the require­ment. b) A Mem­ber asked for clar­ity on what assur­ances were in place that the developer will main­tain the drain­age. The Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning respon­ded that sur­face water from hard sur­faces will be drained under the car park and between the

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ügh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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swale and dragon­fly pond, where it is slowed before being returned to the water­course and that it would be the respons­ib­il­ity of the own­ers to main­tain it. c) A Mem­ber asked if there would be addi­tion­al costs for occu­pi­ers of the site to pay for main­ten­ance of roads and refuse col­lec­tion. The Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning con­firmed that would be the case. d) A Mem­ber quer­ied neg­at­ive com­ments in the report made by the Land­scape Officer about the pro­posed devel­op­ment. The Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning acknow­ledged that the land­scape adviser’s opin­ion had been neg­at­ive about the pro­pos­al and the change in land­scape but noted that the lay­out had taken account of loc­al land­scape fea­tures and that it was the plan­ning officer’s opin­ion that with addi­tion­al plant­ing and sens­it­ive use of mater­i­als, the pro­pos­al could make a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the out­skirts of Aviemore.

1. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report. The fol­low­ing point was raised: a) Some mem­bers voiced reser­va­tions around lack of staff accom­mod­a­tion for the res­taur­ant and addi­tion­al bills for refuse on afford­able hous­ing. b) Oth­er mem­bers agreed that this was a pos­it­ive devel­op­ment on a brown­field site in the approach to Aviemore, with an appro­pri­ate con­tri­bu­tion towards afford­able hous­ing. They wel­comed the pro­pos­al and the high stand­ard of design in the development.

2. The Com­mit­tee approved the applic­a­tion for plan­ning per­mis­sion in prin­ciple as per the recom­mend­a­tion in the Officer’s report.

John Kirk left the room at 10.15am

Agenda Item 6 Applic­a­tion for Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 2023/0199/DET (23/02000/FUL) Erec­tion of 7No. self cater­ing cab­ins, toi­let and shower block, erec­tion of manager’s house at Land 110M SE of Boat of Bal­lie­furth, Grant­own on Spey. 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 points were raised:

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a) Mem­bers asked if there would be pitch sites for tents. The Plan­ning Man­ager con­firmed this, adding that the pitch sites would have access to the shower block. b) A Mem­ber sought clar­ity on wheth­er the site would see an intens­i­fic­a­tion of use and if this would impact on the nature value. The Plan­ning Man­ager respon­ded that there would be an intens­i­fic­a­tion of use, hence the onsite manager’s house, but the Nation­al Park Authority’s Eco­lo­gic­al Officer has reviewed the envir­on­ment­al impacts and is sat­is­fied that issues raised will be addressed with appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures so there would be no sig­ni­fic­ant impacts on nature. c) A Mem­ber raised Com­munity Coun­cil con­cerns around the increased road traffic to the site. The Plan­ning Man­ager respon­ded that the roads team have looked at the access road and were sat­is­fied. d) A Mem­ber asked for cla­ri­fic­a­tion on why a neigh­bour had not been noti­fied about the applic­a­tion. The Plan­ning Man­ager respon­ded that neigh­bours were noti­fied by the High­land Coun­cil accord­ing to their pro­ced­ures and that wheth­er or not they had received noti­fic­a­tion, they had known of the applic­a­tion and made a con­tri­bu­tion on it.

1. The applic­ant, Ron­ald MacPh­er­son, addressed the Committee.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask for clar­ity. The fol­low­ing points were raised: a) A Mem­ber ques­tioned wheth­er the new camp­ing busi­ness will remain part of the croft. The applic­ant cla­ri­fied that this applic­a­tion was a diver­si­fic­a­tion of the croft business.

3. The soli­cit­or rep­res­ent­ing the object­ors, Jam­ie Whittle of R & R Urquhart, addressed the Committee.

4. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask for clar­ity. The fol­low­ing points were raised: a) Mem­bers asked for clar­ity on the num­ber of incid­ents of scream­ing matches and torches being shone into the neigh­bours’ prop­erty. Jam­ie Whittle was unable to provide details. b) A Mem­ber ques­tioned Jam­ie Whittle on his state­ment that this was not a registered croft. Jam­ie Whittle respon­ded that emphas­is is being placed on the busi­ness being a croft, which car­ries legis­lat­ive and cul­tur­al allow­ances in plan­ning applic­a­tions. How­ever, in his sub­mis­sion, it is not a croft. The Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning cla­ri­fied for the Com­mit­tee that while it is not a registered croft, the term was being used to describe a rur­al busi­ness on land. He noted that the

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Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan did not have any policies tied to croft­ing and that the term wasn’t being used to con­vey any weight in the committee’s decision. c) A Mem­ber sought clar­ity on the pro­pos­i­tion made by Jam­ie Whittle that it would be unlaw­ful for the com­mit­tee to approve the applic­a­tion. The Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning cla­ri­fied that this was the speaker’s opin­ion that their cli­ents’ amen­ity would be adversely affected and that this would be con­trary to the Devel­op­ment Plan. He noted that it was for the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee to decide for them­selves wheth­er the devel­op­ment com­plied with Devel­op­ment Plan policies.

Steve Mickle­wright left the meet­ing at 11.00am

1. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report. The fol­low­ing points were raised: a) A Mem­ber ques­tioned why a detailed eco­lo­gic­al sur­vey was not car­ried out pri­or to the applic­a­tion com­ing before the Com­mit­tee. The Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning respon­ded that an accept­able stand­ard of eco­lo­gic­al sur­vey had been under­taken to inform the decision-mak­ing at this and that the require­ment for pre- com­mence­ment sur­veys was stand­ard con­di­tion to ensure that if any­thing changed it could be taken account of. b) Some Mem­bers felt that the pro­posed site manager’s house did not meet require­ments of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan due to the fact it would be being built on a green field site. How­ever oth­er mem­bers felt that the site man­agers house was an import­ant part of the applic­a­tion to man­age beha­viour and safety on the site, giv­en the objec­tions presented.

2. Paul Gibb put for­ward a motion to refuse the applic­a­tion on the basis that it would, if gran­ted, intro­duce an unac­cept­able level of impact on the amen­ity of neigh­bours due to an increase in noise from vis­it­ors using the facil­it­ies which would be con­trary to Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth, part 2.2 Tour­ist Accom­mod­a­tion, of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, and because it would be con­trary to Policy 2 of the LDP, it would also be con­trary to the Devel­op­ment Plan as a whole. This was seconded by Elean­or Mackintosh.

3. No motion to sup­port the applic­a­tion was put for­ward by Members.

4. The Com­mit­tee refused the applic­a­tion for detailed plan­ning permission.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ügh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Agenda Item 7 Applic­a­tion for Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 2023/0381/DET (23/04083/S42) Applic­a­tion under Sec­tion 42 to amended con­di­tion 6 (noise bar­ri­er) of (2022/0069/DET) at Land 380M West of East Croft­more, Boat of Garten. Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to conditions

1. Kath­er­ine Crerar, Plan­ning Officer (Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment), presen­ted the paper to the Committee.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask for clar­ity and no points for cla­ri­fic­a­tion were raised.

3. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report. The fol­low­ing points were raised: a) Dis­cus­sion was had around bat­tery stor­age being an emer­ging tech­no­logy, with con­cerns around fire safety and decom­mis­sion­ing. The Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning informed the Com­mit­tee that there were con­di­tions for both fire sup­pres­sion and decom­mis­sion­ing, but acknow­ledged that plan­ning guid­ance on these mat­ters or oth­er forms of reg­u­la­tion and con­trol of such facil­it­ies might change over time.

4. The Com­mit­tee approved the detailed for plan­ning per­mis­sion as per the recom­mend­a­tion in the Officer’s report.

John Kirk, Steve Mickle­wright and Ed Swales joined the meet­ing at 11.44am.

Agenda Item 8 Review of Plan­ning Enforce­ment Charter

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

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report. No points of dis­cus­sion were raised.

3. The Com­mit­tee approved the detailed plan­ning per­mis­sion as per the recom­mend­a­tion in the Officer’s report.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ügh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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AOCB

1. None

2. Date of next meet­ing: 26 Janu­ary 2024

The Com­mit­tee Con­vener raised a motion to move to a con­fid­en­tial ses­sion to con­sider the con­fid­en­tial minutes for the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee meet­ing on 10 Novem­ber 2023.

The pub­lic busi­ness of the meet­ing con­cluded at 11.46am.