Draft Planning Committee minutes - 27 June 2025

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Draft Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Minutes 27 June 2025 Page 1 of 6

Draft minutes of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee meet­ing Held at Albert Halls, Bal­later In per­son 27 June 2025 at 01.15pm Present in per­son Rus­sell Jones (Con­vener) Jack­ie Brier­ton Han­nah Grist Bill Lob­ban Elean­or Mack­in­tosh Steve Mickle­wright Ann Ross Michael Wil­li­am­son In attend­ance Gav­in Miles, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Place Sandy Brem­ner Peter Cos­grove John Kirk Lauren Mac­Cal­lum Fiona McLean Duncan Miller Derek Ross Dav­id Berry, Head of Plan­ning and Chief Plan­ning Officer Colin Bry­ans, Seni­or Plan­ning Officer, Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment Kath­er­ine Don­nach­ie, Plan­ning Officer, Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment Peter Fer­guson, Harp­er MacLeod LLP Scott Shanks, Eco­logy Adviser Dee Straw, Plan­ning Admin­is­trat­or and Sys­tems Officer Mari­aan Pita, Exec­ut­ive Man­ager Kar­en John­stone, Clerk to the Board Apo­lo­gies Geva Black­ett Paul Gibb (Deputy Con­vener) Kenny Deans

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Draft Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Minutes 27 June 2025 Page 2 of 6 Agenda Item 1 Wel­come and apologies

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

Agenda Item 2 Mat­ters arising not covered elsewhere

1. There were no mat­ters arising.

Agenda Item 3 Declar­a­tions of interest

1. Peter Cos­grove declared an interest in item 4 as he and his com­pany (Alba Eco­logy) have under­taken eco­lo­gic­al sur­veys and provided eco­lo­gic­al advice in rela­tion to this applic­a­tion and so would leave the room for this item.

2. Sandy Brem­ner declared a non-fin­an­cial interest in item 5 as he is Chair of the River Dee Trust con­ser­va­tion char­ity and has pre­vi­ously made assor­ted pub­lic declar­a­tions of sup­port and so would leave the room for this item.

Peter Cos­grove left the room at 1.19pm Agenda Item 4 Applic­a­tion for Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 2025/0034/DET (25/00404/FUL) Res­id­en­tial devel­op­ment of 35no. units, form­a­tion of access road and SUDS At Land 160M South of Lyn­stock Park, Nethy Bridge

1. Kath­er­ine Don­nach­ie, Plan­ning Officer, Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment presen­ted the paper to the committee.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask for clar­ity, and the fol­low­ing points were raised: α) With ref­er­ence to developer con­tri­bu­tions and High­life High­land pro­pos­ing to extend the leis­ure facil­ity at the Badenoch centre in Kin­gussie, could it be explained why they were not pro­pos­ing to spend the con­tri­bu­tions more

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Draft Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Minutes 27 June 2025 Page 3 of 6 7. 8. b) c) d) loc­ally. Plan­ning Officer con­firmed that High­life High­land had also agreed to con­tri­bu­tions being used to sup­port loc­al com­munity facil­it­ies and provided reas­sur­ance that the developer con­tri­bu­tions would be dir­ec­ted to loc­al facil­it­ies serving Nethy Bridge. A mem­ber quer­ied the cut and fill in the vicin­ity of the Knoll, could it be explained how they were going to address exist­ing field drains? Plan­ning Officer advised that the cut would be 10m back from the Knoll area and the Applic­ant may be able to expand on that later in the meet­ing. A loc­al mem­ber con­firmed that there were no field drains in that area. A mem­ber quer­ied the mean­ing of one of the con­di­tions, requir­ing that before any devel­op­ment com­mences plant­ing would need to be ​“estab­lished”. What did estab­lished mean in this con­text? Plan­ning Officer cla­ri­fied that the first plant­ing sea­son after start­ing devel­op­ment, they should plant the area beside the Knoll, hedging and ripari­an plant­ing beside river Nethy. Would not expect the wider land­scap­ing to all to be done by that stage. A mem­ber referred to a sug­ges­tion made at the site vis­it that the land the devel­op­ment sits on should be grazed from time to time instead of mowed and asked if that would be taken for­ward as a con­di­tion. Scott Shanks, Eco­logy Adviser described the cut and col­lect meth­od that would be used, where they cut in Septem­ber and col­lect on site to allow wild­flowers to come through and this rep­lic­ates a graz­ing régime.

The Agent, Andrew Lil­ley and Applic­ant, Ron Laing were invited to address the Com­mit­tee. The Con­vener thanked the speakers.

The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask the speak­ers for clar­ity, and the fol­low­ing points were raised: α) Giv­en the pres­sure for afford­able hous­ing and hous­ing for work­ers in the Nation­al Park, would the applic­ant con­sider mar­ket­ing the devel­op­ment for a time lim­ited peri­od to loc­al people rather than put­ting it on the open mar­ket straight away? Mr Laing advised that they would be happy to con­sider it and added that the houses would be built in phases. b) Are there any cur­rent pro­pos­als from High­land Coun­cil to pur­chase any of these devel­op­ments? Mr Laing advised that the High­land Coun­cil hous­ing officer stated that she recog­nised the bene­fit of provid­ing the neces­sary afford­able hous­ing at the Nethy sta­tion site.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Draft Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Minutes 27 June 2025 Page 4 of 6

1. The Object­ors Mrs Tessa Jones and Mr Pete Crane were invited to address the Com­mit­tee. The Con­vener thanked the speakers.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask the speak­ers for clar­ity, and the fol­low­ing points were raised: α) What width of wood­land cor­ridor would you recom­mend? Mr Crane advised that he believed the width should be 30m and reit­er­ated it would need to be wider than 5m to work as a nat­ive wood­land cor­ridor. b) Ref­er­ence was made to the num­ber of dogs people could have, could it be explained how was that cal­cu­lated? Mrs Jones advised that it had been taken from the plan­ning doc­u­ments and was based on an aver­age for the United Kingdom.

3. Kath­er­ine Don­nach­ie, Plan­ning Officer was invited to come back on issues raised by all the speak­ers. She made the fol­low­ing points: α) Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 policy 16 states devel­op­ments of more than 50 houses should be accom­pan­ied by a state­ment of com­munity bene­fit. While this was not sought as this is a smal­ler scale devel­op­ment, we do not see any con­flicts with com­munity wealth build­ing policy. b) Traffic calm­ing meas­ures — Trans­port team at the High­land Coun­cil asked for exist­ing kerb build outs to be removed but they have also asked for traffic calm­ing meas­ures to be installed at the Lyn­stock Cres­cent end of Lettoch road. c) Nature cor­ridors pro­posed with­in the site are 18m wide and felt to be suf­fi­cient for the site, and seek­ing to increase the width of the cor­ridor beside Lyn­stock Park would likely res­ult in the applic­ant need­ing to reduce the width of the oth­er cor­ridors. d) The dog walk­ing area is an area of open space avail­able for any­one with­in the devel­op­ment, there are no pro­pos­als to man­age it by chan­ging the land­scape on it or to plant on it etc.

4. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report. The fol­low­ing points were raised: α) Com­ment made that the devel­op­ment site being an open field with reas­on­able con­nectiv­ity to the vil­lage is an obvi­ous site for expand­ing Nethy Bridge, and togeth­er with Nethy Sta­tion devel­op­ment would offer enhanced

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Draft Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Minutes 27 June 2025 Page 5 of 6 afford­able hous­ing bene­fits. The major­ity of the houses would not become short term lets as they are in a short term let con­trol area. The pro­pos­al is good for Nethy Bridge and good for the loc­al com­munity. b) Sup­port for pro­pos­ing to stage the house build­ing over 10 years, and praise for the inclu­sion of nature cor­ridors. c) Sup­port for the applic­a­tion, and the inten­tion for mar­ket­ing to be done organ­ic­ally. d) Com­mend applic­ant respons­ive­ness to Officers and to third party rep­res­ent­a­tions. Des­pite areas of dis­agree­ment, the pro­pos­al is a good applic­a­tion for much needed hous­ing. e) Clar­ity sought around the impacts of poten­tially widen­ing of the 5m wild­life cor­ridor and wheth­er this would mean the oth­er 18m cor­ridors would have to be nar­rowed? Plan­ning Officer con­firmed this under­stand­ing was correct.

1. The Com­mit­tee approved the applic­a­tion sub­ject to the con­di­tions stated in the report.

2. Action Points arising: None.

There was a 10 minute com­fort break at 2.38pm Peter Cos­grove returned, and the meet­ing recom­menced at 2.49pm Sandy Brem­ner left the meet­ing at 2.49pm Agenda Item 5 Applic­a­tion for Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 2025/0010/DET (APP/2024/1967) Upper Dee River and Flood­plain Res­tor­a­tion At Site at The River Dee from No 1446 9203 up to the con­flu­ence with the Quoi­ch water at No 1226 9068, Aberdeenshire.

1. Colin Bry­ans, Seni­or Plan­ning Officer, Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment presen­ted the paper to the committee.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask for clar­ity, and the fol­low­ing points were raised: α) Could reas­sur­ance be provided that applic­ant will have to provide pro­tec­ted spe­cies sur­veys for all pro­tec­ted spe­cies on the site. Seni­or Plan­ning Officer provided assur­ance that ini­tial sur­veys have been under­taken and further

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Draft Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Minutes 27 June 2025 Page 6 of 6 b) advised that all sur­veys will need to be val­id at the time of con­struc­tion, and that this will be detailed through the Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan (CEMP). Mem­ber com­men­ted that this devel­op­ment would not be much bene­fit to flood height. Seni­or Plan­ning Officer agreed that was what the mod­el showed, how­ever he explained that the driv­ing force for this applic­a­tion is for wild­life con­nectiv­ity rather than flood alle­vi­ation. A mem­ber added that it would bene­fit a range of spe­cies such as breed­ing sal­mon and hab­it­ats for wader chicks.

1. The Com­mit­tee approved the applic­a­tion as per the con­di­tions stated in the report.

2. Action Points arising: None.

Sandy Brem­ner returned to the meet­ing at 3.05pm Agenda Item 6 AOCB

1. None.

Date of next meeting

1. The pub­lic busi­ness of the meet­ing con­cluded at 3.06pm.

2. Date of the next meet­ing is 29 August 2025.