Item5AA20230019DETCommitteeReport_HorsefieldHousing

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 09/06/2023

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED:

Erec­tion of 3 flats, omis­sion of 3 houses, relo­ca­tion of foot­path and asso­ci­ated works (amend­ment to 05/00209/REMBS) at Horse Field To North Of Scand­inavi­an Vil­lage The Aviemore Centre Grampi­an Road Aviemore Highland

REF­ER­ENCE: 2023/0019/DET APPLIC­ANT: Tul­loch Homes Ltd DATE CALLED-IN: 16 Janu­ary 2023 RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve, sub­ject to Con­di­tions CASE OFFICER: Stephanie Wade Plan­ning Officer

CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site N 0 25 50 100 Meters Park Aviemore Hos­pl Ppg Sta Sch Wies Aviemore Pol Sta A9 Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2023. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber 100040965 220m Drain 220m 1 Vie more B CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 09/06/2023 War Me 216m Craig-Na-Gower Aven­ue 2

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HIS­TORY Site Descrip­tion CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 09/06/2023

1. The applic­a­tion site known as ​“the Horse­field” is loc­ated on land to the north of Aviemore High­land Resort which is cur­rently under devel­op­ment for hous­ing. The over­all site area extends to approx­im­ately 20 acres and is bounded to the west by the A9 Trunk Road, to the north by an area of open ground and to the east by Aviemore Burn and res­id­en­tial dwell­ings. The major­ity of the south­ern site bound­ary is bound by prop­er­ties with­in the Scand­inavi­an Time­share Village.

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=RODCI9SIOCPOO

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
PLANS
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan	4479−02−007	01/10/22	13/01/23
Plan — Site Lay­out Plan — Phase 3	4479−02−008 Rev.B	01/03/23	24/03/23
Plan — Elev­a­tions Plan — Block 4	4479−01−120 Rev.A	01/03/23	24/02/23
Plan — Gen­er­al Plan — Plans and	4479−01−119 Rev.A	01/03/23	24/03/23
Sec­tions — Block 4
SUP­PORT­ING INFORMATION
Oth­er — Design and Supporting	V1	06/12/22	13/01/33
State­ment

*Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the 1^st of the month.

1. The applic­a­tion looks to make alter­a­tions to the ori­gin­al per­mis­sion of 05/306/CP which are lis­ted below:

a) Dele­tion of 3no. Type A houses on plots 36 – 38 and relo­ca­tion of the foot­path con­nec­tion to the Aviemore Orbit­al path. This alter­a­tion looks to remove the 3 x detached, two storey dwell­ings of House A design which com­prised a split level, 4 bed­room prop­erty. The ground is pro­posed to be open space and the con­nect­ing foot­path to the orbit­al path has been realigned to avoid the trees. The amended path route also allows for a shal­low­er incline in the path. The applic­ant has stated

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 09/06/2023

that the reas­on for this alter­a­tion is due to a water main which runs along the west edge of the site and the require­ment for the houses to have a lot of engin­eer­ing works to accom­mod­ate the split level design which would cause impacts on the water main and the exist­ing trees. For this reas­on, the applic­ant has decided to relo­cate the num­ber of units else­where on site. b) Block 4 changed from 2‑storey to 3‑storey, form­ing 3No. addi­tion­al flats. Block 4 is loc­ated with­in the north­ern area of the devel­op­ment and is pro­posed to have an addi­tion­al storey added to it to cre­ate a fur­ther 3 x 2‑bedroom flats. c) Changes to Block 4 park­ing and ser­vi­cing. A lar­ger bin/​cycle store has been included on the north­ern elev­a­tion of block 4 to accom­mod­ate the increased require­ments arising from the addi­tion­al flats. The road turn­ing head to the south of Block 4 has been relo­cated to allow the con­struc­tion of 5no. extra park­ing spaces to serve the addi­tion­al units. To accom­mod­ate this change, there has been minor adjust­ments made to the end of the drive­ways at renumbered plots 52 – 53. d) Houses on plots 39 – 58 renumbered to plots 36 – 55.

1. Fol­low­ing the request from Plan­ning Com­mit­tee at the April 2023 com­mit­tee meet­ing, the agent has provided visu­al­isa­tions of Block 4 and sec­tion­al draw­ings of the pro­posed path alter­a­tion. These doc­u­ments togeth­er with the ori­gin­al plans of the pro­pos­al are included with­in Appendix 1.

His­tory

1. Out­line plan­ning per­mis­sion was gran­ted on the sub­ject site for 140 houses under High­land Coun­cil plan­ning ref­er­ence: 02/00007/OUTBS for ​“out­line plan­ning applic­a­tion to amend exist­ing Mas­ter­plan per­mis­sion at the Aviemore Centre.” The per­mis­sion included a stip­u­la­tion that 20% of the hous­ing units were provided as afford­able. The mas­ter­plan approv­al included con­di­tions requir­ing that build­ings be gen­er­ally two and three storeys in height with a lim­ited num­ber of high-qual­ity extern­al mater­i­als util­ised for extern­al finishes.

2. Approv­al for reserve mat­ters for the erec­tion of 140 houses and asso­ci­ated infra­struc­ture and land­scap­ing on the sub­ject site was per­mit­ted by the CNPA under applic­a­tion ref­er­ence 05/306/CP in 2008. Con­cur­rently with that applic­a­tion and on land adjoin­ing the imme­di­ate south, approv­al for the devel­op­ment of 21 dwell­ing units was also gran­ted under ref­er­ence 05/304/CP. The afford­able hous­ing units were erec­ted and work paused on devel­op­ing the remainder of the site until earli­er this year with non- mater­i­al vari­ations being sub­mit­ted in the mean­time to seek minor changes to extern­al fin­ishes of build­ings, intern­al lay­outs, land­scap­ing and minor changes to the road con­fig­ur­a­tion in response to trans­port plan­ning require­ments. The two per­mis­sions 05/304/CP and 05/306/CP are being developed as one large devel­op­ment in phases.

3. Applic­a­tion ref. 2021/0355/DET was sub­mit­ted and approved by Com­mit­tee Mem­bers in Janu­ary 2022 for the ​“Change of House Types on plots 21 – 24, relo­ca­tion of house on plot 20 and change of bound­ary line between plots 19 and 20 form­ing part of (05/306/CP)”.

DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN CON­TEXT CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 09/06/2023

Policies

Nation­al Policy	Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045
POLICY 1	Tack­ling the Cli­mate and Nature Crises
POLICY 2	Cli­mate Mit­ig­a­tion and Adaptation
POLICY 3	Biod­iversity
POLICY 9	Brown­field, Vacant and Derel­ict Land, and Empty Buildings
POLICY 14	Design, Qual­ity and Place
POLICY 16	Qual­ity Homes
POLICY 22	Flood Risk and Water Management

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
POLICY 7	RENEW­ABLE ENERGY
POLICY 8	OPEN SPACE, SPORT AND RECREATION
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​-​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.

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

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 09/06/2023

Policy 8	Open Space, Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 11	Developer Oblig­a­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance	X

CON­SULTA­TIONS

Sum­mary of the main issues raised by consultees

1. High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team has no objec­tion the remov­al of the three dwell­ings and addi­tion of the flats, although note that changes are required to the Roads Con­struc­tion Con­sent and there­fore recom­mend a plan­ning con­di­tion for the approv­al of the RCC changes pri­or to the com­mence­ment of the amended works. The Team wel­comes the addi­tion­al park­ing space pro­vi­sion for the flat­ted units. The Team ori­gin­ally recom­men­ded a plan­ning con­di­tion to agree the details of the addi­tion­al bin and bike stor­age require­ments and reques­ted cla­ri­fic­a­tion on the pos­i­tion of bins for empty­ing and dis­tance to their stor­age area.

2. Fol­low­ing the agent’s sub­mis­sion of the addi­tion­al inform­a­tion as reques­ted, the Roads Officers recom­mend a con­di­tion requir­ing the shared bin and bike store incor­por­ates a secure lock­able entry gate into the store that only res­id­ents will have a means of access­ing. It is noted that the refuse col­lec­tion point (RCP) is loc­ated dir­ectly adja­cent to the ground floor flat of the south west­ern corner of the altered block. Giv­en bins will have to be left here on col­lec­tion days, it may not be wel­comed by the future occu­pants of this flat. Should the RCP have to be relo­cated, this will have to be done at the expense of the Developer or ongo­ing owner/​operator of this flat­ted block and will have to be agreed by the Council’s Loc­al Waste and Roads Authority.

3. High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Officer has no objec­tion to the scheme, not­ing that the pro­posed changes will not have an impact on flood risk or drainage.

4. CNPA Eco­logy Officer notes that the site is already act­ive con­struc­tion. The changes to the devel­op­ment (omis­sion of three pro­posed build­ings and realign­ing foot­path) have not changed any of the impacts to already iden­ti­fied eco­lo­gic­al con­straints. The cur­rent plan­ning con­di­tions are sat­is­fact­ory to pro­tect any exist­ing nat­ur­al heritage.

5. CNPA Land­scape Officer has no objec­tions not­ing that the omis­sion of the three units on the west­ern side of the devel­op­ment is wel­comed, allow­ing the foot­path to avoid the trees on site and retains more open space. The changes to the flat unit do not sig­ni­fic­antly change its foot­print. How­ever, it does require addi­tion­al car­park­ing and some minor changes to the land­scape around it. Neither is of land­scape significance.

6. The main change is the increase in height of the flat build­ing from two to three floors, pos­sibly an increase of 2.5 – 3.0m. The design is the same oth­er­wise includ­ing a tall, pitched roof. This will make the build­ing a bit more prom­in­ent on the site but still seen in con­text of the oth­er new builds on the site. The nearest res­id­en­tial prop­erty is approx­im­ately 40m from the build­ing. At this dis­tance, the high­er build­ing will be more

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 09/06/2023

vis­ible, but it is not likely to make a sig­ni­fic­ant change in the land­scape char­ac­ter or the visu­al amen­ity bey­ond the cur­rently approved application.

1. Aviemore Com­munity Coun­cil were con­sul­ted and provided com­ments to High­land Coun­cil. The Com­munity Coun­cil note their objec­tion to the steps on the realigned path­way link­ing to the devel­op­ment to the Orbit­al path. They con­sider that the path­way should be altered to cre­ate a path suit­able for all abil­it­ies. Their full com­ments can be found at Appendix 2.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. The applic­a­tion was advert­ised when first sub­mit­ted. A total of 5 let­ters of pub­lic rep­res­ent­a­tions have been sub­mit­ted to and received by the CNPA- 4 object­ing and 1 not­ing gen­er­al com­ments. Upon review, an addi­tion­al 34 let­ters of objec­tion were sub­mit­ted to High­land Coun­cil. These have now been incor­por­ated into this report. A copy of the full com­ments can be found with­in Appendix 3. A sum­mary of the com­ments received fol­lows below:

2. Com­ments relat­ing to Flood Impacts. a) Con­cern relat­ing to flood­ing impact arising from the wider devel­op­ment; and build­ing with­in the flood plain. b) Con­cern regard­ing drain­age impacts and exacer­ba­tion of exist­ing prob­lems. c) Con­cern regard­ing pol­lu­tion of the burn arising from the con­struc­tion works. d) Immor­al to build on a flood­plain. e) Devel­op­ment shouldn’t be built as it is in a flood plain. f) SUDs pond is an eye­sore, dan­ger­ous and does not work. g) Flood­plain needs to be returned to its ori­gin­al state. h) No flats should be built on the flood­plain. i) Devel­op­ment is built on a spring. j) Devel­op­ment is not in line with SEPA’s flood risk policy or the Cairngorms Nation­al Parks Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.

3. Officer Response: Covered by apprais­al of application.

4. Com­ments relat­ing to design, scale, and land­scape impacts. a) Con­cern regard­ing the visu­al impact of cre­at­ing a three-storey struc­ture. b) Over devel­op­ment. c) Not in keep­ing with the area. d) Con­cern regard­ing build­ing a three-storey eye­sore of hol­i­day flats on the highest point of the site. e) Elev­a­tion is too high dwarf­ing the exist­ing res­id­en­tial street. f) Expand­ing the block of flats will be incon­sist­ent with the ori­gin­al plans and there­fore should not be con­sidered. g) Lay­out and dens­ity of the devel­op­ment is already crowded, flat should not be built in this area. h) Addi­tion­al storey would dom­in­ate the land­scape. i) Com­pletely out of place from its surroundings.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 09/06/2023

j) Block 4 is not in keep­ing with the 1 and 1½ storey dwell­ings loc­ated on Craig Na Gower Aven­ue. k) Roof pitch makes it more like a 4‑storey building.

1. Officer Response: Covered by apprais­al of application.

2. Com­ments relat­ing to Amen­ity Impacts a) Noise dis­turb­ance, air pol­lu­tion, and head­light light pol­lu­tion arising from park­ing. b) Con­cern regard­ing hous­ing becom­ing second homes. c) Light pol­lu­tion. d) Con­cern regard­ing over­look­ing. e) Con­cern regard­ing loss of pri­vacy. f) Loss of view. g) Addi­tion­al park­ing spaces will be intrus­ive to neigh­bour­ing houses. h) Thought should be giv­en to the nuis­ance a devel­op­ment of such a scale would bring to neigh­bour­ing prop­er­ties. i) Addi­tion­al floor will cause over­shad­ow­ing to neigh­bour­ing properties.

3. Officer Response: Covered by apprais­al of application.

4. Gen­er­al com­ments a) Con­cern regard­ing hous­ing becom­ing second homes. b) Devel­op­ment does not bene­fit loc­al res­id­ents who can­not afford the ask­ing prices. c) The site was used by Aviemore Primary School as an out­door learn­ing area, if this plan­ning goes ahead, there will be no area for the pupils to learn. d) Ref­er­ences to the breach of con­di­tion for the SuDs basin. e) Increase in res­id­ences means increase in traffic in Aviemore.

5. Officer Response: a) Covered by apprais­al of applic­a­tion. b) This is not a mater­i­al plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tion in the determ­in­a­tion of this applic­a­tion. c) The site already has plan­ning per­mis­sion and is cur­rently being developed, this applic­a­tion seeks to alter the approved scheme. d) This is being dealt with under an act­ive enforce­ment case and is not affected by the con­sid­er­a­tions of this plan­ning applic­a­tion. e) The pro­posed change from 3x 4‑bedroom prop­er­ties to 3x2-bed­room flats would not increase the level of traffic gen­er­a­tion assessed with­in the ori­gin­al permission.

6. Com­ments relat­ing to recre­ation­al access. a) Over­de­vel­op­ment mak­ing Orbit­al path inac­cess­ible. b) The re-rout­ing of the Orbit­al path is of con­cern as it brings ped­es­tri­ans and dog walk­ers into closer con­flict with the A9 and with the dualling. c) Orbit­al path needs to be access­ible for every­body. d) Flats will ruin the pleas­ure of walk­ing in the woods.

7. Officer Response: Covered by apprais­al of application.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 09/06/2023

1. Pro­ced­ur­al Com­ments a) The plan­ning per­mis­sion was issued by CNP so why has this amend­ment been sent to the High­land Coun­cil? b) The com­pany have con­tra­vened plan­ning restric­tions regard­ing the flood­plain of the Aviemore Burn and can­not be trus­ted. c) Plan­ning applic­a­tions for the site should be refused until the enforce­ment action is rectified.

2. Officer Response: As per the pro­tocol, CNPA have called-in the applic­a­tion for determ­in­a­tion. The details of the applic­a­tion are still avail­able to view on the High­land Coun­cil web­site, and a link is provided to redir­ect users to the CNPA page. This is a live plan­ning applic­a­tion and has no dir­ect effects on the enforce­ment case. The CNPA must there­fore determ­ine the applic­a­tion as per pro­ced­ure oth­er­wise an appeal case against non-determ­in­a­tion could arise.

APPRAIS­AL

1. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions in rela­tion to this applic­a­tion, an amend­ment to the pre­vi­ously approved devel­op­ment (ref 05/306/CP) are: the prin­ciple; design, scale and land­scape impacts, impact on eco­logy, ser­vi­cing and park­ing arrange­ments, impact on flood­ing and drain­age and developer contributions.

Prin­ciple of Change in Dwell­ing Mix

1. The applic­a­tion looks to change the accom­mod­a­tion type for three units with­in the res­id­en­tial devel­op­ment. The change involves the loss of three detached, 4 bed­roomed dwell­ings and the addi­tion of three 2‑bedroomed flats, by way of an addi­tion­al storey to a flat­ted block.

2. Policy 1.4: Design­ing for Afford­ab­il­ity and Spe­cial­ist Needs of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, states that res­id­en­tial devel­op­ments will be required to provide a mix of dwell­ing types and sizes to help secure a bal­anced hous­ing stock, with an emphas­is on smal­ler dwell­ings. Policy 16: Qual­ity Homes of NPF4 sup­ports devel­op­ment for new homes that improve afford­ab­il­ity and choice by being adapt­able to chan­ging and diverse needs, and which address iden­ti­fied gaps in provision.

3. The Nation­al Park has a dis­pro­por­tion­ately high pro­por­tion of lar­ger and detached hous­ing, which has res­ul­ted in a hous­ing stock that is poorly equipped to meet arising hous­ing needs. A key part of Policy 1.4 is ensur­ing that both afford­able and mar­ket hous­ing focuses on deliv­er­ing smal­ler dwell­ings in terms of num­bers of bed­rooms and pub­lic rooms. The exist­ing devel­op­ment provides a range of house types with nearly an even split on the num­ber of houses to the num­ber of flats on site. The change from three lar­ger units to provide smal­ler units of accom­mod­a­tion, is there­fore wel­comed for this devel­op­ment of 128 dwell­ings, and accords with Policy 1.4 of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, and Policy 16: Qual­ity Homes of NPF4.

Impact on Design and Landscape

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 09/06/2023

1. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seek to rein­force and enhance the char­ac­ter of the exist­ing set­tle­ment and encour­age new devel­op­ment to be sym­path­et­ic to the tra­di­tion­al pat­tern and char­ac­ter of the area. Policy 5: Land­scape looks to ensure that pro­pos­als do not adversely impact the land­scape char­ac­ter and set­ting of the area, includ­ing visu­al impacts. Policy 14: Design, Qual­ity and Place of NPF4 requires devel­op­ment pro­pos­als to improve the qual­ity of an area and meet the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places. The omis­sion of the three units on the west­ern side of the devel­op­ment is wel­comed allow­ing the foot­path to avoid the trees and retain more open space.

2. Let­ters of con­cern have been received from pub­lic rep­res­ent­a­tions regard­ing the design of the addi­tion­al storey and its impact on the char­ac­ter of the area togeth­er with its dom­in­ance in the land­scape. The pro­posed change of the flat­ted block from 2 storey to 3 storey is in keep­ing with the estab­lished design, scale, and mass­ing of oth­er plots with­in the hous­ing devel­op­ment. This flat­ted block design and scale is already per­mit­ted on site with­in the hous­ing devel­op­ment, and although the increase in height would make the build­ing more prom­in­ent, it would be seen in the con­text of the oth­er new builds on site. The nearest res­id­en­tial prop­erty is approx­im­ately 48m from the build­ing. At this dis­tance, the high­er build­ing will be more vis­ible, but it is not likely to make a sig­ni­fic­ant change in the land­scape char­ac­ter or the visu­al amen­ity bey­ond the cur­rently approved applic­a­tion. On this basis, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to accord with Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 and Policy 14: Design, Qual­ity and Place of NPF4.

Impact on Ecology

1. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to ensure that there is no adverse impact upon des­ig­nated areas, pro­tec­ted spe­cies, or biod­iversity. The pro­posed change of house type mix does not sig­ni­fic­antly affect the level of eco­lo­gic­al effects com­pared to the exist­ing con­sent, and the omis­sion of the west­ern units will bene­fit the eco­lo­gic­al interests by increas­ing the veget­ated area and pro­tect­ing the exist­ing trees from devel­op­ment impacts. The pro­pos­al is there­fore con­sidered to accord with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Res­id­en­tial Amenity

1. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to ensure that devel­op­ments pro­tect the amen­ity cur­rently enjoyed by neigh­bours. Let­ters of con­cern have been received from neigh­bour­ing prop­er­ties relat­ing to the poten­tial impact the enlarged flat­ted block would have on their amen­ity. The agent has sub­mit­ted annot­ated visu­al­isa­tions to demon­strate the rela­tion­ship between Block 4 and the res­id­en­tial dwell­ings out­with the devel­op­ment site. The nearest res­id­en­tial prop­er­ties are situ­ated on Craig-Na-Gower Aven­ue, to the north-east and east of Block 4. Sep­ar­at­ing Block 4 and the res­id­en­tial dwell­ings out­with the site is the burn, veget­ated ground, and tree cov­er. As pre­vi­ously stated, the nearest

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 09/06/2023

neigh­bour­ing dwell­ing is some 48m away from Block 4 and at this dis­tance, togeth­er with the nat­ur­al screen­ing provided by tree cov­er and veget­a­tion, the alter­a­tion to Block 4 is not con­sidered to give rise to any adverse impacts on over­look­ing, over­shad­ow­ing, or loss of privacy.

1. Con­cern has also been raised regard­ing noise impacts arising from vehicles park­ing. As stated above, there is a good dis­tance between Block 4 and its asso­ci­ated park­ing spaces and the res­id­en­tial dwell­ings which bound the east side of the site. The intro­duc­tion of an addi­tion­al floor on Block 4 does not intro­duce new car park­ing spaces bey­ond the east­ern build line of Block 4. The addi­tion­al flats are there­fore not con­sidered to cause any adverse noise impacts.

Ser­vi­cing and Access

1. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sets out the need for new devel­op­ment to be sat­is­fact­or­ily ser­viced and without harm to resources of the environment.

2. Con­cern has been raised by pub­lic rep­res­ent­at­ives regard­ing flood­ing and drain­age impacts of the wider devel­op­ment site. The con­sid­er­a­tion of these mat­ters was dealt with under the ori­gin­al per­mis­sion, and it was demon­strated at that time that the pro­pos­al would not adversely impact flood­ing or drain­age mat­ters sub­ject to the con­di­tions attached to that per­mis­sion. The addi­tion­al flat­ted units do not intro­duce any change to the approved access, or drain­age arrange­ments. The High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Officer has no objec­tions, not­ing that the pro­posed changes will not have an impact on flood risk or drainage.

3. Regard­ing road mat­ters, the pro­pos­al would involve changes to park­ing arrange­ments pre­vi­ously approved. High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team have no objec­tions to the pro­pos­al sub­ject to a plan­ning con­di­tion to ensure that the Roads Con­struc­tion Con­sent is amended to accord with the plan­ning applic­a­tion details. Adequate waste and bicycle stor­age has been provided to serve the addi­tion­al flats, although a plan­ning con­di­tion is recom­men­ded to agree the secur­ity arrange­ments for the com­mun­al bicycle store. In these over­all cir­cum­stances the pro­posed access and ser­vi­cing arrange­ments for the scheme are accept­able and in accord­ance with Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2020.

Impacts on Recre­ation­al Access

1. The pro­pos­al looks to alter the approved path link on the west­ern side of the devel­op­ment to the Orbit­al path. It is noted that the Com­munity Coun­cil object to the inclu­sion of steps on the path link stat­ing that the path should be altered to cre­ate an all-abil­it­ies link. Con­cern has also been raised with­in pub­lic rep­res­ent­a­tions regard­ing the access­ib­il­ity of the orbit­al path fol­low­ing the con­struc­tion of the wider hous­ing site. The approved path link design under the ori­gin­al per­mis­sion included steps and a steep­er gradi­ent than that being con­sidered under this applic­a­tion. Sec­tion­al draw­ings have been provided to demon­strate the change in ground levels between the housing

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 09/06/2023

site and the orbit­al path. The agent has con­firmed that the gradi­ent with­in that sec­tion of land is too steep to cre­ate an all-abil­it­ies path and the land is also hindered by the Scot­tish Water pipe­work. There is an altern­at­ive path link from the hous­ing devel­op­ment to the orbit­al path which does not include any steps. Con­sid­er­ing the gradi­ent, the poten­tial dis­rup­tion any fur­ther amend­ment would have to the veget­a­tion and tree cov­er with­in this area and that there are altern­at­ive path links already provided, the pro­pos­al as sub­mit­ted is con­sidered acceptable.

Developer Con­tri­bu­tions

1. Policy 11: Developer Oblig­a­tions of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that where devel­op­ment cre­ates a need to increase or improve pub­lic ser­vices, facil­it­ies, or infra­struc­ture, or mit­ig­ate adverse effects, the developer will be required to make a fair and reas­on­able con­tri­bu­tion in cash or in kind towards addi­tion­al costs or require­ments. The Policy also requires con­tri­bu­tions to afford­able housing.

2. Developer con­tri­bu­tions were ori­gin­ally sought with the ori­gin­al per­mis­sion, which included the afford­able hous­ing con­tri­bu­tion for the devel­op­ment site. As the pro­pos­al does not change the num­ber of dwell­ings to be erec­ted on site, the applic­a­tion would not give rise to any addi­tion­al afford­able hous­ing con­tri­bu­tions. As the pro­pos­al includes a reduc­tion in bed­room num­bers, no addi­tion­al Edu­ca­tion con­tri­bu­tions are required.

Oth­er Issues Raised in Con­sulta­tions and Representations

1. All mat­ters raised by con­sul­tees and third parties have been addressed above.

2. Con­cern has been raised regard­ing the devel­op­ment becom­ing second homes. The site has an estab­lished his­tory in the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plans of provid­ing hous­ing to meet the needs of Aviemore. The restric­tion of hous­ing to loc­al people has not been pos­sible since the issu­ing of the Chief Planner’s let­ter on occu­pancy con­di­tions and rur­al hous­ing dated 4^th Novem­ber 2011, which states, ​“The Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment believes that occu­pancy restric­tions are rarely appro­pri­ate and so should gen­er­ally be avoided.” The let­ter does not allow occu­pancy restric­tions to be issued simply on the grounds of the poten­tial use of the dwell­ing, the ori­gin of the occu­pi­er or the work­place of the buy­er. The approach of imple­ment­ing occu­pancy restric­tions on dwell­ings has there­fore not been taken else­where in lar­ger hous­ing schemes in the Park and there is no spe­cif­ic evid­ence to jus­ti­fy its approach here. As the site is included with­in the Badenoch and Strath­spey con­trol zone for short term lets, any poten­tial use of a res­id­en­tial unit for hol­i­day let­ting accom­mod­a­tion would be assessed by a plan­ning application.

CON­CLU­SION

1. The pro­posed alter­a­tions are minor in nature and are not con­sidered to alter the sub­stance of the applic­a­tion and the changes do not alter the con­sid­er­a­tion or mat­ters raised under the approved scheme. The pro­vi­sion of small-scale res­id­en­tial units is welcomed.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 09/06/2023

1. In these over­all cir­cum­stances the works are con­sidered to com­ply with all rel­ev­ant policies of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 and the col­lect­ive aims of the Nation­al Park. There are no oth­er mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions which would war­rant the refus­al of plan­ning per­mis­sion. Approv­al and the grant­ing of con­sent is there­fore recom­men­ded sub­ject to the recom­men­ded plan­ning conditions.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to Approve the Erec­tion of 3 flats, omis­sion of 3 houses, relo­ca­tion of foot­path and asso­ci­ated works (amend­ment to 05/00209/REMBS) at Horse Field To North Of Scand­inavi­an Vil­lage The Aviemore Centre Grampi­an Road Aviemore High­land sub­ject to the fol­low­ing conditions:

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

Con­di­tions

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until con­firm­a­tion is sub­mit­ted to and approved by the Cairngorm Nation­al Park Author­ity, act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity, in con­sulta­tion with the High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team that approv­al of the amended Roads Con­struc­tion Con­sent ref.19/04215/RCC has been obtained.

Reas­on: To ensure that the neces­sary road con­struc­tion per­mis­sions accord with the details approved under the plan­ning permission.

1. Pri­or to the first occu­pa­tion of Block 4, hereby per­mit­ted, details of the secur­ity arrange­ments for the Block 4 bicycle and bin store shall be sub­mit­ted to and agreed in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity, in con­sulta­tion with the High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team. The works shall there­after accord with the approved details and be imple­men­ted in full pri­or to the first occu­pa­tion of Block 4.

Reas­on: To ensure that the com­mun­al bicycle stor­age has adequate secur­ity arrange­ments in accord­ance with best prac­tice guid­ance and the High­land Council’s Trans­port Plan­ning Team’s con­sulta­tion response.

1. This per­mis­sion is an amend­ment to the per­mis­sion 05/306/CP. The devel­op­ment per­mit­ted must there­fore be under­taken in strict accord­ance with the approved plans, doc­u­ments, and con­di­tions as out­lined on the fol­low­ing decision notices: a) 05/306/CP; b) 2021/0355/DET; and c) 2023/0019/DET.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 09/06/2023

Reas­on: The applic­a­tion per­mit­ted is an amend­ment to a live per­mis­sion which is cur­rently being imple­men­ted on site. The pro­posed amend­ments are required fol­low­ing imple­ment­a­tion of the approved scheme. The approved plans, doc­u­ments, and con­di­tions of the ori­gin­al scheme 05/306/CP, plus its 2021 amend­ment, are there­fore rel­ev­ant and must be adhered to in addi­tion to the approved plans, doc­u­ments and con­di­tions attached to this permission.

Inform­at­ives CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 09/06/2023

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

2. The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment is required to give the Plan­ning Author­ity pri­or writ­ten noti­fic­a­tion of the date on 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 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.

3. Fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, a noti­fic­a­tion of the com­ple­tion shall, as soon as prac­tic­able, be giv­en to the Plan­ning Author­ity. Attached to this decision notice is a Notice of Com­ple­tion of Devel­op­ment for com­ple­tion and sub­mis­sion. Sub­mis­sion of this form will assist the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer in mak­ing a final inspec­tion and check­ing com­pli­ance with the approved draw­ings and con­di­tions. If the devel­op­ment hereby approved is to be car­ried out in phases, then a notice of com­ple­tion should be sub­mit­ted at the com­ple­tion of each phase.

4. Con­struc­tion work (includ­ing the loading/​unloading of deliv­ery vehicles, plant or oth­er machinery) should not take place out­with the hours of 0800 hours to 1900 hours Mondays to Fri­days, 0800 hours to 1300 hours on Sat­urdays or at any time or Bank Hol­i­days to min­im­ise dis­turb­ance to res­id­ents in the area.

The map on the first page of this report 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.