Item5AABallaterOldSchool20200206DETand20200207LBC

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 13/11/2020

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PRO­POSED: Repair and remov­al to walls, chim­ney stacks, pavil­ion façade and slates, fur­ther to plan­ning approv­al 2019/0003/DET and fur­ther to lis­ted build­ing con­sent 2019/0006/LBC at Bal­later Old School Abergel­die Road Bal­later Aber­deen­shire AB35 5RR

REF­ER­ENCE: 2020/0206/DET and 2020/0207/LBC

APPLIC­ANT: Grampi­an Hous­ing Association

DATE CALLED-IN: 7 Septem­ber 2020

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve Full Plan­ning Per­mis­sion and Lis­ted Build­ing Con­sent sub­ject to Con­di­tions CASE OFFICER: Stephanie Wade, Plan­ning Officer

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 13/11/2020

CNPA Plan­ning Committee

Applic­a­tion Site 0 10 20 40 Meters N

12 61 ZL ει Mason­ic Hall

bst Inchgarth Cot­tage Ran­noch 6 Fairdene Hotels .ATER Pol Sta Abergel­die Road ε eɛ School Lane SL 8 6 Grey­stones Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2020. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber 100040965 Abergel­die Road ε Coor­ie Doon School Lane L 28 26 42 2 View­field Road LE View­field Place CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 13/11/2020

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The applic­a­tion site is Bal­later Old School, school houses and school yard loc­ated with­in Bal­later, bounded to the south by Abergel­die Road and to the north by School Lane. The site is bounded on the west and east sides by stone walls. Res­id­en­tial prop­er­ties are loc­ated on either side of the site and on both the Abergel­die Road and School Road front­ages. The Queen’s Bar­racks lie fur­ther west.

2. Bal­later School and asso­ci­ated build­ings, includ­ing the bound­ary walls, is a cat­egory C lis­ted build­ing of archi­tec­tur­al and his­tor­ic import­ance. It is described as a good example of a post 1872 Edu­ca­tion Act school with more rarely seen two school­houses and unusu­al goth­ic detailed classroom, with the dis­tinct­ive ped­i­men­ted gable­heads of the school provid­ing an inter­est­ing and pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the loc­al streets­cape, present­ing a par­tic­u­larly strik­ing façade to the south.

3. The site at present is cur­rently being developed under plan­ning per­mis­sion 2019/0003/DET and lis­ted build­ing con­sent 2019/0006/LBC to cre­ate ten dwell­ing­houses with­in the former school, the cre­ation of 2 dwell­ing­houses from the rein­state­ment of the school­houses and the erec­tion of I dwell­ing­house and II flats, togeth­er with asso­ci­ated car park­ing, access and alter­a­tions to the bound­ary walls. These works gained per­mis­sion in May 2019 and works began on site in June 2020.

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=QG2W5JSI0BY00

http://​www​.eplan​ningcnpa​.co​.uk/​o​n​line- applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=QG2WSVSI0BY00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Plans
Loc­a­tion Plan	001	01 Decem­ber 2015	07 Septem­ber 2020
Pro­posed Ground/​Site Plan	020 Rev.L	28 Feb­ru­ary 2020	07 Septem­ber 2020
Exist­ing Court­yard Walls	030 Rev.C	05 August 2020	07 Septem­ber 2020
Pro­posed Court­yard Walls	031 Rev.E	26 Octo­ber 2020	26 Octo­ber 2020

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 13/11/2020

Sup­port­ing doc­u­ment­a­tion |Repairs Design State­ment| Rev.A| 26 Octo­ber 2020| 26 Octo­ber 2020|

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

1. These two applic­a­tions seek con­sent- in addi­tion to that approved under 2019/0003/DET and 2019/0006/L­BC- to provide the fol­low­ing amend­ments to the approved schemes:

a) Remedi­al work to court­yard walls- pro­posed ren­der­ing of walls with a lime based rough­cast render and pro­posed replace­ment of dam­aged lin­tols with new precast con­crete lin­tols to ensure struc­tur­ally sound openings.

b) Remov­al of 2no. court­yard chim­ney stacks- it is under­stood that there were 2no. redund­ant chim­ney stacks with­in the court­yard, which were only appar­ent after the remov­al of the roof and became a safety con­cern requir­ing urgent remov­al fol­low­ing the pro­gres­sion of the works. The applic­ant pro­poses that these are not reinstated;

c) Remov­al of Ino. chim­ney stack- the applic­ant pro­poses the remov­al of a third chim­ney stack loc­ated to the rear of the East School­house. The applic­ant notes that this stack is not vis­ible on the prom­in­ent Abergel­die Road façade and is posi­tioned on the wall face, and sub­jec­ted to rain­wa­ter dam­age caus­ing intern­al water dam­age. The chim­ney stack had also been giv­en a cement render fin­ish pre­vi­ously. The Design State­ment provides the fol­low­ing jus­ti­fic­a­tion for its remov­al ​“we acknow­ledge that this chim­ney is in a prom­in­ent pos­i­tion in the over­all devel­op­ment, but Grampi­an Hous­ing Asso­ci­ation requests that a con­ces­sion is gran­ted in this case against rebuild­ing the stack. These refur­bished school­houses will not be stand­ard fam­ily homes, but instead will have a change of use to afford­able hous­ing units. Grampi­an Hous­ing Asso­ci­ation will need to con­tin­ue to com­ply with stat­utory require­ments in order to make this pro­ject viable, includ­ing the following:

a. Health and safety: none of the afford­able units can have a func­tion­ing open fire in terms of health and safety; b. The rein­state­ment of the rooms: after the repair work to the dam­age caused by the water ingress, the rooms will not include fire­places; c. Viab­il­ity: the pro­ject is depend­ent upon Gov­ern­ment fund­ing and the Hous­ing Asso­ci­ation has a restric­ted budget. Care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion has been giv­en to the over­all appear­ance and future main­ten­ance of the lis­ted build­ing. The con­tin­gen­cies allow­ance has been devoted to the pick­ing, clean­ing and re-point­ing of all the gran­ite walls. This was not a plan­ning require­ment, but it is already evid­ent that the exist­ing build­ings have hugely bene­fit­ted from this expendit­ure; d. The set­ting of the East School­house and entire lis­ted struc­ture: has changed. With the con­struc­tion of the new afford­able hous­ing units, it is clear that the rear of both school­houses can no longer be seen from School Lane. It is fully appre­ci­ated that the need to ensure the reten­tion-and enhance­ment- of the Abergel­die Road façade, but the over­all site set­ting has already dra­mat­ic­ally altered; and the pos­i­tion­ing of the East School­house needs to be reviewed with­in this new context.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 13/11/2020

6. d) Repair required to the pavil­ion façade- pro­posed ren­der­ing of walls with a rough­cast lime render fin­ish; infill addi­tion­al exist­ing door open­ing widths with block and render and tooth in and make good each gran­ite nib, and form cope on top.

e) Repair required to the West School­house gable wall- pro­posed ren­der­ing of gable wall with a rough­cast lime render fin­ish. Any sub­sequent com­munity mur­al would be the sub­ject of a sep­ar­ate applic­a­tion for consideration.

f) Repair required to sides of School­houses- pro­posed repair work to the chim­neys loc­ated with­in the returns of the School­houses, to include the remov­al of cement render and the gran­ite picked and repoin­ted with lime-based pointing.

g) Re-slat­ing of exist­ing roof- pro­posed re-slat­ing of the exist­ing roof using salvaged slates from the roof and new welsh slates to sup­ple­ment retained slates were possible.

The sup­port­ing doc­u­ment­a­tion notes that ​“fol­low­ing plan­ning per­mis­sion being gran­ted the demoli­tion of ancil­lary build­ings has occurred, and the ​‘open­ing up’ of the exist­ing build­ing, to repair and pro­tect the school struc­ture and fab­ric has com­menced. Dur­ing this pro­cess, there have been sev­er­al areas with­in the exist­ing school build­ings which have been high­lighted as requir­ing repair or remov­al. There are primar­ily with­in the court­yard of the school build­ing and not on the dom­in­ant Abergel­die Road elevation.

His­tory

1. Applic­a­tions for full plan­ning per­mis­sion (2017/0284/DET) and lis­ted build­ing con­sent (2017/0285/LBC) for the erec­tion of 26 afford­able houses were refused, con­trary to officer recom­mend­a­tion, at the May 2018 meet­ing of the CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee due to: road safety con­cerns, amen­ity issues, park­ing facil­it­ies, and lack of recre­ation­al space. 8.
2. Hav­ing con­sidered the situ­ation fur­ther, the applic­ants decided to sub­mit a revised pro­pos­al to try and address the con­cerns raised by the CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee and object­ors. The revised pro­pos­al included the reduc­tion in dwell­ing num­bers from 26 to 24 res­id­en­tial units. These applic­a­tions- ref: 2019/0003/DET and 2019/0006/L­BC- were approved at the May 2019 plan­ning com­mit­tee and are cur­rently under construction.

Fol­low­ing this, the applic­ants appealed to the Dir­ect­or­ate of Plan­ning and Envir­on­ment­al Appeals. The appeal was upheld and plan­ning and lis­ted build­ing con­sent were granted.

1. The scheme cur­rently being developed, provid­ing socially ren­ted accom­mod­a­tion, can be sum­mar­ised as follows:

a) Con­ver­sion of the former school build­ing to ten res­id­en­tial units using the exist­ing form of the build­ings and open­ings; b) Renov­a­tion of the school­houses to two houses and remov­al of more recent gable end wing to side of west­ern­most schoolhouse;

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 13/11/2020

c) Erec­tion of single storey two bed­room house in south west corner of site facing Abergel­die Road; d) Erec­tion of 12 storey block of three flats in north west corner, two on ground floor one on upper floor, facing School Lane; and e) Erec­tion of 13 storey block of eight flats in north east corner of site facing School Lane.

1. Plans of the pro­pos­al are included with­in Appendix 1.

DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN CONTEXT

Policies

Nation­al Policy	Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy 2014
Stra­tegic Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 — 2022
Loc­al Plan Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2015)
Those policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are
marked with a cross
POLICY I	NEW HOUS­ING DEVELOPMENT
POLICY 2	SUP­PORT­ING ECO­NOM­IC GROWTH
POLICY 3	SUS­TAIN­ABLE DESIGN	X
POLICY 4	NAT­UR­AL HERITAGE
POLICY 5	LAND­SCAPE	X
POLICY 6	THE SIT­ING AND DESIGN OF DIGIT­AL COM­MU­NIC­A­TIONS EQUIPMENT
POLICY 7	RENEW­ABLE ENERGY
POLICY 8	SPORT AND RECREATION
POLICY 9	CUL­TUR­AL HERITAGE	X
POLICY 10	RESOURCES
POLICY 11	DEVELOPER CON­TRI­BU­TIONS

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:

http://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​d​o​c​u​m​e​n​t​s​/Park Authority/Planning/LDP15.pdf

1. The applic­a­tion site lies with­in the set­tle­ment bound­ary of Bal­later as defined in the adop­ted Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. The site is spe­cific­ally des­ig­nated on the Bal­later Set­tle­ment Plan as CI- Com­munity with the set­tle­ment state­ment ref­er­en­cing that the site of the old school presents an oppor­tun­ity for invest­ment in the heat of the vil­lage. It fur­ther notes that, lis­ted and with­in the con­ser­va­tion area, redevel­op­ment will be chal­len­ging, and any new devel­op­ment pro­pos­als must bene­fit the com­munity in some way. It is noted that this may include afford­able hous­ing, open mar­ket hous­ing, mixed- use includ­ing employ­ment pro­vi­sion, recre­ation and tour­ism development.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 13/11/2020

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 I	New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 3	Sus­tain­able Design Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance
Policy 5	Land­scape Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 7	Renew­able Energy Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance
Policy 8	Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 11	Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2020

1. The emer­ging Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (“Pro­posed Plan”) which will cov­er the peri­od 2020 – 2025 is cur­rently being pro­gressed. The pro­posed plan has now under­gone exam­in­a­tion by the Scot­tish Min­is­ters and is due to be sub­mit­ted with­in the next few months to gain con­sent to adopt. As the exam­in­a­tion of the Pro­posed Plan has con­cluded, the Pro­posed Plan and its con­tents cur­rently are a mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tion. With­in the Pro­posed Plan, the site remains allocated.

CON­SULTA­TIONS

Sum­mary of the main issues raised by consultees

1. Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Built Her­it­age Officer con­firms that the build­ing is cat­egory C lis­ted and situ­ated with­in the Bal­later Con­ser­va­tion Area. The Officer has provided com­ments on each indi­vidu­al ele­ment of the pro­posed works as sur­mised below:

a) Remedi­al Work to Court­yard Walls- As the court­yard is not vis­ible in the wider streets­cape (they are leav­ing the upper gable exposed stone­work) and due to the pre­vi­ous infill with­in this area which has not only neces­sit­ated vari­ous slapping’s with­in the walls but has also left the stone­work in a dam­aged and uneven con­di­tion. The Officer has no con­cerns in rela­tion to this area being applied with a tra­di­tion­al lime harl, although requires a full spe­cific­a­tion and sample pan­el of the pro­posed finish.

b) Remov­al of 3 Chim­neys- As per His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scotland’s guid­ance chim­neys do play a sig­ni­fic­ant role in terms of char­ac­ter and interest of his­tor­ic build­ings and so there is a strong pre­sump­tion in favour of their reten­tion. In regards to the chim­neys with­in the intern­al court­yard it would appear that due to the vari­ous alter­a­tions to the build­ings and the change of use of this space, not only

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 13/11/2020

in terms of func­tion but also due to the phys­ic­al­ity of the interi­or build­ing being removed, it would appear that their reten­tion could lead to on-going issues in rela­tion to main­ten­ance and safety. As they are not vis­ible in the wider streets­cape and do not appear to serve a usable func­tion then their remov­al could be sup­por­ted in this instance.

c) The third chim­ney to the rear of the school­house could poten­tially have a more sig­ni­fic­ant impact. The vary­ing and mul­tiple chim­ney stacks do add to the char­ac­ter of the build­ing and this stack is much more vis­ible and makes a much stronger con­tri­bu­tion to the tra­di­tion­al roof­s­cape of the build­ings. Look­ing at the plans from the pre­vi­ous approv­al this chim­ney appears to have served a bed­room and din­ing room ori­gin­ally, but only the din­ing room appears to still have some form of open hearth (as imit­ated on the draw­ings). There­fore this chim­ney should be retained and efforts made to suit­able vent the stack so that future rein­state­ment of a work­ing fire­place is not prohibited.

d) Repair required to the pavil­ion façade- as the court­yard is not vis­ible in the wider streets­cape and due to the pre­vi­ous infill with­in this area which has left the stone­work in a dam­aged and uneven con­di­tion, the Officer has no con­cerns in rela­tion to this area being applied with a tra­di­tion­al lime harl, although a full spe­cific­a­tion and sample pan­el of the pro­posed fin­ish is required.

e) Repair required to west school­house gable wall- the repair option here should be com­pat­ible with the tra­di­tion­al con­struc­tion of the prop­erty and should stand on its own mer­its should a fur­ther applic­a­tion for a mural/​com­munity art work not be forth­com­ing. There is evid­ence of harled areas on oth­er parts of the build­ing and as this would have been the tra­di­tion­al treat­ment of this issue, then this is the most appro­pri­ate approach. The Officer there­fore recom­mends that if the stone­work is not able to be effect­ively repaired, then this area should be applied with a tra­di­tion­al lime harl, of which a full spe­cific­a­tion and sample pan­el would be required.

f) Repair required to sides of school­house- the remov­al of the cement harl is wel­comed sub­ject to a meth­od­o­logy of its remov­al. Once removed, they may find stone­work under­neath is in poor con­di­tion as it is likely to have been damp for some time. This causes the stone­work to crys­tal­lise on the sur­face and tends to make it much more sus­cept­ible to fur­ther deteri­or­a­tion. They may also find that they are unable to remove all of the cement without dam­aging the stone and so may not have the desired fin­ish which would enable them to leave it exposed and simply re-point. The Officer sug­gests that a care­fully worded con­di­tion is applied, which gives the flex­ib­il­ity that once the cement is removed a decision be taken as wheth­er to re-point or harl this element.

g) Re-slat­ing of roof- the replace­ment of the roof with reclaimed or new slates is accept­able and the Officer would apply a con­di­tion that a sample is provided pri­or to application.

1. Fol­low­ing the agents sub­mis­sion of revised inform­a­tion, the Officer states that the jus­ti­fic­a­tion is more robust and shows more clearly the issues related to re-build­ing the stack. The argu­ment appears to centre around the pro­posed new use of the

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 13/11/2020

build­ing coupled with the lim­ited vis­ib­il­ity of this ele­ment in the wider streets­cape. As the new use of the build­ing has much wider bene­fits then in this instance the loss of the chim­ney appears to be accept­able. This is in line with the guid­ance Man­aging Change in the His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment- Use and adap­tion of lis­ted buildings:

“5. Alter­a­tions to a build­ing even if they are extens­ive, will be bet­ter than los­ing the build­ing entirely. If the only way to save a build­ing is a rad­ic­al inter­ven­tion, we have to avoid being too cau­tious when we look at the options. If a build­ing might be totally lost, we should be open to all the options to save it.”

1. Bal­later and Crath­ie Com­munity Coun­cil object to the applic­a­tion stat­ing that the remov­al of chim­neys from this lis­ted build­ing in a con­ser­va­tion area, is not appro­pri­ate with all of the chim­neys and their pots being vis­ible and con­trib­ut­ing to the tra­di­tion­al sky­line and his­tory of the build­ing. They also hope that the west gable of the old school house could be rebuilt in tra­di­tion­al gran­ite and the lis­ted build­ing appear­ance main­tained as it was ori­gin­ally con­struc­ted. A copy of their full com­ments can be found at Appendix 2.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. The applic­a­tions have been advert­ised and no let­ters of rep­res­ent­a­tion have been received.

APPRAIS­AL

1. The fol­low­ing is a joint report for Plan­ning Applic­a­tion (2020/0206/DET) and Lis­ted Build­ing Con­sent applic­a­tion (2020/0207/LBC).

Prin­ciple

1. These two applic­a­tions for plan­ning per­mis­sion and lis­ted build­ing con­sent seek to make minor revi­sions to the approved scheme as per­mit­ted in 2019/0003/DET and 2019/0006/LBC. The revi­sions which are detailed in para­graph 5 above, com­prise repair and remov­al works to the lis­ted struc­ture includ­ing its walls, chim­ney stacks, pavil­ion façade and roof covering.

2. Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 (adop­ted Loc­al Plan) makes pro­vi­sion for the prin­ciple of refur­bish­ing and reusing the exist­ing build­ing stock with policy cri­terion 3.3 sup­port­ing the reuse of redund­ant build­ings where the works main­tain the style and char­ac­ter of the ori­gin­al build­ing in terms of form, scale, mater­i­als and detailing.

3. Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the adop­ted Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan aims to con­serve and enhance the rich cul­tur­al her­it­age of the Nation­al Park by mak­ing sure that devel­op­ment makes appro­pri­ate con­tri­bu­tions to the his­tor­ic envir­on­ment and its sig­ni­fic­ance. Cri­terion 9.1 of the policy requires the lay­out, design, mater­i­als, scale, sit­ing and use of the devel­op­ment to be appro­pri­ate to the char­ac­ter and appear­ance of the her­it­age asset and its setting.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 13/11/2020

1. The prin­ciple of the pro­pos­al has been con­sidered accept­able pre­vi­ously with the pro­posed cre­ation of afford­able hous­ing help­ing to con­serve the his­tor­ic fab­ric and sig­ni­fic­ance of the her­it­age assets by re-using and refur­bish­ing the redund­ant school site. As such, the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment is con­sidered to be acceptable.

Design and Cul­tur­al Heritage

1. The pro­pos­al must be con­sidered under the Plan­ning (Lis­ted Build­ings and Con­ser­va­tion Areas) (Scot­land) Act 1997 due to the works affect­ing a lis­ted build­ing. In par­tic­u­lar, under sec­tion 59 the Loc­al Plan­ning Author­ity has a stat­utory duty to have spe­cial regard to the desirab­il­ity of pre­serving the lis­ted build­ing or its set­tings or any fea­tures or spe­cial archi­tec­tur­al interest which it possess.

2. The Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy Frame­work (SPP) offers guid­ance regard­ing the determ­in­a­tion of devel­op­ment pro­pos­als affect­ing her­it­age assets with­in Para­graph 141 whereby changes to lis­ted build­ings should be man­aged to pro­tect their spe­cial interest whilst enabling them to remain in act­ive use and emphas­is is also placed on the stat­utory duty iden­ti­fied with­in Sec­tion 14(2) of the Lis­ted Build­ing Act. Para­graph 141 of the SPP also iden­ti­fies that the lay­out, design, mater­i­als, scale, sit­ing and use of any devel­op­ment which will affect a lis­ted build­ing or its set­ting should be appro­pri­ate to the char­ac­ter and appear­ance of the build­ing and setting.

3. The His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land Policy State­ment (June 2016) is also a mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tion with para­graph 3.45 being of par­tic­u­lar rel­ev­ance stat­ing ​“where a pro­pos­al pro­tects or enhances the spe­cial interest of the build­ing, for example through the like-for-like replace­ment of a win­dow or door which is bey­ond repair or the rein­state­ment of import­ant detail­ing, con­sent should nor­mally be gran­ted.” These nation­al recom­mend­a­tions are also reflec­ted with­in Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the Nation­al Park’s own Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.

4. The Aber­deen­shire Council’s Built Her­it­age Officer has no objec­tion to pro­posed remedi­al works, which include harling elev­a­tions and re-slat­ing roofs of the lis­ted struc­ture, sub­ject to plan­ning con­di­tions being attached requir­ing the approv­al of sample pan­els and sample slates.

5. The Bal­later and Crath­ie Com­munity Coun­cil object to the applic­a­tion due to the pro­posed remov­al of the chim­neys from the lis­ted build­ing in a con­ser­va­tion area, not­ing that their pots are vis­ible and con­trib­ute to the tra­di­tion­al sky­line and his­tory of the building.

6. As per His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scotland’s guid­ance, chim­neys do play a sig­ni­fic­ant role in terms of char­ac­ter and interest of his­tor­ic build­ings and so there is a strong pre­sump­tion in favour of their reten­tion. The Built Her­it­age Officer con­siders, in regards to the two chim­neys with­in the intern­al court­yard, that due to the vari­ous alter­a­tions to the build­ings and the change of use of this space, not only in terms of func­tion but also due to the phys­ic­al­ity of the interi­or build­ing being removed, it would appear that their reten­tion could lead to on-going issues in rela­tion to main­ten­ance and safety. As they are only partly vis­ible in the wider streets­cape and do not appear to serve a usable func­tion then their remov­al could be sup­por­ted in this instance.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 13/11/2020

1. Regard­ing the third chim­ney pro­posed to be removed to the rear of the east school­house, it is acknow­ledged that this could have a more sig­ni­fic­ant impact than the two court­yard chim­neys. The applic­ant has provided fur­ther jus­ti­fic­a­tion to sup­port the remov­al of this chim­ney ref­er­en­cing its redund­ancy, its cur­rent state of repair, its lim­ited vis­ib­il­ity with­in the wider area, and ref­er­en­cing that the func­tion of the build­ing in its new use, as afford­able hous­ing does not per­mit func­tion­ing open fires due to the health and safety implic­a­tions. The Built Her­it­age Officer con­siders that the loss of the chim­ney stack appears to be accept­able, fol­low­ing the applicant’s sub­mis­sion of a robust jus­ti­fic­a­tion. The argu­ment appears to revolve around the pro­posed new use of the build­ing coupled with the lim­ited vis­ib­il­ity of this ele­ment in the wider streets­cape. Tak­ing into account the change in con­text of the site coupled with the wider bene­fits of the new use of the build­ing, the loss of this chim­ney is con­sidered to be accept­able in this case.

2. The Com­munity Council’s com­ments are noted. How­ever, the per­mit­ted new use of the build­ing for com­munity afford­able hous­ing togeth­er with its alter­a­tions to accom­mod­ate this use and give the lis­ted struc­ture a new lease of life from its pre­vi­ous redund­ant state. The pro­posed changes are not con­sidered do not lead to sub­stan­tial changes in the char­ac­ter and appear­ance of the build­ing and set­ting of the site.

3. Over­all, it is con­sidered that the works aid the reten­tion of an import­ant cul­tur­al asset in a wholly sym­path­et­ic man­ner, entirely in char­ac­ter with its list­ing and loc­a­tion in a Con­ser­va­tion Area, which is an inher­ently sus­tain­able approach. In these cir­cum­stances the design of the pro­pos­als is con­sidered to fully com­ply with Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age and Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

CON­CLU­SION

1. Tak­ing the above into account, the works are not con­sidered to cause ser­i­ous det­ri­ment to the char­ac­ter of the build­ings and their lis­ted qual­it­ies, or the Con­ser­va­tion Area. The works pro­posed are in the interest of the pub­lic bene­fit help­ing to pre­serve the build­ings in the longer term and by provid­ing a use appro­pri­ate to com­munity require­ments. The his­tor­ic char­ac­ter and archi­tec­tur­al interest of the lis­ted build­ing is con­sidered to be safe­guarded and the pro­posed works are con­sidered to com­ply with the stat­utory duty set out under Sec­tion 59 of the Plan­ning (Lis­ted Build­ings and Con­ser­va­tions Areas) (Scot­land) Act 1997 (as amended) togeth­er with the con­sid­er­a­tions of para­graph 141 of the SPP and policies 3: Sus­tain­able Design and 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the adop­ted Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.

2. In these over­all cir­cum­stances the works are con­sidered to com­ply with all rel­ev­ant policies of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 and the col­lect­ive aims of the Nation­al Park. There are no oth­er mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions which would war­rant the refus­al of plan­ning per­mis­sion nor lis­ted build­ing con­sent. Approv­al and the grant­ing of con­sent is there­fore recom­men­ded sub­ject to appro­pri­ate plan­ning conditions.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 13/11/2020

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to grant FULL PLAN­NING PER­MIS­SION AND LIS­TED BUILD­ING CON­SENT for the repair and remov­al to walls, chim­ney stacks, pavil­ion façade and slates, fur­ther to plan­ning approv­al 2019/0003/DET and Lis­ted Build­ing Con­sent 2019/0006/LBC at Bal­later Old School Abergel­die Road Bal­later Aber­deen­shire AB35 5RR 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 works.

Con­di­tions

1. Pri­or to their install­a­tion, for the devel­op­ment hereby per­mit­ted, a sample of the slate to be installed on the roof shall be sub­mit­ted to and agreed in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. The devel­op­ment shall there­after pro­ceed and be retained in accord­ance with the approved details.

Reas­on: To ensure that the devel­op­ment con­serves and enhances the lis­ted build­ing of archi­tec­tur­al and his­tor­ic interest and enhance its char­ac­ter and the con­tri­bu­tion it makes to cul­tur­al her­it­age and the con­ser­va­tion area in accord­ance with Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. Pri­or to the com­mence­ment of any harling and re-point­ing works, for the devel­op­ment hereby per­mit­ted, a sample pan­el of the pro­posed lime harl, point­ing and details of the lime harl mix shall be sub­mit­ted to and agreed in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. The works shall there­after pro­ceed and be retained in accord­ance with the approved details.

Reas­on: To ensure that the works con­serve and enhance the lis­ted build­ing of archi­tec­tur­al and his­tor­ic interest and enhance its char­ac­ter and the con­tri­bu­tion it makes to cul­tur­al her­it­age and the con­ser­va­tion area in accord­ance with Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. This per­mis­sion is an amend­ment to the per­mis­sion 2019/0003/DET. The devel­op­ment per­mit­ted must there­fore be under­taken in strict accord­ance with the approved plans, doc­u­ments and con­di­tions on the decision notice of 2019/0003/DET as well the approved plans, doc­u­ments and con­di­tions out­lined on this decision notice for 2020/0206/DET.

Reas­on: The applic­a­tion per­mit­ted is an amend­ment to a live per­mis­sion which is cur­rently being imple­men­ted on site. The pro­posed amend­ments are required due to remedi­al works found dur­ing the imple­ment­a­tion of the approved scheme. The approved plans, doc­u­ments and con­di­tions of the ori­gin­al scheme 2019/0003/DET are there­fore rel­ev­ant and must be

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 13/11/2020

adhered to in addi­tion to the approved plans, doc­u­ments and con­di­tions attached to this permission.

Inform­at­ives

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.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 13/11/2020

Con­di­tions relat­ing to Lis­ted Build­ing Con­sent ref­er­ence 2019/0006/LBC

1. Pri­or to their install­a­tion, for the works hereby per­mit­ted, a sample of the slate to be installed on the roof shall be sub­mit­ted to and agreed in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. The works shall there­after pro­ceed and be retained in accord­ance with the approved details.

Reas­on: To ensure that the works con­serve and enhance the lis­ted build­ing of archi­tec­tur­al and his­tor­ic interest and enhance its char­ac­ter and the con­tri­bu­tion it makes to cul­tur­al her­it­age and the con­ser­va­tion area in accord­ance with Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. Pri­or to the com­mence­ment of any harling and re-point­ing works, hereby per­mit­ted, a sample pan­el of the pro­posed lime harl; point­ing and details of the lime harl mix shall be sub­mit­ted to and agreed in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. The works shall there­after pro­ceed and be retained in accord­ance with the approved details.

Reas­on: To ensure that the works con­serve and enhance the lis­ted build­ing of archi­tec­tur­al and his­tor­ic interest and enhance its char­ac­ter and the con­tri­bu­tion it makes to cul­tur­al her­it­age and the con­ser­va­tion area in accord­ance with Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. This con­sent is an amend­ment to the con­sent 2019/0006/LBC. The works per­mit­ted must there­fore be under­taken in strict accord­ance with the approved plans, doc­u­ments and con­di­tions on the decision notice of 2019/0006/LBC as well the approved plans, doc­u­ments and con­di­tions out­lined on this decision notice for 2020/0207/LBC.

Reas­on: The applic­a­tion per­mit­ted is an amend­ment to a live per­mis­sion which is cur­rently being imple­men­ted on site. The pro­posed amend­ments are required due to remedi­al works found dur­ing the imple­ment­a­tion of the approved scheme. The approved plans, doc­u­ments and con­di­tions of the ori­gin­al scheme 2019/0006/LBC are there­fore rel­ev­ant and must be adhered to in addi­tion to the approved plans, doc­u­ments and con­di­tions attached to this permission.

Inform­at­ives

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

2. The per­son under­tak­ing the work is required to give the Plan­ning Author­ity pri­or writ­ten noti­fic­a­tion of the date on which it is inten­ded to com­mence the works. 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

3. CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 13/11/2020

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.

Fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of the works, 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.

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.