Draft Planning Cttee Mins - 9 October 2026

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Draft Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Minutes Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh 09 Octo­ber 2026 Page 1 of 6

Draft minutes of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee meet­ing Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own-on-Spey Hybrid 9 Octo­ber 2026 at 10.00am

Present in per­son Paul Gibb (Deputy Con­vener) Jack­ie Brier­ton Kenny Deans Bill Lob­ban Lauren Mac­Cal­lum Duncan Miller Sandy Brem­ner Peter Cos­grove John Kirk Elean­or Mack­in­tosh Fiona McLean

Apo­lo­gies Geva Black­ett Rus­sell Jones (Con­vener) Steve Mickle­wright Derek Ross Han­nah Grist Ian McLar­en Ann Ross Michael Williamson

In Attend­ance Dav­id Berry, Head of Plan­ning and Chief Plan­ning Officer Emma Bryce, Plan­ning Man­ager (Devel­op­ment Man­ager) Heath­er Boswell, Seni­or Plan­ning Officer Katie Crerar, Plan­ning Officer, Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment Emma Green­lees, Plan­ning Sup­port Officer Peter Fer­guson, Harp­er MacLeod LLP Alix Hark­ness, Clerk to the Board

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Draft Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Minutes Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh 09 Octo­ber 2026 Page 2 of 6

Agenda Item 1 Wel­come and apologies

1. Paul Gibb, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Deputy Con­vener wel­comed all present and apo­lo­gies were noted.

Agenda Items 2 and 3 Approv­al of minutes of pre­vi­ous meet­ings and Mat­ters arising

1. The minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing on 28 August 2026 held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, Grant­own-on-Spey, were approved with no amendments.

2. There was one action point arising: a) At Para 15(i) — Officers report was amended to cor­rectly ref­er­ence com­ments from Emma Bro­d­er­ick MSP.

Agenda Item 4 Declar­a­tions of interest

1. There were no declar­a­tions of interest.

Agenda Item 5 Applic­a­tion for Detailed Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 2026/0160/DET Slu­gain Burn Res­tor­a­tion Pro­ject: River chan­nel realign­ment, hab­it­at res­tor­a­tion, road realign­ment, revised river cross­ing and install­a­tion of cul­vert At Land 1.4KM SW of Inver­laid­nan, Car­rbridge Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to conditions

1. Katie Crerar, Plan­ning Officer presen­ted the paper to the committee.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask the Plan­ning Officer for clar­ity, and the fol­low­ing points were raised: a) A mem­ber asked how would gravel build-up in the new pools/​channel be pre­ven­ted? Plan­ning Officer con­firmed that sed­i­ment depos­ition would be mon­itored for at least five years fol­low­ing con­struc­tion. If mon­it­or­ing iden­ti­fied issues such as restric­ted fish pas­sage, mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures would be developed and imple­men­ted. The revised bridge design and increased capa­city are expec­ted to reduce the risk of gravel accumulation.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Draft Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Minutes Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh 09 Octo­ber 2026 Page 3 of 6

b) A mem­ber asked if there were any vis­ible archae­olo­gic­al build­ings on the site? Plan­ning Officer advised that the known build­ing is out­side the applic­a­tion site. She explained that the applic­ant had provided the reques­ted archae­olo­gic­al inform­a­tion, and an inform­at­ive will require any archae­olo­gic­al dis­cov­er­ies dur­ing con­struc­tion to be repor­ted. A mem­ber noted that a former farm­stead and croft house had exis­ted on the site, with little now remain­ing. c) A mem­ber sought clar­ity on the Park Authority’s role as applic­ant, and what respons­ib­il­ity would it have for the pro­ject after com­ple­tion? Plan­ning Officer advised that the pro­ject was being delivered through the Cairngorms 2030 Pro­gramme with sup­port from the landown­er and part­ner organ­isa­tions. Respons­ib­il­ity for the new road and water­course cross­ing was expec­ted to trans­fer to High­land Coun­cil fol­low­ing adop­tion. d) A mem­ber asked if any enforce­ment action could be taken against the applic­ant if plan­ning con­di­tions were not com­plied with? Peter Fer­guson, Harp­er McLeod LLP advised that plan­ning enforce­ment gen­er­ally would be dir­ec­ted at the landown­er in the first instance. e) A mem­ber asked if Con­di­tion 9 could be amended to include mon­it­or­ing of sal­mon or oth­er spe­cies, rather than focus­ing solely on sed­i­ment erosion and depos­ition? Plan­ning Officer con­firmed that Con­di­tion 9 could be reworded accord­ingly. Mem­bers sup­por­ted this addition.

1. Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report. The fol­low­ing points were raised: a) None.

2. The Com­mit­tee approved the applic­a­tion sub­ject to the con­di­tions stated in the officer’s report.

3. Action Point arising: i. Con­di­tion 9 to be amended to include mon­it­or­ing of aquat­ic species

Agenda Item 6 Pro­pos­al of applic­a­tion notice (PoAN) PRE/2026/0025 Pro­posed new 400kV sub­sta­tion and under­ground cable con­nec­tion com­pris­ing new build­ings, plat­form, plant and machinery, access, laydown/​work com­pound area(s),

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Draft Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Minutes Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh 09 Octo­ber 2026 Page 4 of 6

drain­age, land­scap­ing, track upgrades and install­a­tions, under­ground cabling and oth­er ancil­lary works (Nation­al Devel­op­ment) At Land south of the A86, Strath­mash­ie, Lag­gan, New­ton­more Recom­mend­a­tion: Note the PoAN and feed­back any com­ments on addi­tion­al rel­ev­ant issues to be addressed in any future plan­ning application

1. Heath­er Boswell, Seni­or Plan­ning Officer presen­ted the paper to the committee.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask the Plan­ning Officer for clar­ity, and the fol­low­ing points were raised: b) No questions

3. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report. The fol­low­ing points were raised: a) No intim­a­tions made.

4. The Com­mit­tee noted the PoAN.

5. Action Point arising: None.

Agenda Item 7 For inform­a­tion Nation­al Plan­ning Improve­ment Frame­work (NPIF) Pro­gress Report Recom­mend­a­tion: Note the pro­gress in deliv­er­ing the NPIF Improve­ment Action Plan

1. Dav­id Berry, Head of Plan­ning and Chief Plan­ning Officer presen­ted the paper to the committee.

2. The Com­mit­tee were invited to ask for clar­ity, and the fol­low­ing points were raised: a) A mem­ber asked if Board Mem­bers would be involved in the developers’ for­um and sim­il­ar stake­hold­er engage­ment activ­it­ies? Head of Plan­ning and Chief Plan­ning Officer advised that the developers’ for­um was recon­vened last year and that the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener is invited to attend and par­ti­cip­ate. b) A mem­ber quer­ied why actions 10 and 11 were still in pro­gress, and would the forth­com­ing Com­munity Gath­er­ing res­ult in more struc­tured Com­munity Coun­cil engage­ment? Head of Plan­ning and Chief Plan­ning Officer acknow­ledged that Com­munity Coun­cil engage­ment had not pro­gressed as

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Draft Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Minutes Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh 09 Octo­ber 2026 Page 5 of 6

quickly as desired. A plan­ning work­shop would be held at the upcom­ing Com­munity Gath­er­ing to sup­port engage­ment with com­munity coun­cils and groups, explain plan­ning pro­cesses, and seek views on the most effect­ive mech­an­isms for ongo­ing com­munity involve­ment. It was agreed that the date of the Gath­er­ing would be cir­cu­lated to mem­bers sep­ar­ately. c) A mem­ber noted that NatureScot’s biod­iversity met­ric is cur­rently out for con­sulta­tion and asked if any train­ing was planned on biod­iversity net gain for both Board Mem­bers and developers ahead of the new require­ments? Head of Plan­ning and Chief Plan­ning Officer con­firmed that they are enga­ging with the con­sulta­tion on the pro­posed biod­iversity met­ric and agreed that train­ing would be bene­fi­cial. Ses­sions for both the Developers’ For­um and Board Mem­bers would be con­sidered once there was great­er clar­ity on the final require­ments. d) A mem­ber asked if there was evid­ence that the improve­ment pro­gramme was mak­ing the plan­ning applic­a­tion pro­cess easi­er for applic­ants, and how was that being meas­ured? Head of Plan­ning and Chief Plan­ning Officer advised that rep­res­ent­at­ives from the devel­op­ment industry were involved in the ori­gin­al per­form­ance review and helped devel­op the improve­ment action plan. Pro­gress updates would con­tin­ue to be shared with stake­hold­ers, and fur­ther feed­back sought to assess wheth­er applic­ants have exper­i­enced improve­ments. Developer feed­back has already informed actions, includ­ing work with the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment to address lim­it­a­tions with­in the e‑development portal. e) A mem­ber asked if feed­back is routinely sought from indi­vidu­al applic­ants on their exper­i­ence of the plan­ning pro­cess? Head of Plan­ning and Chief Plan­ning Officer con­firmed that the Author­ity oper­ates a cus­tom­er sat­is­fac­tion sur­vey and also par­ti­cip­ates in the Improve­ment Service’s annu­al cus­tom­er feed­back sur­vey. These pro­cesses are used to gath­er and mon­it­or feed­back from plan­ning applic­ants and oth­er ser­vice users. f) A mem­ber raised con­cern that the plan­ning pro­cess was becom­ing too com­plex and costly, par­tic­u­larly for low-cost hous­ing devel­op­ments, and asked what could be done to sim­pli­fy it? Head of Plan­ning and Chief Plan­ning Officer acknow­ledged con­cerns regard­ing the com­plex­ity and cost of plan­ning require­ments, not­ing that some sur­veys are neces­sary to meet stat­utory oblig­a­tions. While wider reforms may be bey­ond the Authority’s con­trol, efforts would con­tin­ue to focus on provid­ing clear guid­ance, improving

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Draft Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Minutes Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh 09 Octo­ber 2026 Page 6 of 6

com­mu­nic­a­tion with applic­ants, and mak­ing the plan­ning pro­cess as straight­for­ward to nav­ig­ate as possible.

1. The Com­mit­tee were invited to dis­cuss the report. The fol­low­ing point was raised: g) None.

2. The Com­mit­tee noted the report.

3. Action Point arising: i. Date of upcom­ing Com­munity Gath­er­ing to be cir­cu­lated to members.

Agenda Item 8 AOCB

1. There were no items of busi­ness presented.

2. The Deputy Con­vener raised a motion to move to a con­fid­en­tial session.

Date of next meeting

1. The pub­lic busi­ness of the meet­ing con­cluded at 10.50am

2. Date of next meet­ing 13 Novem­ber 2026.