item5AALairigView20210227DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PRO­POSED: Erec­tion of 7 houses, res­taur­ant and pro­duc­tion building

REF­ER­ENCE: 2021/0227/DET APPLIC­ANT: Cairngorm Res­id­en­tial LLP DATE CALLED-IN: 5 July 2021 RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve Sub­ject to Con­di­tions and a leg­al agree­ment to secure afford­able hous­ing and com­muted sums towards afford­able hous­ing and primary edu­ca­tion facil­it­ies CASE OFFICER: Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Planning

CNPA Plan­ning Committee

Applic­a­tion site 0 25 50 N Meters

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The applic­a­tion site is loc­ated to the North end of Aviemore to the west side of the B9152, oppos­ite the hous­ing devel­op­ment accessed by Dou­gal Drive. The site fits around a small knoll the runs approx­im­ately west from the B9152 to a high point about two thirds of the dis­tance of the site before drop­ping towards the west­ern end of the site. To the north and south of the site, there are shal­low and damp depres­sions in the former agri­cul­tur­al fields that are cur­rently used for horse grazing.

2. A small burn runs on the north­ern bound­ary of the site and has cor­ridor of trees that fol­low it, arcing around the north and west bound­ar­ies of the site. There are a few mature trees across the site, which has a com­bin­a­tion of rough grass­land and scrub.

3. When the applic­a­tion was made, the site had the Lairig View house and stead­ing, Lairig View Cot­tage and a range of sheds and out­build­ings with­in rough garden grounds. The applic­ant gained demoli­tion war­rants for those build­ings and has since cleared the site.

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:

https://​www​.eplan​ningcnpa​.co​.uk/​o​n​line- applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=QVK5JQSIO CH00

Title Draw­ing Date on Date Received Num­ber Plan* PLANS LOC­A­TION PLAN 5 Jul 2021 SITE LAY­OUT PLAN 2 Feb 2022 PRO­POSED SITE SEC­TIONS 30 June 2022 SITE MOD­EL IMAGES01 30 June 2022 SITE MOD­EL IMAGES01 30 June 2022 BLOCK PLAN EXIST­ING, LONG 2 Feb 2022 SEC­TIONS PROPOSED

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5

GEN­ER­AL PLAN — HOUSE TYPE A 5 Jul 2021 GEN­ER­AL PLAN — HOUSE TYPE В 5 Jul 2021 GEN­ER­AL PLAN — HOUSE TYPE C 5 Jul 2021 GEN­ER­AL PLAN — HOUSE TYPE D 5 Jul 2021 GEN­ER­AL PLAN — HOUSE TYPE E 5 Jul 2021 GEN­ER­AL PLAN 5 Jul 2021 BLOCK PLAN — LONG SEC­TIONS 30 June 2022 PRO­POSED REVISED LAND­SCAP­ING PLAN 06 July 2022 PAVE­MENT EXTEN­SION AND 09 Feb 2023 TRAFFIC CALM­ING FRANK SPAVEN DRIVE BUS STOP 3 April 2023 TRAVEL DIS­TANCE 03 DRAIN­AGE LAY­OUT PLAN SHEET 1 19 Aug 2022

Sup­port­ing Inform­a­tion PRO­POSED MIXED USE 06 Dec 2022 DEVEL­OP­MENT ACCESS REVIEW TREE PRO­TEC­TION PLAN an 07/03/20 30 Nov 2022 22 ARBOR­I­CUL­TUR­AL IMPACT 07/03/20 30 Nov 2022 ASSESS­MENT METH­OD 22 STATE­MENT DRAIN­AGE IMPACT ASSESS­MENT 26 Sept 2022 DRAIN­AGE IMPACT ASSESS­MENT 31 Aug 2022 SUDS STRATEGY CMS ALLAN MUN­RO 30 June 2022 CON­STRUC­TION ECOS DESIGN AND ACCESS 30 June 2022 STATE­MENT JUNE 2022 *Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the 1^st of the month

1. It is pro­posed to devel­op 7 houses across the site and a res­taur­ant and pro­duc­tion build­ing towards the road­side of the site. The applic­ant knows a loc­al busi­ness that man­u­fac­tures a craft gin and wants to expand a vis­it­or- facing ele­ment of their dis­til­lery busi­ness to the site and to oper­ate the res­taur­ant. How­ever, the res­taur­ant could be oper­ated by any­one and sub­ject to appro­pri­ate con­sents, the pro­duc­tion facil­ity could be used by anoth­er oper­at­or or for a dif­fer­ent purpose.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5

1. The pro­posed houses are all tim­ber-clad with sheet met­al roofs in a con­tem­por­ary style that reflects tra­di­tion­al tim­ber build­ings. Five of the houses are detached 4 bed­room units, of which the three on the south side of the site are one and half storey and the two on the steep­er slopes to the west end and north­w­est corner are partly two and half storey by cut­ting into the slopes. There are two semi-detached prop­er­ties pro­posed towards of the middle of the north edge of the site. Th applic­ant pro­poses these as afford­able units with an addi­tion­al com­muted sum to make the total con­tri­bu­tion to afford­able hous­ing up to the equi­val­ent of 3.15 units that a 45% con­tri­bu­tion for Aviemore would require.

2. The res­taur­ant build­ing will be a slightly more com­plex one and half story build­ing that is tim­ber clad and slate roofed, with some ele­ments of nat­ur­al stone. The pro­duc­tion shed will sit on the west­ern edge of the res­taur­ant build­ing and be met­al-clad with a flat sedum green roof. All of the res­taur­ant facil­it­ies will be loc­ated on the ground floor, with the first floor being avail­able for use as staff accom­mod­a­tion in future.

3. The site will be accessed by a short sec­tion of adop­ted road fol­lowed by a longer sec­tion of private road built to adopt­able stand­ards and private drive­ways. The junc­tion to the site ill have traffic calm­ing meas­ures installed on the B9152 to warn drivers and new pave­ment will be exten­ded along the west side of the B9152 to the entrance of the site. Sur­face water drain­age from the site will go to a com­bin­a­tion of soakaways with a swale on the south­ern edge of the site. The applic­ant pro­poses that the sur­face water drain­age is privately main­tained as the swale sides can­not been the gradi­ent require­ments for pub­licly adop­ted drain­age sys­tems. The waste water from the site will be dir­ec­ted to a private pump­ing sta­tion and from there pumped to the pub­lic net­work for treat­ment at the Aviemore waste water treat­ment works.

4. The ripari­an cor­ridor of the small burn to the north and west of the site will be pro­tec­ted with a 6m buf­fer zone to the new houses and tree pro­tec­tion meas­ures are pro­posed to pro­tect the exist­ing wood­land and spe­ci­men trees. New plant­ing tree plant­ing is also pro­posed to enhance the land­scape setting.

5. Plans and visu­al­isa­tions of the pro­pos­al are attached as Appendix 1.

His­tory

1. The applic­a­tion site has a past his­tory of occu­pa­tion of the main house and the chalet which may have been sub­divided and occu­pied as two sep­ar­ate units at one stage. There are two recent applic­a­tions for demoli­tion of the dwell­ings on the site and an older applic­a­tion to cre­ate a com­munity pond on land to the north of the site:

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5

α) 20/03551/DEM – per­mis­sion for demoli­tion of house [Laraig View House] gran­ted by High­land Coun­cil in Decem­ber 2020. b) 19/03840/DEM – per­mis­sion for demoli­tion of chalet [Laraig View Cot­tage] gran­ted by High­land Coun­cil in Septem­ber 2019. c) 2012/0070/DET – Plan­ning per­mis­sion for con­struc­tion of a pond, includ­ing dip­ping plat­form, pic­nic table and seat, gran­ted by the CNPA in July 2012 but nev­er implemented.

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, as lis­ted with­in the doc­u­ment attached as Appendix 2. The sites poten­tially affected are the:

a) Kin­veachy Forest Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area [SPA] b) River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion [SAC].

1. The HRA con­cludes that the pro­pos­al will not have an adverse impact on site integ­rity of the Kin­veachy Forest SPA as the con­ser­va­tion object­ives can be met. The HRA con­cludes that Regard­ing the River Spey-Inch Marshes SPA, the assess­ment con­firms that there will not be an adverse impact on site integ­rity of the River Spey SAC sub­ject to the imple­ment­a­tion of pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion meas­ures, an otter spe­cies pro­tec­tion plan, and a 6m buf­fer to the minor water course on the site.

DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN CONTEXT

Policies

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045 Tack­ling the Cli­mate and Nature Crises Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion Biod­iversity Nat­ur­al Places Forestry, Wood­land, and Trees Nation­al Policy POLICY 1 POLICY 2 POLICY 3 POLICY 4 POLICY 6 POLICY 9 POLICY 13 POLICY 14 POLICY 15 POLICY 16 POLICY 17 Rur­al Homes POLICY 18 Infra­struc­ture first Brown­field, vacant and derel­ict land and build­ings Sus­tain­able Trans­port Design, Qual­ity and Place Loc­al liv­ing and 20min neigh­bour­hoods Qual­ity Homes

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5

POLICY 20 Blue and green infra­struc­ture POLICY 22 Flood Risk and Water Man­age­ment POLICY 29 Rur­al Devel­op­ment 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 X 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 X 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 Devel­op­ment Plan which com­prises Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. The full word­ing of policies can be found at:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-planning-framework‑4/documents/ and at: https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​w​p​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​2​0​2​1​/​0​3​/​C​N​P​A​-​L​D​P​-​2​0​2​1​-​w​eb.pd f

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 X Guid­ance Policy 3 Design and Place­mak­ing Non Stat­utory Guid­ance X Policy 4 Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance X Policy 5 Land­scape Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5

Renew­able Energy Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance Policy 7 Policy 8 Open Space, Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance Policy 9 Policy 10 Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance Resources Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance Policy 11 Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance CONSULTATIONS

Sum­mary of the main issues raised by con­sul­tees X X

1. Scot­tish Water have not objec­ted to the pro­posed devel­op­ment 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. Accord­ing to exist­ing records, the devel­op­ment pro­pos­als impact on exist­ing Scot­tish Water assets. The applic­ant must identi­fy any poten­tial con­flicts with Scot­tish Water assets and con­tact the Asset Impact Team via the Cus­tom­er Portal to apply for a diver­sion. The applic­ant should be aware that any con­flict with assets iden­ti­fied may be sub­ject to restric­tions on prox­im­ity of con­struc­tion Sur­face water.

3. The High­land Coun­cil Con­tam­in­ated Land Team note that the site had a pre­vi­ous use as an agri­cul­tur­al build­ing so have recom­men­ded a con­di­tion requir­ing an assess­ment of poten­tial contamination.

4. The Scot­tish Envir­on­ment­al Pro­tec­tion Agency SEPA ini­tially objec­ted to the applic­a­tion, but once the applic­ant provided details of flood risk, are sat­is­fied the devel­op­ment will not be affected by flood­ing nor increase flood risk.

5. The High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team are sat­is­fied that the pro­posed devel­op­ment is not at risk of flood­ing and will not increase flood risk, but object to the sur­face water drain­age pro­pos­als because they have not been demon­strated to com­ply with the stand­ards of Sew­ers for Scot­land in order that the sys­tem can be ves­ted by High­land Coun­cil or Scot­tish Water. This objec­tion links to the objec­tion of the High­land Council’s trans­port plan­ning team who object because the applic­ant does not pro­pose the intern­al roads and drain­age to be adop­ted by the Coun­cil or Scot­tish Water.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5

1. The High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team are sat­is­fied with most ele­ments of the road lay­out and design inside the site and on the B9251 sub­ject to con­di­tions to man­age the detail. The trans­port plan­ning team also recom­mend addi­tion­al bus stops, shel­ters and road cross­ings to ser­vice the devel­op­ment. The team object to the intern­al road design because while the roads them­selves are designed to adopt­able stand­ards, the applic­ant pro­poses to keep the roads as privately owned and main­tained along­side a privately owned the sur­face water drain­age infra­struc­ture and a privately man­aged waste col­lec­tion ser­vice. They note the Council’s policy is that devel­op­ments of more than four prop­er­ties should adop­ted by the Coun­cil and that pub­lic waste col­lec­tion vehicles will not access private roads.

2. The CNPA Land­scape Officer con­sidered that while the site had some capa­city for devel­op­ment, it would appear dif­fer­ent from the site as before and dif­fer­ent to the appear­ance of the nearby Grain­ish farm build­ings cluster. They con­clude that the changes to the site from the devel­op­ment would be neg­at­ive and would not con­serve or enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter, at least in part because it would con­trast with the sur­round­ing land­scape and sug­ges­ted remov­ing the two west­ern­most units and the pro­pos­al for the res­taur­ant would improve the proposal.

3. The CNPA Eco­logy Officers ini­tially noted a range of spe­cies and hab­it­ats of interest on the site and the applic­ant provided fur­ther eco­lo­gic­al sur­veys of the site and its spe­cies and has incor­por­ated a range of meas­ures to mit­ig­ate loss of hab­it­ats provide addi­tion­al biod­iversity enhance­ments and to ensure pro­tec­tion of the sens­it­ive spe­cies likely to be present nearby (otter and reptiles).

4. An Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al of the pro­posed devel­op­ment has been under­taken by the CNPA eco­lo­gic­al advice officer that con­cludes that sub­ject to the imple­ment­a­tion of the Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment provided by the applic­ant (includ­ing pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion meas­ures, mon­it­or­ing and super­vi­sion by an Eco­lo­gic­al Clerk of Works and adher­ence to the otter pro­tec­tion plans sub­mit­ted, the pro­posed devel­op­ment will not affect the integ­rity of the River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion. They also con­clude that the devel­op­ment will not affect the integ­rity of Kin­veachy Woods Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area or the net­work of caper­cail­lie SPAs. Finally, the eco­logy advice officer is sat­is­fied that with fur­ther detail on the biod­iversity enhance­ment meas­ures, the pro­pos­als will have a pos­it­ive effect over time.

5. Aviemore and Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil com­men­ted that they did not know if the devel­op­ment would provide per­man­ent homes or if houses could be used for short term let­ting, asked if con­di­tions could ensure houses are avail­able to and afford­able to loc­al people and com­men­ted on a [pre­sumed] mis-spelling of Lairig View.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. The CNPA is not aware of any rep­res­ent­a­tions made the CNPA or High­land Coun­cil on the application.

APPRAIS­AL

1. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions are con­sidered to be: the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment; the impact upon the land­scape; envir­on­ment­al impacts; the hous­ing con­tri­bu­tion; the eco­nom­ic con­tri­bu­tion; lay­out, sit­ing; design and amen­ity; ser­vi­cing and access.

Prin­ciple of Development

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is loc­ated on what is now a cleared brown­field site on the out­skirts of Aviemore. It sits out­side the set­tle­ment bound­ary of Aviemore, but visu­ally is part of the envel­ope of Aviemore, with­in the 30mph speed lim­it and oppos­ite the last main devel­op­ment to the north of Aviemore. Policies with­in both NPF4 and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan provide sup­port for redevel­op­ment of sites inside set­tle­ments and in rur­al areas for mul­tiple uses so the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment on this site is con­sidered to accept­able sub­ject to the detailed assess­ment against policies of the Devel­op­ment Plan.

Land­scape Impacts

1. Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 pre­sumes against devel­op­ment that does not con­serve and enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park and the set­ting of the pro­posed devel­op­ment. The CNPA’s land­scape adviser’s view was that change was neg­at­ive because it would change the char­ac­ter of the approach to Aviemore and the edge of Aviemore, par­tic­u­larly because the of the two west­ern­most plots and the res­taur­ant building.

2. How­ever, it is also clear that the applic­ant has attemp­ted to respond to the topo­graphy of the site in the lay­out pro­posed by main­tain­ing the knoll with­in the site and by partly build­ing those two plots into the slopes. The 6m buf­fer strip pro­posed along the burn also provides fur­ther oppor­tun­it­ies to plant appro­pri­ate tree spe­cies and strengthen that arc of ripari­an wood­land around the north and west edges of the site as well as on the knoll itself to rein­force its land­scape value and reflect oth­er wooded knolls nearby.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5

1. It is also rel­ev­ant that the land­scape to the north of Aviemore has been one of change over the past 20 years and will con­tin­ue to change in future. The hous­ing devel­op­ment oppos­ite the site is now about 15 years old and its struc­tur­al land­scap­ing has estab­lished sig­ni­fic­antly remod­el­ling what was pre­vi­ously open farm­land into Aviemore. The approach to Aviemore from the north is inter­spersed with views of hous­ing, foot­paths lead­ing from the town to the recent go-cart track and caravan/​camp site to the north of Aviemore. The road sig­nage approach to Aviemore now begins well before the set­tle­ment bound­ary of the LDP is reached, and views of the built devel­op­ment edges of Aviemore are a strong edge. In addi­tion, the land around this site and else­where to the north of Aviemore is likely to exper­i­ence fur­ther change in future. It is part of the estab­lished hous­ing land sup­ply, not alloc­ated for devel­op­ment, but likely to be con­sidered in future Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plans giv­en the need for hous­ing and for afford­able hous­ing in the Aviemore area.

2. In this con­text, the pro­posed devel­op­ment is likely to be seen in the con­text of both the exist­ing devel­op­ments of Aviemore and any small changes, as well as changes to and likely devel­op­ment of the sur­round­ing fields. If approved and imple­men­ted, the pro­pos­als could also be viewed as estab­lish­ing a dis­tinct­ive new char­ac­ter to the north edge of Aviemore.

3. There is a degree of per­son­al inter­pret­a­tion in the apprais­al of effects on the spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park, but the case officer can­not con­clude that the pro­posed will have sig­ni­fic­ant adverse effects on them giv­en the pro­posed devel­op­ment is rel­at­ively small and on site of pre­vi­ous devel­op­ment. It is also con­cluded that the adverse effects of the devel­op­ment in terms of change in char­ac­ter can be min­im­ised through the pro­pos­als put for­ward and through fur­ther detail on land­scap­ing and in par­tic­u­lar tree plant­ing, by rein­for­cing a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion of the site in the land­scape in future. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Envir­on­ment­al impacts

1. Policy 3: Biod­iversity, Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Places and Policy 6: Forestry wood­land and trees of NPF4 and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 all provide pro­tec­tion for biod­iversity, pro­tec­ted spe­cies and pro­tec­ted areas. The pro­posed devel­op­ment site cur­rently provides a range of hab­it­ats of loc­al value and is con­nec­ted to a water­course that is part of the River Spey SAC.

2. The pro­pos­als with the devel­op­ment include the incor­por­a­tion of a 6m buf­fer strip to the water course, tree pro­tec­tion meas­ures to ensure not­able trees and areas of wood­land are pro­tec­ted, an otter spe­cies pro­tec­tion plan to ensure otter are not harmed dur­ing the devel­op­ment and a rep­tile species ||

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5

pro­tec­tion plan to ensure they are not dis­turbed dur­ing the devel­op­ment. Once com­pleted, the devel­op­ment will main­tain that 6m ripari­an buf­fer which will incor­por­ate addi­tion­al trees plant­ing to strengthen it, will include oth­er tree plant­ing across the site for land­scape and biod­iversity bene­fits, will provide swal­low and house mar­tin bird boxes on the gable ends of new build­ings, and cre­ate a dragon­fly pond as an inver­teb­rate habitat.

1. The Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al [HRA] con­cludes that sub­ject to the mit­ig­a­tion pro­posed by the applic­ant, there will be no effect on the site integ­rity of any European pro­tec­ted areas. The com­bin­a­tion of meas­ures pro­posed to pre­vent harm or dis­turb­ance of spe­cies and to estab­lish and rein­force hab­it­ats fol­low­ing the devel­op­ment means that the applic­a­tion is con­sidered to com­ply with the Policy 3: Biod­iversity, Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Places and Policy 6: Forestry wood­land and trees of NPF4 and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

The Hous­ing contribution

1. The pro­pos­al is for 7 new houses. The applic­ant pro­poses that two of the houses will be afford­able units for sale to loc­al people and that they will make up the afford­able hous­ing con­tri­bu­tion to 45% of the total through a full com­muted sum pay­ment for the addi­tion­al 1.15 units that they con­sider they can­not deliv­er on site. The five open mar­ket units will be four bed­room prop­er­ties and the two afford­able units would be two bed­room prop­er­ties. The mech­an­ism to ensure that the afford­able units would be afford­able in per­petu­ity remains to be secured and would require to cla­ri­fied through con­di­tion and most likely, through a leg­al agree­ment that also secure the pay­ment of the addi­tion­al com­muted sum.

2. Policy 16: Qual­ity Homes and Policy 17: Rur­al Homes of NPF4 and Policy 1: New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 are rel­ev­ant but Policy 1 of the LDP is most spe­cif­ic about hous­ing in dif­fer­ent loc­a­tions in the Nation­al Park. The LDP policy draws a dis­tinc­tion between hous­ing inside set­tle­ments (with afford­able hous­ing con­tri­bu­tion rates at 45% for Aviemore) and hous­ing in the coun­tryside (where a 25% afford­able hous­ing con­tri­bu­tion rate would nor­mally apply). In all cases devel­op­ment is expec­ted to rein­force the char­ac­ter and pat­tern of development.

3. The devel­op­ment pro­posed does not neatly fit any of the cri­ter­ia. It is not inside Aviemore’s set­tle­ment bound­ary yet is clearly part of Aviemore and would be linked by a short sec­tion of pave­ment and a short cross­ing of the B9152 to oth­er parts of Aviemore. The site could also be described as a rur­al brown­field site, but giv­en its prox­im­ity and link­ages to Aviemore that inter­pret­a­tion alone would seem obtuse, so it is con­sidered that the 12

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devel­op­ment should be con­sidered as part of Aviemore and there­fore com­ing under the rel­ev­ant afford­able hous­ing con­tri­bu­tion rate of 45%.

1. The applic­ant is strongly of the opin­ion that their pro­pos­al for 7 units of the site with 2 afford­able units for sale and an addi­tion­al com­muted sum pay­ment for the full 1.15 afford­able units that can­not in their view be delivered in the site is a bet­ter out­come for Aviemore than their oth­er option of apply­ing for three units on the brown­field site and pay­ing the rel­at­ively mod­est afford­able hous­ing con­tri­bu­tion of £1850 per unit required by policy. They are also of the view that the two on-site units are the most they can deliv­er without ren­der­ing their pro­pos­al unvi­able because of the size and infra­struc­ture costs. It is not a site that an afford­able hous­ing pro­vider would be likely to invest­ig­ate on their own because of those infra­struc­ture costs and the lim­ited num­ber of units that could be built on the site.

2. Policy 1 of the LDP also has a require­ment that res­id­en­tial devel­op­ments provide a mix of dwell­ing types and sizes with an emphas­is on smal­ler prop­er­ties in order to encour­age prop­er­ties to be afford­able. The pro­pos­al has 5 open mar­ket prop­er­ties that are 4 bed­roomed units and 2 bed­roomed afford­able units. In this loc­a­tion, it is argu­able wheth­er any of the open mar­ket units would be afford­able to loc­al work­ers even if they were 2 or 3 bed­roomed prop­er­ties – the hous­ing mar­ket of Aviemore means that attract­ive prop­er­ties on the open mar­ket are expens­ive irre­spect­ive of their size, so it is unlikely that any loc­al work­ers could afford to buy prop­er­ties such as these unless they already have very sig­ni­fic­ant equity, and if that is case they would already have the abil­ity to buy hous­ing with­in the Aviemore area. That policy object­ive is one that spans a com­munity and is more eas­ily applied to lar­ger devel­op­ments than to small ones. In this case the applic­ant is expli­citly try­ing to max­im­ise the value achiev­able in order to address the infra­struc­ture costs and to sub­sid­ise both the devel­op­ment of the res­taur­ant and in order to provide the afford­able hous­ing. There is a judge­ment to be made about wheth­er the pro­pos­al com­plies with that part of the LDP policy and also wheth­er it is of sig­ni­fic­ance in this case.

3. Finally, while the land­scape adviser’s views on the pro­pos­al were neg­at­ive, it is also the case that the devel­op­ment pro­posed could rein­force and enhance the qual­ity of the set­tle­ment by intro­du­cing high qual­ity built design on the edge of Aviemore and rein­force a strong land­scape pattern.

4. On bal­ance, the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with the most rel­ev­ant require­ments of Policy 16: Qual­ity Homes and Policy 17: Rur­al Homes of NPF4 and Policy 1: New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

The Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment con­tri­bu­tion 13

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1. Policy 29: Rur­al Devel­op­ment of NPF4 and Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 both sup­port appro­pri­ately loc­ated busi­ness devel­op­ment. The pro­posed res­taur­ant and busi­ness unit are loc­ated on the out­skirts of Aviemore, some dis­tance from Aviemore town centre. Most new devel­op­ments make a con­tri­bu­tion to the loc­al eco­nomy dur­ing con­struc­tion and then a smal­ler con­tri­bu­tion over time through main­ten­ance and upkeep of the development.

2. The res­taur­ant busi­ness that is pro­posed as part of this applic­a­tion would also cre­ate some new employ­ment and will also be access­ible to a large range of prop­er­ties in Aviemore that are a long way from the town centre itself. A res­taur­ant in this loc­a­tion is unlikely to have any neg­at­ive effects on the vital­ity and vibrancy of the town centre or of busi­nesses there and would simply extend the range of options avail­able in terms of num­ber and loc­a­tion. The res­taur­ant build­ing incor­por­ates poten­tial for staff accom­mod­a­tion on the first floor, but this is not pro­posed in detail with the applic­a­tion. Any busi­ness would also require appro­pri­ate licences from High­land Coun­cil to operate.

3. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 29: Rur­al Devel­op­ment of NPF4 and Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Lay­out, Sit­ing; Design and Amenity

1. Policy 14: Design, Qual­ity and Place and Policy 15: Loc­al liv­ing and 20min neigh­bour­hoods of NPF4 and Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 all require devel­op­ments to be con­sist­ent with the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places and to be access­ible by sus­tain­able modes of trans­port to loc­al facil­it­ies. The devel­op­ment pro­posed is con­sist­ent with the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places, cre­at­ing a pleas­ant and dis­tinct­ive devel­op­ment that will be well-con­nec­ted to Aviemore. The devel­op­ment will enhance biod­iversity and is with­in a few minutes’ walk from nearby pro­moted paths; it is beside the avail­able bus ser­vices and has homes that would adapt­able for home-work­ing. It is con­sidered the that the devel­op­ment com­plies with Policy 14: Design, Qual­ity and Place and Policy 15: Loc­al liv­ing and 20min neigh­bour­hoods of NPF4 and Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

2. Policy 9: Brown­field, vacant and derel­ict land and build­ings Design of NPF4 and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 both provide for the reuse of land sub­ject to appro­pri­ate check and 14

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5

meas­ures to deal with con­tam­in­a­tion from pre­vi­ous uses. Sub­ject to the con­di­tion on con­tam­in­ated land recom­mend by High­land Council’s Envir­on­ment­al Health Team, the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with the rel­ev­ant parts of Policy 9: Brown­field, vacant and derel­ict land and build­ings Design of NPF4 and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Ser­vi­cing and access

1. Policy 13: Sus­tain­able Trans­port of NPF4 and Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 require devel­op­ments are well con­nec­ted by all rel­ev­ant means of trans­port. The pro­posed devel­op­ment will be eas­ily access­ible by car, by bus and by walk­ing or cyc­ling so is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 13: Sus­tain­able Trans­port of NPF4 and Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sub­ject to a con­di­tion requir­ing addi­tion­al bus stop pro­vi­sion to be made on the B9152.

2. The applic­ants have demon­strated that the site is free from flood risk and will not con­trib­ute to addi­tion­al flood risk. The foul water drain­age will be pumped from the site to the con­nec­tion with the pub­lic sew­er which is con­sidered accept­able and will be con­trolled by Scot­tish Water and reg­u­lated by SEPA. The devel­op­ment will be ser­vice from the pub­lic mains water sup­ply. The devel­op­ment has a pro­posed sur­face water drain­age scheme that will ensure that water is man­aged appro­pri­ately and will not con­trib­ute to flood­ing. This means that the devel­op­ment com­plies with rel­ev­ant parts of Policy 2: Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion of NPF4 and Policy 9: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

3. The objec­tions of High­land Council’s Flood and Trans­port Plan­ning Teams are linked to the applicant’s desire to main­tain the drain­age scheme privately and the asso­ci­ated con­sequence that the road with­in the site could not be adop­ted. While this is not desir­able, it does not mean the devel­op­ment will be any less safe or less effect­ive. In spite of the objec­tions of High­land Coun­cil Flood and Trans­port Plan­ning teams, the devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 20: Blue and Green Infra­struc­ture and Policy 22: Flood risk and water man­age­ment of NPF4 and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Developer Oblig­a­tions

1. Policy 18: Infra­struc­ture first and Policy 11: Developer Oblig­a­tions of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 provide for devel­op­ments mak­ing con­tri­bu­tions to infra­struc­ture improve­ments where reas­on­able and neces­sary. In this case the devel­op­ment will require a 15

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com­muted sum con­tri­bu­tion towards afford­able hous­ing to ensure the con­tri­bu­tion reaches the 45% rate for Aviemore and will also require to make pay­ments towards increas­ing capa­city at Aviemore Primary School. It is likely that a S75 leg­al agree­ment will be required to recure these con­tri­bu­tions and to ensure that an appro­pri­ate mech­an­ism is used to ensure that the two afford­able units on site are secured as afford­able hous­ing in per­petu­ity. Sub­ject to the con­clu­sion of these mat­ters it is con­sidered the devel­op­ment com­plies with Policy 18: Infra­struc­ture first and Policy 11: Developer Oblig­a­tions of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

CON­CLU­SION

1. Some devel­op­ments do not neatly fit plan­ning policy and require more com­plex bal­an­cing and judge­ments of policy require­ment in order to be determ­ined. This applic­a­tion has a num­ber of well-con­ceived ele­ments and a strong design but also chal­lenges the estab­lished pat­tern of devel­op­ment in the land­scape on the edge of Aviemore and pro­poses an intern­al road and drain­age lay­out that would be unlikely to be adop­ted by the loc­al author­ity. On the bal­ance of impacts and bene­fits of the devel­op­ment the applic­a­tion is recom­men­ded for approv­al sub­ject to con­di­tions and to developer oblig­a­tions relat­ing to afford­able hous­ing and primary edu­ca­tion infra­struc­ture improvements.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to APPROVE the Erec­tion of 7 houses, res­taur­ant and pro­duc­tion build­ing at Lairig View Aviemore High­land sub­ject to leg­al agree­ment to secure developer con­tri­bu­tions and 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. The devel­op­ment to which this per­mis­sion relates must begin not later than the expir­a­tion of 3 years begin­ning with the date on which this per­mis­sion is gran­ted. If devel­op­ment has not begun at the expir­a­tion of this peri­od, the plan­ning per­mis­sion lapses.

Reas­on: To accord with Sec­tion 58 of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997. 16

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until all design details for the new access and changes to the B9152, sup­por­ted by a Stage ¹⁄₂ Inde­pend­ent Road Safety Audit and cor­res­pond­ing Design­ers Response, have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity in con­sulta­tion with High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team. There­after, no res­id­en­tial or com­mer­cial prop­erty shall be occu­pied until the approved details have been imple­men­ted in full.

Reas­on: In the interests of road safety and to com­ply with Policy 13: Sus­tain­able Trans­port of NPF4 and Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until details of the pro­vi­sion of appro­pri­ate bus stop facilties on the B9152 north of the new cross­roads access junc­tion with suit­able foot­way con­nec­tions and dropped kerb cross­ing points link­ing those stops to the devel­op­ment, with a timetable for imple­ment­a­tion have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity in con­sulta­tion with High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team.

Reas­on: In the interests of road safety and to com­ply with Policy 13: Sus­tain­able Trans­port of NPF4 and Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until details of the man­age­ment and main­ten­ance of privately main­tained roads and sur­face water drain­age have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity in con­sulta­tion with High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team.

Reas­on: In the interests of road safety and to com­ply with Policy 13: Sus­tain­able Trans­port, Policy 20: Blue and Green Infra­struc­ture and Policy 22: Flood risk and water man­age­ment of NPF4 and Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. **No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until evid­ence that the site is suit­able for its pro­posed use, by way of an assess­ment of poten­tial con­tam­in­a­tion, has been sub­mit­ted to, and approved in writ­ing by, the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity in con­sulta­tion with High­land Coun­cil Con­tam­in­ated Land team. The assess­ment shall be con­sist­ent with the approach to land con­tam­in­a­tion con­tained in Plan­ning Advice Note 33 and the Brit­ish Stand­ard BS 10175:2011+A2:2017 Invest­ig­a­tion of Poten­tially Con­tam­in­ated Sites — Code of Prac­tice. In the event that con­tam­in­a­tion is found, details of the meas­ures required to treat/​remove 17

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con­tam­in­a­tion (a remedi­al strategy) to ensure that the site is fit for the uses pro­posed shall be sub­mit­ted to, and