240308ApprovedPCMinutes

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 1 of 10

Aprroved Minutes of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Meet­ing Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity HQ, Grant­own on Spey Hybrid 8 March 2024 at 11.00am

Present Chris Beat­tie (Plan­ning Con­vener) Elean­or Mack­in­tosh (Deputy Plan­ning Con­vener) Kenny Deans Rus­sell Jones Sandy Brem­ner (Board Con­vener) John Kirk Peter Cos­grove Lauren Mac­Cal­lum Derek Ross Paul Gibb Bill Lob­ban Fiona McLean Xan­der McDade Duncan Miller

Vir­tu­al Han­nah Grist Geva Black­ett Ann Ross

Apo­lo­gies Steve Micklewright

In Attend­ance Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning Peter Fer­guson, Harp­er MacLeod LLP Emma Bryce, Plan­ning Man­ager (Devel­op­ment Man­ager) Katie Crerar, Plan­ning Officer (Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment) Adam Streeter-Smith, Recre­ation & Access Man­ager Emma Green­lees, Plan­ning Sup­port Officer Mari­aan Pita, Exec­ut­ive Sup­port Manager

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Agenda Item 1&2 Wel­come and Apologies

1. The Plan­ning Con­vener wel­comed all present includ­ing mem­bers of the public.

Agenda Item 3 Declar­a­tions of Interest

1. Lauren Mac­Cal­lum declared an interest in Item 5 and will be join­ing after this discussion.

Agenda Item 4 Minutes of Pre­vi­ous Meet­ing and Mat­ters Arising

1. The minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing on 26 Janu­ary 2024 held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, Grant­own on Spey, were approved with no amendments.

Agenda Item 5

1. Applic­a­tion for Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 2023/0399/DET (23/02003/FUL) Change of use of land to beer garden (in ret­ro­spect) at Land 45M SE of Old Bridge Inn, 23 Dal­faber Road, Aviemore Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to con­di­tions Katie Crerar, Plan­ning Officer, Devel­op­ment Management

2. The Plan­ning Con­vener mem­bers noted that com­mit­tee had atten­ded a Plan­ning Com­mit­tee site vis­it to the applic­a­tion site earli­er that morning.

3. Katie Crerar, Plan­ning Officer, Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment presen­ted the paper to the committee.

4. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask for clar­ity, and the fol­low­ing point was raised: a) A Mem­ber asked if High­land Coun­cil Plan­ning team had com­men­ted on access for vehicles or if the con­sid­er­a­tion was giv­en to the pro­pos­al for a Beer Garden only. The Plan­ning Officer con­firmed that they would have com­men­ted on the pro­pos­al as a Beer Garden.

5. The applic­ant Owen Cald­well addressed the committee.

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1. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask for clar­ity. The fol­low­ing points were raised: a) A Mem­ber asked how the own­er inten­ded to police the area and keep the load­ing bay free. The applic­ant con­firmed that while the Beer Garden is open there will a mem­ber of staff onsite and they could put traffic cones down, along with up appro­pri­ate sig­nage at the entry point and a notice on the web­site. b) Clar­ity was sought on what land the applic­ant leased, and it was con­firmed that this was out­lined on the plans through the blue line. c) A Mem­ber asked if there was vehicle access on the lease. The applic­ant con­firmed that as the lease­hold­er, they had a right of vehicle access on the land but that the pub­lic only had a ped­es­tri­an right of access across it covered by the out­door access code.

2. The object­or Dav­id Craig presen­ted to the committee.

3. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask for clar­ity. The fol­low­ing points were raised: a) A Mem­ber asked wheth­er there were oth­er access points to the river Spey. The object­or con­firmed that there were lim­ited loc­a­tions in the vicin­ity and that this site had been the most access­ible place to take vehicles and trail­ers in the past. b) A Mem­ber asked for an aver­age on how many vehicles with trail­ers and canoes would vis­it the site through the year. The object­or con­firmed that he did not have this inform­a­tion but about six dif­fer­ent organ­isa­tions could at one time us this spot to launch on the same day.

4. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask for clar­ity from Adam Streeter-Smith the Recre­ation & Access Man­ager. The fol­low­ing points were raised: a) A Mem­ber asked if the Officer was sat­is­fied with access, and wheth­er we are provid­ing the users with reas­on­able access. The Recre­ation and Access Man­ager cla­ri­fied that if this applic­a­tion was approved, the pub­lic would con­tin­ue to have the right to cross the site the site via the core path and ped­es­tri­an cor­ridor. b) A Mem­ber asked how a canoeist would then access the site. The Recre­ation and Access Man­ager con­firmed that rivers users often car­ried their equip­ment to the river at many loc­a­tions. c) It was noted that the inform­al arrange­ments had allowed for vehicles to be parked closer to the river in the past, but that the lease own­er could remove the abil­ity to park on the site at any time, where­as the right of ped­es­tri­an access to the river would remain.

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

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a) A Mem­ber explained that they con­sidered that the use of the area for a Beer Garden is incom­pat­ible with its use for vehicle access giv­en that the space could be busy with people and chil­dren. b) A Mem­ber pro­posed a con­di­tion requir­ing the details of demarc­a­tion of the drop- off and pick up areas as well as the cor­ridor to the river. The Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning con­firmed that details could be sought on those spaces would be marked on the ground. c) Peter Fer­guson con­firmed that policy 33h states there is a require­ment for devel­op­ments to max­im­ise all out­door access, how­ever this does not relate to vehicle access. d) The Recre­ation and Access Manger con­firmed that if the ped­es­tri­an access became obstruc­ted there were powers avail­able to the Park Author­ity under the Land Reform Act that could be used to ensure access. e) A Mem­ber asked if it would be pos­sible to indic­ate where the core path is to make sure that it’s kept free. Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning con­firmed that we would use enforce­ment notice to make sure that this is kept clear. f) Peter Fer­guson con­firmed that the 2.5m cor­ridor fol­lows a dif­fer­ent route to the des­ig­nated path lead­ing to the Spey to what extend would the cur­rent pro­pos­al impact on the path and if per­mis­sion gran­ted, thought would have to be giv­en to diver­sion of cur­rent route lead­ing into the Spey. g) A num­ber of mem­bers said that they were not able to approve the applic­a­tion as it stands, and more dis­cus­sion is needed. h) A mem­ber asked if the com­mit­tee could approve the applic­a­tion for a set peri­od of time to allow a more thor­ough assess­ment of the impacts of grant­ing per­mis­sion without refus­ing per­mis­sion at this stage. Peter Fer­guson con­firmed that if Mem­bers wanted to approve time could be lim­ited and the jus­ti­fic­a­tion for this would be to assess what the impacts on the ground.

1. The Con­vener adjourned the meet­ing for 15 minutes to allow the pre­par­a­tion of amend­ments to the Officer’s recommendation.

2. The meet­ing recom­menced at 12:55pm.

3. Bill Lob­ban put for­ward an Amend­ment to refuse the applic­a­tion on the grounds that it is con­tra­dict­ory to policy 33j of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment plan as it fails to demon­strate an appro­pri­ate level of access to the site. This was seconded by Paul Gibb.

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1. Xan­der McDade put for­ward an Amend­ment to add two con­di­tions to the Officer’s recom­mend­a­tions. The first con­di­tion was to lim­it the dur­a­tion of con­sent to two years and second con­di­tion was for Officers to approve meas­ures to identi­fy the vehicle drop off zone area and ped­es­tri­an cor­ridor to the Spey. This was seconded by Fiona McLean.

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

	Amend­ment 1 (refuse)	Amend­ment 2	Abstain
Chris Beat­tie		✓
Geva Black­ett		✓
Sandy Brem­ner		✓
Peter Cos­grove		✓
Kenny Deans	✓
Paul Gibb	✓
Han­nah Grist		✓
Rus­sell Jones	✓
John Kirk	✓
Bill Lob­ban	✓
Elean­or Mackintosh	✓
Xan­der McDade		✓
Fiona McLean		✓
Duncan Miller		✓
Ann Ross			✓
Derek Ross		✓
TOTAL	6	9	1

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1. Derek Ross pro­posed the Motion to approve as per the Officer’s recom­mend­a­tions and this was seconded by Ann Ross.

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

	Motion	Amend­ment 2	Abstain
Chris Beat­tie		✓
Geva Black­ett		✓
Sandy Brem­ner		✓
Peter Cos­grove		✓
Kenny Deans		✓
Paul Gibb			✓
Han­nah Grist		✓
Rus­sell Jones		✓
John Kirk		✓
Bill Lob­ban			✓
Elean­or Mackintosh			✓
Xan­der McDade		✓
Fiona McLean		✓
Duncan Miller		✓
Ann Ross	✓
Derek Ross	✓
TOTAL	2	11	3

1. The Com­mit­tee approved the applic­a­tion for detailed plan­ning per­mis­sion in prin­ciple, sub­ject to amend­ment with addi­tion­al con­di­tions. Action Point arising: None
2. Lauren Mac­Cal­lum joined the meeting.

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AOCB

1. Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning, informed the Com­mit­tee that the Leth­en Wind­farm pro­pos­al that the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity had objec­ted to had been refused by Scot­tish Min­is­ters. The refus­al was on grounds relat­ing to land­scape impacts on oth­er parts of High­land rather than any impacts on the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

2. The Head of Stra­tegic, informed the Com­mit­tee that the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity was invest­ig­at­ing the arrange­ments for extern­al light­ing at the Tomin­toul hous­ing devel­op­ment fol­low­ing com­ments raised by Com­mit­tee Members.

3. The Head of Stra­tegic, informed the Com­mit­tee that the Old School afford­able hous­ing pro­ject in Bal­later that was redeveloped by Grampi­an Hous­ing Asso­ci­ation had won a Rur­al Empty Prop­erty Award at the Scot­tish Empty Homes Con­fer­ence. He noted that officers hoped to take the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee to vis­it this award- win­ning devel­op­ment in 2024.

4. The Com­mit­tee Con­vener raised a motion to move to a con­fid­en­tial session.

The pub­lic busi­ness of the meet­ing con­cluded at 1.06pm

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Draft Con­fid­en­tial Minutes of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Meet­ing Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity HQ, Grant­own on Spey Hybrid 8 March at 3.35pm

Present Chris Beat­tie (Plan­ning Con­vener) Elean­or Mack­in­tosh (Deputy Plan­ning Con­vener) Kenny Deans Rus­sell Jones Sandy Brem­ner (Board Con­vener) John Kirk Peter Cos­grove Lauren Mac­Cal­lum Derek Ross Paul Gibb Bill Lob­ban Fiona McLean Xan­der McDade Duncan Miller

Vir­tu­al Han­nah Grist Geva Black­ett Ann Ross

In Attend­ance Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning Peter Fer­guson, Harp­er MacLeod LLP Emma Bryce, Plan­ning Man­ager (Devel­op­ment Man­ager) Katie Crerar, Plan­ning Officer (Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment) Emma Green­lees, Plan­ning Sup­port Officer Mari­aan Pita, Exec­ut­ive Sup­port Manager

1. The minutes of the pre­vi­ous con­fid­en­tial meet­ing on 26 Janu­ary 2024 held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, Grant­own on Spey, were approved with no amendments.

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Agenda Item 8

1. Author­isa­tion of plan­ning enforce­ment action to serve an enforce­ment notice to seek the remov­al of two con­tain­ers with­in Tolquhonie Woods, Near Carr Bridge Recom­mend­a­tion: The Plan­ning Com­mit­tee is asked to: a) Author­ise the use of an Enforce­ment Notice on the own­er of the land to remove the con­tain­ers. b) Author­ise the use of a Sec­tion 33A notice to seek an applic­a­tion in order to reg­u­lar­ise the improve­ment to the junc­tion off the A938. c) Del­eg­ate to officers, all mat­ters in rela­tion to the pre­par­a­tion of and detail of the notice as well as the ser­vice of the notice.

2. Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning presen­ted the paper.

3. The Com­mit­tee agreed the recom­mend­a­tions in the paper and reques­ted that at the appro­pri­ate stage, any pub­lic com­mu­nic­a­tion rein­forced strongly how unac­cept­able the Author­ity con­sidered the unau­thor­ised devel­op­ment to be.

Agenda Item Update on Plan­ning Enforcement

1. Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning, informed the Com­mit­tee that: a) Officers were still check­ing the detail of what Tul­loch Homes pro­posed to rem­edy the Breach of Con­di­tion relat­ing to SUDs with­in the flood­plain at Byn­ack Mor/​the Horse­field devel­op­ment in Aviemore. High­land Council’s flood team and the Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency were being con­sul­ted on the changes pro­posed. b) Officers are con­tinu­ing to seek the sup­port of Crown Estate Scot­land in rela­tion to the breach of con­sent at the wig­wam devel­op­ment in Tomin­toul and all the levers avail­able to secure com­pli­ance with the plan­ning consent.

2. A mem­ber asked if there has been an update on works and con­sents for track at Glen Fesh­ie. Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning con­firmed that officers were seek­ing evid­ence of author­isa­tions from High­land Coun­cil and Wild­land Ltd and would report back to the com­mit­tee once all the facts were established.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

1. The con­fid­en­tial busi­ness of the meet­ing con­cluded at 13.27pm Page 10 of 10