CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board Paper | 26/03/2021

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

FOR DECISION

Title: ADOP­TION OF LOC­AL DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN

Pre­pared by: DAN HAR­RIS, PLAN­NING MAN­AGER GAV­IN MILES, HEAD OF PLAN­NING AND COMMUNITIES

Pur­pose:

To ask the Board to adopt the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.

Recom­mend­a­tion:

a) That the Board adopt the Pro­posed Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (as mod­i­fied) and as dir­ec­ted by Scot­tish Ministers.

Back­ground

1. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA) has a duty to pre­pare the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (LDP) for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The cur­rent LDP (LDP 2015) was adop­ted in 2015. The pro­cess of pre­par­ing a new LDP for the Park began in 2016. Once adop­ted, the LDP will replace LDP 2015 and will be the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan for 5 years from 2021 to 2026.

2. A Main Issues Report for the LDP was pub­lished for con­sulta­tion between Novem­ber 2017 and March 2018. The com­ments on the Main Issues Report informed the devel­op­ment of a Pro­posed Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan that was pub­lished for con­sulta­tion between Janu­ary 2019 and April 2019. The CNPA then sent the plan and unre­solved issues to the Depart­ment of Plan­ning and Envir­on­ment­al Appeals (DPEA) who under­took an Exam­in­a­tion of the Plan between Decem­ber 2019 and August 2020. The CNPA received the DPEA Report on the Exam­in­a­tion of the Pro­posed Cairngorms Nation­al Park LDP on 24 August 2020.

3. On 13 Novem­ber 2020 the CNPA Board approved the modi­fic­a­tions to the pro­posed LDP and the pub­lic­a­tion of the Notice of Inten­tion to Adopt the Plan. Notice was giv­en though press notices, the CNPA web­site and dir­ect con­tact with people who had made rep­res­ent­a­tions on the Plan and on 28 Novem­ber 2020 the Pro­posed LDP (as mod­i­fied) and oth­er neces­sary doc­u­ments were sent to Scot­tish Ministers.

4. On 2 Feb­ru­ary 2021 the CNPA received notice of a Dir­ec­tion from Scot­tish Min­is­ters under Sec­tion 20 (5) of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997. The

5. dir­ec­tion is to amend the Pro­posed LDP (as mod­i­fied) so that the set­tle­ment state­ments for Aviemore, Kin­gussie, New­ton­more, Blair Atholl, Carr-Bridge, Bru­ar and Pit­agow­an, Calv­ine, Dal­whin­nie and Kil­liecrankie con­tain the line with­in their set­tle­ment object­ives: ​“Please con­sult the Trans­port Scot­land web­site for the latest A9 dualling route inform­a­tion. This can be accessed via; A9 Dualling Perth to Inverness (transport.gov.scot).”

6. The CNPA can­not adopt the Plan unless the dir­ec­tion is fol­lowed or Min­is­ters with­draw it. The let­ter set­ting out Scot­tish Min­sters’ dir­ec­tion is included as Annex 2. The changes set out in the Min­is­ters’ dir­ec­tion are the only changes that can be made to the Plan.

7. The changes made through the Min­is­ters’ dir­ec­tion do not affect the con­clu­sions reached by the CNPA in its Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) or the Stra­tegic Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment (SEA). The HRA record and SEA Envir­on­ment­al Report, pub­lished with the Notice of Inten­tion to Adopt the Plan on the CNPA web­site, remains up to date. The HRA con­cludes that the Plan will not adversely affect the integ­rity of any European site.

Board Adop­tion of the LDP

1. The Board are asked to adopt the pro­posed Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (as mod­i­fied) and as dir­ec­ted by Scot­tish Min­is­ters. Once adop­ted, the Plan is form­ally con­sti­tuted as the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. It will be referred to as the ​‘Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021’ (LDP 2021).

Fur­ther work related to the LDP

1. The LDP has Non-stat­utory and Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance that accom­pan­ies the Plan. The fol­low­ing non-stat­utory guid­ance has been con­sul­ted on and is recom­men­ded for adop­tion by the CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee on 26 March 2021: a) Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth b) Nat­ur­al Her­it­age c) Land­scape d) Renew­able Energy e) Resources f) Open Space, Sport and Recre­ation g) Cul­tur­al Heritage

2. Fur­ther non-stat­utory guid­ance and Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance on Hous­ing, Plan­ning Oblig­a­tions and Design and Place­mak­ing is cur­rently being pre­pared and the CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee will be asked to approve this at sub­sequent meetings.

3. The LDP will be sup­por­ted by an Action Pro­gramme that sets out how the Plan will be delivered. A pro­posed Action Pro­gramme was pub­lished with the Pro­posed LDP in 2019 and requires to be adop­ted with­in three months of adop­tion of the LDP. The CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee will be asked to approve the first LDP Action Pro­gramme for the new LDP 2021 in June 2021.

4. The CNPA must pub­lish a Devel­op­ment Plan Scheme that sets out our pro­gramme for pre­par­ing and review­ing the LDP. The Devel­op­ment Plan Scheme was last updated in August 2019 and the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee will be asked to approve the next Scheme, set­ting out the broad times­cales for the next LDP later in 2021.

Next Steps

1. Fol­low­ing adop­tion by the CNPA, officers will: a) Send two cop­ies of the LDP to Scot­tish Min­is­ters; b) Pub­lish it in paper form and on the CNPA web­site; c) Place cop­ies in pub­lic lib­rar­ies (when they re-open); d) Noti­fy people who made rep­res­ent­a­tions on the Pro­posed Plan of its pub­lic­a­tion; e) Advert­ise the LDP pub­lic­a­tion and avail­ab­il­ity in loc­al news­pa­pers; and f) Con­tin­ue a pro­gramme of meet­ings with key stake­hold­ers and users of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan over the first part of 2021. This includes meet­ings with part­ner loc­al author­it­ies and rel­ev­ant plan­ning officers, with net­works such as the Developers For­um, and the offer of train­ing for com­munity councils.

Dan Har­ris Gav­in Miles 26 March 2021 danharris@​cairngorms.​co.​uk gavinmiles@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

Annexes

1. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021
2. Scot­tish Min­is­ters’ Direction