Item 8 - Drumullie S75 Committee Report

Cairngorms Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 13 June 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 1 of 9

Com­mit­tee report

Devel­op­ment pro­posed: Applic­a­tion to dis­charge Sec­tion 75 Agree­ment asso­ci­ated with plan­ning per­mis­sion ref­er­ence 07/414/CP at land 100m north west of Birch Cot­tage, Drumuillie.

Ref­er­ence: 2025/0075/DET

Applic­ant: Alex­an­der Don­ald Grant

Date called-in: 24 March 2025

Recom­mend­a­tion: Agree to dis­charge the Sec­tion 75 Agreement

Case officer: Emma Bryce, Plan­ning Man­ager (DM)

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 June 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 2 of 9

6 2025/0075/DET 230m 6 র Drain Milton of Dru­muil­lie W A95 Boat of Garten A95 d 8970 D A95 Key CNP devel­op­ment man­age­ment case poly­gons CNP cur­rent cases all oth­er cases 6 β 0 0.05 0.1. A95 G B GG G Broom Cot­tage 0.2km215m B G 12 3 G CG Syca­more Cot­tage 210m (Data source: CNPA @Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2025 Ord­nance Sur­vey AC0000821810. OS licensed col­our ras­ter MM (NG): Built envir­on­ment CNP: CNPA ©Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2023 OS 100040965 OS licensed col­our MM (NG): )The rep­res­ent­a­tion of fea­tures or bound­ar­ies in which CNPA or oth­ers have an interest does not neces­sar­ily imply their true pos­i­tions. For fur­ther inform­a­tion please con­tact the appro­pri­ate author­ity 21 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.

Cairngorms Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 13 June 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 3 of 9

Site descrip­tion, pro­pos­al and history

Site descrip­tion

1. The site relates to a former croft which lies on the north side of the A95 at Dru­muil­lie. The site is made up of two plots known as Lot 5 and Lot 7. These plots of land are divided by a group­ing of houses, includ­ing a prop­erty known as Birch Cot­tage which fronts the main road. Lot 5 lies to the west of Birch Cot­tage and a dwell­ing house has been built on this plot. Lot 7 remains as grass­land and lies to east of Birch Cot­tage. The ground rises gently away from the main road.

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​line- applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=S2H06USI0CP00

Title	Draw­ing num­ber	Date on plan*	Date received
Sup­port­ing Information	N/A	N/A	25/03/2025
Sup­port­ing Information	N/A	N/A	26/03/2025

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

1. This applic­a­tion requests the dis­charge of the Sec­tion 75 Agree­ment that relates to the plan­ning per­mis­sion ref­er­ence 07/414/CP which was gran­ted con­sent on 14 Octo­ber 2010 for the erec­tion of a dwell­ing (in out­line) at Land 100m North­w­est of Birch Cot­tage, Dru­muil­lie, Boat of Garten. The Sec­tion 75 Agree­ment related to the con­struc­tion of the dwell­ing on Lot 5, how­ever, imposed restric­tions over the site as a whole, which includes the undeveloped Lot 7. The leg­al agree­ment required the dwell­ing on Lot 5 not to be disponed sep­ar­ately from the wider site, and it was to be occu­pied only by someone engaged in croft­ing work on the site and their dependants.

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1. At the time of enter­ing into the Sec­tion 75 Agree­ment, both lots were registered as a croft. How­ever, part of Lot 7 has now been dec­rof­ted under a Dec­roft­ing Dir­ec­tion dated 10 May 2024. This is sub­ject to con­di­tions that, as a first change of use, the land must be used, let or dis­posed of as a site for a dwell­ing house.

2. The own­er of the site has been gran­ted plan­ning per­mis­sion for the erec­tion of a dwell­ing house on the dec­rof­ted part of Lot 7 and now wishes to sell the land sep­ar­ately from the wider site. The Sec­tion 75 Agree­ment, how­ever, restricts them from doing so.

His­tory

1. The fol­low­ing gives a sum­mary of the rel­ev­ant plan­ning his­tory for the site:

α) 07/414/CP – Erec­tion of Dwell­ing (out­line) at Land 100m North­w­est of Birch Cot­tage, Dru­muil­lie, Boat of Garten gran­ted con­sent on 14 Octo­ber 2010 sub­ject to a Sec­tion 75 Agree­ment restrict­ing the occu­pancy of the dwell­ing on the land­hold­ing and the restric­tion of the sale of the dwell­ing sep­ar­ate from the land­hold­ing. b) 2024/01677/PIP (The High­land Coun­cil ref­er­ence) – Erec­tion of house at Land 35m of Birch Cot­tage, Dru­muil­lie, Boat of Garten gran­ted con­sent on 2 Decem­ber 2024.

Devel­op­ment plan context

Policies

	Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045
Nation­al policy	(Policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross (x))
Policy 1	Tack­ling the cli­mate and nature crises
Policy 2	Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adaptation
Policy 3	Biod­iversity
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al places
Policy 5	Soils
Policy 6	Forestry, wood­land and trees
Policy 7	His­tor­ic assets and places

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 June 2025 Page 5 of 9

Policy 8	Green belts
Policy 9	Brown­field, vacant and derel­ict land, and empty buildings
Policy 11	Energy
Policy 12	Zero waste
Policy 13	Sus­tain­able transport
Policy 14	Design, qual­ity and place
Policy 15	Loc­al liv­ing and 20 minute neighbourhoods
Policy 16	Qual­ity homes
Policy 17	Rur­al homes	x
Policy 18	Infra­struc­ture first
Policy 19	Heat­ing and cooling
Policy 20	Blue and green infrastructure
Policy 21	Play, recre­ation and sport
Policy 22	Flood risk and water management
Policy 23	Health and safety
Policy 24	Digit­al infrastructure
Policy 25	Com­munity wealth building
Policy 26	Busi­ness and industry
Policy 27	City, town, loc­al and com­mer­cial centres
Policy 28	Retail
Policy 29	Rur­al development
Policy 30	Tour­ism
Policy 31	Cul­ture and creativity
Policy 32	Aquacul­ture
Policy 33	Min­er­als
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))
Policy 1	New hous­ing development	x
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth	x
Policy 3	Design and placemaking	x

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Policy 4	Nat­ur­al heritage
Policy 5	Land­scape
Policy 6	The sit­ing and design of digit­al com­mu­nic­a­tions equipment
Policy 7	Renew­able energy
Policy 8	Open space, sport and recreation
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al heritage
Policy 10	Resources
Policy 11	Developer 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
2. 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

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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 1	Hous­ing sup­ple­ment­ary guidance	x
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth non-stat­utory guidance	x
Policy 3	Design and place­mak­ing non-stat­utory guidance
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al her­it­age non-stat­utory guidance
Policy 5	Land­scape non-stat­utory guidance
Policy 7	Renew­able energy non-stat­utory guidance
Policy 8	Open space, sport and recre­ation non-stat­utory guidance
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al her­it­age non-stat­utory guidance
Policy 10	Resources non-stat­utory guidance
Policy 11	Developer oblig­a­tions sup­ple­ment­ary guidance

Con­sulta­tions

1. No con­sulta­tions were deemed neces­sary for the determ­in­a­tion of this application.

Rep­res­ent­a­tions

1. There were no rep­res­ent­a­tions received for this application.

Apprais­al

1. The applic­ant is seek­ing to dis­charge the Sec­tion 75 Agree­ment which restricts the dwell­ing on Lot 5 being disponed sep­ar­ately from the wider site which includes Lot

2. It also restricts the occu­pa­tion of the house on Lot 5 to someone engaged in croft­ing work on the site and their dependants.

3. In assess­ing an applic­a­tion for the dis­charge of a Sec­tion 75 Agree­ment the Plan­ning Author­ity must con­sider the intent of the impos­i­tion of the leg­al agree­ment at the time the plan­ning con­sent was gran­ted and wheth­er the remov­al of this con­trol would be accept­able in plan­ning terms at the cur­rent time. NPF4 and Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies and any oth­er mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions that would war­rant review of the Agree­ment should be con­sidered, in this instance in relation

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to hous­ing and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment and advice or guid­ance issued in respect of occu­pancy restric­tions from the Scot­tish Government.

Plan­ning Policy and Context

1. The applic­a­tion was ori­gin­ally determ­ined under policies with­in the Badenoch and Strath­spey Loc­al Plan 1997 which stated that there would be a strong pre­sump­tion against the devel­op­ment of houses in such areas. Excep­tions would only be made where ​“a house was essen­tial for the man­age­ment of land, related fam­ily and occu­pa­tion­al reas­ons”. Fol­low­ing the sub­mis­sion of a busi­ness case and the remov­al of an objec­tion from the Trunk Roads Author­ity the plan­ning author­ity approved the applic­a­tion sub­ject to the afore­men­tioned Sec­tion 75 Agreement.

2. Since this plan­ning per­mis­sion was gran­ted there has been sig­ni­fic­ant change to both nation­al plan­ning policy and loc­al devel­op­ment plan policies. Fol­low­ing the Scot­tish Government’s pos­i­tion of dis­cour­aging occu­pancy restric­tions imposed through plan­ning agree­ments, policy has evolved to reflect this change. Cur­rent policy is now con­tained with­in Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 and the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. Policies at both a nation­al and loc­al level provide sup­port for a dwell­ing house in this loc­a­tion. NPF4 Policy 17: Rur­al homes sup­ports new homes in rur­al areas where they are suit­ably scaled, sited and designed to be in keep­ing with the char­ac­ter of the area and it is demon­strated to be neces­sary to sup­port the sus­tain­able man­age­ment of a rur­al busi­ness or croft and there is an essen­tial need for a work­er to live per­man­ently at or near their place of work. Policies in the adop­ted Loc­al Devel­op­ment plan also sup­port rur­al hous­ing. Policy 1.2: Hous­ing devel­op­ment in exist­ing rur­al groups and Policy 1.3: Oth­er hous­ing in the coun­tryside would both be rel­ev­ant if the pro­pos­al was the sub­ject of a cur­rent applic­a­tion for plan­ning per­mis­sion. Not­with­stand­ing that Policy 1.3 requires an oper­a­tion­al busi­ness need in the rur­al loc­al­ity, there is no require­ment for any con­di­tions or bur­dens that would lim­it the occu­pancy of the dwell­ing house should the jus­ti­fic­a­tion for it be acceptable.

Con­clu­sion

1. The applic­ants have sub­mit­ted a reasoned jus­ti­fic­a­tion for seek­ing the dis­charge of the of the occu­pancy restric­tion on the land known as Lots 5 and 7. They have built

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and reside in a dwell­ing on Lot 5. Dru­muil­lie is char­ac­ter­ised by a low dens­ity group­ing of houses and the house built on Lot 5 has integ­rated into the sur­round­ing built form and spa­tial char­ac­ter in accord­ance with the rel­ev­ant loc­al plan policies. Part of Lot 7 has now been dec­rof­ted with a con­di­tion requir­ing as a first change of use, that the land must be used, let or dis­posed of as a site for a dwell­ing house. Plan­ning per­mis­sion has now been gran­ted under cur­rent nation­al and loc­al policies for a dwell­ing on the part of Lot 7 that has now been dec­rof­ted without the require­ment for an occu­pancy restriction.

Recom­mend­a­tion That mem­bers of the com­mit­tee agree the request to dis­charge the sec­tion 75 Leg­al Agree­ment asso­ci­ated with the plan­ning per­mis­sion 07/414/CP at land 100m north west of Birch Cot­tage, Dru­muil­lie for the fol­low­ing reas­ons: a) The dis­charge of the Sec­tion 75 Agree­ment would not pre­ju­dice any farm­ing of the exist­ing croft with­in the area; b) The Sec­tion 75 Agree­ment would not be required to con­trol the occu­pa­tion of the dwell­ing under cur­rent devel­op­ment plan policies.