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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/11/2023

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED:

Res­id­en­tial devel­op­ment, staff accom­mod­a­tion and infra­struc­ture at The Aviemore Centre Grampi­an Road Aviemore Highland

REF­ER­ENCE: 2023/0030/PPP APPLIC­ANT: Mac­don­ald Resorts Ltd DATE CALLED-IN: 23 Janu­ary 2023 RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve, Sub­ject to Con­di­tions and Leg­al Agree­ment CASE OFFICER: Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Planning

CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site 0 35 70 140 Meters Gabal Aviemore Craigel­lach­ie Nation­al Nature Reserv­er 493 chan Duch Craigel­lach­ie B N Dell Con­cur Ho Invert Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2023. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber 100040965

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/11/2023 Π 2

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/11/2023

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The applic­a­tion site is situ­ated in Aviemore and forms part of the Mac­Don­ald High­land Resort. The site occu­pies an area of 5.39 hec­tares and is bordered to the north by the A9 road, and the B9152 and Aviemore town centre to the south. The Scand­inavi­an Vil­lage hol­i­day accom­mod­a­tion is loc­ated to the north west of the site, with the main hotel com­plexes of the Mac­Don­ald High­land Resort to the south. To the east is a Tesco super­mar­ket, oth­er exist­ing retail units, and res­id­en­tial dwell­ings along Grampi­an Road. There is a new res­id­en­tial devel­op­ment, that is cur­rently under con­struc­tion, loc­ated to the north of the devel­op­ment site. The site can be accessed from the north east and south east via Grampi­an Road. The Core Path (LBS 145) runs adja­cent to the west­ern bound­ary of the site.

2. The topo­graphy of the site is mainly flat, with bunds of grass­land. There are some clusters of nat­ive and con­i­fer­ous trees, and the whole site is covered by a Tree Pre­ser­va­tion Order. Most of the site con­sists of inter­mit­tently used hard­stand­ing and car park­ing sur­roun­ded by loc­al access roads to the Resort.

3. Under the plan­ning hier­archy, this applic­a­tion is clas­si­fied as a major development.

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=ROO QQZSI0CP00

Title Draw­ing Date on Date Num­ber Plan* Received PLANS Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan 10143/PL 15/12/22 20/01/23 01 Plan — Site Lay­out Plan 10143/PL 15/12/22 20/01/23 02 3

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/11/2023

Plan — Topo­graph­ic­al Plan. 10018694 23/01/23 8 Plan — Tree Con­straints Plan 10018694 06/07/22 20/01/23 (sheet 3) 9 Plan — Tree Con­straints Plan 10018695 06/07/22 20/01/23 (Sheet 4) 0 Plan — Tree Con­straints Plan 10018695 06/07/22 20/01/23 (Sheet 5) 1 SUP­PORT­ING INFORM­A­TION Oth­er — Design and Access 10018694 01/12/22 20/01/23 State­ment. 3 Oth­er — Drain­age Impact GMC22- 15/12/22 05/09/23 Assess­ment Part 1. 1015 Revi­sion B Oth­er — Drain­age Impact GMC22- 15/12/22 05/09/23 Assess­ment Part 2. 1015 Revi­sion B Flood State­ment Report Parts v1.0 01/08/23 16/08/2023 1 – 3 10018695 16/12/22 20/01/23 6 Oth­er — Pre- applic­a­tion 10018695 01/12/22 20/01/23 Con­sulta­tion Report Part 1. 7 Oth­er — Pre- applic­a­tion 10018695 27/09/22 20/01/23 Con­sulta­tion Report Part 2. 8 Oth­er — Sup­port­ing State­ment. 10018694 01/12/22 20/01/23 7 Oth­er — Tree Data Sched­ule. 10018695 20/01/23 2 Oth­er — Con­fid­en­tial Pre­lim­in­ary | 10018697 23/01/23 Eco­lo­gic­al Apprais­al. 3 Oth­er — Trans­port Assess­ment v.01 02/05/23 05/05/23 *Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the 1^st of the month.

1. This applic­a­tion seeks plan­ning per­mis­sion in prin­ciple for the con­struc­tion of a res­id­en­tial devel­op­ment. The design state­ment states that the dwell­ings would include a mix of private/​afford­able and staff accom­mod­a­tion units with asso­ci­ated infra­struc­ture and land­scap­ing. The pro­posed res­id­en­tial devel­op­ment will be loc­ated on one of the 4

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/11/2023

flat­ter areas of the resort site to avoid raised land­forms. There are a total of 180 res­id­en­tial units pro­posed, which will be of a con­tem­por­ary design and a medi­um dens­ity. There will be a wide range of accom­mod­a­tion types includ­ing two storey units with two-four bed­rooms, and flat­ted units with one-two bed­rooms. The hous­ing mix would also include a range of detached and semi-detached units. The pro­posed staff accom­mod­a­tion will be loc­ated in the area south of the Scand­inavi­an Vil­lage. Afford­able hous­ing will be provided on site and will be aimed at mid-mar­ket afford­able rent deliv­ery. The pro­pos­als also include fea­ture walls, open green space and appro­pri­ate landscaping.

1. Indic­at­ive plans of the pro­pos­al are included with­in Appendix 1.

His­tory

1. With­in the wider Mac­Don­ald High­land Resort, there are sev­er­al applic­a­tions run­ning con­cur­rently to this applic­a­tion which are out­lined below:

α) 2022/0328/PPP – Plan­ning per­mis­sion in prin­ciple for the erec­tion of hol­i­day apart­ments at land west of Cairngorm Hotel. Applic­a­tion sub­mit­ted on 03/10/2022 and approved by the CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee in August 2023. b) 2022/0241/DET – Alter­a­tion and exten­sion to Mac­Don­ald Aviemore Hotel. Applic­a­tion sub­mit­ted 13/07/2022 and approved by the CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee in August 2023. c) 2023/0004/DET – Change of use of land for sit­ing of 27 lodges, access road, land­scap­ing at site of dry ski slope, Mac­Don­ald Resort. Applic­a­tion sub­mit­ted on 9^th Janu­ary 2023 and cur­rently under con­sid­er­a­tion by the CNPA.

1. As required for major devel­op­ments, a Pro­pos­al of Applic­a­tion Notice, for this applic­a­tion pro­pos­al was sub­mit­ted to and repor­ted to CNPA Com­mit­tee under ref­er­ence: PRE/2022/0015.

Pre-applic­a­tion Con­sulta­tion [PAC]

1. For this major applic­a­tion, the PAC report describes the extend of pre- applic­a­tion con­sulta­tion with the loc­al com­munity includ­ing a pub­lic event and it reflects the require­ments of the Pro­pos­al of Applic­a­tion Notice as served on CNPA. The PAC con­firms that approx­im­ately 25 people atten­ded the pub­lic drop-in ses­sions and that a range of com­ments were received. 5

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/11/2023

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al [HRA] has been under­taken to con­sider the effects of the pro­pos­als upon the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the Natura Sites as lis­ted in Appendix with­in the doc­u­ment attached at Appendix 2. The HRA con­cludes that the devel­op­ment will not affect the integ­rity of any Natura sites.

DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN CON­TEXT Policies Nation­al Policy Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045 Officer will delete policies that are not rel­ev­ant POLICY 2 Cli­mate Mit­ig­a­tion and Adapt­a­tion POLICY 3 Biod­iversity POLICY 4 Nat­ur­al Places POLICY 6 Forestry, Wood­land and Trees POLICY 9 Brown­field, Vacant and Derel­ict Land, and Empty Build­ings 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 20 Blue and Green Infra­struc­ture POLICY 21 Play, Recre­ation and Sport POLICY 22 Flood Risk and Water Man­age­ment POLICY 25 Com­munity Wealth Build­ing Stra­tegic Policy Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027 Loc­al Plan Policy Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2021) Those policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross POLICY 1 NEW HOUS­ING DEVEL­OP­MENT X POLICY 2 SUP­PORT­ING ECO­NOM­IC GROWTH POLICY 3 DESIGN AND PLACE­MAK­ING X POLICY 4 NAT­UR­AL HER­IT­AGE X POLICY 5 LAND­SCAPE X POLICY 6 THE SIT­ING AND DEISGN OF DIGIT­AL COM­MU­NIC­A­TIONS EQUIP­MENT 6

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/11/2023

POLICY 7 RENEW­ABLE ENERGY POLICY 8 OPEN SPACE, SPORT AND RECRE­ATION X POLICY 9 CUL­TUR­AL HER­IT­AGE POLICY 10 RESOURCES X POLICY 11 DEVELOPER OBLIG­A­TIONS X

1. All new devel­op­ment pro­pos­als require to be assessed in rela­tion to policies con­tained in the adop­ted Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. The full word­ing of policies can be found 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​-LDP- 2021-web.pdf

1. With­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, the site forms part of a wider alloc­ated area for ​‘mixed use’, under alloc­a­tion Aviemore- M1. The Aviemore High­land Resort is a large site in the centre of Aviemore. It cur­rently has a range of dif­fer­ent uses includ­ing hotels and hol­i­day accom­mod­a­tion, retail, recre­ation, and hous­ing and has under­gone sig­ni­fic­ant devel­op­ment to cre­ate the resort it is today. The alloc­a­tion offers an oppor­tun­ity for the enhance­ment and diver­si­fic­a­tion of the cur­rent uses, includ­ing the pro­vi­sion of addi­tion­al hous­ing, retail, recre­ation, and employ­ment spaces. There is also a Devel­op­ment Brief for the site, which is non stat­utory plan­ning guid­ance provided details on site con­straints and oppor­tun­it­ies and devel­op­ment requirements.

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.

Policy 1 Hous­ing Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance X Policy 2 Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance 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 X Policy 11 Developer Oblig­a­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance X 7

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/11/2023

CON­SULTA­TIONS Sum­mary of the main issues raised by consultees

1. NatureScot have been con­sul­ted on the Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al for the pro­pos­al but at the time of report writ­ing have not com­men­ted on it.

2. Scot­tish Water has no objec­tions to the pro­pos­als but sug­gest the applic­ant com­pletes a Pre-Devel­op­ment Enquiry form ensur­ing that the devel­op­ment can be ser­viced and con­tacts Scot­tish Water regard­ing the pro­posed drain­age plan. They con­firm that the devel­op­ment would be fed from Aviemore Water Treat­ment Works, although capa­city will have to be reviewed once per­mis­sion is gran­ted for the scheme.

3. Accord­ing to exist­ing records, the devel­op­ment pro­pos­als impact on exist­ing Scot­tish Water assets. The applic­ant must identi­fy any poten­tial con­flicts with Scot­tish Water assets and con­tact the Asset Impact Team via the Cus­tom­er Portal to apply for a diver­sion. The applic­ant should be aware that any con­flict with assets iden­ti­fied may be sub­ject to restric­tions on prox­im­ity of con­struc­tion Sur­face water.

4. SEPA have no objec­tions sub­ject to the inclu­sion of plan­ning con­di­tions. The Team notes that the sub­mit­ted Flood State­ment Report indic­ates that the relate heigh dif­fer­ence between the Aviemore Burn and the pro­posed site can be inferred as between 3.66 to 7.31 m from the level inform­a­tion set to loc­al datum. The Team is there­fore sat­is­fied that it has been demon­strated that there is suf­fi­cient dif­fer­ence between the height of the banks of the Aviemore Burn and the height of the devel­op­ment. The Flood State­ment also notes that any out of bank flow arising from a block­age of the cul­vert under Santa Claus Drive upstream of the site would pref­er­en­tially flow to the east of the site, before even­tu­ally return­ing to the Burn. Based on this, the site is unlikely to be at flood risk from the Aviemore Burn and request the inclu­sion of plan­ning con­di­tions for the sub­mis­sion of an updated topo­graph­ic plan and a con­di­tion to secure a buf­fer strip along all water features.

5. High­land Coun­cil Con­tam­in­ated Land have stated that they have no objec­tions to the pro­posed devel­op­ment. How­ever, giv­en that the pro­posed devel­op­ment is for a res­id­en­tial use, a con­di­tion is recom­men­ded that a con­tam­in­a­tion site invest­ig­a­tion is car­ried out to determ­ine wheth­er any pre­vi­ous infra­struc­ture has been safely 8

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/11/2023

decom­mis­sioned and removed without con­tam­in­at­ing the under­ly­ing soil.

1. High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team is sat­is­fied that revised inform­a­tion on flood risk and drain­age impacts has demon­strated that devel­op­ment on the site would be accept­able in prin­ciple. They have no objec­tion to the pro­posed devel­op­ment sub­ject to the inclu­sion of appro­pri­ate con­di­tions to apply to later applic­a­tions for detail.

2. High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team have no objec­tion to the devel­op­ment sub­ject to con­di­tions to ensure the detail of intern­al roads, park­ing stand­ards and act­ive travel routes is approved in con­sulta­tion with the Trans­port Plan­ning Team.

3. Trans­port Scot­land has no objec­tion to the devel­op­ment sub­ject to con­di­tions to ensure the safe and effi­cient oper­a­tion of the trunk road network.

4. CNPA Eco­logy Officer has stated that the pro­posed devel­op­ment has the poten­tial to res­ult in an impact on trees, due to felling or dam­age dur­ing con­struc­tion. This being the case a tree pro­tec­tion plan / arbor­i­cul­tur­ist meth­od state­ment, with plans to retain as many trees as pos­sible, should be sub­mit­ted. A con­di­tion is recom­men­ded that any land­scap­ing plans should include a main­ten­ance plan for at least 5 years post com­ple­tion, to include details of pant­ing and re-plant­ing of any failed trees.

5. The site has the poten­tial for breed­ing birds, with the exist­ing trees and areas of hard­stand­ing likely to sup­port a num­ber of breed­ing spe­cies such as oyster­catch­er. Giv­en that there is the poten­tial for nests to be dam­aged or des­troyed dur­ing con­struc­tion, a con­di­tion is recom­men­ded that con­struc­tion should com­mence out with the nest­ing sea­son (March to mid – August inclus­ive) In addi­tion, light­ing man­age­ment plan for the whole devel­op­ment should be sub­mit­ted to pre­vent unne­ces­sary illu­min­a­tion of the remain­ing hab­it­ats that bor­der the site.

6. In terms of pro­tec­ted spe­cies, there is evid­ence of red squir­rel feed­ing with­in the site bound­ary, and there­fore, a con­di­tion is recom­men­ded that a pre-con­struc­tion sur­vey is con­duc­ted fol­low­ing NatureScot guid­ance. Fur­ther­more, a pre- con­struc­tion sur­vey of the Aviemore Burn and any suit­able ter­restri­al hab­it­ats for otter should be con­duc­ted fol­low­ing NatureScot guid­ance. 9

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/11/2023

1. Giv­en that the pro­posed devel­op­ment extends to the bound­ar­ies of the site, includ­ing the prox­im­ity to the Aviemore Burn, the lower reaches of which form part of the River Spey SAC and sup­port otter, a pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion plan should be sub­mit­ted, includ­ing full details of mit­ig­a­tion for pro­tect­ing the Aviemore burn dur­ing con­struc­tion and oper­a­tion of the development.

2. CNPA Land­scape Officer is sat­is­fied that the alloc­ated site has the capa­city for devel­op­ment and that con­di­tions cov­er­ing the detail of fur­ther applic­a­tions can ensure the devel­op­ment is appro­pri­ately designed.

3. High­land Coun­cil Forestry Officer – has no objec­tion to the pro­posed devel­op­ment asl long as trees are appro­pri­ately incor­por­ated and pro­tec­ted with­in the detailed design of the devel­op­ment and sug­gests con­di­tions to ensure that.

4. CNPA Out­door Access Team have stated that both the core path and right of way that run through the applic­a­tion site will need to be pro­tec­ted dur­ing both the con­struc­tion phase and upon com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment. Details of any diver­sions (tem­por­ary or per­man­ent) to either of the routes will need to be sub­mit­ted to the Out­door Access Team for com­ment / approval.

5. Appro­pri­ate ped­es­tri­an cross­ing points / traffic calm­ing meas­ures are required where the pro­posed west access road crosses the core path and right of way. Fur­ther­more, access paths should be cre­ated form the closed road ends in order to link to exist­ing paths on site. Full spe­cific­a­tions of all new paths will be required, includ­ing descrip­tion, mater­i­als, design and main­ten­ance pro­pos­als. In addi­tion, inform­a­tion should be provided on how pub­lic access can be incor­por­ated into the pro­posed devel­op­ment, with par­tic­u­lar ref­er­ence to the exist­ing, inform­al path that runs through the wood­land to the west of the Scand­inavi­an Vil­lage. In light of this, it is recom­men­ded that an Out­door Access Strategy is sub­mit­ted pri­or to the determ­in­a­tion of this applic­a­tion. Agent has been informed of com­ments and required, addi­tion­al inform­a­tion on 16.02.2023

6. Aviemore and Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil have objec­ted to the pro­posed devel­op­ment on the fol­low­ing grounds: (full copy avail­able to view at Appendix 3):

a) The pro­posed staff accom­mod­a­tion is being included in the num­ber of alloc­ated afford­able units. b) There should be a high­er pro­por­tion of afford­able hous­ing in this devel­op­ment. 10

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/11/2023

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. The applic­a­tion was advert­ised when first sub­mit­ted. There have been six let­ters of objec­tion sub­mit­ted because of this applic­a­tion. Cop­ies of all the third-party rep­res­ent­a­tions can be found at Appendix 4. The fol­low­ing is a sum­mary of the objections:

a) The pro­posed devel­op­ment site is at risk from flood­ing. b) The pro­posed three storey dwell­ings will have an adverse impact on the res­id­en­tial amen­ity of the res­id­ents of the Scand­inavi­an Vil­lage. c) The pro­posed devel­op­ment may have an adverse impact on the exist­ing trees on site. d) The pro­posed devel­op­ment may have an adverse impact on any pro­tec­ted spe­cies found loc­ally. e) The pro­posed devel­op­ment may have an impact on roads safety and con­ges­tion. f) There will be an impact on the Aviemore Orbit­al Path. g) The pro­posed devel­op­ment is inap­pro­pri­ate for the town of Aviemore and is not in scale with the sur­round­ing area. h) The pro­pos­al will have an adverse impact in the infra­struc­ture of Aviemore.

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 (LDP), and the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4). Where there is con­flict between policies, NPF4 policies will be used.

Applic­a­tion for Plan­ning Per­mis­sion in Principle

1. This PPP applic­a­tion seeks to estab­lish only wheth­er the prin­ciple of the pro­posed res­id­en­tial devel­op­ment is accept­able on the Mac­Don­ald Aviemore Resort site. If the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment is con­sidered accept­able, the detail of the devel­op­ment approved in prin­ciple will be estab­lished and con­sent through fur­ther applic­a­tion to address mat­ters spe­cified in con­di­tions that must be sub­mit­ted and approved with­in stat­utory time lim­its. Those applic­a­tions would be called in and determ­ined by the CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee act­ing as plan­ning authority. ।।

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/11/2023

Hous­ing

1. Policy 16: Qual­ity Homes of NPF4 notes that pro­pos­als for new homes on land alloc­ated for hous­ing will be sup­por­ted. Policy 1: New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sup­ports pro­pos­als for hous­ing where they are loc­ated on an iden­ti­fied alloc­ated site; or with­in an iden­ti­fied set­tle­ment boundary.

2. The applic­a­tion site in in the iden­ti­fied set­tle­ment bound­ary of Aviemore and forms part of a wider site alloc­a­tion under ref­er­ence M1- Aviemore. This LDP states that the alloc­a­tion offers the oppor­tun­ity for the enhance­ment and diver­si­fic­a­tion of the cur­rent uses, includ­ing the pro­vi­sion of addi­tion­al hous­ing, retail, recre­ation, and employ­ment spaces. The site there­fore rep­res­ents one of the alloc­a­tions which con­trib­utes to the over­all hous­ing land sup­ply of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. The pro­pos­al is for hous­ing on part of site that is alloc­ated for a range of uses includ­ing hous­ing so is con­sidered accept­able in prin­ciple sub­ject to mat­ters of detail and any oth­er impacts of development.

3. Policy 16: Qual­ity Homes of NPF4 and Policy 1.5: Afford­able Hous­ing of the of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 require appro­pri­ate con­tri­bu­tions to afford­able hous­ing to provided through devel­op­ments. The pro­pos­al indic­ates a will­ing­ness to provide the 45% tar­get required by the LDP with­in Aviemore but does not provide suf­fi­cient detail and clar­ity on the nature of the afford­able hous­ing or its deliv­ery. An appro­pri­ate con­di­tion will ensure that no devel­op­ment can com­mence until the details of the afford­able hous­ing and the mech­an­isms for deliv­ery have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the CNPA. Sub­ject to that con­di­tion, the prin­ciple if the devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply Policy 16: Qual­ity Homes of NPF4 and Policy 1.5: Afford­able Hous­ing of the of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

4. In rela­tion to the total num­ber of hous­ing units that could be built on the site, the applic­ant has provided inform­a­tion to sup­port a fig­ure of 180 units as an indic­a­tion of the site capa­city. This fig­ure is not part of the descrip­tion of the devel­op­ment and the applic­a­tion does not seek to set a spe­cif­ic num­ber of units which could be few­er or great­er than 180 depend­ing on the size of units and form of devel­op­ment. Nev­er­the­less, both Trans­port Scot­land and the High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning team require that a con­di­tion is imposed lim­it­ing the num­ber of units to 180 unless they are con­sul­ted and agree to a great­er num­ber. This is on the basis of the trans­port impact assess­ment provided and the mod­el­ling with­in it based on 180 units. 12

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/11/2023

Biod­iversity, pro­tec­ted sites, trees and woodland

1. Policy 3: Biod­iversity, Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places and Policy 6, Forestry wood­land and trees of NPF4, as well as Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 all provide pro­tec­tion for biod­iversity and pro­tec­ted spe­cies, trees and wood­land in addi­tion to sup­port for pro­pos­als that enhance hab­it­ats and nature networks.

2. The pro­posed devel­op­ment site is a mix­ture of man­aged grass­land, hard stand­ing areas, and some areas of trees and planted wood­land. The trees and wood­land on the south of the site are pro­tec­ted by a wide tree pre­ser­va­tion order (ref.HRC42) that cov­ers much of the resort land. An area on the north­east­ern bound­ary drops down a steep wooded slope to the Aviemore/​Milton burn that is part of the River Spey SAC and acts as a cor­ridor for spe­cies includ­ing otter. No pro­tec­ted spe­cies were iden­ti­fied dur­ing ini­tial eco­lo­gic­al sur­veys of the site, but there is poten­tial for a range of bird spe­cies to breed on the site, the wood­land could be used by bats and red squir­rel, and the Milton burn cor­ridor could be used by otter in particular.

3. Nev­er­the­less, most of the site cur­rently has a rel­at­ively low eco­lo­gic­al value and the areas of great­er value, includ­ing wood­land and pro­tec­ted could be incor­por­ated with­in a detailed application(s) with fur­ther enhance­ments to ensure strong net­works of hab­it­ats on the site. Con­di­tions requir­ing stand­ard pre-com­mence­ment checks and meth­od state­ments to pre­vent harm to pro­tec­ted spe­cies and the qual­i­fy­ing fea­tures of the River Spey SAC will ensure that there are no effects on their integ­rity. Sub­ject to appro­pri­ate con­di­tions to ensure the detail con­serves and enhances the biod­iversity of the site, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 3: Biod­iversity, Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places and Policy 6, Forestry wood­land and trees of NPF4, as well as Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 Land­scape Character

4. Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to con­serve and enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park. The site lies with­in the built area of Aviemore and looks to util­ise pre­vi­ously developed land. By vir­tue of inclu­sion with­in the LDP as a mixed use alloc­a­tion, it has already been accep­ted that this is a suit­able devel­op­ment site in land­scape terms and sub­ject to an accept­able lay­out and good land­scap­ing secured at MSC stage, the pro­pos­al 13

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/11/2023

would accord with Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Con­tam­in­ated Land

1. Policy 9: Brown­field, vacant and derel­ict land and empty build­ings of NPF4 sup­ports devel­op­ment pro­pos­als that res­ult in the sus­tain­able reuse of vacant and derel­ict land and requires that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als must demon­strate that land is or can be made safe from con­tam­in­a­tion by pre­vi­ous uses for the news use. Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 also requires that con­tam­in­ated land is appro­pri­ately man­aged to avoid harm to new uses of the site or the wider environment.

2. High­land Council’s envir­on­ment­al health team have recom­men­ded a con­di­tion requir­ing site invest­ig­a­tions to demon­strate that the site is safe for the pro­posed devel­op­ment that will ensure the pro­pos­al com­plies with Policy 9 Brown­field, vacant and derel­ict land and empty build­ings of NPF4 and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. Design and Place­mak­ing, Sus­tain­able Trans­port and Act­ive Travel

3. Policy 13: Sus­tain­able Trans­port, Policy 14: Design, qual­ity and place and Policy 15: Loc­al Liv­ing and 20 minute neigh­bour­hoods of NPF4 as well as Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sup­port devel­op­ment that cre­ates suc­cess­ful places, is safe and well ser­viced for all people, par­tic­u­larly by act­ive travel and well con­nec­ted to loc­al ser­vices and facilities.

4. Giv­en that the applic­a­tion is for per­mis­sion in prin­ciple on a site where the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment is sig­nalled by its alloc­a­tion for devel­op­ment in the LDP, it is inev­it­able that con­di­tions will spe­cify the detail required to demon­strate com­pli­ance with these policies, but the fol­low­ing points high­light some rel­ev­ant mat­ters that the detail will need to take account of. The indic­at­ive site lay­out provided with the applic­a­tion does not address those mat­ters and will not be approved if the applic­a­tion is gran­ted consent.

5. The loc­a­tion of the pro­posed devel­op­ment is cent­ral to Aviemore; close to most of its shops, to exist­ing bus ser­vices, to the rail­way sta­tion and to a range of core paths and pro­moted paths through and near the site. In prin­ciple, a devel­op­ment in this loc­a­tion could be designed to 14

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/11/2023

incor­por­ate and integ­rate suc­cess­ful act­ive and vehicle travel options for the needs of all users, without caus­ing harm to the sur­round­ing road and act­ive travel net­work so this would be a fur­ther mat­ter to be covered by condition.

1. How­ever, the addi­tion of up to 180 res­id­en­tial units on the site will increase the num­bers of people using vehicles and act­ive travel options through­out Aviemore. The pres­sure on Grampi­an Road in par­tic­u­lar, from through traffic, loc­al traffic and vis­it­ors, both using vehicles and walk­ing and cyc­ling has been recog­nised in recent stud­ies as part of the C2030 pro­ject and the earli­er Act­ive Aviemore project.

2. It is a shared object­ive of the Park Author­ity, High­land Coun­cil and oth­er pub­lic bod­ies to improve act­ive travel and reduce traffic con­ges­tion and con­flict in and around Aviemore. The pro­posed devel­op­ment site is loc­ated in unique pos­i­tion that could sup­port travel improve­ments in Aviemore for all users and help make Aviemore and the devel­op­ment pro­posed a more suc­cess­ful place. It is there­fore import­ant that the detail of any pro­pos­al takes account of and demon­strates that it will con­trib­ute appro­pri­ately to wider plans that cre­ate a more suc­cess­ful Aviemore town centre that this site is part of.

3. Sub­ject to appro­pri­ate con­di­tions the devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 13: Sus­tain­able Trans­port, Policy 14: Design, qual­ity and place and Policy 15: Loc­al Liv­ing and 20 minute neigh­bour­hoods of NPF4 as well as Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. Blue and Green infra­struc­ture, Play and Recreation

4. Policy 20: Blue and green infra­struc­ture and Policy 21: Play, recre­ation and sport of NPF4 and Policy 3 Design and Place­mak­ing and Policy 8: Open Space, Sport and Recre­ation of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sup­port the incor­por­a­tion of blue and green infra­struc­ture, play facilties, open space and wider recre­ation oppor­tun­it­ies to devel­op­ments. The devel­op­ment of the detail for the site will provide oppor­tun­ity to integ­rate the most valu­able parts of the site and cre­ate addi­tion well-man­aged spaces for form­al and inform­al enjoy­ment of the devel­op­ment by its res­id­ents and vis­it­ors as well as improv­ing links from and across the site to oth­er recre­ation oppor­tun­it­ies. Sub­ject to appro­pri­ate con­di­tions the developed is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 20: Blue and green infra­struc­ture and Policy 21: Play, recre­ation and sport of NPF4 and Policy 3 Design and Place­mak­ing and Policy 8: Open Space, Sport and Recre­ation of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. 15

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/11/2023

Flood­ing and Drain­age Issues

1. Policy 22: Flood risk and water man­age­ment of NPF4 and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 each provide pro­tec­tion from flood­ing and require that sur­face water is appro­pri­ately man­aged. The applic­a­tion has been sup­por­ted by suf­fi­cient inform­a­tion on flood risk and drain­age to sat­is­fy SEPA and the High­land Coun­cil that the site is not at risk of flood­ing and could be developed without increas­ing flood risk else­where. Sub­ject to appro­pri­ate con­di­tions to ensure approv­al of suit­able tech­nic­al details, the devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 22: Flood risk and water man­age­ment of NPF4 and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. Com­munity Wealth Building
2. Policy 25: Com­munity wealth build­ing of NPF4 sup­ports devel­op­ment that is con­sist­ent with loc­al eco­nom­ic pri­or­it­ies and devel­op­ment linked to com­munity own­er­ship and man­age­ment of land. The applic­ant has sub­mit­ted state­ments on com­munity wealth build­ing and com­munity bene­fit that explain how the devel­op­ment pro­posed is inten­ded to sup­port the eco­nomy of Aviemore through the pro­vi­sion of hous­ing dir­ectly tar­geted to loc­al need in par­tic­u­lar and there­fore sup­port the eco­nomy of Aviemore. At this stage of per­mis­sion in prin­ciple, it is clear that the devel­op­ment could sup­port com­munity wealth build­ing and con­trib­ute to the suc­cess and enjoy­ment of Aviemore, but that only the detail of fur­ther application(s) will demon­strate wheth­er that is the case and the scale of that con­tri­bu­tion. Sub­ject to appro­pri­ate con­di­tions the devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 25: Com­munity wealth build­ing of NPF4. Waste
3. Policy 12: Zero Waste of NPF4 and Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 require that waste is min­im­ised in accord­ance with the waste hier­archy and that inform­a­tion on waste man­age­ment at all stages of the devel­op­ment is provided. These are all mat­ters that require to be addressed in detail and can be secured through appro­pri­ate con­di­tions. Sub­ject to those con­di­tions, the devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 12: Zero Waste of NPF4 and Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. 16

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/11/2023

Plan­ning Obligations

1. Policy 18: Infra­struc­ture first of NPF4 and Policy 11: Developer Oblig­a­tions of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 require that the impacts of devel­op­ment pro­pos­als on infra­struc­ture should be mit­ig­ated and that if neces­sary, plan­ning con­di­tions, oblig­a­tions or oth­er leg­al agree­ments should be used to secure the mitigation.

2. At this point of the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment, without the detail of a pro­pos­al and the facil­it­ies and con­tri­bu­tion to Aviemore avail­able, the only impact on infra­struc­ture that be accur­ately iden­ti­fied is one of impacts on edu­ca­tion pro­vi­sion. Aviemore Primary School is close to capa­city and all new hous­ing devel­op­ment in Aviemore is required to make a set con­tri­bu­tion per unit towards increas­ing school infra­struc­ture capa­city and basis of that con­tri­bu­tion rate per unit can be estab­lished now through agreement.

3. It is pos­sible that oth­er impacts on infra­struc­ture or ser­vices will be iden­ti­fied through the pre­par­a­tion or determ­in­a­tion of detailed mat­ters and that fur­ther or sup­ple­ment­ary agree­ments will be required to mit­ig­ated oth­er impacts at future stages, but a at this point in time, sub­ject to a leg­al agree­ment cov­er­ing primary edu­ca­tion con­tri­bu­tion rates, the pro­pos­als is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 18: Infra­struc­ture first of NPF4 and Policy 11: Developer Oblig­a­tions of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. CONCLUSION

4. The pro­posed devel­op­ment sits on part of a site that is alloc­ated for mixed uses includ­ing res­id­en­tial accom­mod­a­tion, so the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment is eas­ily estab­lished. There are no issues raised through the applic­a­tion that could not be addressed through applic­a­tions for the detail of devel­op­ment that can be secured by con­di­tion and the devel­op­ment has poten­tial to make a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the eco­nomy of Aviemore and qual­ity of life of people liv­ing, work­ing and vis­it­ing Aviemore so is recom­men­ded for approv­al sub­ject to con­di­tions. 17

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/11/2023

RECOM­MEND­A­TION That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to approve plan­ning per­mis­sion in prin­ciple for Res­id­en­tial devel­op­ment, staff accom­mod­a­tion and infra­struc­ture at The Aviemore Centre Grampi­an Road Aviemore High­land sub­ject to a leg­al agree­ment cov­er­ing edu­ca­tion con­tri­bu­tions and the fol­low­ing con­di­tions: Con­di­tions in bold relate to mat­ters that require applic­a­tions to be made to the plan­ning author­ity for fur­ther con­sent, approv­al or agree­ment in terms of Sec­tion 59 1(b) of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997(as amended). Conditions

1. The devel­op­ment hereby approved shall begin no later than 5 years from the date of this decision notice. Reas­on: Per­mis­sion for the devel­op­ment has been gran­ted in prin­ciple only and is sub­ject to the times­cales and oth­er lim­it­a­tions of sec­tion 59 of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997 (as amended).
2. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until a site-wide lay­out plan has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the plan­ning author­ity in con­sulta­tion with High­land Council