Item 9 - Update of planning call-in criteria

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Item 9 Plan­ning Committee

12 Decem­ber 2025

Page 1 of 3

For inform­a­tion

Title: Update of Plan­ning Call-In Cri­ter­ia Pre­pared by: Dav­id Berry, Head of Plan­ning and Chief Plan­ning Officer

Pur­pose This paper provides a sum­mary of amend­ments to the Park Authority’s plan­ning call-in criteria.

Recom­mend­a­tion The Com­mit­tee is asked to: α) Note the amended plan­ning call-in cri­ter­ia and updated Plan­ning Advice Note on Apply­ing for Plan­ning Per­mis­sion in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, as set out in Appendix 1.

Back­ground and stra­tegic context

1. The Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment pro­cess with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park oper­ates in a unique way. Plan­ning applic­a­tions with­in the Nation­al Park are ini­tially sub­mit­ted to, and registered by, the rel­ev­ant loc­al author­it­ies. The loc­al author­it­ies then noti­fy the Park Author­ity of their sub­mis­sion. The Park Author­ity com­piles a weekly list of all plan­ning applic­a­tions sub­mit­ted with­in the Nation­al Park and decides which applic­a­tions to ​‘call-in’ for determ­in­a­tion using stat­utory powers set out in sec­tion 7 of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Des­ig­na­tion, Trans­ition­al and Con­sequen­tial Pro­vi­sions (Scot­land) Order 2003. These powers enable the Park Author­ity to call-in and determ­ine any plan­ning applic­a­tions with­in the Nation­al Park which raise issues of gen­er­al sig­ni­fic­ance to the Nation­al Park aims. Plan­ning applic­a­tions which are not called-in by the Park Author­ity are determ­ined by the rel­ev­ant loc­al author­ity. All plan­ning applic­a­tions are ulti­mately assessed against the same devel­op­ment plan, which com­prises Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (LDP).

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Item 9 Plan­ning Committee

12 Decem­ber 2025

Page 2 of 3

1. The Park Author­ity has pub­lished a Plan­ning Advice Note, last updated in Septem­ber 2022, which explains the Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment pro­cess with­in the Nation­al Park and provides guid­ance on the types of plan­ning applic­a­tion which the Park Author­ity is likely to call-in for determ­in­a­tion. The advice note includes two lists – ​‘Type 1 applic­a­tions’ (plan­ning applic­a­tions that are highly likely to be called-in) and ​‘Type 2 applic­a­tions’ (plan­ning applic­a­tions that are highly unlikely to be called-in). In addi­tion, the advice note explains the factors which are con­sidered when decid­ing wheth­er or not to call-in oth­er plan­ning applic­a­tions that are not spe­cific­ally lis­ted as Type 1 or Type 2 applications.

2. It is import­ant that the Plan­ning Advice Note is reviewed peri­od­ic­ally to ensure it remains up-to-date and fit for pur­pose. A review has there­fore been under­taken recently, and this has res­ul­ted in some amend­ments to the Type 1 and Type 2 applic­a­tion lists. This paper sum­mar­ises the out­come of the review and presents the updated Plan­ning Advice Note for information.

Amend­ments to pan­ning call-in criteria

1. An inform­al dis­cus­sion on the plan­ning call-in cri­ter­ia was held with Board Mem­bers on 26 Septem­ber 2025. Although this con­cluded that the call-in cri­ter­ia remain gen­er­ally fit for pur­pose, it iden­ti­fied that a small num­ber of amend­ments should be made to the Type 1 and Type 2 applic­a­tion lists to reflect cur­rent cir­cum­stances. It also high­lighted the need for a small num­ber of minor edit­or­i­al changes to the Plan­ning Advice Note.

2. The updated Plan­ning Advice Note, as presen­ted in Appendix 1, reflects the views expressed dur­ing the Board Mem­ber dis­cus­sion. It includes the fol­low­ing key updates: α) The exist­ing call-in threshold for hous­ing devel­op­ment out­side set­tle­ments b) will now also apply to ​‘rur­al set­tle­ments’ (as defined in the spa­tial strategy of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan) – the Type 1 and Type 2 lists have been amended accord­ingly The call-in threshold for employ­ment space out­side set­tle­ments has been increased to 500m² gross floor area the Type 1 list has been amended accordingly

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Item 9 Plan­ning Committee

12 Decem­ber 2025

Page 3 of 3

c) Applic­a­tions for the change of use of exist­ing res­id­en­tial prop­er­ties to short- term lets have been included in the Type 2 list of applic­a­tions that are unlikely to be called-in d) The foot­note ref­er­ence to His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land in the Type 1 list has been corrected

Next steps

1. The updated Plan­ning Advice Note on Apply­ing for Plan­ning Per­mis­sion in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park will be pub­lished on the Park Authority’s web­site as soon as reas­on­ably practicable.

Stra­tegic risk management

1. Main­tain­ing up to date plan­ning call-in cri­ter­ia and a Plan­ning Advice Note on Apply­ing for Plan­ning Per­mis­sion in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park will help to min­im­ise risks asso­ci­ated with mis­un­der­stand­ing of the unique approach to Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

Implic­a­tions

1. There are no dir­ect resource implic­a­tions asso­ci­ated with this item of business.

Sup­port­ing information

1. The updated Plan­ning Advice Note on Apply­ing for Plan­ning Per­mis­sion in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park is set out in Appendix 1.

Dav­id Berry 1 Decem­ber 2025 davidberry@​cairngorms.​co.​uk