Draft Open Space, Sport and Recreation Non-statutory Guidance

PLAN­NING Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2020 Non-stat­utory guid­ance: Policy 8 Open Space, Sport and Recre­ation Cairngorms NATION­AL PARK

Con­tents How to use this guid­ance …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………2 Intro­duc­tion and context……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………2 All Open Space, Sport and Recre­ation pro­pos­als ………………………………………………………………………………………….4 New facil­it­ies …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4 Redevel­op­ment of out­door sports facil­it­ies …………………………………………………………………………………………………5 Redevel­op­ment of oth­er open space …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..5 Use­ful sources of advice and inform­a­tion …………………………………………………………………………………………………6

How to use this guid­ance This non-stat­utory guid­ance sup­ports the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2020 and applies to all plan­ning applic­a­tions with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan is avail­able via https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​p​l​a​n​ning- devel­op­ment/­loc­al-devel­op­ment-plan- 2020/ and should be read along­side this guidance.

This guid­ance should be used dur­ing the pre­par­a­tion and assess­ment of plan­ning applic­a­tions, to identi­fy meas­ures to safe­guard and/​or enhance open space, sport & recre­ation assets.

Intro­duc­tion and con­text Policy 8 of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan’ provides the frame­work for con­sid­er­a­tion of how devel­op­ment would sup­port the pro­vi­sion of qual­ity open spaces, sport & recre­ation facilities.

Note, policy word­ing may change fol­low­ing the exam­in­a­tion of the Pro­posed Plan. Pro­pos­als will be assessed against all rel­ev­ant policies in the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan how­ever oth­er policies that may in par­tic­u­lar apply are those for Nat­ur­al Her­it­age, Land­scape and Design & Placemaking.

Policy 8 – Open Space, Sport and Recreation

8.1 New development

Devel­op­ments of sport and recre­ation facil­it­ies, diver­si­fic­a­tion of, or exten­sions to exist­ing sport and recre­ation related busi­ness activ­it­ies, or the enhance­ment of the qual­ity and design of exist­ing facil­it­ies will be sup­por­ted where: a) they demon­strate best prac­tice in terms of sus­tain­able design, oper­a­tion and future main­ten­ance, and where there are no adverse envir­on­ment­al impacts on the site or neigh­bour­ing areas; and b) they will meet an iden­ti­fied com­munity or vis­it­or need; and c) they main­tain and max­im­ise all oppor­tun­it­ies to link into the exist­ing path net­work. 2

8.2 Redevel­op­ment of out­door sports facil­it­ies Out­door sports facil­it­ies such as play­ing fields and out­door pitches should not be redeveloped except where: a) the pro­posed devel­op­ment is ancil­lary to the prin­cip­al use of the site as an out­door sports facil­ity; or b) the pro­posed devel­op­ment involves a minor part of the facil­ity which would not affect its use and poten­tial for sport and train­ing; or c) the facil­ity which would be lost would be replaced by a new facil­ity of com­par­able or great­er bene­fit for sport and in a loc­a­tion which is con­veni­ent for its users, or by the upgrad­ing of an exist­ing facil­ity in the area; or d) a strategy pre­pared in con­sulta­tion with SportScot­land has demon­strated that there is a clear excess of pro­vi­sion to meet cur­rent and anti­cip­ated future demand in the area, and that the site could be developed without det­ri­ment to the over­all qual­ity of provision.

8.3 Redevel­op­ment of oth­er open space Devel­op­ments which would res­ult in the loss or reduc­tion of oth­er open spaces or recre­ation facil­it­ies will only be sup­por­ted where: a) the devel­op­ment is ancil­lary to the prin­cip­al use of the site as an open space or recre­ation facil­ity; and b) the devel­op­ment would not affect the use of the site as an open space or recre­ation facil­ity; and c) in the reduc­tion of pub­lic access rights, or loss of the exist­ing path net­work includ­ing loss of access to inland water, an appro­pri­ate or improved altern­at­ive access solu­tion can be secured; and d) a com­pens­at­ory site of at least equal size and qual­ity is cre­ated which is con­veni­ent to users, or an exist­ing facil­ity is upgraded to main­tain and improve the over­all capa­city in the area; or e) an audit demon­strates the devel­op­ment will not res­ult in the loss of pro­vi­sion of ser­vices used by the affected com­munity and that no altern­at­ive site is avail­able. 3

Sec­tions 8.2 and 8.3 of this policy will be par­tic­u­larly applic­able to the sites that are iden­ti­fied as pro­tec­ted open spaces with­in the Com­munity Inform­a­tion sec­tion of the Plan. There will be a pre­sump­tion against oth­er forms of devel­op­ment on these sites unless the above cri­ter­ia are satisfied.

Policy 8 aims to sup­port & enable oppor­tun­it­ies for loc­al res­id­ents & vis­it­ors to ​‘live more act­ive, engaged, inde­pend­ent and healthy life­styles’ in line with the Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy prin­ciple of ​‘improv­ing health and well-being by offer­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for social inter­ac­tion and phys­ic­al activ­ity, includ­ing sport and recre­ation’ 2 The Cairngorms Nation­al Park offers out­stand­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for recre­ation & this policy aims to enable the devel­op­ment of new facil­it­ies & pro­tect exist­ing pro­vi­sion of open space, sports & recre­ation facil­it­ies. The policy recog­nizes that these facil­it­ies can offer bene­fits includ­ing the sup­port of: • social oppor­tun­it­ies • healthy recre­ation & well-being for all age groups • act­ive travel • place­mak­ing • green net­works & biod­iversity allot­ments • Com­munity Grow­ing Spaces

2 Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy (2014) https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish- plan­ning-poli­cy/pages/2/ All Open Space, Sport and Recre­ation pro­pos­als Sub­mit­ted inform­a­tion should demon­strate how your pro­pos­als would impact on recre­ation oppor­tun­it­ies for loc­al com­munit­ies & for vis­it­ors. Any impacts on res­id­en­tial amen­ity & the core path net­work should also be spe­cified. Devel­op­ments that extend the tour­ist sea­son & sup­port a year round eco­nomy are encour­aged & any rel­ev­ant inform­a­tion should be included in your submission.

New facil­it­ies New or sig­ni­fic­antly enhanced / exten­ded facil­it­ies should sub­mit a Vis­it­or Man­age­ment Plan in sup­port of your plan­ning applic­a­tion. The level of detail provided in this Plan should be appro­pri­ate to the scale of the pro­posed devel­op­ment. As a min­im­um, where rel­ev­ant, it should include inform­a­tion on the fol­low­ing: • how the pro­pos­al has been designed to extend the tour­ist sea­son; and • how the pro­pos­al will improve the avail­ab­il­ity of facil­it­ies for loc­al com­munit­ies; and • what arrange­ments have been put in place for the long-term main­ten­ance of the com­pleted development.

Depend­ing on the scale of the pro­posed devel­op­ment, con­tri­bu­tions may be required by the plan­ning author­ity to ensure suf­fi­cient pro­tec­tion of sport and recre­ation. Inform­a­tion may also be required on oth­er infra­struc­ture needed to sup­port the pro­posed devel­op­ment i.e.: • access to and/​or with­in the pro­posed devel­op­ment site (includ­ing non-car modes); • pro­posed park­ing arrange­ments; • sig­nage to and with­in the pro­posed devel­op­ment site; and 4

• addi­tion­al facil­it­ies such as toi­lets, recep­tion and stor­age facil­it­ies. All new devel­op­ment should also be designed and loc­ated to ensure that exist­ing and poten­tial pub­lic access routes are pro­tec­ted, and to util­ise appro­pri­ate oppor­tun­it­ies to pro­mote walk­ing and cyc­ling as a means of trans­port to/​from/​within the devel­op­ment site. In addi­tion, all new devel­op­ments should max­im­ise oppor­tun­it­ies to secure and retain out­door access, includ­ing pub­lic access rights, pro­posed and adop­ted core paths, wider path net­works, rights of way and oth­er pub­lic open spaces. All new devel­op­ments should con­trib­ute to enhan­cing and improv­ing this infra­struc­ture by ensur­ing that new devel­op­ment pro­pos­als do not res­ult in a loss of exist­ing pub­lic open space pro­vi­sion; mak­ing new phys­ic­al links to exist­ing paths and open spaces; and put­ting in place man­age­ment schemes to ensure these new ele­ments are cared for in the future.

Redevel­op­ment of out­door sports facil­it­ies If your pro­pos­al seeks to re-devel­op an entire sports facil­ity, field or pitch, it must be demon­strated that there is an over- sup­ply of recre­ation­al or sport­ing facil­it­ies of this nature with­in the sur­round­ing area. A strategy pre­pared in con­sulta­tion with SportScot­land will be required to evid­ence this. It may also be accept­able to re-devel­op an entire sport­ing facil­ity where it will be replaced — either on site or on a more suit­able site – with a sport­ing facil­ity of equal or great­er bene­fit, stand­ard and capa­city. Ensur­ing the pro­vi­sion of sport­ing facil­it­ies is a priority.

The par­tial re-devel­op­ment of a facil­ity, field or pitch will only be accept­able where it is ancil­lary to the exist­ing use of the sports facil­ity or the pro­pos­al involves the re-devel­op­ment of a minor part which will not affect the over­all func­tion or poten­tial use of the facil­ity for sport.

Details of any exten­ded or replace­ment facil­it­ies should include arrange­ments for their sus­tain­able con­struc­tion and future maintenance.

Redevel­op­ment of oth­er open space Recre­ation facil­it­ies play an import­ant role across the Nation­al Park in sup­port­ing loc­al com­munit­ies and the wider eco­nomy. The way in which key facil­it­ies and more inform­al access routes embed com­munit­ies in the wider land­scape is key to their suc­cess and should there­fore be pro­tec­ted. If your pro­pos­al sug­gests a reduc­tion in the facil­it­ies which exist you must jus­ti­fy why its loss will not res­ult in an adverse effect on the loc­al com­munity. Where you pro­pose a reuse of the site you must include an assess­ment of altern­at­ive sites you have con­sidered and dis­coun­ted. Where such jus­ti­fic­a­tion is not avail­able, pro­pos­als to reduce exist­ing facil­it­ies will only be sup­por­ted where the facil­ity is ancil­lary to the main use of the site and 5

where the remov­al of the facil­ity will not adversely impact the prin­ciple use. To ensure that the over­all range of facil­it­ies is not under­mined, you must provide an altern­at­ive pro­vi­sion of at least equal size and qual­ity, or upgrade the prin­ciple facil­ity on the site to main­tain the pro­vi­sion as a whole. Details of any exten­ded or replace­ment facil­it­ies should include arrange­ments for their sus­tain­able con­struc­tion and future main­ten­ance. Where your pro­pos­al has an adverse impact on the pub­lic path net­work or pub­lic access rights, you must provide appro­pri­ate replace­ment altern­at­ive access, so there is no loss of access & the over­all path net­work is main­tained. In con­sid­er­ing how best to achieve this you should con­sult the Core Paths Plan which sets out the prin­ciple paths across the Nation­al Park.

Use­ful sources of advice and inform­a­tion Cairngorms Core Paths Plan avail­able via https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​w​o​r​king- togeth­er­/au­thor­ity/n­a­tion­al-park- strategies/­core-paths-plan/ 6

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2020 Non-stat­utory guid­ance Policy 8 Open Space, Sport and Recre­ation This doc­u­ment is avail­able in large print on request. Please con­tact the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity on 01479 873535. It is also avail­able to view at www​.cairngorms​.co​.uk Pub­lished by Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 The Square Grant­own-on-Spey PH26 3HG Email: planning@​cairngorms.​co.​uk Tel: 01479 873535 Fax: 01479 873527 www​.cairngorms​.co​.uk © CNPA 2020. All rights reserved.