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Item 5 report

Com­mit­tee report

Devel­op­ment proposed:

Erec­tion of ware­house build­ing (class 6), form­a­tion of access track, park­ing area, and asso­ci­ated works at Land 130 Metres South East Of House Of Bru­ar, Pit­agow­an Blair Atholl, Pit­lo­chry PH18 5TW

Ref­er­ence: 2023/0406/DET Applic­ant: The House of Bru­ar Ltd Date called-in: 30 Octo­ber 2023 Recom­mend­a­tion: Refuse Case officer: Katie Crerar, Plan­ning Officer

Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2025. Ord­nance Sur­vey AC0000821810. The rep­res­ent­a­tion of fea­tures or bound­ar­ies in which Cairngorms Nation­al Park or oth­ers have an interest does not neces­sar­ily imply their true pos­i­tions. For fur­ther inform­a­tion please con­tact the appro­pri­ate authority.

This map has been pro­duced to aid in the stat­utory pro­cess of deal­ing with plan­ning applic­a­tions. The map is to help identi­fy the site and its sur­round­ings and to aid Plan­ning Officers, Com­mit­tee Mem­bers and the Pub­lic in the determ­in­a­tion of the pro­pos­al. Maps shown in the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Report can only be used for the pur­poses of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee. Any oth­er use risks infringing Crown Copy­right and may lead to pro­sec­u­tion or civil pro­ceed­ings. Maps pro­duced with­in this Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Report can only be repro­duced with the express per­mis­sion of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and oth­er Copy­right hold­ers. This per­mis­sion must be gran­ted in advance.

Site descrip­tion, pro­pos­al and history

Site descrip­tion

  1. This applic­a­tion relates to the well-known House of Bru­ar retail com­plex which is situ­ated to the imme­di­ate north of the A9 and east of the ham­let of Pitagowan.
  2. The applic­a­tion site lies approx­im­ately 350 meters (m) east of the main House of Bru­ar com­plex. It is situ­ated at the junc­tion of and between the River Garry run­ning along the east­ern side of the site and the smal­ler Bru­ar Water along the north­ern side with the A9 on its south-west boundary.
  3. The site is primar­ily grass­land which is kept mown at the west­ern side and man­aged as mead­ow on the east side. Much of the site is rel­at­ively level and low-lying, sit­ting 5m below the A9 with the ground rising to the west towards an area of car park­ing and the House of Bru­ar itself.
  4. There is an exist­ing access to the site from the B8079 which runs along the edge of the exist­ing east­ern car park.

Pro­pos­al

  1. The draw­ings and doc­u­ments asso­ci­ated with this applic­a­tion are lis­ted below and are avail­able on the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity web­site unless noted otherwise:

    http://​www​.eplan​ningcnpa​.co​.uk/​o​n​l​i​n​e​-​a​p​p​l​i​c​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​a​p​p​l​i​c​a​t​i​o​n​D​e​t​a​i​l​s​.​d​o​?​a​c​t​i​v​e​T​a​b​=​s​u​m​m​a​r​y​&​k​e​y​V​a​l​=​S​2​H​0​6​U​S​I​0CP00

TitleDraw­ing num­berDate on plan*Date received
Loc­a­tion Plan2310.L01e03/01/202326/10/2023
Site Plan as existing2310.L02e05/10/202326/10/2023
Site Plan as existing2310.L04d05/10/202326/10/2023
Site Plan as proposed2310.L05r05⁄1006/02/2025
Site Plan as proposed2310.L03m05⁄1006/02/2025
TitleDraw­ing num­berDate on plan*Date received
Floor and Roof Plans2310.P07k05⁄1006/02/2025
Elev­a­tions and Sec­tions as proposed2310.P06k05⁄1006/02/2025
Land­scap­ing Plan2310.L90n05⁄1006/02/2025
Plan­ning StatementN/A16/10/202326/10/2023
Drain­age Impact Assessment*N/A01/02/202409/08/2024
Flood Risk Assessment*N/A01/08/202409/08/2024
Tech­nic­al Addendum to Flood Risk AssessmentN/A24/01/202506/02/2025
Plan­ning State­ment – Addendum on flood risk*N/A01/02/202506/02/2025
Pre­lim­in­ary Eco­lo­gic­al Apprais­al and Eco­lo­gic­al Impact AssessmentN/A25/08/202326/10/2023
Fresh­wa­ter Pearl Mus­sel Sur­vey Report*N/A01/04/202428/05/2024
Otter Sur­vey ReportN/A12/03/202428/05/2024
Tree Sur­vey Report – Tree Sur­vey, Arbor­i­cul­tur­al Impact Assess­ment and Tree Pro­tec­tion PlanN/A01/03/202428/05/2024
Arbor­i­cul­tur­al Impact PlanN/A10/03/202428/05/2024
Tree Con­straints PlanN/A10/03/202428/05/2024
Tree Pro­tec­tion PlanN/A10/03/202428/05/2024

*Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the first of the month.

  1. This pro­pos­al seeks plan­ning per­mis­sion for the erec­tion of a ware­house build­ing (Class 6) to sup­port the oper­a­tions of the House of Bru­ar retail busi­ness along with asso­ci­ated access track, park­ing area and oth­er asso­ci­ated works.
  2. This ware­house is being pro­posed as part of a wider stra­tegic invest­ment plan at the House of Bru­ar to devel­op a fab­ric hall and mar­ket­place focus­ing on Scot­tish tex­tiles. A sep­ar­ate plan­ning applic­a­tion was approved by Perth and Kinross Coun­cil in August 2024 for the par­tial change of use of one of the exist­ing ware­houses to form addi­tion­al retail space. The pro­posed ware­house that is the sub­ject of this applic­a­tion, is there­fore inten­ded to off­set some of the warehouse

stor­age space lost as a res­ult of that pro­pos­al. It will be used for stor­age and dis­tri­bu­tion to sup­port the onsite retail oper­a­tion as well as includ­ing lim­ited space for food stor­age and preparation.

  1. The applic­a­tion site was chosen as the closest avail­able loc­a­tion for the busi­ness that is access­ible for both logist­ics and staff.
  2. The pro­posed ware­house build­ing is rect­an­gu­lar in form, extend­ing to 66.46 metres long by 20.18 metres deep. It has a pitched roof with a ridge height of 10.2 metres. The exter­i­or walls and roof will be fin­ished in King­span Plas­tisol KS1000 coated steel com­pos­ite pan­els in bottle green col­our (RAL 6007) match­ing oth­er build­ings at the House of Bru­ar site.
  3. The ware­house roof will have sol­ar pan­els (on the south­ern elev­a­tion) and Polycar­bon­ate roof lights along with an extract roof cow­al (all painted in the match­ing bottle green colour).
  4. There will be ​‘House of Bru­ar’ sig­nage in large scale let­ter­ing on the south­ern elev­a­tion along with two vehicle accesses secured by large Plasticol coated roller shut­ter doors. In addi­tion, the south­ern elev­a­tion will have a Plasticol coated alu­mini­um double-glazed win­dow in match­ing bottle green (RAL 60007) and a ped­es­tri­an door with steps. There will be extern­al lights above all vehicu­lar and ped­es­tri­an doors.
  5. The oth­er elev­a­tions of the pro­posed build­ing all have ped­es­tri­an access doors (the ones on the north­ern and east­ern elev­a­tions have extern­al steps) and light­ing above them. There are also addi­tion­al lights on these elev­a­tions and a num­ber of small vents (See Elev­a­tions and Sec­tions as Proposed).
  6. The west­ern end of the pro­posed build­ing will house con­dens­ers and two Plasticol coated alu­mini­um double-glazed win­dows in match­ing bottle green (RAL 6007).
  7. Access to the build­ing is pro­posed to be taken from an exist­ing track which is con­nec­ted dir­ectly with the B8079 to the north­w­est of the site. A new tar­macked access road will be built down to the site and will curve around to the front of the

build­ing (south­ern elev­a­tion) and extend along the length of the front elev­a­tion. Ten grav­elled car park­ing spaces and two van spaces will be cre­ated at the front of the build­ing adjoin­ing the access road. There will also be tar­macked vehicu­lar access cre­ated into the warehouse.

  1. Two roof water swales will be cre­ated to the west and south of the ware­house. There will be land­scap­ing around the ware­house, and a ped­es­tri­an path will be cre­ated along the west­ern and north­ern bound­ary of the build­ing con­nect­ing to the access road.
  2. A bin stor­age area will be cre­ated out­side the west­ern end of the build­ing and food and ware­house waste will be trans­por­ted from here to the House of Bruar’s main col­lec­tion point for uplift­ing. There will also be an LPG tank on a plinth and a self-bun­ded oil tank loc­ated adja­cent to the bin stor­age area.

His­tory

  1. There is no recent his­tory on the applic­a­tion site itself. How­ever, there have been recent applic­a­tions at the House of Bru­ar, includ­ing: a) 23/01379/FLL — part change of use and alter­a­tions to ground floor office / stor­age space (Classes 4 and 5) to form addi­tion­al retail space (Class 1A) approved by Perth and Kinross Coun­cil. b) 2023/0145/DET — renew­al of per­mis­sion 19/02111/FLL (Erec­tion of art gal­lery build­ing, recon­fig­ure car park, install­a­tion of four air source heat pumps, land­scap­ing and asso­ci­ated works) – Approved by the Park Author­ity. c) 23/00071/FLL — Exten­sion to ware­house / offices to form addi­tion­al office space (class 2), product devel­op­ment / food pre­par­a­tion areas with asso­ci­ated stor­age and dis­tri­bu­tion (class 6) – Approved by Perth and Kinross Council.

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

  1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) has been under­taken to con­sider the poten­tial effects of the devel­op­ment upon the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the Natura sites lis­ted with­in the HRA doc­u­ment, which is attached as Appendix 2. The Natura site in this case is the River Tay Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC) which

is des­ig­nated for its otter, brook lamprey, river lamprey, sea lamprey and Atlantic sal­mon interests.

  1. The HRA con­siders that there are no likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects on clear-water lakes or lochs with aquat­ic veget­a­tion and poor to mod­er­ate nutri­ent levels. In respect of Atlantic sal­mon, otter and lamprey spe­cies, although there will be no dir­ect loss of any suit­able lamprey hab­it­ats, there is poten­tial for silt or pol­lu­tion to enter the River Garry or Bru­ar Water dur­ing the con­struc­tion pro­cess mean­ing it is likely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect.
  2. How­ever, with the imple­ment­a­tion of mit­ig­a­tion set out in a Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Meth­od State­ment (CEMP) and a Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan (secured by con­di­tion if plan­ning per­mis­sion is gran­ted), there will not be an adverse effect on the integ­rity of the River Tay SAC. The Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan must be site spe­cif­ic and include spe­cif­ic ref­er­ence to pre­vent­ing any silts, fuels, or oth­er chem­ic­als from enter­ing the nearby water­courses. Ideally the plan will include a plan detail­ing loc­a­tions for stor­ing fuel, refuel­ling machinery, con­crete wash out area etc. Oth­er details to be included in the CEMP should include a meth­od state­ment for con­struc­tion of the out­flow and the spe­cies pro­tec­tion plan for otter.

Devel­op­ment plan context

Policies

Nation­al policy

Nation­al policyNation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045
Policy 1Tack­ling the cli­mate and nature crises
Policy 2Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adaptation
Policy 3Biod­iversity
Policy 4Nat­ur­al places
Policy 6Forestry, wood­land and trees
Policy 12Zero waste
Policy 13Sus­tain­able transport
Policy 14Design, qual­ity and place
Policy 20Blue and green infrastructure
Policy 22Flood risk and water management
Policy 23Health and safety
Nation­al policyNation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045
Policy 26Busi­ness and industry
Policy 29Rur­al development

Stra­tegic policy

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027

Loc­al plan policy

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2021) (Policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross (x))

Loc­al plan policy
Policy 1New hous­ing development
Policy 2Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growthx
Policy 3Design and placemakingx
Policy 4Nat­ur­al heritagex
Policy 5Land­scapex
Policy 6The sit­ing and design of digit­al com­mu­nic­a­tions equipment
Policy 7Renew­able energy
Policy 8Open space, sport and recreation
Policy 9Cul­tur­al heritage
Policy 10Resourcesx
Policy 11Developer oblig­a­tions
  1. All new devel­op­ment pro­pos­als require to be assessed in rela­tion to policies con­tained in the adop­ted Devel­op­ment Plan which com­prises Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. The full word­ing of policies can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-planning-framework‑4/documents/ and at: https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​w​p​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​2​0​2​1​/​0​3​/​C​N​P​A​-​L​D​P​-​2​0​2​1​-​w​e​b.pdf

Plan­ning guidance

  1. Sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance also forms part of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan and provides more details about how to com­ply with the policies. Guid­ance that is rel­ev­ant to this applic­a­tion is marked with a cross (x).
Policy 1Hous­ing sup­ple­ment­ary guidance
Policy 2Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth non-stat­utory guidancex
Policy 3Design and place­mak­ing non-stat­utory guidancex
Policy 4Nat­ur­al her­it­age non-stat­utory guidancex
Policy 5Land­scape non-stat­utory guidancex
Policy 7Renew­able energy non-stat­utory guidance
Policy 8Open space, sport and recre­ation non-stat­utory guidance
Policy 9Cul­tur­al her­it­age non-stat­utory guidance
Policy 10Resources non-stat­utory guidancex
Policy 11Developer oblig­a­tions sup­ple­ment­ary guidance

Con­sulta­tions

  1. A sum­mary of the main issues raised by con­sul­tees now follows:

  2. Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency (SEPA) was con­sul­ted as part of the devel­op­ment lies with­in an area iden­ti­fied on their flood risk maps. SEPA sub­mit­ted a hold­ing objec­tion to the pro­pos­al in Novem­ber 2023 due to lack of inform­a­tion in respect of flood­ing. A Flood Risk Assess­ment was provided, and SEPA main­tained their objec­tion in Septem­ber 2024 on the basis that most of the site is with­in the flood risk area and that mit­ig­a­tion would not be suit­able in this instance as the devel­op­ment is not an excep­tion under Policy 22a of Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (2023). Fur­ther to this objec­tion, the applic­ant reduced the size of the ware­house to bring it com­pletely out­with SEPA’s flood risk area. SEPA were con­sul­ted again on the revised pro­pos­als in Feb­ru­ary 2025 and again main­tained their objec­tion on the basis that the Flood Risk Assess­ment under­taken by the applic­ant clearly showed that most of the pro­posed ware­house would be at risk of flood­ing. They noted that SEPA’s maps are based on stra­tegic-scale mod­el­ling which does not always give a good rep­res­ent­a­tion of flood­ing at a loc­al scale. They maintained

that as the devel­op­ment is not an excep­tion under Policy 22 of NPF4, no mit­ig­a­tion can be accepted.

  1. Trans­port Scot­land have reques­ted the inclu­sion of the fol­low­ing con­di­tions to ensure that the access road and asso­ci­ated works are designed and con­struc­ted to a stand­ard that is com­pat­ible with the require­ments of the pro­posed accom­mod­a­tion track being provided as part of the A9 dualling scheme over which it crossed and over­laps with. a) Pri­or to the com­mence­ment of the devel­op­ment, details of the pro­posed access align­ment and con­struc­tion spe­cific­a­tion, gen­er­ally as illus­trated on Han­nay McLar­en Archi­tects Draw­ing Nos. 2310.Lo3b and 2310.Lo5j, shall be sub­mit­ted to, and agreed with the Plan­ning Author­ity, after con­sulta­tion with Trans­port Scot­land, and there­after, and pri­or to occu­pa­tion of any part of the devel­op­ment hereby per­mit­ted, the pro­posed access shall be con­struc­ted to the agreed details to the sat­is­fac­tion of the Plan­ning Author­ity. b) Pri­or to the com­mence­ment of the devel­op­ment, details of the pro­posed drain­age asso­ci­ated with the access road pro­pos­als shall be sub­mit­ted to, and agreed with the Plan­ning Author­ity, after con­sulta­tion with Trans­port Scot­land, and there­after, and pri­or to occu­pa­tion of any part of the devel­op­ment hereby per­mit­ted, the pro­posed drain­age shall be con­struc­ted to the agreed details to the sat­is­fac­tion of the Plan­ning Author­ity. Note: There shall be no drain­age con­nec­tions to the trunk road drain­age sys­tem. c) Pri­or to the com­mence­ment of the devel­op­ment, details of the pro­posed sig­nage, Non-Motor­ised User arrange­ments, plus any stock fen­cing and gates, asso­ci­ated with the pro­posed access road pro­pos­als (where it over­laps with the access track from the B8079 to the under­bridge on the A9 which is part of the A9 Dualling pro­gramme), shall be sub­mit­ted to, and agreed with the Plan­ning Author­ity, after con­sulta­tion with Trans­port Scot­land and there­after, and pri­or to occu­pa­tion of any part of the devel­op­ment hereby per­mit­ted, the pro­posed access shall be con­struc­ted to the agreed details to the sat­is­fac­tion of the Plan­ning Authority.

  2. Scot­tish Water do not object to the applic­a­tion how­ever do not veri­fy if the pro­posed devel­op­ment can cur­rently be ser­viced. They con­firm that there is capa­city at Kil­liecrankie Water Treat­ment Works and the nearest pub­lic water

main is approx­im­ately 470m from the site. They state that there is no pub­lic Wastewa­ter infra­struc­ture and advise sub­mit­ting a Pre-Devel­op­ment Enquiry to enable them to fully appraise the proposal.

  1. Perth and Kinross Council’s Trans­port­a­tion and Devel­op­ment Team accept the access arrange­ments acknow­ledging that the vehicu­lar access to the site is taken off a private access which is, in turn, taken off the B8079 pub­lic road and a new vehicle access to / from a pub­lic road is not being pro­posed. They high­light that based on the lar­ger ware­house floor area, a require­ment of five cycle park­ing, 15 vehicle, one power two-wheel­er and two dis­abled park­ing spaces would be expec­ted but giv­en that the site adjoins the exist­ing car park where addi­tion­al park­ing space can be accessed when neces­sary, a lower pro­vi­sion of vehicle park­ing may be appropriate.
  2. They also note that Nation­al Cycle Net­work Route 7 runs along the adja­cent B8079 and B847 roads and in accord­ance with plan­ning policy, the applic­ant should detail pro­vi­sion of secure cycle park­ing. They have pro­posed the fol­low­ing condition:
  3. ‘Pri­or to com­mence­ment of any devel­op­ment on site, a detailed design for the pro­posed secure covered cycle park­ing facil­ity for a min­im­um of five cycles shall be sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Plan­ning Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with the Roads Author­ity. The cycle park­ing, as approved in writ­ing, shall be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the approved details to the sat­is­fac­tion of the Coun­cil as Plan­ning Author­ity pri­or to the devel­op­ment being brought into use.
  4. Finally, the Trans­port­a­tion and Devel­op­ment Team high­light that the Nation­al Roads Devel­op­ment Guide stip­u­lates a min­im­um bay size for vans of 7.5m x 3.5m to allow for the trend of increas­ingly long vans. The pro­posed bays are 7m in length and recom­mend that the van park­ing spaces are exten­ded to 7.5m. It is also recom­men­ded that the turn­ing space at the gravel area for vans is exten­ded to allow for ease of man­oeuv­ring and egress from the van park­ing area in a for­ward-facing gear.
  1. Perth and Kinross Council’s Flood Team objec­ted to the pro­pos­al after the sub­mis­sion of the Flood Risk Assess­ment on the basis that the Floor Risk Assess­ment con­firms the major­ity of the site is loc­ated with­in a flu­vi­al flood risk area. In addi­tion, it does not qual­i­fy as an excep­tion under Policy 22a of NPF4 and there­fore the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures pro­posed fail to align with the prin­ciple of flood risk avoid­ance. They main­tained their objec­tion fol­low­ing the reduc­tion of the size of the ware­house as it does not min­im­ize the vul­ner­ab­il­ity of the devel­op­ment to flood­ing and still does not com­ply with Policy 22 of NPF4.
  2. Perth and Kinross Council’s Com­munit­ies Com­mer­cial Waste Team are sat­is­fied that the bin store meets the require­ments for the site and do not require any alter­a­tions to the proposal.
  3. Perth and Kinross Council’s Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Officer had no com­ments to make on this pro­pos­al and do not require any contributions.
  4. Cairngorm Nation­al Park Authority’s Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer high­lights that the two water­courses bor­der­ing the site (River Garry and Bru­ar Water) are part of the River Tay SAC and there is poten­tial for a large sig­ni­fic­ance of effects as they are sens­it­ive to changes in water qual­ity which may res­ult from pol­lu­tion events on the site. To address this, a Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan (CEMP) will be required includ­ing a Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan.
  5. The Eco­logy Advice Officer also high­lights that the devel­op­ment foot­print impacts on the root pro­tec­tion area of four trees and works should be com­pleted in accord­ance with the Tree Sur­vey, Arbor­i­cul­tur­al Impact Assess­ment and Tree Pro­tec­tion Plan. There is also evid­ence of an otter shel­ter out­with the site bound­ary and works should pro­ceed as per the Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan ensur­ing a 30m around the otter rest­ing place.
  6. The applic­a­tion includes pro­vi­sions for mit­ig­at­ing and enhan­cing biod­iversity and a biod­iversity state­ment / plan could be provided and agreed pri­or to works com­men­cing on site.
  1. Cairngorm Nation­al Park Authority’s Land­scape Advisor high­lights that whilst the lower por­tion of the build­ing would be largely screened by its pos­i­tion 5m below the sur­round­ing ground levels to the west and the south, there would be some views to the upper part of the build­ing from the A9 (par­tic­u­larly trav­el­ling west bound) and the paths close to the Falls of Bru­ar. How­ever, it is acknow­ledged that it would be asso­ci­ated with the exist­ing group of build­ings and car parks with­in the wider landscape.
  2. The Land­scape Advisor con­siders that the scale of the pro­pos­al would have an adverse effect on Spe­cial Land­scape Qual­ity 4: Glens and Straths, how­ever this could largely be mit­ig­ated by appro­pri­ate tree and scrub plant­ing. There­fore, a revised land­scap­ing plan with increased screen plant­ing (com­pris­ing nat­ive spe­cies and be man­aged to ensure suc­cess­ful estab­lish­ment and enhance biod­iversity, and to reflect the veget­a­tion bey­ond the site bound­ary) and includ­ing details of sizes, spe­cies, num­bers and loc­a­tions should be provided.
  3. Details of sens­it­ively designed light­ing should be provided which min­im­ises light spill. Land­scape man­age­ment and main­ten­ance pro­pos­als should be provided for the new and exist­ing plant­ing and the pro­posed Sus­tain­able Urb­an Drain­age Sys­tems (SUDS) areas. A Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment should also be provided detail­ing the meth­od of ground­works, soil excav­a­tion and stor­age, and ground and veget­a­tion restoration.
  4. Blair Atholl and Stru­an Com­munity Coun­cil was con­sul­ted but did not sub­mit a response.

Rep­res­ent­a­tions

  1. There were no rep­res­ent­a­tions to this application.

Apprais­al

  1. Sec­tion 25 of the 1997 Act as amended requires applic­a­tions to be determ­ined in accord­ance with the Devel­op­ment Plan. This now com­prises the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, and the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4. Where there is con­flict between policies, NPF4 policies will be used.
  1. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions in this case are the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment, flood risk, the impact upon land­scape, sit­ing and design, eco­lo­gic­al impacts and access which are con­sidered in detail below.

Prin­ciple of development

  1. This applic­a­tion relates to the House of Bru­ar, which is an estab­lished and thriv­ing retail busi­ness loc­ated close to the south­ern gate­way of the Nation­al Park and plays an import­ant role in the loc­al eco­nomy attract­ing two mil­lion cus­tom­ers a year and employ­ing 350 employees.
  2. Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Policy 29: Rur­al Devel­op­ment seeks to sup­port devel­op­ment pro­pos­als that con­trib­ute to the viab­il­ity, sus­tain­ab­il­ity and diversity of rur­al com­munit­ies and the rur­al eco­nomy. The policy explains that pro­pos­als in rur­al areas should be suit­ably scaled, sited and designed to be in keep­ing with the char­ac­ter of the area and should con­sider how they will con­trib­ute to loc­al liv­ing and take into account the trans­port needs as appro­pri­ate for the rur­al location.
  3. In addi­tion, the Nation­al Park’s Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth, part 2.4 (oth­er eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment) sup­ports pro­pos­als that will help to extend the eco­nomy and enhance the range and qual­ity of eco­nom­ic oppor­tun­it­ies. Pro­pos­als should have no adverse envir­on­ment­al or amen­ity impacts, should be com­pat­ible with the exist­ing busi­ness activ­ity in the area and sup­port the vital­ity and viab­il­ity of the loc­al economy.
  4. Bru­ar and Pit­agow­an is iden­ti­fied as a rur­al set­tle­ment (which has no set­tle­ment bound­ary) with­in the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan, and one of the set­tle­ment object­ives is to ​‘sup­port the stra­tegic­ally import­ant devel­op­ment at the House of Bru­ar and ensure it bene­fits the loc­al community’.
  5. The House of Bru­ar is a thriv­ing rur­al busi­ness and this pro­pos­al forms part of a stra­tegic invest­ment plan to respond to cus­tom­er and sup­pli­er interest in a fab­ric hall and mar­ket­place for the design, man­u­fac­ture and sale of Scot­tish fab­rics. Accord­ing to the applic­a­tion, ​‘this invest­ment is designed to ensure that the busi­ness remains innov­at­ive and rel­ev­ant’. In addi­tion to this, the ware­house is also

inten­ded to provide busi­ness crit­ic­al resi­li­ence to the House of Bru­ar dur­ing the A9 dualling where there will be a need to be able to accom­mod­ate great­er on-site inventory.

  1. It is recog­nised that the House of Bru­ar makes a sig­ni­fic­ant con­tri­bu­tion to the viab­il­ity and sus­tain­ab­il­ity of the loc­al area and this pro­pos­al will sup­port the ongo­ing oper­a­tion and expan­sion of the busi­ness. Whilst this pro­pos­al is in keep­ing with the wider func­tions of the exist­ing busi­ness and is gen­er­ally accept­able as a prin­ciple which largely com­plies with NPF4 Policy 29 and the rel­ev­ant set­tle­ment object­ive for Bru­ar and Pit­agow­an, the poten­tial flood risk implic­a­tions (set out in the next sec­tion) mean that there are poten­tially adverse envir­on­ment­al implic­a­tions and there­fore the pro­pos­al does not accord with all of the rel­ev­ant pro­vi­sions of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Policy 2.

Flood Risk

  1. NPF4 Policy 22: Flood risk and water man­age­ment cre­ates a pre­sump­tion against all devel­op­ment at risk from flood­ing unless they meet one of four cri­ter­ia set out in part a) of the policy. These are for: i. Essen­tial infra­struc­ture; ii. Water com­pat­ible uses; iii. Redevel­op­ment of an exist­ing build­ing for an equal or less vul­ner­able use; or iv. Pre­vi­ously used sites in built up areas where the LDP has iden­ti­fied a need to bring these into pos­it­ive use and where long-term safety and resi­li­ence can be secured.
  2. In addi­tion, Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 requires (amongst oth­er things) to ensure there is no det­ri­ment­al impacts on the water envir­on­ment (10.1), and that all devel­op­ment should be free from Medi­um to High risk of flood­ing from all sources tak­ing into account cli­mate change, not increase the risk of flood­ing else­where or affect the abil­ity of the func­tion­al flood­plain to store or move flood waters (10.2).
  3. The devel­op­ment site bor­ders both the Bru­ar Water to the north and the River Garry along the south­east. A lar­ger ware­house was ini­tially sub­mit­ted which

par­tially lay with­in SEPA’s Medi­um (0.5% chance) and Low (0.1% chance) Like­li­hood risk of river flood­ing. In response to SEPA’s objec­tion, the pro­pos­al was sub­stan­tially reduced, tak­ing the building’s foot­print out­with the area of SEPA’s iden­ti­fied flood risk. How­ever, the Flood Risk