Approved Minutes of meeting 26 April 2019

APPROVED COM­MIT­TEE MINUTES

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

APPROVED MINUTES OF THE PLAN­NING COM­MIT­TEE held at The Com­munity Hall, Nethy Bridge on 26 April 2019 at 11.00am

Mem­bers Present Peter Argyle (Vice Con­vener) Douglas McAdam Geva Black­ett Xan­der McDade Car­o­lyn Cad­dick Wil­lie McK­enna Deirdre Fal­con­er lan McLar­en Pippa Had­ley Janet Hunter John Kirk John Lath­am Elean­or Mack­in­tosh (Con­vener) Fiona McLean Anne Rae Mac­don­ald Wil­li­am Mun­ro Gaen­er Rodger Judith Webb

In Attend­ance: Gav­in Miles, Head of Plan­ning & Com­munit­ies Emma Wilson, Plan­ning Man­ager (Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment) Kath­er­ine Don­nach­ie, Plan­ning Officer Stephanie Wade, Plan­ning Officer Peter Fer­guson, Leg­al Adviser, Harp­er MacLeod LLP Mar­garet Smith, PA to CEO and Con­vener Dot Har­ris, Plan­ning Admin­is­tra­tion & Sys­tems Officer

Apo­lo­gies: Derek Ross

Agenda Items I & 2: Wel­come & Apologies

1. The Con­vener wel­comed all present espe­cially John Kirk and Deirdre Fal­con­er new Board Mem­bers who were both attend­ing their first Plan­ning Com­mit­tee meeting.

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Agenda Item 3: Minutes & Mat­ters Arising from the Pre­vi­ous Meeting

1. The minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing, 22 March 2019, held in the Com­munity Hall, Boat of Garten, were approved with the fol­low­ing amend­ments. a) Item 6 — minute does not reflect nature of dis­cus­sion. Gav­in Miles to insert a para­graph to indic­ate that mem­ber put for­ward motion for the applic­a­tion to be refused which was seconded. b) Item 5 Para 15 – (applic­ant) and (archi­tect) to be changed around as they refer to the wrong people.

2. There were no mat­ters arising.

3. The Con­vener provided an update on the Action Points from the pre­vi­ous meet­ing: a) Action Point at Para 5i) Closed – Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener had writ­ten to Dave Fal­lows to thank him for his con­tri­bu­tion to the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee over the years. b) Action Point at Para 34i) Closed – site vis­it in Cor­garff to be pro­grammed for the next Plan­ning Com­mit­tee on 24^th May 2019, to be held in or near Strath­don. Meet­ing will take place at the Lecht.

4. Action Point Arising: None.

Agenda Item 4: Declar­a­tion of Interest by Mem­bers on Items Appear­ing on the Agenda

1. Geva Black­ett declared a Dir­ect interest in: Item No. 5 Reas­on: Has had an act­ive role in advising the com­munity on the revised scheme.

2. Wil­li­am Mun­ro declared an Indir­ect interest in: Item No 5 — Reas­on: Employ­ee of Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil which formerly owned site but had no part in this application.

3. Elean­or Mack­in­tosh declared an Dir­ect interest in: Item No. 6 Reas­on: Sits on Tomin­toul & Glen­liv­et Part­ner­ship Board.

4. All Mem­bers declared an Dir­ect interest in: Item No. 6 Reas­on: The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity are the lead part­ner in the T&G Land­scape Part­ner­ship Project.

5. Geva Black­ett left the meet­ing room.

APPROVED COM­MIT­TEE MINUTES

Agenda Item 5: Applic­a­tion for Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion (2019/0003/DET) & Applic­a­tion for Lis­ted Build­ing Con­sent (2019/0006/LBC) Con­ver­sion of School to 10 Dwell­ing­houses, Rein­state­ment of School­houses to form 2 Dwell­ing­houses, Erec­tion of I Dwell­ing­house and 11 Flats (Afford­able Houses), Form­a­tion of Car Park, Access and Alter­a­tions to Bound­ary Walls At Bal­later Old School, Abergel­die Road, Bal­later, Aber­deen­shire, AB35 5RR Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve Sub­ject to Conditions

1. The Con­vener advised that the applic­ant, Grampi­an Hous­ing Association’s Neil Clap­per­ton had expec­ted to attend the meet­ing but was not present. The Con­vener informed Mem­bers that Fiona Press­lie of Bal­later & Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil was present to address the Committee.

2. Kath­er­ine Don­nach­ie, Plan­ning Officer presen­ted the paper to the Committee.

3. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask points of clar­ity. The fol­low­ing point was raised: a) In the new applic­a­tion the planned lay­out of trees in bot­tom left corner of the land­scape plan was dif­fer­ent to ori­gin­al applic­a­tion. Would the sil­ver birch be retained? KC to check the tree sur­vey plan and get back to com­mit­tee. b) Car park­ing on the street is avail­able to any mem­bers of the pub­lic and will not alloc­ated park­ing for the new houses. c) Snow clear­ing in the car park will prove dif­fi­cult as nowhere to put snow. Sug­ges­tion of an in/​out to the car park to assist with this put for­ward. Com­mit­tee were told that the applic­ants will be respons­ible for the upkeep of the car­parks. The car park will not be adop­ted by the Coun­cil. d) Con­ser­va­tion – con­di­tion 10: Have exist­ing swift nest loc­a­tions been cata­logued to pro­tect against loss of nests? Sur­vey for birds and bats had been done by the applic­a­tions. Swift Pro­tec­tion Plan and a Bat Pro­tec­tion Plan have been provided.

4. Fiona Press­lie, Bal­later & Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil gave a present­a­tion. a) Com­munity Coun­cil objec­ted to ori­gin­al applic­a­tion. b) Altern­at­ive Plan for the site sup­por­ted by loc­al res­id­ents. c) Peti­tion signed by loc­al res­id­ents was giv­en to Com­munity Coun­cil and after dis­cus­sion with Grampi­an Hous­ing the altern­at­ive plan was put for­ward and sup­por­ted by Com­munity Council.

5. The Con­vener thanked the speaker.

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

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a) Grampi­an Hous­ing was thanked for tak­ing com­munity con­cerns into account and put­ting in an altern­at­ive design plan. b) Mem­bers put for­ward that they totally sup­por­ted the devel­op­ment. c) Visu­al­isa­tions were extremely helpful.

1. The Com­mit­tee agreed to approve the applic­a­tion as per the Officer’s recommendation.

2. Action Point arising: i. Con­di­tion I to be removed. ii. KD to invest­ig­ate Tree Sur­vey and see if sil­ver birch can be saved. iii. EM to write to Grampi­an Hous­ing thank­ing them for tak­ing com­munity con­cerns on board and revis­ing their applic­a­tion to reflect the concerns.

3. Elean­or Mack­in­tosh left room, Geva Black­ett came back.

Agenda Item 6: Applic­a­tion for Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion (2019/0005/DET) & Applic­a­tion for Lis­ted Build­ing Con­sent (2019/0018/LBC) Res­tor­a­tion and repair of mill build­ings includ­ing form­a­tion of access paths and one car park­ing space At Scalan North and South Mill, Chapeltown, Ballindal­loch, Moray Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve Sub­ject to Conditions

1. Stephanie Wade, Plan­ning Officer presen­ted the paper to the Committee.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask the Plan­ning Officer points of clar­ity. The fol­low­ing was raised: a) Con­di­tion 5 – seed­ing mix needs to be in keep­ing with loc­al grass­land rather than a mix of robust grass­lands to ensure the visu­al aspect is kept as it is. Applic­ant look­ing to have seed­ing mix to blend in to the loc­al land­scape but Con­di­tion will ensure that noth­ing inap­pro­pri­ate is used.

3. The Vice-Con­vener invited the Com­mit­tee to dis­cuss the report, the fol­low­ing point was raised: a) Build­ings were of con­sid­er­able cul­tur­al her­it­age value both loc­ally and nation­ally and mem­bers agreed that the applic­a­tion was excel­lent with regards to con­serving the cul­tur­al and built her­it­age and was com­men­ded by Members.

4. The Com­mit­tee agreed to the applic­a­tion sub­ject to the con­di­tions stated in the report.

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1. Action Point arising: None.

2. Elean­or Mack­in­tosh returned to room.

Agenda Item 7: Applic­a­tion for Mat­ters Spe­cified in Con­di­tions (2019/0040/MSC) Install­a­tion of half bar­ri­ers to Dal­faber Level Cross­ing in accord­ance with con­di­tion 20 of 07/00093/OUTBS (as amended by 14/03676/S42) at Level Cross­ing Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore & Applic­a­tion for Mat­ters Spe­cified in Con­di­tions (2019/0041/MSC) Install­a­tion of half bar­ri­ers to Dal­faber Level Cross­ing in accord­ance with con­di­tion 21 of 07/00094/OUTBS (as amended by 14/03675/S42) at Level Cross­ing, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore & Applic­a­tion for Mat­ters Spe­cified in Con­di­tions (2019/0011/MSC) Alloc­a­tion of afford­able hous­ing units in accord­ance with con­di­tion 21 of 07/00093/OUTBS (as amended by 14/03676/S42) in con­junc­tion with applic­a­tion ref­er­ence 18/05859/MSC at Land North West of Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore, High­land & Applic­a­tion for Mat­ters Spe­cified in Con­di­tions (2019/0042/MSC) Alloc­a­tion of afford­able hous­ing units in accord­ance with con­di­tion 22 of 07/00094/OUTBS (as amended by 14/03675/S42) in con­junc­tion with applic­a­tion ref­er­ence 18/05857/MSC at Land North West and South Of Former Stead­ings, Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore & Applic­a­tion for Mat­ters Spe­cified in Con­di­tions (2019/0012/MSC) Res­tor­a­tion of dwell­ing in accord­ance with con­di­tion 23 of 07/00094/OUTBS (as amended by 14/03675/S42) at Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore, High­land Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve Sub­ject to Conditions

1. Emma Wilson, Plan­ning Man­ager presen­ted the paper to the Committee.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask the Plan­ning Officer points of clar­ity. The fol­low­ing were raised: a) Leg­al agree­ment are applic­ants aware of this agree­ment – yes b) Plot 75 objec­tion from Heath­er Cot­tage regard­ing pri­vacy – this point had been addressed pre­vi­ously and it was estab­lished that there was no mater­i­al con­cern regard­ing the privacy.

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c) Could the Dal­faber Farm House name be kept? It was noted that this was not some­thing that could be enforced through the plan­ning sys­tem. The applic­ants noted they were happy to do so voluntarily.

1. The Con­vener invited the Com­mit­tee to dis­cuss the report.

2. The Com­mit­tee agreed to the dis­charge of con­di­tions referred to in the applic­a­tion sub­ject to the con­di­tions stated in the report.

3. Action Point arising: None.

Agenda Item 8: Plan­ning Ser­vice Pri­or­it­ies ²⁰¹⁹⁄₂₀

1. Gav­in Miles, Head of Plan­ning and Com­munit­ies presen­ted the paper to the Com­mit­tee. a) Pri­or­ity 6 for next year to be removed from the list as this is some­thing which is done routinely. b) Amber’s marks on pre­vi­ous year’s update were mainly due to staff short­ages dur­ing the year.

2. The Con­vener invited the Com­mit­tee to dis­cuss the report, the fol­low­ing points were raised: a) Recruit­ment under­way at the moment and hope­fully once recruit­ment fin­ished then the pri­or­it­ies should be met dur­ing the next year. b) Repla­cing staff who move can be dif­fi­cult. c) Table 2, Num­ber 4 – Need to be aware that short-term let­ting is good for com­munit­ies and brings in money. A mem­ber noted that it was import­ant not to cri­ti­cise second homes, short term let­ting or hol­i­day accom­mod­a­tion pro­viders gen­er­al but that the CNPA should also be aware that second homes are caus­ing a real issue in some com­munit­ies. d) It was dif­fi­cult to get accur­ate data on Air B&B let­ting but the plan­ning team hoped to get more accur­ate data over time. e) Data col­lec­tion is very import­ant so good to see that this is get­ting done. f) Mon­it­or­ing hill tracks also taken into account. g) Learn­ing from where things did not take place. h) Size of houses being built – could this be restric­ted as often houses are replaced by very large ones which are bey­ond the reach of loc­al people. i) Hill tracks a mem­ber explained that they were needed to help extin­guish fires on moors. j) Arial pho­to­graphy – this has been very use­ful as it helps provide evid­ence if there is an issue on what has been done.

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k) CUAG group look­ing a hill tracks issues as well and invest­ig­at­ing wheth­er there needs to be a code — fur­ther inform­a­tion will be put to the Board at a later date. l) Good to see ideas about the train­ing pro­gramme. Pre­vi­ous the Board dis­cussed the neg­at­ive impact of motor homes etc. This is an increas­ing issue so might need some discussion/​training. This will be brought back to the Board at an appro­pri­ate time. m) Elec­tri­city — The way busi­nesses and tour­ism prop­erty inter­act with elec­tri­city net­works is chan­ging. Should a pilot scheme be set up in the Park to help man­age this pro­cess? CNPA will have dis­cus­sions with Scot­tish and South­ern to see if any­thing can be set up. n) Good to see a leg­acy mov­ing on from last year’s young people inclu­sion. This a cor­por­ate com­mit­ment and not just a plan­ning one.

1. The Com­mit­tee con­sidered and approved the pro­posed plan­ning ser­vice pri­or­it­ies for ²⁰¹⁹⁄₂₀.

2. Action Point arising: None.

Item 9: Any Oth­er Business

1. Gav­in Miles provided the fol­low­ing updates: a) Pit­main Right of Way Hear­ing. Appeal had been taken for­ward with Report­er vis­it­ing site. Wait­ing for res­ults. b) Car­rbridge Hotel Car Park Appeal. CNPA provided inform­a­tion and our own state­ment to Appeal Board. c) ACM — decision notice will be issued next week – leg­al agree­ment has been signed, registered and neces­sary checks been done. d) Spit­tal of Glen­shee Hotel was cleaned up by end of March – Gav­in has a few pho­tos. Site had been improved by remov­al of rub­bish. Still work to be done on site. e) LDP con­sulta­tion closed last Fri­day – 207 pro­pos­als. Team work­ing through that at the moment. Feed­back over sum­mer months. f) Sus­tain­able Renov­a­tion Event held last night in boat of Garten – Pebble Trust pro­duced report and hos­ted event. i. Good mix of attendees includ­ing plan­ners, archi­tects, and mem­bers of the com­munity. ii. This was about gath­er­ing people togeth­er to talk about plan­ning issues along with cli­mate change issues.

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iii. Main mes­sages were that it was a really import­ant issue – 50% of Scotland’s car­bon issues tied up with how we heat our houses. This not an easy issue to be resolved. iv. Showed the need for part­ners to work togeth­er to try to solve prob­lem. v. Might be poten­tial to have dis­cus­sions with Scot Gov to try and bring in new money to help improve the exist­ing hous­ing stock. vi. Organ­isers have fur­ther fund­ing to set up sim­il­ar events in oth­er parts of Scot­land so hope­fully one near­er Aber­deen. vii. Big­ger pub­lic mes­sage needs to be put out regard­ing qual­ity of work. viii. Private ren­ted sec­tor look­ing at EPC require­ments which will put a lot of pres­sure on private renters. ix. If a house is being ren­ov­ated then build­ing con­trol will not be involved to the same extent as for new houses. Build­ing stand­ards are not as strict as for a new house. Should build­ing con­trol be more involved, pos­sibly but also build­ers need to know how to do the work prop­erly and also own­ers need to know what is neces­sary. x. Need to work out how to get the mes­sage out there – pos­sibly through more engage­ment events. xi. Health issues are a major con­cern, espe­cially with damp hous­ing. xii. Heat Pro­ject fun­ded by Scot­tish Cli­mate change used in the Glen­shee area aimed at try­ing to per­suade people to upgrade houses worth look­ing at. Janet to cir­cu­late link to this report. xiii. Key mes­sage if you are going to upgrade your home then take the time to get expert advice. Talk to build­ers mer­chants for advice. g) Nethy news­let­ter dis­trib­uted to Mem­bers. h) Cairngorms Nature Big Week­end over ¹¹⁄₁₂ May.

1. Action Point arising: None

Agenda Item 10: Date of Next Meeting

1. Fri­day 24^th May 2019 at The Lecht.

2. Com­mit­tee Mem­bers are reques­ted to ensure that any Apo­lo­gies for this meet­ing are sub­mit­ted to the Clerk to the Board, Alix Harkness.

3. The pub­lic busi­ness of the meet­ing con­cluded at 12.50.