Item5AAOldBridgeInnBeerGarden20230399DETCommitteeReport

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 08/03/2024

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED:

Change of use of land to beer garden (in ret­ro­spect) at Land 45M SE Of Old Bridge Inn 23 Dal­faber Road Aviemore

REF­ER­ENCE: 2023/0399/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Mr Owen Caldwell

DATE CALLED-IN: 23 Octo­ber 2023

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: APPROVE sub­ject to conditions

CASE OFFICER: Katie Crerar, Plan­ning Officer

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CNPA Plan­ning Committee

Applic­a­tion Site

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 08/03/2024

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 08/03/2024

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The devel­op­ment site com­prises a small area of cleared ground loc­ated between Dal­faber Road (adja­cent to the Old Bridge Inn, Aviemore) and the River Spey.

2. The site has lim­ited veget­a­tion due to exist­ing use but is con­tained by wood­land to the north and south, the exist­ing road (Dal­faber Road) to the west and the River Spey to the east.

3. The site is used inform­ally as a car park, pic­nic area and is a launch point for people and groups using the River Spey for canoe­ing, kayak­ing and oth­er uses. There is also a core path (LBS137) run­ning through 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:

http://​www​.eplan​ningcnpa​.co​.uk/​o​n​line- applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=S2H0 6USI0CP00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan		21/04/2023	20/10/2023
Plan – Site Lay­out Plan (1:1000)	100	01/09/2023*	20/10/2023
Plan – Site Lay­out Plan (1:200)	101	01/09/2023*	24/01/2024
Plan — Plans and Elevations	102	01/09/2023*	20/10/2024
Oth­er — Sup­port­ing Statement		01/11/2023	01/11/2023
Oth­er — Access Statement		01/02/2024*	08/02/2024

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

1. This pro­pos­al seeks par­tial ret­ro­spect­ive plan­ning per­mis­sion for the cre­ation of a sea­son­al beer garden form­ing part of the Old Bridge Inn Res­taur­ant. It will com­prise the erec­tion of a 6 x 10.5m grey col­oured stretch tent which will house a tim­ber bar. The tent will be open around the sides with the can­vas roof sup­por­ted by 12 poles (See Site Plans and elevations).

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 08/03/2024

1. In addi­tion to the tent, there will be pic­nic benches dis­trib­uted around the site for cus­tom­ers to sit at.

2. The site has been used in this way for over the last year or so, and this plan­ning applic­a­tion seeks to form­al­ise this use. As noted, the devel­op­ment site provides access to a launch point on the River Spey which is also part of a core path.

3. An Access State­ment (Appendix 2) has been provided with the applic­a­tion which con­firms that unres­tric­ted ped­es­tri­an access will be main­tained at all times. In addi­tion, as indic­ated on the Site Lay­out Plan (Appendix 1), there will be an unmarked vehicu­lar drop off and load­ing bay provided for both river users and cus­tom­ers to sup­port con­tin­ued access to the river and this cor­ridor will remain unob­struc­ted by pic­nic benches at all times.

4. There is no park­ing pro­posed on the site when the beer garden is in oper­a­tion oth­er than main­tain­ing the pickup and drop off access for vehicles. The Old Bridge Inn will main­tain its car park to the north west of the site and dur­ing the winter months when the beer garden is not in oper­a­tion, the site will be used for car parking.

His­tory

1. A plan­ning applic­a­tion for the erec­tion of an out­door shel­ter to be used in con­nec­tion with the exist­ing res­taur­ant at the Old Bridge Inn (20/04604/FUL) imme­di­ately adja­cent to the site was approved in Feb­ru­ary 2021 and is now constructed.

HAB­IT­ATS REG­U­LA­TIONS APPRAISAL

1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) has been under­taken to con­sider the poten­tial effects of the devel­op­ment upon the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the Natura sites lis­ted with­in the HRA doc­u­ment which is attached as Appendix 3. The Natura site in this case is the River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC) which is des­ig­nated for its otter, fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sels (FWPM), sea lamprey and Atlantic sal­mon interests.

2. The HRA con­siders that there are no likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects on Atlantic sal­mon, sea lamprey or FWPM as no excav­a­tion or oth­er con­struc­tion activ­it­ies are pro­posed that could lead to the cre­ation of silt or sed­i­ment which would pose a threat to these qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies or the water qual­ity of the River Spey.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 08/03/2024

1. In respect of otter, giv­en the cur­rent usage of the area i.e. indi­vidu­als and groups access­ing the River Spey for water sports, it is con­sidered likely that any otter using the River Spey at this loc­a­tion will be habitu­ated to noise and light from this loc­a­tion. It is not thought that the change of use, will lead to a sig­ni­fic­ant change in beha­viour of otters.

DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN CONTEXT

Policies

Nation­al Policy	Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045
POLICY 1	Tack­ling the Cli­mate and Nature Crises
POLICY 2	Cli­mate Mit­ig­a­tion and Adaptation
POLICY 3	Biod­iversity
POLICY 4	Nat­ur­al Places
POLICY 9	Brown­field, Vacant and Derel­ict Land, and Empty Buildings
POLICY 13	Sus­tain­able Transport
POLICY 14	Design, Qual­ity and Place
POLICY 20	Blue and Green Infrastructure
POLICY 22	Flood Risk and Water Management

Stra­tegic Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027

Loc­al Plan Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2021) Those policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross
POLICY 1	NEW HOUS­ING DEVELOPMENT
POLICY 2	SUP­PORT­ING ECO­NOM­IC GROWTH	X
POLICY 3	DESIGN AND PLACEMAKING	X
POLICY 4	NAT­UR­AL HERITAGE	X
POLICY 5	LAND­SCAPE
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

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 08/03/2024

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​-LDP- 2021-web.pdf

Plan­ning Guidance

1. Sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance also forms part of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan and provides more details about how to com­ply with the policies. Guid­ance that is rel­ev­ant to this applic­a­tion is marked with a cross.

Policy 1	Hous­ing Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 3	Design and Place­mak­ing Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 5	Land­scape Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 7	Renew­able Energy Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 8	Open Space, Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 11	Developer Oblig­a­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance

CON­SULTA­TIONS

1. A sum­mary of the main issues raised by con­sul­tees now follows:

2. SEPA was con­sul­ted as the devel­op­ment lies with­in an area at risk of flood­ing. They have no objec­tion to the applic­a­tion on the grounds of flood risk as the use is ancil­lary to the exist­ing busi­ness. They do how­ever recom­mend in line with sec­tion 7 (small-scale street fur­niture) of the Stand­ing Advice on Flood Risk, that the pic­nic benches are secured to avoid wash-out.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 08/03/2024

1. The High­land Council’s Flood­ing Risk Man­age­ment Team was con­sul­ted, and also have no objec­tion. Again, they are sat­is­fied that giv­en the beer garden is ancil­lary to the exist­ing busi­ness and does not include any new build­ings or hard stand­ing, it would not impede the flow of flood­wa­ter or reduce flood­plain capa­city. They have iden­ti­fied that the applic­ant will need to have a suit­able flood evac­u­ation plan in place to ensure the site can be cleared in a timely man­ner when flood­ing is predicted.

2. The High­land Council’s Trans­port Plan­ning Team have no con­cerns that the form­al­isa­tion of the beer garden will have any adverse impact on Dal­faber Road.

3. CNPAs Out­door Access Team do not object to the pro­pos­al. Ini­tial con­cerns about main­tain­ing access on the site were expressed pri­or to an Access State­ment being provided by the applic­ant. The Out­door Access Team are now sat­is­fied that the state­ment adequately addresses the neces­sary points, par­tic­u­larly around main­tain­ing pro­vi­sion for vehicles to drop off/​unload, along with sig­nage and ensur­ing a clear cor­ridor through the area for river users.

4. CNPAs Eco­logy Advisor high­lights the prox­im­ity of the site to the River Spey SAC and SSSI how­ever acknow­ledges that it is cur­rently used for launch­ing water sports and park­ing and is there­fore sub­ject to fre­quent dis­turb­ance. The applic­a­tion site is dis­turbed with very little ground veget­a­tion and there­fore the poten­tial for impact on species/​breeding birds is low. In addi­tion, giv­en there is no pro­posed con­struc­tion or excav­a­tion, pol­lu­tion of the River Spey is unlikely how­ever all ​‘built’ ele­ments of the pro­pos­al should remain more than 10 metres from the edge of the river. It is sug­ges­ted that whilst enhance­ment oppor­tun­it­ies are lim­ited, the addi­tion of bird and/​or bat boxes may help to enhance the site.

5. Aviemore Com­munity Coun­cil objects to the pro­pos­al. They note that works were under­taken in 2019 to improve the River Spey Access Point (LBS137) and that addi­tion­al pic­nic benches have impaired access. They are of the view that the form­al change of use will hinder essen­tial access to the Spey and they would like to see clear plans show­ing how access for river goers and emer­gency ser­vices will be main­tained. They do not object to the concept of a beer garden but hope that it can coex­ist with safe access, up to the bol­lards by the river. They also express con­cern relat­ing to the reduc­tion / remov­al of car park­ing which is already hav­ing issues on Dal­faber Road.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 08/03/2024

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. The applic­a­tion was advert­ised and there was a total of 8 rep­res­ent­a­tions received – 5 object­ing (includ­ing the Spey Fish­er­ies Board) and 3 not­ing more gen­er­al com­ments (includ­ing the Scot­tish Canoe Asso­ci­ation). A copy of these com­ments is attached in Appendix 5.

2. Key issues raised in the rep­res­ent­a­tions are sum­mar­ised as follows:

a) River Access — Of par­tic­u­lar con­cern is the impact that the pro­pos­al is and will have on people access­ing the River Spey Access point which is import­ant for paddle sport and river users as well as being a core path. Most are con­cerned that the use of this space as a beer garden will make it increas­ingly dif­fi­cult to access the river with canoes. The Spey Fish­er­ies Board was of the view that strict con­di­tions should be in place to main­tain clear access up to the bol­lards by the river to allow unload­ing of canoes. It is also sug­ges­ted that use of the area closest to the river is discouraged.

b) Aims of the Nation­al Park some felt that the pro­pos­al does not meet the aims of the Nation­al Park.

c) Nearly all respond­ents raised the issue of traffic and park­ing, and that the pro­pos­al will increase traffic and con­ges­tion out­with the site and par­tic­u­larly along Dal­faber Road. Two respond­ents, whilst not object­ing to the pro­pos­al, high­lighted that car access along Dal­faber Road can be dif­fi­cult espe­cially dur­ing busy times and sug­ges­ted improve­ments for man­aging traffic includ­ing: restrict­ing use of the pro­posed beer garden to allow park­ing at oth­er times on the site; includ­ing some park­ing on the site; put­ting yel­low lines on the road to pre­vent park­ing espe­cially on the bed and increase the width of the pavement.

d) Flood­ing – it was raised that items/​furniture from the site could be car­ried downstream.

APPRAIS­AL

1. Sec­tion 25 of the 1997 Act as amended requires applic­a­tions to be determ­ined in accord­ance with the Devel­op­ment Plan i.e. Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF) and the adop­ted Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 unless mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions indic­ate oth­er­wise. Where there is con­flict between policies, NPF4 policies will be used.

2. The main plan­ning issues are con­sidered below:

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 08/03/2024

Prin­ciple

1. This pro­pos­al relates to the oper­a­tion of a small estab­lished busi­ness, and there is lim­ited ref­er­ence to this in NPF. Policy 26: Busi­ness and industry, part c) states that ​“Devel­op­ment pro­pos­als for busi­ness and industry uses will be sup­por­ted where they are com­pat­ible with the primary busi­ness func­tion of the area”.

2. In addi­tion, Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth, part 2.4 Oth­er eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment sets out that ​“pro­pos­als which sup­port or extend the eco­nomy, or which enhance the range and qual­ity of eco­nom­ic oppor­tun­it­ies or facil­it­ies, will be con­sidered favour­ably where they have no adverse envir­on­ment­al or amen­ity impacts on the site or neigh­bour­ing areas (a); are compatible/​complementary with exist­ing busi­ness activ­ity in the area (b); and sup­port the vital­ity and viab­il­ity of the loc­al economy ©.

3. The sup­port­ing text of Policy 2 recog­nises food and drink as a key sec­tor with­in the Nation­al Park which is import­ant for the sus­tain­ab­il­ity of the Nation­al Parks eco­nomy and the policy should encour­age oppor­tun­it­ies to sup­port, enhance and diver­si­fy these key sectors.

4. This pro­pos­al seeks to cre­ate a sea­son­al beer garden form­ing part of the exist­ing estab­lished res­taur­ant at The Old Bridge Inn in Aviemore. There is already an out­door seat­ing area serving the Inn known as ​‘The Shel­ter’ adja­cent to the devel­op­ment site and this pro­pos­al will more form­ally cre­ate an addi­tion­al sea­son­al space and bar to expand the busi­ness and increase capa­city dur­ing the busy sum­mer season.

5. The pro­pos­al does not com­prise any per­man­ent built devel­op­ment, but it will enhance the offer­ing and capa­city of the exist­ing busi­ness dur­ing the sum­mer sea­son. The devel­op­ment site lies dir­ectly oppos­ite the exist­ing Old Bridge Inn and Bunk­house and imme­di­ately north of sev­er­al hol­i­day lodges and chalets (part of anoth­er business).

6. Due to the exist­ing estab­lished oper­a­tion which already has both inside and out­side catering/​seating, the beer garden will not intro­duce a new or incom­pat­ible use. The area is already a pop­u­lar loc­a­tion for vis­it­ors and res­id­ents vis­it­ing the Old Bridge Inn and stay­ing in the nearby accom­mod­a­tion as well as canoeists/​river users using the Spey Access Point. This already cre­ates a degree of exist­ing dis­turb­ance on the site and as such, the pro­pos­al would not res­ult in unac­cept­able addi­tion­al envir­on­ment­al or amen­ity impacts.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 08/03/2024

1. The pro­pos­al is also com­pat­ible with the exist­ing busi­ness activ­ity in its imme­di­ate sur­round­ings and will con­tin­ue to sup­port the vital­ity of the loc­al eco­nomy. Over­all, the prin­ciple of this pro­pos­al com­plies with NPF4 Policy 26: Busi­ness and industry and Policy 2: Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.

Access

1. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing, part 3.3 Sus­tain­able Design requires that all devel­op­ment pro­pos­als must ​“main­tain all oppor­tun­it­ies for respons­ible out­door access, includ­ing links into the exist­ing path net­work and ensur­ing con­sist­ency with the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Core Paths Plan” (h).

2. There is a core path run­ning along the north­west­ern edge of the site (LBS36 – along Dal­faber Road) and anther through the site lead­ing to an access point onto the River Spey (LBS137).

3. A num­ber of con­cerns were raised in the rep­res­ent­a­tions about the impact of the pro­pos­al on the access point to the River Spey. At the request of CNPA’s Out­door Access Officer, an Access State­ment has been sub­mit­ted to address the con­cerns raised and ensure that access via the core path and for river users is always maintained.

4. The Access State­ment – which would be approved as part of any plan­ning per­mis­sion – will ensure that the fol­low­ing pro­vi­sions are adhered to at all times (amongst others):

a) ​“Unres­tric­ted ped­es­tri­an access to the River Spey, via our site, will be per­mit­ted and pro­moted at all times. Sig­nage will be erec­ted at the entry point, as well as a clear and per­man­ent state­ment at old​bridgeinn​.co​.uk & Aviemore​-bunk​house​.com.

b) Vehicu­lar access for drop off and unload­ing will be provided by way of the cre­ation of a load­ing / drop off point with­in our site. This will be for both river users and Old Bridge Inn cus­tom­ers and will be per­mit­ted for 30 minutes per vehicle/​visit. This will be made clear through the install­a­tion of sig­nage at the entry point from Dal­faber Road and at old​bridgeinn​.co​.uk & Aviemore​-bunk​house​.com.

c) No pic­nic benches, or any oth­er appar­at­us, shall be placed out­side of the Applic­a­tion bound­ary (shown in red), keep­ing the riverb­ank and river entry point entirely free to be used as inten­ded by the wider com­munity. Please note, at the request of the com­munity coun­cil, the Old Bridge Inn vol­un­tar­ily agreed to fore­go rights on its pre­vi­ous lease to allow the land own­er to cre­ate this separate

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 08/03/2024

sec­tion that included the riverb­ank, which could then be leased to the com­munity. We shall con­tin­ue to encour­age this com­munity asset.

d) A clear ped­es­tri­an cor­ridor (not­ated by the green arrows shown on the plan) no less than 2.5m in width shall be main­tained, from the Unload­ing / Drop-off bay to the river entry point. No pic­nic benches or oth­er obstacles will be placed here. The staff of the Old Bridge Inn will remain respons­ible for keep­ing this clear and will attend to this on a con­tinu­al basis. This is an unfenced cor­ridor, max­im­ising flex­ib­il­ity of access”.

1. CNPA’s Out­door Access Officer is sat­is­fied that the Access State­ment adequately addresses the key issues affect­ing access on the site, spe­cific­ally around the pro­vi­sion for vehicles to drop off / unload, sig­nage and the com­mit­ment to provide a clear cor­ridor through the seat­ing area for water users to reach the river.

2. Over­all, with the pro­vi­sions set out in the Access State­ment it is con­sidered that this pro­pos­al can oper­ate whilst ensur­ing con­tin­ued access for mem­bers of the pub­lic cross­ing the site and for river users. There­fore, it is con­sidered that the pro­pos­al meets the rel­ev­ant require­ments of Policy 3.

Traffic and Parking

1. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing, part 3.3 j) requires pro­pos­als to be designed to ​“include appro­pri­ate means of access, egress, levels of private amen­ity ground and space for off street park­ing”. Whilst this primar­ily relates to hous­ing, the prin­ciples for ensur­ing appro­pri­ate site access and park­ing are rel­ev­ant for all pro­pos­als. NPF4 Policy 13: Sus­tain­able Trans­port also seeks to encour­age, pro­mote and facil­it­ate pro­pos­als that pri­or­it­ise act­ive travel.

2. There is an exist­ing estab­lished access to the site which will remain unaltered. Many of the pub­lic rep­res­ent­a­tions raised the issue of park­ing and traffic along Dal­faber Road which they believe would be com­poun­ded due to the loss of park­ing on the site. It is pro­posed that dur­ing the sea­son when the beer garden is in oper­a­tion, there would be no park­ing on the site (oth­er than as set out in the Access State­ment for off-load­ing/ pick-up access to the river access point).

3. Accord­ing to the rep­res­ent­a­tions, Dal­faber Road can get very busy at peak times from the com­bin­a­tion of river users, vis­it­ors stay­ing in the sur­round­ing accom­mod­a­tion and cus­tom­ers of the Old Bridge Inn park­ing along it.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 08/03/2024

1. Whilst these con­cerns are noted, the High­land Council’s Trans­port Plan­ning Team have no con­cerns that the form­al­isa­tion of the beer garden will have any addi­tion­al adverse impacts on Dal­faber Road. The Old Bridge Inn will main­tain their car park on the west side of Dal­faber Road for their own cus­tom­ers, how­ever the wider park­ing con­cerns can­not be addressed by this plan­ning applic­a­tion on the basis that car park­ing for vis­it­ors to the beer garden will con­tin­ue to be provided across the road and the pres­sures on Dal­faber Road are cumulative.

2. In addi­tion, whilst not loc­ated with­in Aviemore’s town centre, the Old Bridge Inn is with­in close walk­ing dis­tance of it as well as being well con­nec­ted in terms of act­ive travel with sur­round­ing core paths and the cycle net­work. Cycle park­ing is also avail­able at the Old Bridge Inn and as such, these sus­tain­able trans­port links to the site can also be util­ised be visitors.

3. Over­all, it is con­sidered that there is adequate access and park­ing pro­vi­sion for this pro­pos­al, and there­fore com­plies with Policy 3: Design and Placemaking.

Flood­ing

1. Policy 22: Flood Risk and water man­age­ment of NPF4 states that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als at risk of flood­ing will only be sup­por­ted where it is for essen­tial infra­struc­ture; water com­pat­ible uses; redevel­op­ment for an equal or less vul­ner­able use; or for the redevel­op­ment of pre­vi­ously used sites where the LDP has iden­ti­fied a spe­cif­ic need to bring a site back into pos­it­ive use (Policy 22a).

2. In addi­tion, Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan, part 10.2 Flood­ing states that all devel­op­ment should be free from Medi­um to High risk of flood­ing; and not increase the risk of flood­ing else­where; and not add to an area of land requir­ing flood pre­ven­tion; and not impact on the func­tion­al floodplain.

3. Both SEPA and the High­land Council’s Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team acknow­ledge that the whole site lies with­in the flood­plain of the River Spey. Both con­sul­tees were sat­is­fied that use of the space as a beer garden is ancil­lary to the exist­ing Bridge Inn and does not include any new build­ings or hard­stand­ing. The pro­posed struc­tures are all tem­por­ary, move­able and would not impede the flow of flood­wa­ter or res­ult in the loss of flood­plain capa­city. As such, they did not object to the pro­pos­al, how­ever SEPA did recom­mend that ​“in line with sec­tion 7

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 08/03/2024

(small-scale street fur­niture) of our Stand­ing Advice on Flood Risk, the pic­nic benches are secured to avoid wash-out”. This will be included as an informative.

1. In addi­tion, the High­land Coun­cils Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team stated that ​“The applic­ant will need to have a suit­able flood evac­u­ation plan in place to ensure that the site is evacuated/​cleared in a timely fash­ion when flood­ing is pre­dicted”. This require­ment has been included as a condition.

2. Over­all, whilst the devel­op­ment site is at risk of flood­ing, its use is ancil­lary to an exist­ing busi­ness and does not seek to build any per­man­ent struc­tures on the site. There­fore, the pro­pos­al com­plies with the pro­vi­sions of NPF4 Policy 22 and Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Policy 10.

Envir­on­ment­al impacts

1. NPF4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity requires devel­op­ment pro­pos­als to con­trib­ute to the enhance­ment of biod­iversity and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment will not have an unac­cept­able impact on the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment, or any sig­ni­fic­ant effect on European Site des­ig­na­tions includ­ing Spe­cial Areas of Conservation.

2. In addi­tion, Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 requires new devel­op­ment to have no adverse effects on the integ­rity of des­ig­nated sites, the Nation­al Park or on pro­tec­ted spe­cies or habitats.

3. The devel­op­ment site lies adja­cent to the River Spey which is a Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion and Site of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest. How­ever, as noted by CNPA’s Eco­logy Advisor, it is already sub­ject to fre­quent dis­turb­ance and with very little ground veget­a­tion, the poten­tial for impact on species/​breeding birds is low. It was noted that giv­en there is no pro­posed con­struc­tion or excav­a­tion, pol­lu­tion of the River Spey is unlikely how­ever all ​‘built’ ele­ments of the pro­pos­al should remain more than 10 metres from the edge of the river. It is also sug­ges­ted that whilst enhance­ment oppor­tun­it­ies are lim­ited, the addi­tion of bird and/​or bat boxes may help to enhance the site.

4. A con­di­tion has been included to ensure there are no struc­tures with­in 10 metres of the river and an inform­at­ive in respect of bird / bat boxes. Over­all, this pro­pos­al com­plies with the pro­vi­sions of NPF4 Policy 4 and Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Policy 4.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 08/03/2024

Oth­er Issues Raised in Con­sulta­tions and Representations

1. One rep­res­ent­ee sug­ges­ted that a Man­age­ment Plan should be cre­ated for the site with a loc­al author­ity or CNPA tak­ing over the lease to devel­op and main­tain the site in line with the aims of the Nation­al Park. It is sug­ges­ted that it could be designed to allow for park­ing, water sports access and a mod­est beer garden.

2. Whilst this com­ment is noted, it is out­with the scope of and not rel­ev­ant to this plan­ning application.

CON­CLU­SION

1. This plan­ning applic­a­tion seeks partly ret­ro­spect­ive per­mis­sion to cre­ate a sea­son­al beer garden on a site that has already been used as a car park and pic­nic area for a num­ber of years. The pro­pos­al will not intro­duce any per­man­ent struc­tures on the site and is ancil­lary to the use of the Old Bridge Inn. Whilst a num­ber of con­cerns have been raised about access, these have been sat­is­fact­or­ily addressed in the Access State­ment which will ensure that access is main­tained and man­aged on the site at all times. Over­all, the use as a sea­son­al beer garden will not res­ult in any adverse envir­on­ment­al or amen­ity impacts. This pro­pos­al com­plies with the rel­ev­ant NPF4 and Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies and there are no mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions which would war­rant the refus­al of plan­ning per­mis­sion. Approv­al is there­fore recom­men­ded sub­ject to appro­pri­ate plan­ning conditions.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee APPROVE a recom­mend­a­tion to the Change of use of land to beer garden (in ret­ro­spect) at Land 45M SE Of Old Bridge Inn 23 Dal­faber Road Aviemore for the fol­low­ing reasons/​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. 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.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 08/03/2024

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

1. No ​‘built’ ele­ments (pic­nic benches or fur­niture asso­ci­ated with the pro­pos­al) should be situ­ated with­in ten metres of the River Spey.

Reas­on: To ensure the pro­tec­tion of the River Spey SAC in accord­ance with NPF4 Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Places and the Cairngorms Nation­al Parks Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Heritage.

1. The devel­op­ment, hereby approved, shall oper­ate in full accord­ance with the approved Access State­ment unless oth­er­wise agreed in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Authority.

Reas­on: To ensure pub­lic access to the River Spey Access Point and core paths are main­tained at all times in accord­ance with Policy 3: Design and Placemaking.

1. The devel­op­ment, hereby approved, shall not oper­ate until a Flood Evac­u­ation Man­age­ment Plan has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with the High­land Council’s Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team.

Reas­on: To ensure that site can be cleared in a timely man­ner when flood­ing is pre­dicted and to com­ply with NPF4 Policy 22 and Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Policy 10.

Inform­at­ives

1. The devel­op­ment hereby approved must com­mence with­in 3 years of the date of this decision notice. If devel­op­ment has not com­menced with­in this peri­od then this plan­ning per­mis­sion will lapse.

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

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 08/03/2024

costly to rec­ti­fy. Fail­ure to give notice would con­sti­tute a breach of plan­ning con­trol which may res­ult in enforce­ment action being taken.

1. Fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, a noti­fic­a­tion of 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.

2. On account of the flood risk that exists on the site, SEPA has advised that the fur­niture and struc­tures asso­ci­ated with this pro­pos­al are secured to avoid wash-out and any struc­tures being washed into the river.

3. It is sug­ges­ted that whilst enhance­ment oppor­tun­it­ies are lim­ited, the addi­tion of bird and/​or bat boxes may help to enhance the site.

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.

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