Item112024-0155-DET Cairngorm Mtn

Cairngorms Item 11, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Com­mit­tee report

Devel­op­ment proposed:

Erec­tion and install­a­tion of adven­ture play equip­ment and asso­ci­ated land­scape and ancil­lary works

Ref­er­ence: 2024/0155/DET

Applic­ant: Cairngorm Moun­tain (Scot­land) Ltd

Date called-in: 18 June 2024

Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve, sub­ject to conditions

Case officer: Colin Bry­ans, Seni­or Plan­ning Officer

Cairngorms Item 11, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site

0 35 70 140 Meters

N

Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2024. 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.

Cairngorms Item 11, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Site descrip­tion, pro­pos­al and history

Site descrip­tion

1. The applic­a­tion site con­sists of six par­cels of land loc­ated on and imme­di­ately around the Cairngorm Ski Centre Day Lodge, Funicu­lar Base Sta­tion and car parks at Coire Cas.

2. The wider ski centre is accessed by the exist­ing B970 road from Glen­more, which ter­min­ates at Upper Cas Car Park, beside the Day Lodge and Funicu­lar Rail­way Base Station.

3. The applic­a­tion site lies with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Scen­ic Area but is not covered by any oth­er spe­cif­ic envir­on­ment­al des­ig­na­tions. The Cairngorms Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion, des­ig­nated for hab­it­at interests, and the North­ern Cor­ries, Cairngorms Site of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest lie approx­im­ately 180 metres west of the site. The Cairngorms Wild Land Area No.15 as iden­ti­fied in Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Heritage’s wild land area map lies approx­im­ately 600 metres west of the site at its closest, circ­ling the entire ski area.

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 Date on plan* Date received num­ber Plan – Red line bound­ary loc­a­tion n/​a n/​a 14/06/2024 plan Plan – Site lay­out area plan 01009/1P 16/04/2024 14/06/2024

Cairngorms Item 11, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Plan — Cairngorm Moun­tain 01009/8P 16/04/2024 14/06/2024 Scot­land (Item 5) Fea­ture Heart View­point Plan — Cairngorm Moun­tain 01009/3P 16/04/2024 14/06/2024 Scot­land (Item 3) Ball Track & (Item 6) Water Play Plan — Cairngorm Moun­tain 01009/5P 16/04/2024 14/06/2024 Scot­land (Item 5) Climb­ing Frame Let­ter Play Park Plan — CMSL — Adven­ture Play n/​a n/​a 14/06/2024 Expan­sion — Item 1 — Link Path Con­struc­tion Details Plan — Cairngorm Moun­tain 01009/2P 16/04/2024 14/06/2024 Scot­land (Item 6) Inter­act­ive Water Fea­tures Play — Adven­ture Play Bound­ar­ies 1175601 — 04/07/2024 08/07/2024 Cairngorm Moun­tain Ortho­graph­ic Ortho.DWG Sur­vey Oth­er — Land­scape edges and n/​a n/​a 15/07/2024 sur­faces Plan – Phas­ing plan and indic­at­ive n/​a 17/07/2024 schedule

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

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment con­sists of new adven­ture play items and related ancil­lary infra­struc­ture works. The devel­op­ment is to be delivered in four phases:

Phase 1

1. A children’s inter­act­ive ball track facil­ity, over six sep­ar­ate areas, is pro­posed in the Moun­tain Garden Area and adja­cent to the Lower Cas Car Park. These will be a vari­ety of designs up to 1.5m height and of tim­ber con­struc­tion and will be micro- sited accord­ing to spe­cif­ic loc­al topo­graphy and ground con­di­tions. They will be

Cairngorms Item 11, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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remov­able fea­tures that will be dis­mantled and taken off site for stor­age over the act­ive winter months.

1. A jump­ing pil­low of 14m x 10m is pro­posed in the Lower Cas Car Park area, to be installed at ground level. The col­our has been con­firmed as Green (RAL6028) and Light Green RAL6018.

2. A pro­posed food cart will be a tim­ber clad 4m x 3m x 2.5m move­able struc­ture. Two areas have been iden­ti­fied for this at either end of the main car park. At any giv­en time one or the oth­er will be in use.

3. The sur­faces around new fea­tures will be to match exist­ing hard­core and gravel per­meable sur­faces. The areas dir­ectly adja­cent to children’s climb­ing and play equip­ment will be pea gravel/​shingle to match exist­ing and will be bounded/​enclosed by tim­ber logs to provide a suit­able nat­ur­al edge/​barrier. The land­scaped edges around the pro­posed struc­tures will be re-soiled and seeded as required with nature grass­land mixed, but gen­er­ally areas will suc­ceed nat­ur­ally and rees­tab­lish seam­lessly with the sur­round­ing area sim­il­ar to recent edge treat­ment and earth­works adja­cent to the moun­tain bike tracks. Addi­tion­al work to be under­taken in fol­low­ing phases as appropriate.

4. Pro­posed wood carvings, up to 2.5m in height, would be free stand­ing struc­tures or bolted to a plinth. These could be moved and placed in stor­age as required.

Phase 2

1. Wooden ​‘CAIRNGORM’ climb­ing frame let­ters, up to 3m high, are pro­posed along the west­ern edge of the Lower Cas Car Park will provide a sep­ar­ate climb­ing frame.

2. Five sep­ar­ate covered seat­ing areas are pro­posed con­sist­ing of booths of 3m x 3m x 2.5m (height) These will be steel framed struc­tures bolted to a simple pad found­a­tion and clad in loc­ally sourced tim­ber to match the oth­er play equip­ment, let­ter­ing, fen­cing and land­scape treat­ment across the site.

Cairngorms Item 11, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Phase 3

1. A water rail fea­ture, which will be of sim­il­ar appear­ance, style and mater­i­als to the ball run facil­ity, and will also be demount­able. The water fea­ture will util­ise the water that flows from the moun­tain garden and down the exist­ing drain­age chan­nel. The water fea­ture will be con­struc­ted of a com­bin­a­tion of wood and rocks.

2. A second inter­act­ive water fea­ture along the edge of the adven­ture play area will util­ise the water that cur­rently flows beneath the car park in the exist­ing cul­vert. The water fea­ture will be con­struc­ted of a com­bin­a­tion of wood and rocks.

Phase 4

1. A pro­posed anim­al tim­ber play struc­ture to be loc­ated between the exist­ing tubing slides. The indic­at­ive draw­ings show this struc­ture as a wooden pigeon, how­ever the detail of the pro­pos­al will remain reserved and to be addressed through an appro­pri­ate plan­ning con­di­tion. It is sug­ges­ted that this play struc­ture could be in the shape of a loc­ally present bird or anim­al (such as a Ptar­mig­an, Grouse, Osprey). This could tie in with the edu­ca­tion­al inform­a­tion to be on site.

His­tory

1. There is an extens­ive site plan­ning his­tory on record stretch­ing back over 30 years. Below is a sum­mary of the past five years: α) 19/01765/FUL — Install­a­tion of tube slide, zip line and play area Per­mis­sion gran­ted 18 June 2019. b) 19/03322/FUL — Engin­eer­ing works to smooth and re-grade – Per­mis­sion gran­ted 5 August 2019. C) 19/04135/S42 — Sec­tion 42 applic­a­tion for non-com­pli­ance with Con­di­tion 1 of Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 18/05078/FUL (replace­ment of ces­sa­tion date 01.11.2019 with 19.11.2020) – Per­mis­sion gran­ted 22 Novem­ber 2019. d) 19/03944/S42 — Sec­tion 42 applic­a­tion to vary Con­di­tion 1 of Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 19/01765/FUL – Per­mis­sion gran­ted 28 Novem­ber 2019. e) 20/01155/FUL — Engin­eer­ing works for strength­en­ing funicu­lar via­duct – Per­mis­sion gran­ted 23 March 2020.

Cairngorms Item 11, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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f) 20/01410/FUL — Install­a­tion of car park bar­ri­ers – Per­mis­sion gran­ted 13 April 2020. g) 20/01058/FUL — Install­a­tion of two tube slides and exten­sion and realign­ment of exist­ing tube slide – Per­mis­sion gran­ted 15 June 2020. h) 21/03707/S42 — Vari­ation of Con­di­tion 1 (20/01058/FUL) ces­sa­tion date of 15.06.2026 – Per­mis­sion gran­ted 24 August 2021. i) 21/03708/S42 — Sec­tion 42 applic­a­tion to vary Con­di­tion 1 (19/03944/S42), ces­sa­tion date of 01.11.2026 – Per­mis­sion gran­ted 16 August 2021. 1) j) 21/03808/S42 — Sec­tion 42 applic­a­tion for non-com­pli­ance of Con­di­tion 1 of Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 20/03246/S42 – Per­mis­sion gran­ted 19 Octo­ber 2021. k) 22/03647/ADV — Erec­tion of sig­nage – Per­mis­sion gran­ted 10 Octo­ber 2022. 22/04039/S42 — Sec­tion 42 applic­a­tion for non-com­pli­ance of Con­di­tion 1 of Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 21/03808/S42 – Per­mis­sion gran­ted 6 Decem­ber 2022. m) 23/05766/S42 — Sec­tion 42 applic­a­tion to not com­ply with the pro­vi­sions of Con­di­tion 1 of Plan­ning Per­mis­sion 22/04039/S42 – Per­mis­sion gran­ted 6 Janu­ary 2024.

Hab­it­ats reg­u­la­tions appraisal

1. The pro­pos­als are not con­sidered likely to impact upon the sur­round­ing European sites, the River Spey SAC and the Cairngorms SPA. As such no Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al is required.

Devel­op­ment plan context

Policies

Nation­al policy Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045 Policy 1 Tack­ling the cli­mate and nature crises X Policy 2 Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion X Policy 3 Biod­iversity X Policy 4 Nat­ur­al places X Policy 5 Soils Policy 6 Forestry, wood­land and trees Policy 7 His­tor­ic assets and places Policy 8 Green belts

Cairngorms Item 11, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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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 X Policy 15 Loc­al liv­ing and 20 minute neigh­bour­hoods Policy 16 Qual­ity homes Policy 17 Rur­al homes Policy 18 Infra­struc­ture first Policy 19 Heat­ing and cool­ing Policy 20 Blue and green infra­struc­ture Policy 21 Play, recre­ation and sport X 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 X Policy 31 Cul­ture and cre­ativ­ity Policy 32 Aquacul­ture Policy 33 Minerals

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2021) Loc­al plan policy (Policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross (x)) Policy 1 New hous­ing devel­op­ment Policy 2 Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth X Policy 3 Design and place­mak­ing X Policy 4 Nat­ur­al her­it­age X Policy 5 Land­scape X

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Policy 6 The sit­ing and design of digit­al com­mu­nic­a­tions equip­ment Policy 7 Renew­able energy Policy 8 Open space, sport and recre­ation X 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

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

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Con­sulta­tions

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

2. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Land­scape Con­sult­ant rein­ter­prets the estab­lished descrip­tion of the land­scape char­ac­ter with­in the Land­scape Char­ac­ter Assess­ment (that con­siders the estab­lished ski infra­struc­ture to be a part of the estab­lished land­scape char­ac­ter) to be one where the char­ac­ter of the land­scape is marred by the pres­ence of the infra­struc­ture and car park. In their opin­ion, the let­ter and anim­al fea­tures would sig­ni­fic­antly detract from the nat­ur­al set­ting and grandeur of the Cairngorms, exacer­bate the cluttered appear­ance of exist­ing infra­struc­ture in the vicin­ity and com­pound the neg­at­ive per­cep­tions asso­ci­ated with infra­struc­ture in the vicin­ity of the ski centre and car park espe­cially for those who walk into the moun­tains to seek tran­quil­lity with­in highly nat­ur­al surroundings.

3. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Access Officer raised no objec­tions to the pro­pos­al fol­low­ing the sub­mis­sion of addi­tion­al inform­a­tion relat­ing to the main­ten­ance of pub­lic access across the site. The Officer noted that the pro­posed play equip­ment will not inter­fere with access across the site.

4. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Eco­logy Officer raised no objec­tions to the pro­pos­al. The Officer high­lighted that the pro­posed devel­op­ment is not con­sidered likely to impact upon the River Spey SAC or the Cairngorms SPA, and the sig­ni­fic­ance of effects on hab­it­ats would be neut­ral. No effects on pro­tec­ted spe­cies or birds were identified.

5. The Aviemore Com­munity Coun­cil made no representation.

Rep­res­ent­a­tions

1. Badenoch and Strath­spey Con­ser­va­tion Group object to the pro­posed devel­op­ment on the fol­low­ing grounds. a) The pro­pos­al would be intrus­ive and detract from people’s exper­i­ence of the moun­tain scenery and con­tact with nature. It would form a neg­at­ive start and fin­ish to many people’s activ­it­ies in the mountains.

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b) Claims that the pro­pos­al would exacer­bate the ​“Dis­ney­fic­a­tion” of this already impacted loc­a­tion. c) The pro­pos­al is of an inap­pro­pri­ate scale, would be intrus­ive to its set­ting and would weather/​fall into dis­repair. d) The PVC jump­ing pil­low would weath­er and decom­pose intro­du­cing harm­ful chem­ic­als to the envir­on­ment. e) Det­ri­ment­al eco­lo­gic­al impacts res­ult­ing from disturbance.

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(NPF4). Where there is con­flict between policies, NPF4 policies will be used.

2. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions in this case are the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment, sit­ing, lay­out and design, access, land­scape issue and envir­on­ment­al impacts. These are con­sidered in detail below.

3. The pro­posed devel­op­ment con­sists of a range of children’s play infra­struc­ture, as out­lined above, and ancil­lary devel­op­ment. The pro­pos­al is inten­ded by the applic­ant to sup­ple­ment Cairngorm Mountain’s offer­ing as an ​“all year round out­door, healthy des­tin­a­tion” by offer­ing sum­mer­time facil­it­ies, par­tic­u­larly for fam­il­ies with children.

4. The pro­pos­al is inten­ded by the applic­ant to ​“address the chal­lenges to pro­tect the eco­nom­ic and social bene­fits which the resort con­trib­utes to Badenoch and Strath­spey, and to the High­lands in gen­er­al and to expand and recon­fig­ure the avail­able activ­it­ies and facil­it­ies to encour­age tour­ism and leis­ure usage through­out the year”.

Prin­ciple

1. NPF4 Policy 30: Tour­ism seeks to encour­age, pro­mote and facil­it­ate sus­tain­able tour­ism devel­op­ment which bene­fits loc­al people, is con­sist­ent with net zero and nature com­mit­ments, and inspires people to vis­it Scot­land. Policy 30 seeks to ensure that tour­ism related devel­op­ments take into account a broad range of considerations

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includ­ing con­tri­bu­tions made to the loc­al eco­nomy, com­pat­ib­il­ity with the sur­round­ing area, access­ib­il­ity and sus­tain­able travel oppor­tun­it­ies, impact on com­munit­ies, car­bon emis­sions and access to nature.

31.LDP Policy 2: Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth – 2.3 Tour­ism and leis­ure devel­op­ments states that devel­op­ment of the nature pro­posed will be sup­por­ted where: a) It has no adverse envir­on­ment­al or amen­ity impacts on the site or neigh­bour­ing areas; and b) It makes a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the exper­i­ence of vis­it­ors; and c) It sup­ports or con­trib­utes to a year-round economy.

1. NPF4 Policy 21: Play recre­ation and sport encour­ages spaces and oppor­tun­it­ies for play, out­door recre­ation and sport. LDP Policy 8: Open space, sport and recre­ation seeks to sup­port diver­si­fic­a­tion or exten­sion to exist­ing sport and recre­ation related busi­ness activities.

2. The pro­pos­al site is dom­in­ated by the exist­ing infra­struc­ture asso­ci­ated with the ski and moun­tain bike facil­it­ies, and exist­ing children’s play facil­it­ies. The pro­posed devel­op­ment will occupy this site where the prin­ciple of leis­ure / sport and tour­ism use is well established.

3. The pro­pos­al is spe­cific­ally inten­ded to make a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the exper­i­ence of vis­it­ors, spe­cific­ally fam­il­ies with chil­dren, and to increase the year round offer­ing of the site.

4. The prin­ciple of the pro­posed devel­op­ment is accept­able and in accord­ance with the above devel­op­ment plan policies, sub­ject to detailed con­sid­er­a­tion of design, sit­ing and poten­tial impacts.

Sit­ing, lay­out and design

1. NPF4 Policy 14: Design, qual­ity and place seeks to sup­port devel­op­ment pro­pos­als that improve the qual­ity of an area regard­less of scale and that are con­sist­ent with the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places, that is: a) healthy

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b) pleas­ant c) con­nec­ted d) dis­tinct­ive e) sus­tain­able f) adaptable

37.LDP Policy 3: Design and place­mak­ing seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment meets the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places.

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment will have a rel­at­ively light foot­print on the hill side and is of a mod­est scale, with ele­ments includ­ing the ball runs, sculp­tures, water fea­tures and food cart all being remove­able, to be stored dur­ing the winter months and rein­stalled in the spring.

2. The anim­al play struc­ture and the Cairngorms let­ters will be lar­ger and more vis­ible, but all at a much smal­ler scale than the neigh­bour­ing build­ings and in close prox­im­ity to those build­ings and con­sist­ent with the exist­ing children’s play infra­struc­ture they will integ­rate with. Those struc­ture do not extend the vis­ib­il­ity of the area nor sig­ni­fic­antly change the sense of place of the site. Views towards the moun­tains from the site itself are lim­ited and will con­tin­ue to be dom­in­ated by the lar­ger build­ings and ski infra­struc­ture above these new fea­tures. Views to moun­tains from the foot­paths lead­ing to them will remain unchanged.

3. There will be a con­sist­ency of mater­i­als used across all ele­ments of the pro­pos­al with tim­ber, tim­ber clad­ding and gravel, all to match the exist­ing pal­ate of col­ours and mater­i­als. The PCV jump­ing pil­low will be col­oured green and dark green to soften the visu­al impact.

4. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is appro­pri­ate to its set­ting in terms of size, lay­out and mater­i­als, and is con­fined with­in the bound­ary of the exist­ing Cairngorm Moun­tain devel­op­ment, which is heav­ily char­ac­ter­ised by the pres­ence of build­ings, the funicu­lar rail­way, a large car­park, paths, fences, children’s play equip­ment and ski related infrastructure.

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1. The pro­pos­al will not appear incon­gru­ous with­in this set­ting and is appro­pri­ate in terms of design scale and mater­i­als. The pro­pos­al is in accord­ance with the above devel­op­ment plan policies in rela­tion to design, sub­ject to the pro­posed con­di­tions relat­ing to detailed design and materials.

Access

43.LDP Policy 3: Design and place­mak­ing seeks to ensure that devel­op­ments are designed to ensure that they are easy to move through, around and beyond.

1. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Access Officer raised no objec­tions to the pro­pos­al fol­low­ing the sub­mis­sion of addi­tion­al detail con­cern­ing the inter­ac­tions of the pro­pos­al with the exist­ing path network.

2. The pro­pos­al will not neg­at­ively impact on any exist­ing access routes, or paths, and the sit­ing of indi­vidu­al devel­op­ment com­pon­ents has been spe­cific­ally chosen to avoid any impacts or bar­ri­ers to access across the site and into the wider moun­tain environment.

3. A pro­gramme of path upgrades and main­ten­ance is being under­taken by the applic­ant which do not require plan­ning per­mis­sion. The applic­ant has con­firmed that the upgrade works are pro­posed to accom­mod­ate push­chair access etc.

Land­scape issues

47.LDP Policy 5: Land­scape pre­sumes against devel­op­ment which does not con­serve and enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park, and par­tic­u­larly the set­ting of the pro­posed devel­op­ment. Any adverse impacts must be min­im­ised and mit­ig­ated through appro­pri­ate sit­ing, lay­out, scale, design and construction.

1. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Land­scape Con­sult­ant advises that in their judge­ment the pro­pos­al is con­trary to Policy 5 in that it will neither con­serve or enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park. The Con­sult­ant advises that the pro­pos­als would be intrus­ive and sig­ni­fic­antly detract

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from the nat­ur­al grandeur of the Cairngorms Mas­sif, com­pound­ing the neg­at­ive per­cep­tions of some people asso­ci­ated with the exist­ing infrastructure.

1. Not­with­stand­ing this, it is evid­ent that the baseline set by the exist­ing build­ings, ski infra­struc­ture, large car park and children’s play facil­it­ies means that this part of the moun­tain is already char­ac­ter­ised by and dom­in­ated by the exist­ing fea­tures. The exist­ing struc­tures and infra­struc­ture are much more dom­in­ant in the land­scape than those addi­tion­al ones pro­posed. The new fea­tures pro­posed are designed to provide more activ­it­ies for young people to enjoy on the moun­tain, to cel­eb­rate its loc­a­tion and min­im­ise impacts bey­ond the imme­di­ate site. The addi­tion­al fea­tures pro­posed will not sig­ni­fic­ant change the phys­ic­al or visu­al char­ac­ter or set­ting of the site itself, though if suc­cess­ful could mean that there are more fam­il­ies and young people using it and in the vicin­ity of it.

2. Crit­ic­ally, the pro­posed devel­op­ment does not extend the visu­al envel­ope of the ski centre. While people with neg­at­ive per­cep­tions of the ski centre infra­struc­ture may con­tin­ue to have those per­cep­tions, the exper­i­ence of the moun­tains a very short walk from the centre will be unchanged. It is also likely that the increased range of facil­it­ies will encour­age new people to exper­i­ence the site and build their own appre­ci­ation for the wilder land­scapes bey­ond it.

3. The mater­i­als pro­posed are con­sist­ent across the pro­pos­al with tim­ber / tim­ber clad­ding pre­val­ent through­out. As the tim­ber nat­ur­ally weath­ers the visu­al impacts of the pro­pos­al will lessen with time. This is in keep­ing with the estab­lished built form and is appro­pri­ate for the setting.

4. Hav­ing con­sidered the land­scape consultant’s advice in detail it is the plan­ning officers’ opin­ion that any adverse impacts on land­scape will be loc­al­ised and with­in the estab­lished and exist­ing envel­ope of intense devel­op­ment around the Day Lodge, car parks and funicu­lar base sta­tion, so not sub­stan­tially change the baseline con­di­tions. We are also of the opin­ion that the per­cep­tions of people com­ing to the car park will have changed pos­it­ively as a res­ult of the recent and sig­ni­fic­ant improve­ments made to enhance the vis­it­or exper­i­ence. We are aware that there are people of hold neg­at­ive per­cep­tions about the ski centre for a vari­ety of reas­ons as well as those who have pos­it­ive ones. How­ever, the pro­posed devel­op­ment will not

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change the exper­i­ence of the moun­tains or spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies bey­ond the cur­rent site.

1. The impacts of the pro­posed devel­op­ment are con­sidered to be suit­ably min­im­ised and mit­ig­ated through appro­pri­ate sit­ing, lay­out, scale, design and con­struc­tion. The pro­pos­al com­plies with Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Envir­on­ment­al impacts

1. NPF4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als pro­tect biod­iversity, reverse biod­iversity loss, deliv­er pos­it­ive effects from devel­op­ment and strengthen nature net­works. Devel­op­ment pro­pos­als must include appro­pri­ate meas­ures to con­serve, restore and enhance biod­iversity, in accord­ance with nation­al and loc­al guidance.

55.NPF4 Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als pro­tect, restore and enhance nat­ur­al assets mak­ing best use of nature-based solu­tions. Devel­op­ment that has sig­ni­fic­ant adverse impacts on des­ig­nated sites, after mit­ig­a­tion, will not be supported.

1. LDP Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age seeks to ensure that there are no adverse effects on European Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies and oth­er biod­iversity interests.

2. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Eco­logy Officer raised no objec­tions to the pro­pos­al. The officer high­lighted that the pro­posed devel­op­ment is not con­sidered likely to impact upon the River Spey SAC or the Cairngorms SPA, and the sig­ni­fic­ance of effects on hab­it­ats would be neut­ral. No effects on pro­tec­ted spe­cies or birds were identified.

3. The envir­on­ment­al impacts of the pro­pos­al are of a scale and nature that is con­sidered accept­able and in com­pli­ance with the above devel­op­ment plan policies.

4. The pro­pos­al does not include any spe­cif­ic meas­ures con­cern­ing biod­iversity net gain. How­ever, the applic­ant is cur­rently under­tak­ing a site wide pro­ject of native

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tree plant­ing in an effort to increase tree cov­er­age of this pre­vi­ously defor­es­ted slope. This pro­ject will deliv­er wider biod­iversity enhance­ments across the site and is deemed suf­fi­cient to meet the policy requirements.

Oth­er Issues Raised in Con­sulta­tions and Representations

1. The Badenoch and Strath­spey Con­ser­va­tion Group raised the issue of PVC used in the pro­posed jump­ing pil­low and the stated belief that this could lead to harm­ful chem­ic­als enter­ing the envir­on­ment over time.

2. The con­trol of harm­ful sub­stances, mater­i­als and chem­ic­als are sub­ject to legis­lat­ive con­trol out with the remit of the plan­ning sys­tem. PVC is a plastic mater­i­al, and its pro­duc­tion is con­sidered to be one of the more harm­ful pro­cesses, res­ult­ing in a num­ber of harm­ful pol­lut­ants being cre­ated s bi product. As a mater­i­al, it is ubi­quit­ously used through­out soci­ety and often as a mater­i­al for children’s play equip­ment, where it includes ultra­vi­olet res­ist­ance treat­ments to pro­long its life outside.

3. No stat­utory con­sul­tee raised any issues with the use of PVC in play equip­ment in this instance and there is no legis­la­tion that pre­vents its use a mater­i­al. In this case, the equip­ment will be oper­ated by Cairngorm Moun­tain Scot­land Ltd who will be required to main­tain it for safe use and then replace in accord­ance with the manufacturer’s require­ments for use.

Con­clu­sion

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is loc­ated on an estab­lished recre­ation­al / sport / tour­ism site and is inten­ded to make a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the exper­i­ence of vis­it­ors and to increase the year round offer­ing of the site.

2. The lay­out, design and mater­i­als of the pro­pos­al are con­sidered accept­able and appro­pri­ate to their set­ting against the exist­ing baseline of build­ings, ski infra­struc­ture, large car park and children’s play facil­it­ies. Impacts on the land­scape will largely be loc­al­ised and where pos­sible have been suit­ably mit­ig­ated through appro­pri­ate design, mater­i­als and siting.

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1. Envir­on­ment­al impacts are of a scale and nature that is con­sidered min­im­al and accept­able, and hab­it­at com­pens­a­tion is being delivered through the site wide tree plant­ing pro­ject cur­rently under­way. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with policies of both NPF4 and the LDP. As such approv­al of the applic­a­tion is recom­men­ded, sub­ject to the recom­men­ded conditions.

Recom­mend­a­tion

That mem­bers of the com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to APPROVE the applic­a­tion for the erec­tion and install­a­tion of adven­ture play equip­ment and asso­ci­ated land­scape and ancil­lary works at Cairngorm Moun­tain Ski Centre, sub­ject to the fol­low­ing conditions:

Con­di­tions

Those con­di­tions lis­ted below in bold text are sus­pens­ive con­di­tions, which require to be dis­charged pri­or to imple­ment­a­tion of the development.

1. The devel­op­ment to which this per­mis­sion relates must be begun not later than the expir­a­tion of three years begin­ning with the date on which the per­mis­sion is granted.

Reas­on: The time lim­it con­di­tion is imposed in order to com­ply with the require­ments of sec­tion 58 of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997 as amended.

1. No works in con­nec­tion with any single phase of the devel­op­ment, as iden­ti­fied by the sub­mit­ted phas­ing plan and the report of hand­ling, hereby approved shall com­mence until details of all the mater­i­als, rel­ev­ant to that phase, to be used in the extern­al fin­ish for the approved devel­op­ment have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity. No single phase of the devel­op­ment shall be brought into use unless the extern­al fin­ish of that phase has been applied in accord­ance with the approved details.

Reas­on: In the interests of the appear­ance of the devel­op­ment and the visu­al amen­ity of the area.

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1. No devel­op­ment in con­nec­tion with Phase 4 ​“tim­ber play struc­ture” shall com­mence until full and com­pre­hens­ive design details of the struc­ture have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity. For the avoid­ance of doubt details to be sub­mit­ted must include: a) Mater­i­als b) Dimen­sions c) Fin­ishes d) Micro sit­ting e) All detailed mat­ters of design

Reas­on: In the interests of the appear­ance of the devel­op­ment and the visu­al amen­ity of the area.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence (includ­ing demoli­tion, ground works and veget­a­tion clear­ance) until a con­struc­tion envir­on­ment­al man­age­ment plan (CEMP) has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity. All works car­ried out dur­ing the con­struc­tion peri­od shall be under­taken strictly in accord­ance with the approved CEMP.

Reas­on: In the interests of pro­tect­ing the biod­iversity and the environment.

Inform­at­ives

1. The devel­op­ment hereby approved must com­mence with­in three years of the date of this decision notice. If devel­op­ment has not com­menced with­in this peri­od then this plan­ning per­mis­sion will lapse.

2. The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment is required to give the Plan­ning Author­ity pri­or writ­ten noti­fic­a­tion of the date which it is inten­ded to com­mence the devel­op­ment. Attached to this decision notice is a Notice of Ini­ti­ation of Devel­op­ment for com­ple­tion and sub­mis­sion. Sub­mis­sion of this inform­a­tion assists the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer in mon­it­or­ing act­ive work with­in the area to ensure com­pli­ance with the approved details and to identi­fy and cor­rect any poten­tial prob­lems, as they arise, rather than

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later when it may be more dif­fi­cult and more costly to rec­ti­fy. Fail­ure to give notice would con­sti­tute a breach of plan­ning con­trol which may res­ult in enforce­ment action being taken.

1. Fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, a noti­fic­a­tion of com­ple­tion shall, as soon as prac­tic­able, be giv­en to