CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 26/08/2022

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED:

Demoli­tion of derel­ict farm­house and erec­tion of single dwell­ing house at Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive Aviemore Highland

REF­ER­ENCE:

2021/0390/DET

APPLIC­ANT:

Cent­ral Demolition

DATE CALLED-IN:

6 Decem­ber 2021

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve sub­ject to conditions

CASE OFFICER:

Alan Atkins — Plan­ning Officer

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 26/08/2022

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The applic­a­tion site sits adja­cent to the Spey Val­ley Golf Club at Dal­faber, Aviemore. It is bounded by golf course land to the east and by open land and wood­land between the site and exist­ing hous­ing of Aviemore to the west and hol­i­day accom­mod­a­tion of Dal­faber resort to the south. The char­ac­ter of these areas var­ies from detached prop­er­ties set with­in indi­vidu­al plots to the north with high­er dens­ity semi-detached prop­er­ties, hol­i­day lodges and ​‘four-plex’ units to the south. The applic­a­tion site is cur­rently occu­pied by a derel­ict, two storey farm­house. The farm­house is situ­ated with­in its ori­gin­al garden area, which now con­sists of grasses, broom and gorse and scattered trees. There is a con­sen­ted hous­ing devel­op­ment loc­ated to the west of the applic­a­tion site that incor­por­ates plan­ning per­mis­sion for the renov­a­tion of the farmhouse.

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=R3G0E1SI0C100

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
PLANS
Plan- Loc­a­tion Plan	4749−01− 000	01/09/21	06/12/21
Plan — Block Plan	4794−02− 001 REVI­SION A	01/09/21	06/12/21
Plan — Block Plan — Site Context.	4794−02− 002 REVI­SION A	01/09/21	06/12/21
Plan- Site Lay­out Plan – As Existing	4749−02− 000	01/09/21	06/12/21
Plan — Site Lay­out Plan — As Proposed.	4794−02− 003 REVI­SION A	01/09/21	06/12/21
Plan — Site Lay­out Plan — Bound­ary Treatments.	4794−02− 004	01/09/21	06/12/21
Plan — Floor Elev­a­tion Plan	4749−03−	01/09/21	06/12/21

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 26/08/2022

Title	Draw­ing	Date on Plan*	Date Received
001
Plan — Floor Elev­a­tion Plan.	4749−03−02	01/09/21	06/12/21
SUP­PORT­ING DOCUMENTATION
Oth­er- Sup­port­ing Statement		01/12/21	06/12/21
Oth­er- Struc­tur­al Inspec­tion Report		01/12/21	06/12/21
Oth­er- Tree Sur­vey Schedule		04/03/22	17/03/21
Oth­er- Tree Sur­vey Report		04/03/22	17/03/22
Oth­er- Tree Plant­ing Plan	121/03/ Revi­sion I	13/03/2022	17/03/22
Oth­er- Tree Pro­tec­tion Plan	121/02/ Revi­sion I	13/03/2022	17/03/22
Oth­er- Tree Con­straints Plan	121/01/ Revi­sion I	10/03/2022	17/03/22
Oth­er- Revised Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies Report		18/07/22	21/07/22

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

1. Plans of the pro­pos­als are included in Appendix 1.

2. Fol­low­ing the con­clu­sions of a struc­tur­al inspec­tion report, the applic­ant pro­poses to demol­ish a derel­ict farm­house and erect a large single dwell­ing house. The farm­house has been derel­ict for more than 10 years and has been pre­vi­ously sub­jec­ted to fire. The new house will be a two storey, three bed­room detached prop­erty, with garden ground to the rear and drive­way to the front. The new house has been designed with con­tem­por­ary ele­ments, with a palette of mater­i­als includ­ing nat­ur­al stone pan­els, tim­ber clad­ding, smooth render and a met­al pitched roof. There are two pitched roof dormers win­dows pro­posed for the front elev­a­tion, and one for the rear. There has been ample private, garden ground provided, includ­ing 1.8m high screen fencing.

His­tory

1. There has been an extens­ive his­tory relat­ing to hous­ing devel­op­ment on this site, as follows:

Applic­a­tion ref­er­ence	Details	Out­come
05/101/CP	Devel­op­ment of 101 ser­viced house plots with asso­ci­ated roads, access points, ser­vices and land­scap­ing (out­line) at Dal­faber North, Aviemore	Refused on 16 Novem­ber 2006. Approv­al was gran­ted on appeal (ref­er­ence P/PPA/01/8) for up to 104 houses in total.
07/144/CP	Devel­op­ment of 20 ser­viced plots at Land North West of Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore.	Approved by Plan­ning Com­mit­tee sub­ject to a leg­al agree­ment; this was nev­er signed. Applic­ant appealed against non-

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 26/08/2022

Applic­a­tion ref­er­ence	Details	Out­come
07/145/CP	Devel­op­ment of 104 houses at Land North West and South of Former Stead­ings, Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber, Aviemore	determ­in­a­tion. Appeal allowed on 11 March 2010 (ref­er­ence PPA-001‑2000)
		Approved by Plan­ning Com­mit­tee sub­ject to a leg­al agree­ment; this was nev­er signed. Applic­ant appealed against non-
		determ­in­a­tion. Appeal allowed on 11 March 2010 (ref­er­ence PPA-001‑2001).
10/028/CP	Sec­tion 42 applic­a­tion to extend time lim­it for approv­al of mat­ters spe­cified in con­di­tion per­mis­sion P/PPA/01/8 (05/101/CP) at Land North West of Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore	Applic­a­tion with­drawn 25 March 2010
10/063/CP	Reserved mat­ters applic­a­tion for 85 ser­viced plots P/PPA/01/8 (05/101/CP) at Land North West of Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore	Applic­a­tion with­drawn 25 March 2010.
2013/0073/MSC	Approv­al of Mat­ters Spe­cified in Con­di­tions of Plan­ning Per­mis­sion in Prin­ciple 07/144/CP at Land to the North West of Dal­faber Farm House, Aviemore	Applic­a­tion refused on leg­al grounds at Plan­ning Com­mit­tee on 19 Feb­ru­ary 2015. Appeal allowed on 21 March 2016 (ref­er­ence PPA-001‑2016)
2013/0074/MSC	Approv­al of Mat­ters Spe­cified in Con­di­tions of Plan­ning Per­mis­sion in Prin­ciple — 07/0145/CP at Land North West and South of Former Stead­ings Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore.	Applic­a­tion refused on leg­al grounds at Plan­ning Com­mit­tee on 19 Feb­ru­ary 2015. Appeal allowed on 21 March 2016 (ref­er­ence PPA-001‑2017)
2014/0397/DET	Applic­a­tion under Sec­tion 42 to vary to con­di­tions I, 11, 12 and 21 on per­mis­sion ref PPA/001/200(07/93/OUTBS (07/144/CP)) at Land North West of Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore.	Not called in by CNPA. Applic­ant appealed against non-determ­in­a­tion by High­land Coun­cil. Appeal allowed on 21 March 2016 (ref­er­ence PPA-270- 2127).
2014/0399/DET	Applic­a­tion under Sec­tion 42 to vary con­di­tions 1, 12, 13 and 22 of con­sent PPA/001/2001 (07/94/OUTBS (07/0145/CP)) at Land North West and South of Former Stead­ings, Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore	Not called in by CNPA. Applic­ant appealed against non-determ­in­a­tion by High­land Coun­cil. Appeal allowed on 21 March 2016 (ref­er­ence PPA-270‑2126).
2017/0463/DET	Applic­a­tion to sat­is­fy Con­di­tion 2b of plan­ning per­mis­sions PPA-001‑2016 and PPA-001‑2017 for 75 res­id­en­tial units at Land North West of Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore.	Applic­a­tion with­drawn 9 May 2018.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 26/08/2022

Applic­a­tion ref­er­ence	Details	Out­come
2018/0183/MSC	Applic­a­tion to sat­is­fy the con­di­tions of Plan­ning Per­mis­sion PPA-270‑2127 for res­id­en­tial units at land to the South of Dal­faber Farm at Land South Of Dal­faber Farm Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore	Applic­a­tion approved.
2018/0184/MSC	Applic­a­tion to sat­is­fy the con­di­tions of Plan­ning Per­mis­sion PPA-270 – 2126 for res­id­en­tial units loc­ated at Land North West of Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore.	Applic­a­tion approved.
2019/0040/MSC	Applic­a­tion to install half bar­ri­ers to Dal­faber level cross­ing, in accord­ance with Con­di­tion 20© of 07/0093/OUTBS	Applic­a­tion approved.
2019/0041/MSC	Applic­a­tion to install half bar­ri­ers at Dal­faber level cross­ing, in accord­ance with Con­di­tion 21© of 07/00094/OUTBS	Applic­a­tion approved.
2019/0011/MSC	Applic­a­tion for alloc­a­tion of afford­able hous­ing units, in accord­ance with Con­di­tion 21 of 07/00093/OUTBS, in con­junc­tion with applic­a­tion ref­er­ence 18/06859/MSC.	Applic­a­tion approved.
2019/0042/MSC	Applic­a­tion for alloc­a­tion of afford­able hous­ing units, in accord­ance with Con­di­tion 22 of 07/00094/OUTBS, in con­junc­tion with applic­a­tion ref­er­ence 18/05857/MSC.	Applic­a­tion approved.
2019/0012/MSC	Applic­a­tion for the res­tor­a­tion of a dwell­ing house in accord­ance with Con­di­tion 23 of 07/00094/OUTBS (as amended by 14/03675/S420	Applic­a­tion approved.
2021/0307/DET	Erec­tion of 9 houses, gar­ages, re-align­ment of road and landscaping	Applic­a­tion approved

1. The approv­al of MSC applic­a­tion 2019/0012/MSC was for the renov­a­tion of the farm­house and was approved by the CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee in April 2019.

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

1. An Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al [HRA] has been under­taken to con­sider the effects of the pro­pos­al upon the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the European Sites of the Cairngorms Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area. The full apprais­al is attached at Appendix 2.

2. The Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al con­cluded that the pro­posed devel­op­ment at Dal­faber Farm­house is unlikely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the pro­tec­ted sites at Kin­veachy Forest SPA and River Spey SAC. In this instance, the qual­i­fy­ing interests for the pro­tec­ted sites are caper­cail­lie, Scot­tish cross­bill, fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel, Atlantic sal­mon, sea lamprey, otter. There is no dir­ect water course con­nectiv­ity, and no indir­ect effects likely from the pro­posed devel­op­ment and asso­ci­ated infra­struc­ture, due to the

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 26/08/2022

inter­ven­ing golf course and topo­graphy. In terms of Kin­veachy Forest SPA, there are no effects on hab­it­ats or sup­port­ing pro­cesses of the qual­i­fy­ing interests. It is con­cluded that there will not be an adverse effect on site integrity.

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 (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 DESIGN 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 I	New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance (2015) X
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 3	Sus­tain­able Design Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance (2015) X
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance X
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
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X
Policy 11	Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance (2015) X

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 26/08/2022

CON­SULTA­TIONS

A sum­mary of the main issues raised by consultees

1. Scot­tish Water has no objec­tion 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.

2. Trans­port Scot­land have stated that it does not pro­pose to advise against the grant­ing of plan­ning permission.

3. NatureScot agree with the con­clu­sions of the Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tions Assess­ment (HRA) in that there will be no likely sig­ni­fic­ant effect to the River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC) or the Scot­tish cross­bill fea­ture of the Kin­veachy Forest Spe­cial Pro­tec­ted Area (SPA). It is fur­ther agreed that the caper­cail­lie fea­ture of the Kin­veachy Forest SPA may be affected by the pro­pos­al through increased human activ­ity in the vicin­ity. How­ever, there will not be an adverse effect on the site integ­rity of the SPA for caper­cail­lie. This is due to the pro­pos­al being unlikely to res­ult in a dis­cern­ible change in the level of human activ­ity in the vicin­ity, and there­fore, there is no reas­on that the pro­pos­al would res­ult in an increase in dis­turb­ance to caper­cail­lie asso­ci­ated with the SPA.

4. High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning has no objec­tions to the pro­pos­als but have noted that the new res­id­en­tial house will be accessed off the pro­posed new roads being built to serve the adja­cent lar­ger res­id­en­tial devel­op­ment but will be accessed in the short term via an exist­ing track, cur­rently serving the golf club. In light of this, it is recom­men­ded that any con­sent includes a suit­ably worded con­di­tion that the refuse stor­age and col­lec­tion arrange­ments for this new prop­erty are to be agreed before any works com­mence on site.

5. Fur­ther­more, it is recom­men­ded that any con­sent gran­ted includes a suit­ably worded con­di­tion requir­ing that any tem­por­ary vehicu­lar access should be fully removed with­in 3 months of the new drive­way con­nec­tion being provided. It is also recom­men­ded that any con­sent gran­ted includes a con­di­tion to ensure that any gates pro­posed on the new access drive­way should be set back at least 8m from the edge of the car­riage­way of the new road.

6. High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team has reviewed the inform­a­tion sub­mit­ted by the applic­ant and does not object to the applic­a­tion. SEPA’s stra­tegic flood map­ping shows that the site may be at medi­um to high risk from the adja­cent flood plain of the River Spey. How­ever, giv­en the res­ults of a pre­vi­ous Flood Risk Assess­ment, sub­mit­ted as part of applic­a­tion 2021/0307/DET, the risk of flood­ing for the River Spey appears to be low. There­fore, the Flood Risk Assess­ment Team has no objec­tions to the pro­pos­als. How­ever, no detailed drain­age inform­a­tion has been sub­mit­ted, and it is, there­fore, recom­men­ded that a con­di­tion is included that a Drain­age Plan is sub­mit­ted pri­or to works com­men­cing on site.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 26/08/2022

1. CNPA Land­scape Officer has stated that the pro­posed demoli­tion of the exist­ing farm­house will res­ult in the loss of an exist­ing stone build­ing which forms a loc­al land­scape fea­ture, par­tic­u­larly when viewed across the golf course from the River Spey. How­ever, the pro­posed demoli­tion and house replace­ment is unlikely to res­ult in sig­ni­fic­ant adverse land­scape and visu­al effects on the Nation­al Park. This is prin­cip­ally, due to the baseline con­di­tions include the exist­ing golf course and club­house, chalets and vil­las of var­ied design with­in the area. Fur­ther­more, the pro­posed house is likely to be seen in the future with­in a set­ting of many more new houses (con­sen­ted) to the south, west and north.

2. A Tree Sur­vey, Tree Sched­ule and Arbor­i­cul­tur­al Impact Assess­ment have been sub­mit­ted. It is pro­posed that five trees are to be removed, which are assessed as being of low qual­ity and can be com­pensated for through mit­ig­a­tion planting.

3. Inform­a­tion on the pro­tec­tion of these trees and RPAs will need to form part of a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment (CMS), to be sub­mit­ted pri­or to works com­men­cing on site. A Land­scape Plan should also be provided which includes inform­a­tion on pro­posed plant­ing, includ­ing spe­cies, sizes, num­bers and loc­a­tions. Fur­ther­more, it is advised that clear cri­ter­ia for the pro­posed reten­tion and util­isa­tion of exist­ing stone and slate should be included with­in the Con­struc­tion Meth­od Statement.

4. CNPA Eco­logy Officer has recom­men­ded three con­di­tions to min­im­ise the envir­on­ment­al effects and ensure com­pli­ance with pro­tec­ted spe­cies (includ­ing breed­ing birds) legislation.

5. This includes effects on bats, a European Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies, caused by a loss of a roost site due to demoli­tion of the derel­ict farm­house. NatureScot have issued a license to allow the demoli­tion to pro­ceed, with appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion to ensure com­pli­ance with European Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies legis­la­tion. As the demoli­tion of the farm­house will res­ult in the loss of a bat roost, it is recom­men­ded that bat boxes are installed on the new dwell­ing to provide replace­ment roost sites, with the loc­a­tions informed by a suit­ably exper­i­enced eco­lo­gist. Effects on bats can be addressed through a con­di­tion requir­ing the imple­ment­a­tion of the license mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures and install­a­tion of replace­ment roosts in the form of bat boxes.

6. Some trees require to be removed to accom­mod­ate the devel­op­ment. How­ever com­pens­at­ory tree and hedge plant­ing is pro­posed along the east­ern bound­ary, which will provide hab­it­at and increase biod­iversity. A con­di­tion is recom­men­ded that a land­scape plan is sub­mit­ted and agreed in writ­ing with CNPA, provid­ing inform­a­tion on the pro­posed tree and hedge plant­ing, includ­ing spe­cies, sizes, num­bers and loc­a­tions, mon­it­or­ing and main­ten­ance ((includ­ing details of how reten­tion of the pro­posed plant­ing will be secured in the long term).

7. While there may be a loss of breed­ing hab­it­at for birds as a res­ult of the tree felling required to accom­mod­ate the devel­op­ment, the pro­posed replace­ment tree and hedge plant­ing will cre­ate altern­at­ive hab­it­at for some bird spe­cies. A con­di­tion is recom­men­ded in rela­tion to the tim­ing of demoli­tion, tree remov­al and con­struc­tion works to avoid the bird breed­ing sea­son (March to August inclusive).

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 26/08/2022

1. Aviemore Com­munity Coun­cil have stated that they are opposed to the pro­posed devel­op­ment on the fol­low­ing grounds (A copy of their full com­ments can be found at Appendix 3):

   a) The exist­ing farm­house is a well-known fea­ture in the loc­al land­scape and should be retained. b) The pro­posed new dwell­ing is not in-keep­ing with the exist­ing farm­house and the sur­round­ing area in terms of its size, scale, mater­i­als and design. The pro­posed devel­op­ment will have an adverse impact on the visu­al char­ac­ter of the sur­round­ing area.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. One pub­lic rep­res­ent­a­tion on the applic­a­tion was sub­mit­ted to High­land Coun­cil pri­or to the CNPA call­ing in the applic­a­tion. It sub­mits that the build­ing is of his­tor­ic interest and should be ren­ov­ated, express­ing the opin­ion that the dam­age noted in the sur­vey­ors report is superficial.

APPRAIS­AL

1. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions are con­sidered to be: the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment; land­scape impacts; amen­ity and design; envir­on­ment­al impacts, ser­vi­cing and access, and developer contributions.

Prin­ciple of Development

1. Policy 1.1: Hous­ing deliv­ery in set­tle­ments provides sup­port for new hous­ing devel­op­ment where it is loc­ated on an alloc­ated site or with­in an iden­ti­fied set­tle­ment bound­ary sub­ject to that devel­op­ment: meet­ing the require­ments for the set­tle­ment and rein­for­cing and enhan­cing the char­ac­ter of the set­tle­ment. The pro­pos­al is for a replace­ment house on the site of a derel­ict farm­house. The site lies with­in an alloc­ated site, H2, which is with­in the set­tle­ment bound­ary of Aviemore. The wider alloc­ated site already bene­fits from plan­ning per­mis­sion for hous­ing and the prop­erty also has con­sent for its renovation.

2. Policy 1.9: Replace­ment Houses of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that Pro­pos­als to replace exist­ing hous­ing stock will be sup­por­ted where the new house incor­por­ates the foot­print of the ori­gin­al, unless an altern­at­ive adja­cent site would min­im­ise any neg­at­ive envir­on­ment­al, land­scape or amen­ity effects of the development.

3. The pro­posed dwell­ing will cov­er the foot­print of the ori­gin­al farm­house, how­ever, is con­sid­er­ably lar­ger. The plot, how­ever, is siz­able and as such can accom­mod­ate the intro­duc­tion of a lar­ger build­ing without hav­ing sig­ni­fic­ant neg­at­ive impact.

4. The pro­posed replace­ment dwell­ing on this site is con­sidered to be accept­able in prin­ciple in terms of Policy 1: New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment, sub­ject to com­pli­ance with oth­er rel­ev­ant Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 26/08/2022

Land­scape Impacts

1. Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 pre­sumes against devel­op­ment which does not con­serve and enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park and in par­tic­u­lar the set­ting of the pro­posed development.

2. It is con­sidered that there is land­scape capa­city for the pro­posed devel­op­ment which will replace an exist­ing derel­ict farm­house. The pro­posed dwell­ing will have a much lar­ger foot­print than the exist­ing derel­ict farm­house, how­ever, it will be of a sim­il­ar height and will be sited in a size­able plot. The wider area, and its imme­di­ate con­text, is to be developed as hous­ing and there­fore it is con­sidered that there is land­scape capa­city for such a devel­op­ment. It is recog­nised that the devel­op­ment will res­ult in the loss of a loc­al land­scape fea­ture, how­ever it is pro­posed to retain and reuse stone from the ori­gin­al build­ing. A suit­ably worded con­di­tion is recom­men­ded to ensure the sub­mis­sion of a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment which includes details of how the stone will be retained and reused in the development.

3. Five trees have been iden­ti­fied to be felled in order to imple­ment the pro­posed lay­out. These trees are con­sidered to be of low qual­ity and are the res­ult of nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion. Any land­scape impact res­ult­ing from the pro­posed tree felling can be addressed through the require­ment of mit­ig­a­tion plant­ing with tree spe­cies appro­pri­ate to the site. It is there­fore recom­men­ded that a revised Tree Plant­ing Plan is sub­mit­ted, detail­ing pro­posed plant spe­cies, sizes, and loc­a­tions. A fur­ther con­di­tion is also recom­men­ded requir­ing that a Land­scape Man­age­ment and Main­ten­ance Plan is sub­mit­ted pri­or to works com­men­cing on site to ensure the new plant­ing is pro­tec­ted and main­tained in the long term. It is pro­posed to retain sev­er­al exist­ing trees on site and there­fore root pro­tec­tion meas­ures should be included in the Con­struc­tion Meth­od Statement.

4. The pro­posed devel­op­ment, giv­en its size, scale and pos­i­tion­ing, will not intro­duce any not­able det­ri­ment­al changes to the land­scape char­ac­ter of the site and imme­di­ate area, and, sub­ject to the afore­men­tioned con­di­tions, is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 5: Land­scape, of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Design and Amenity

1. Policy 3 Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states in sec­tion 3.3, Sus­tain­able Design, that all devel­op­ments must be designed to be sym­path­et­ic to the tra­di­tion­al pat­tern and char­ac­ter of the sur­round­ing area, loc­al ver­nacu­lar and loc­al dis­tinct­ive­ness, whilst encour­aging innov­a­tion in design and use of mater­i­als. All mater­i­als and land­scap­ing should com­ple­ment the set­ting of the development.

2. The new dwell­ing is con­tem­por­ary in its design, how­ever, incor­por­ates tra­di­tion­al pro­por­tions and fea­tures and will be fin­ished in tra­di­tion­al mater­i­als includ­ing stone and slate down­tak­ings from the ori­gin­al farm­house. The pro­posed dwell­ing will be seen with­in its wider con­text of the adja­cent golf course club­house and the forthcoming

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 26/08/2022

res­id­en­tial devel­op­ment. The replace­ment dwell­ing is con­sidered to be in-keep­ing with the emer­ging char­ac­ter and appear­ance of the sur­round­ing area.

1. In terms of res­id­en­tial amen­ity Policy 3.3 seeks to ensure that new devel­op­ment pro­tects the amen­ity cur­rently enjoyed by neigh­bours and affords suf­fi­cient private amen­ity ground and off-street park­ing. The pro­posed new dwell­ing will not res­ult in any loss of pri­vacy or over­look­ing to the neigh­bour­ing club­house to the south. Fur­ther­more, giv­en the mod­est level of fen­es­tra­tion pro­posed for the rear elev­a­tion, the dis­tances involved, pro­posed plant­ing and a 1.8m high screen fence, there will be no impact on the res­id­en­tial amen­ity for the pro­posed prop­er­ties and private gar­dens of the adja­cent hous­ing devel­op­ment to the south and west. Fur­ther­more, an adequate level of amen­ity will be afforded to future occu­pants of the new house. The prop­erty will be served by its own drive­way with suf­fi­cient park­ing for up to three cars.

2. Policy 3 also states in sec­tion 3.4: Repla­cing Exist­ing Build­ing Stock, that it sup­ports the replace­ment of exist­ing build­ings where they are not lis­ted, makes a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the char­ac­ter of the con­ser­va­tion and where the ori­gin­al foot­print is incor­por­ated into the new development.

3. The exist­ing farm­house is not a lis­ted build­ing nor lies with­in a con­ser­va­tion area. The applic­a­tion is accom­pan­ied by a struc­tur­al inspec­tion report which out­lines the con­di­tion of the derel­ict build­ing and con­cludes that there are numer­ous struc­tur­al issues with the build­ing. Renov­at­ing the exist­ing build­ing would there­fore not be fin­an­cially viable giv­en the extent of works required. As dis­cussed above the intro­duc­tion of a new dwell­ing on this site is con­sidered to be accept­able and will have a pos­it­ive impact on the appear­ance of this derel­ict site and the char­ac­ter of the sur­round­ing area.

4. In terms of its amen­ity and design, the pro­posed devel­op­ment will not have an adverse impact on the site and sur­round­ing area. The pro­pos­als are con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Envir­on­ment­al Impacts

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.

2. In this instance, it is con­sidered that the pro­pos­als will not have any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse eco­lo­gic­al impacts. Fur­ther­more, there are not any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse impacts on spe­cies of con­ser­va­tion con­cern. There are not any stat­utory or non-stat­utory nature des­ig­na­tions with­in the site bound­ary, with the River Spey SAC and Kin­veachy For­rest SPA loc­ated some dis­tance away.

3. Giv­en the pro­posed remov­al of trees, there will be a mod­er­ate impact at site level, with hab­it­at loss for some bird spe­cies. How­ever, com­pens­at­ory plant­ing in the form of trees and hedges will cre­ate altern­at­ive hab­it­at for birds, and once estab­lished, will res­ult in an over­all neg­li­gible change in the eco­logy of the site. How­ever, in order to pro­tect breed­ing birds, a suit­ably worded con­di­tion is recom­men­ded that no demoli­tion, tree

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 26/08/2022

remov­al and con­struc­tion works will be car­ried out dur­ing the breed­ing bird sea­son (March to August inclus­ive) Fur­ther­more, in order to ensure the reten­tion and pro­tec­tion of the pro­posed plant­ing, a sus­pens­ive con­di­tion requir­ing the sub­mis­sion and sub­sequent approv­al of a Man­age­ment and Main­ten­ance Plan is recommended.

1. There were no signs of bats in any of the trees with­in the pro­posed devel­op­ment site but the farm­house itself has signs of roost­ing bats. A licence for the dis­turb­ance of bat roosts in the farm­house through demoli­tion has been gran­ted by NatureScot with a num­ber of mit­ig­a­tion con­di­tions. With the imple­ment­a­tion of those licence con­di­tions also con­di­tioned through any plan­ning con­sent, the pro­pos­al is not con­sidered to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on bats.

2. The pro­posed devel­op­ment at Dal­faber farm­house will have a low eco­lo­gic­al impact and is unlikely to intro­duce any not­able det­ri­ment­al changes to the eco­logy of the site and imme­di­ate area. Sub­ject to the recom­men­ded mit­ig­a­tion, as detailed in appro­pri­ately worded con­di­tions, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to accord with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.

Ser­vi­cing and Access

1. Policy 10: Resources, of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sets out the need to fully con­sider impacts on flood­ing and water resources. The devel­op­ment would be con­nec­ted to the pub­lic water sup­ply and waste-water net­work as required by Policy 10. In terms of sur­face water drain­age, the sub­mit­ted plans do not include any drain­age inform­a­tion. The site is not at risk of flood­ing from any source, nor con­sidered likely to impact on any neigh­bour­ing res­id­en­tial prop­er­ties in terms of flood­ing, but the lack of drain­age detail means that High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team recom­mend a suit­ably worded sus­pens­ive con­di­tion for a Drain­age Plan is sub­mit­ted to be sub­mit­ted for approv­al pri­or to works com­men­cing on site. Sub­ject to a sus­pens­ive con­di­tion being included, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

2. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that all new devel­op­ment must include an appro­pri­ate means of access, egress and space for off street parking.

3. There is suf­fi­cient off-street park­ing pro­posed to serve a dwell­ing of this size. How­ever, there have been no details sub­mit­ted of the inten­ded arrange­ments for the stor­age or col­lec­tion of refuse from the new dwell­ing. There­fore, a suit­ably worded, sus­pens­ive con­di­tion is recom­men­ded that refuse stor­age and col­lec­tion details should be sub­mit­ted and agreed by High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team, pri­or to works com­men­cing on site.

4. In terms of access, the cur­rent access is via an exist­ing private track that ser­vices the Spey Val­ley Golf Club. How­ever, a suit­ably worded con­di­tion is recom­men­ded to ensure that any tem­por­ary vehicu­lar access is fully removed with­in three months of the new drive­way con­nec­tion being approved. Fur­ther­more, a suit­ably worded con­di­tion is also recom­men­ded to ensure that any pro­posed drive­way gates are set back at least 8m

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 26/08/2022

from the edge of the car­riage­way of the new road serving the adja­cent new res­id­en­tial development.

1. There­fore, sub­ject to the inclu­sion of the afore­men­tioned con­di­tions, it is con­sidered that the applic­a­tion sat­is­fies the roads require­ments of Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

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..

2. In this instance, the pro­posed devel­op­ment will res­ult in the erec­tion of one replace­ment dwell­ing, on the same foot­print as the exist­ing derel­ict farm­house, and, there­fore, there will be no require­ment for developer con­tri­bu­tions. This applic­a­tion is con­sidered to be in accord­ance with Policy 11: Developer Oblig­a­tions of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

CON­CLU­SION

1. The pro­posed demoli­tion of an exist­ing, derel­ict farm­house, and the erec­tion of a new dwell­ing house at Dal­faber Farm­house is con­sidered to be accept­able. In terms of design and amen­ity the pro­posed new dwell­ing will not have sig­ni­fic­ant impact on the site and the sur­round­ing area. The devel­op­ment will not intro­duce any sig­ni­fic­ant land­scape or envir­on­ment­al impacts sub­ject to the recom­men­ded con­di­tions.. Any remain­ing points of detail, in par­tic­u­lar relat­ing to spe­cies pro­tec­tion, drain­age and roads, which have not been addressed in detail, will be resolved through the impos­i­tion of suit­able con­di­tions. Sub­ject to the inclu­sion of the appro­pri­ate pcon­di­tions, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with the rel­ev­ant loc­al devel­op­ment plan policies of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 and recom­men­ded for approval..

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 26/08/2022

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to APPROVE the demoli­tion of a derel­ict farm­house and erec­tion of a house at Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, 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 a Land­scape Plan has been submitted