Item5Appendix 2 AppealDecision2019/00003/DETand2019/0006/LBC

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 Appendix 2 26/04/2019

AGENDA ITEM 5

APPENDIX 2

2019/0003/DET & 2019/0006/LBC

APPEAL DECISIONS

Plan­ning and Envir­on­ment­al Appeals Divi­sion Appeal Decision Notice T: 0300 244 6668 F: 0131 244 8988 E: [email protected]

Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Riaghaltas na h‑Alba gov.scot

Decision by Chris Nor­man, a Report­er appoin­ted by the Scot­tish Min­is­ters • Plan­ning appeal ref­er­ence: PPA-001‑2018 • Site address: Bal­later Old School, Abergel­die Road, Bal­later AB35 5RR • Appeal by Grampi­an Hous­ing Asso­ci­ation against the decision by Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity. • Applic­a­tion for plan­ning per­mis­sion 2017/0284/DET dated 24 July 2017 refused by notice dated 25 May 2018. • The devel­op­ment pro­posed: demoli­tion of ancil­lary build­ings, con­ver­sion of school to 10 dwell­ing­houses, rein­state­ment of school­houses to form 2 dwell­ing­houses, erec­tion of 3 dwell­ing­houses and 11 flats (afford­able houses), form­a­tion of access and alter­a­tions to bound­ary walls. • Applic­a­tion draw­ings lis­ted in sched­ule. • Date of site vis­it by Report­er: 17 Septem­ber 2018

Date of appeal decision: 22 Octo­ber 2018

Decision

I allow the appeal and grant plan­ning per­mis­sion sub­ject to the 14 con­di­tions lis­ted at the end of the decision notice. Atten­tion is drawn to the 12 advis­ory notes at the end of the notice.

Pre­lim­in­ary Matter

The decision on an appeal relat­ing to lis­ted build­ing con­sent for the pro­pos­al (ref­er­ence LBA-001‑2000) has been issued in a sep­ar­ate decision notice.

Reas­on­ing

1. I am required to determ­ine this appeal in accord­ance with the devel­op­ment plan, unless mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions indic­ate oth­er­wise. The devel­op­ment plan com­prises the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 (the loc­al devel­op­ment plan). Because the appeal site is loc­ated with­in a con­ser­va­tion area I must also have regard to the duty imposed by sec­tion 64(1) of the Plan­ning (Lis­ted Build­ings and Con­ser­va­tion Areas) (Scot­land) Act 1997 (the 1997 Act). This requires that I pay spe­cial atten­tion to the desirab­il­ity of pre­serving or enhan­cing the char­ac­ter or appear­ance of the con­ser­va­tion area. Bal­later Old School is a cat­egory ​‘C’ lis­ted build­ing. Under sec­tion 59(1) of the 1997 Act I must have spe­cial regard to the desirab­il­ity of pre­serving the build­ing or its set­ting or any fea­tures of spe­cial archi­tec­tur­al or his­tor­ic interest which it possesses.

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1. Hav­ing regard to the pro­vi­sions of the devel­op­ment plan the main issues in this appeal are wheth­er the design of the pro­posed devel­op­ment would have an adverse impact upon the lis­ted Bal­later Old School and Bal­later con­ser­va­tion area; wheth­er it would have an adverse effect on the amen­ity of the occu­pi­ers of adja­cent dwell­ing­houses; and finally wheth­er the pro­pos­al would adversely impact on road safety, espe­cially on School Lane.

2. Loc­ated between School Lane and Abergel­die Road in a mainly res­id­en­tial part of Bal­later, the site is bounded by a mix of house-types, with the Queen’s Bar­racks and a nurs­ing home to the west. The former school has been unused for some 20 years. Although it is show­ing no obvi­ous out­ward signs of sig­ni­fic­ant deteri­or­a­tion, with­in its cur­til­age sev­er­al dis­used ancil­lary build­ings lie semi-derel­ict. These build­ings, along with unmain­tained veget­a­tion and the vacant appear­ance of the lis­ted build­ing under­mine the qual­ity and appear­ance of the con­ser­va­tion area. Des­pite its inclu­sion in the Build­ings at Risk Register for around 8 years, the lis­ted build­ing has remained vacant since its closure.

3. Fol­low­ing design amend­ments, the pro­posed mix of 26 res­id­en­tial units, informed by loc­al need and demand, forms part of Aber­deen­shire Council’s pro­gramme for afford­able hous­ing. Sup­por­ted by the coun­cil, the devel­op­ment would assist in meet­ing hous­ing need with­in the Bal­later area. The pro­pos­al sees the reten­tion of Bal­later Old School and a new- build ele­ment with­in its cur­til­age. Vehicu­lar access from School Lane would lead to the two pro­posed car parks, provid­ing 28 spaces. Veget­a­tion along Abergel­die Road would be retained and augmented.

The devel­op­ment plan

1. The loc­al devel­op­ment plan con­tains sev­en rel­ev­ant policies. Policy 1: ​‘New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment’ sets out para­met­ers for new hous­ing devel­op­ment in set­tle­ments. Policy 3: ​‘Sus­tain­able Design’ sup­ports the reuse of redund­ant build­ings where the con­ver­sion works main­tain the style and char­ac­ter of the ori­gin­al build­ing, where the pro­pos­al ensures that new devel­op­ment pro­tects the amen­ity of neigh­bours and that it has a suit­able access. Policy 5: ​‘Land­scape’ requires devel­op­ment to con­serve and enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and in par­tic­u­lar the set­ting of the pro­posed devel­op­ment. Policy 9: ​‘Cul­tur­al Her­it­age’ sup­ports the con­ser­va­tion and enhance­ment of lis­ted build­ings and requires that devel­op­ment in a con­ser­va­tion area enhances its char­ac­ter. The loc­al devel­op­ment plan’s alloc­a­tion of the appeal site as ​‘C1’ is for com­munity use which may include afford­able hous­ing, and acknow­ledges its built her­it­age challenges.

The impact of the pro­posed devel­op­ment on Bal­later con­ser­va­tion area and Bal­later Old School

1. Turn­ing firstly to the built her­it­age of Bal­later, the Nation­al Park Author­ity refused plan­ning per­mis­sion, in part, because it con­sidered that the pro­pos­al was not sym­path­et­ic to the tra­di­tion­al pat­tern and char­ac­ter of the sur­round­ing area and it was there­fore incon­sist­ent with policy 3.1b of the loc­al devel­op­ment plan. In sup­port of its decision the Nation­al Park Author­ity rests on the minutes of its meet­ing on 25 May 2018 and does not spe­cify in any spe­cif­ic reas­ons why the pro­pos­al is not befit­ting its loc­a­tion, in built her­it­age terms. Oth­ers oppos­ing the devel­op­ment, includ­ing Bal­later and Crath­ie Com­munity Coun­cil, also con­sider that the pro­pos­al is insuf­fi­ciently sym­path­et­ic to the con­ser­va­tion area and the lis­ted build­ing, due in par­tic­u­lar to its scale. Con­versely, to the appel­lant the

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scheme is designed to a high stand­ard by incor­por­at­ing the sens­it­ive reuse of the lis­ted build­ing, main­tain­ing the use of tra­di­tion­al build­ing mater­i­als and incor­por­at­ing loc­al ver­nacu­lar design and dis­tinct­ive­ness. This is acknow­ledged by the Nation­al Park Authority’s plan­ning officer and His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scotland.

1. On my site inspec­tion I observed, over­all, the very high-qual­ity town­scape of this part of Bal­later con­ser­va­tion area, char­ac­ter­ised extens­ively by tra­di­tion­al build­ing styles with loc­al fin­ish­ing mater­i­als. Nev­er­the­less, the appeal site is one of the few places where the appear­ance and integ­rity of the con­ser­va­tion area is under­mined. Spe­cific­ally, I find that it is marred by the unmain­tained appear­ance and con­di­tion of the site, the derel­ict ancil­lary build­ings, some with asbes­tos present, the secur­ity fen­cing in School Lane, the unmain­tained veget­a­tion and the boarded-up former school buildings.

2. This part of Bal­later con­ser­va­tion area is char­ac­ter­ised by tra­di­tion­ally designed hous­ing, with the Queen’s Bar­racks and the nurs­ing home in Abergel­die Road well integ­rated with­in the town­scape. The pro­pos­al includes the reten­tion of the gran­ite and slate fin­ishes of the exist­ing build­ings; new win­dows would be con­struc­ted to match exist­ing fen­es­tra­tion; and new build prop­er­ties would be fin­ished in a mix­ture of tim­ber clad­ding, harled walls and slate roofs. When seen in this over­all town­scape con­text, I am in no doubt that the pro­pos­al is a sym­path­et­ic use for the site, com­ple­men­ted by the con­ver­sion of the import­ant but vacant lis­ted build­ing, in accord­ance with its loc­al devel­op­ment plan alloc­a­tion ​‘C1’. The replace­ment of the unsightly and derel­ict ancil­lary build­ings by a scheme with a design that reflects loc­al ver­nacu­lar archi­tec­ture would remove this dis­cord­ant and very neg­at­ive ele­ment with­in the con­ser­va­tion area.

3. The redevel­op­ment of vacant or under­used land is sup­por­ted by policy 1 of the loc­al devel­op­ment plan. Policy 3 sup­ports the pro­pos­al giv­en the reten­tion of the char­ac­ter of the ori­gin­al build­ing and policy 9 sup­ports the con­ser­va­tion and enhance­ment of lis­ted build­ings. Over­all, I find that the pro­pos­al would be sym­path­et­ic to the pat­tern and char­ac­ter of the sur­round­ing area, dis­play­ing a dis­tinct­ive loc­al ver­nacu­lar design and fin­ish. None of the pro­posed changes to the lis­ted build­ing would harm any of its fea­tures of spe­cial archi­tec­tur­al or his­tor­ic interest, includ­ing its goth­ic detailed classroom with ped­i­men­ted gable­heads, the two school­houses, its design, fen­es­tra­tion details and loc­al fin­ish­ing mater­i­als. I there­fore con­clude that there is no ten­sion between the design and appear­ance of the pro­posed devel­op­ment and both the spe­cial archi­tec­tur­al and his­tor­ic interest of the lis­ted build­ing and the built her­it­age of Bal­later con­ser­va­tion area. Rather, the exist­ing neg­at­ive effects of the vacant and semi-derel­ict site would be replaced by a pro­pos­al incor­por­at­ing a befit­ting high-qual­ity design.

The impact of the pro­posed devel­op­ment on the amen­ity of the occu­pi­ers of adja­cent dwellinghouses.

1. To sup­port its decision, the Nation­al Park Author­ity rests on the minutes of its meet­ing of 25 May 2018. The pro­pos­al is seen to con­flict with policy 3.1 of the loc­al devel­op­ment plan because it does not pro­tect the amen­ity of neigh­bours. Spe­cific­ally it is argued that it would have inad­equate car park­ing pro­vi­sion, it would provide poor domest­ic amen­ity, par­tic­u­larly for the flat­ted units, there would be a lack of recre­ation­al space espe­cially for chil­dren and adverse road safety impacts would arise. Con­sequently the pro­pos­al, which could accom­mod­ate upto 83 res­id­ents, would be tan­tamount to over­de­vel­op­ment and

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cause access issues on School Lane. To oth­er parties oppos­ing the devel­op­ment includ­ing the com­munity coun­cil, influ­enced in no small part by what is com­monly regarded as its excess­ive scale, the proposal’s inad­equate open­space, insuf­fi­cient car park­ing, and a poor rela­tion­ship with exist­ing houses would, in turn, adversely affect exist­ing levels of pri­vacy, day­light and amenity.

1. Turn­ing firstly to the adequacy of open space pro­vi­sion I note that the site is loc­ated around 300 metres west of an area of pub­lic open space in cent­ral Bal­later. In addi­tion to this pro­vi­sion I am sat­is­fied that on the site there is adequate on-site land­scap­ing and open space for the bene­fit of its res­id­ents, reflect­ing the plan­ning authority’s sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance. Spe­cific­ally, the over­all amen­ity of the built devel­op­ment would be inter­spersed by grassed areas. The amen­ity space for houses, framed by attract­ive hedge plant­ing, would provide a nat­ur­al frame­work for the devel­op­ment with, albeit, lim­ited areas of com­mun­al use. Path­ways would provide sat­is­fact­ory cir­cu­la­tion space around the devel­op­ment. In par­tic­u­lar the set­ting of the lis­ted build­ing would be enhanced and it would remain dom­in­ant in the streets­cape, par­tic­u­larly when viewed from Abergel­die Road. A plan­ning con­di­tion can require the land­scap­ing to be main­tained to an accept­able standard.

2. The loss of pri­vacy, light and amen­ity and the poor rela­tion­ship to adjoin­ing houses, in terms of scale, is argued by those oppos­ing the devel­op­ment. Accord­ingly, I have care­fully stud­ied the extern­al and intern­al details of the pro­pos­al, and its rela­tion­ship with exist­ing build­ings. I am sat­is­fied that the pro­pos­al, when seen from Abergel­die Road, is adequately sep­ar­ated from exist­ing houses and there is no loss of res­id­en­tial amen­ity or pri­vacy. Sim­il­arly, because of the lay­out of exist­ing houses in School Lane there would be no day­light­ing, sun­light­ing or sig­ni­fic­ant over­look­ing or pri­vacy issues caused by the development.

3. It has been argued by those oppos­ing the devel­op­ment that dis­turb­ance due to vehicle noise or a reduc­tion in air qual­ity would be a con­sequence of the pro­pos­al, par­tic­u­larly along School Lane. How­ever this is not sup­por­ted by either the Nation­al Park Author­ity or the coun­cil and no tech­nic­al assess­ment made from an envir­on­ment­al health per­spect­ive has been provided to me; nor has evid­ence been sub­mit­ted to sup­port the view that dam­age to adja­cent build­ings would ensue from the increased use of School Lane. The sub­mis­sion of a con­struc­tion meth­od state­ment set­ting para­met­ers for con­struc­tion activ­it­ies can be required as a plan­ning con­di­tion and can ensure safe and sat­is­fact­ory access is avail­able dur­ing the con­struc­tion period.

4. Draw­ing thses strands togeth­er I con­clude that the pro­pos­al com­plies with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design.

The impact of the pro­posed devel­op­ment on ped­es­tri­an and road safety.

1. Car park­ing pro­vi­sion, com­pris­ing 28 unal­loc­ated spaces, includ­ing 2 for dis­abled per­sons and 3 for vis­it­ors, would be accessed from School Lane, a nar­row but lengthy cul- de-sac with a restric­ted foot­way. It is also pro­posed to provide on-site bicycle stor­age. Object­ors, includ­ing the com­munity coun­cil, set out their con­cerns about the road safety implic­a­tions of the pro­pos­al, spe­cific­ally refer­ring to on-street car park­ing, revers­ing and drivers’ vis­ib­il­ity, espe­cially in School Lane. No tech­nic­al evid­ence on road safety has been sub­mit­ted by the plan­ning author­ity in evid­ence to sup­port its decision to refuse planning

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per­mis­sion. This is des­pite the iter­at­ive sequence of con­sulta­tion responses from Aber­deen­shire Council’s Roads Devel­op­ment Ser­vice which con­tain a tech­nic­al assess­ment of the site’s access and identi­fy a solu­tion to the road safety implic­a­tions of the proposal.

1. On my site inspec­tion I observed in detail the cur­rent on-street car park­ing arrange­ments around the site. In both Abergel­die Road and School Lane on-street park­ing is con­trolled for three months each year, albeit in Abergel­die Road only west of the site front­age. Against this back­ground I observed the geo­metry and width of Abergel­die Road and the off-road car park­ing pro­vi­sion in many of the lar­ger houses there. I con­clude that, des­pite the park­ing con­trols, the lin­ear lay­out of Abergel­die Road aids man­oeuv­rab­il­ity and the lar­ger drive­ways of the houses it serves will reduce demands for on-street car park­ing from exist­ing res­id­ents and their vis­it­ors. Sim­il­arly its width would read­ily facil­it­ate the col­lec­tion of refuse, thereby avoid­ing School Lane for that pur­pose. The Roads Devel­op­ment Ser­vice con­sider that park­ing pro­vi­sion for the devel­op­ment is assisted by lim­ited on-street car park­ing on the east­ern part of Abergel­die Road, for vis­it­ors and for the two ren­ov­ated school­houses, as would have happened in the past.

2. I am mind­ful of the phys­ic­al con­straints caused by the less­er width of School Lane and its asso­ci­ated foot­ways. I agree with the Roads Devel­op­ment Ser­vice that obstruct­ive park­ing on School Lane could hinder both the free-flow of cars and ped­es­tri­ans. To aid site access, egress and on-site park­ing, although not sup­por­ted by the com­munity coun­cil and those oppos­ing the devel­op­ment, phys­ic­al amend­ments to the two access points on School Lane are pro­posed. This would include a reduc­tion in the height of the adja­cent wall and realign­ments to the foot­way adjoin­ing each access point. I am sat­is­fied that the par­tial alter­a­tions to the bound­ary wall would not sig­ni­fic­antly impact upon the his­tor­ic qual­it­ies of the site. I also note the appellant’s pos­it­ive approach to the man­age­ment of ten­ants’ park­ing. As acknow­ledged by the Roads Devel­op­ment Ser­vice, with these enhanced access arrange­ments in place I am sat­is­fied that the appeal pro­pos­al would provide adequate car park­ing and would not exacer­bate any cur­rent road safety concerns.

The loc­al devel­op­ment plan; over­all conclusion.

1. The appeal site is alloc­ated in the loc­al devel­op­ment plan for a com­munity use which can include afford­able hous­ing. The pro­pos­al would enhance Bal­later con­ser­va­tion area by re-using a loc­ally import­ant lis­ted build­ing and remedi­at­ing unsightly derel­ict land to provide afford­able hous­ing in line with Aber­deen­shire Council’s hous­ing needs and demand assess­ment. It com­plies with loc­al devel­op­ment plan policy 1: ​‘New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment’. The pro­pos­al is sym­path­et­ic to the char­ac­ter of the area, it has sat­is­fact­ory open­space and it would not impact in any sig­ni­fic­ant way on the amen­ity of neigh­bours and is in com­pli­ance with policy 3 ​‘Sus­tain­able Design’. The proposal’s on-site land­scap­ing would com­ple­ment bio-diversity con­cur­rently with the remedi­ation of derel­ict land, in accord­ance with policy 5 ​‘Land­scape’. Finally, by con­serving the lis­ted build­ing and enhan­cing the char­ac­ter and appear­ance of the con­ser­va­tion area the pro­pos­al is com­pli­ant with policy 9 ​‘Cul­tur­al Heritage’.

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Mater­i­al considerations.

1. I have had regard to the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan, Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy, Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 3 and the plan­ning authority’s non-stat­utory plan­ning guid­ance which are mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions and which point to the need for afford­able hous­ing to sus­tain rur­al com­munit­ies and the pro­tec­tion the his­tor­ic envir­on­ment through pos­it­ive change.

2. The views expressed by the some 22 parties who have made rep­res­ent­a­tions on the pro­pos­al, expressed on a plan­ning mat­ter, are mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions. My find­ings on the design of the pro­pos­al, its impact on res­id­en­tial amen­ity and its access are set out above. I am sat­is­fied that there are no infra­struc­ture imped­i­ments to the site’s devel­op­ment and the pro­pos­al will not adversely impact on tour­ism or exacer­bate con­ges­tion in Bal­later. Con­di­tions can address mat­ters such as archae­ology, con­struc­tion meth­ods, con­tam­in­ated land, pro­tec­ted spe­cies, refuse col­lec­tion and the remov­al of asbes­tos. Mat­ters such as the intern­al man­age­ment of refuse col­lec­tion, the pro­vi­sion of out­door dry­ing facil­it­ies, the fin­an­cial viab­il­ity of the pro­pos­al, the res­ult­ant social mix of res­id­ents in this part of Bal­later and the means of alloc­at­ing prop­er­ties are mat­ters for the appel­lant and are not mater­i­al to the con­sid­er­a­tion of this appeal.

3. The Nation­al Park Author­ity has pro­posed the impos­i­tion of 14 plan­ning con­di­tions, as set out in its com­mit­tee report, if plan­ning per­mis­sion is to be gran­ted. The appel­lant is agree­able to the scope and terms of these con­di­tions. I find that each of the pro­posed plan­ning con­di­tions as draf­ted by the Nation­al Park Author­ity are appro­pri­ate and sat­is­fy the terms of Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Cir­cu­lar 4/1998 ​‘The use of con­di­tions in plan­ning permissions’.

4. Hav­ing regard to the stat­utory duty imposed by the 1997 Act, I con­clude that the site of Old Bal­later School has the capa­city to absorb the scale and the visu­al impact of the pro­pos­al and con­sequently it would not be to the det­ri­ment of the char­ac­ter and appear­ance of Bal­later con­ser­va­tion area. I sim­il­arly con­sider that the pro­pos­al would pre­serve the lis­ted build­ing and its set­ting and the fea­tures of spe­cial archi­tec­tur­al or his­tor­ic interest which it possesses.

5. I there­fore con­clude, for the reas­ons set out above, that the pro­posed devel­op­ment accords over­all with the rel­ev­ant pro­vi­sions of the devel­op­ment plan and that there are no mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions which would still jus­ti­fy refus­ing to grant plan­ning per­mis­sion. I have con­sidered all the oth­er mat­ters raised, but there are none which would lead me to alter my conclusions.

Chris Nor­man Reporter

PPA-001‑2018 7 List of conditions

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until details of the pro­posed main­ten­ance arrange­ments for the approved scheme for the dis­pos­al of sur­face water by means of a SUDS scheme have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity, in con­sulta­tion with the Aber­deen­shire Council’s Flood Risk and Coastal Pro­tec­tion Team. The sur­face water drain­age arrange­ments shall there­after be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the approved plans. They shall be cer­ti­fied by an appro­pri­ately qual­i­fied pro­fes­sion­al to con­firm their com­pli­ance. This cer­ti­fic­a­tion shall sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity, in con­sulta­tion with Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Flood Risk and Coastal Pro­tec­tion Team, before any res­id­en­tial unit is occu­pied. The scheme shall there­after be main­tained in accord­ance with the approved details through­out the life­time of the devel­op­ment hereby approved.

Reas­on: to ensure that sat­is­fact­ory arrange­ments for the dis­pos­al of sur­face water and foul drain­age are provided in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design, Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until a fully detailed land­scap­ing scheme has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity. This scheme shall include the fol­low­ing requirements:

a) details of all hard land­scap­ing and all trees to be retained and the trees and shrubs to be planted, spe­cify­ing the details of spe­cies, num­ber, loc­a­tion, sizes and plant­ing dis­tances; and b) main­ten­ance and man­age­ment details, and a timetable for implementation.

The land­scap­ing and tree reten­tion shall be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the approved details and timetable and main­tained there­after in accord­ance with the approved details through­out the life­time of the devel­op­ment hereby approved.

Reas­on: to ensure that a suit­able land­scape set­ting is estab­lished with trees appro­pri­ate to the streets­cape, biod­iversity is enhanced and that the devel­op­ment con­serves and enhances the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park in accord­ance with Policy 5: Land­scape and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until a revised light­ing plan has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity. This plan shall include the details of the pos­i­tion and intens­ity of all pro­posed light­ing and accord with the need to ensure that any light­ing on the east side of the build­ing does not impact adversely on bat roosts. All light­ing shall there­after be imple­men­ted and main­tained in accord­ance with the approved details.

Reas­on: to ensure that light­ing at the site con­serves and enhances the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park and does not adversely affect European Protected

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Spe­cies in the area in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Resources and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until details of the arrange­ments for the pro­vi­sion of com­mun­al waste and recyc­ling con­tain­ers have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity in con­sulta­tion with Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Waste Man­age­ment Ser­vice. There­after no res­id­en­tial unit shall be occu­pied until its waste man­age­ment pro­vi­sion has been provided in accord­ance with the approved plans and main­tained there­after in accord­ance with the approved scheme through­out the life­time of the devel­op­ment hereby approved.

Reas­on: to ensure that sat­is­fact­ory arrange­ments are made for the col­lec­tion, stor­age and recyc­ling of waste in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until pro­tect­ive bar­ri­ers or fen­cing have been provided in accord­ance with the approved tree pro­tec­tion plan. All trees shall there­after be pro­tec­ted in accord­ance with the approved tree pro­tec­tion plan through­out the con­struc­tion of the devel­op­ment, sub­ject to the caveat that, unless oth­er­wise agreed in writ­ing with the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity, path con­struc­tion under Scots Pine 5083 shall be by ​“no dig” con­struc­tion and there shall be no wooden edge to the path in this loc­a­tion. The trees shall there­after be retained on site in accord­ance with the approved land­scape scheme.

Reas­on: to ensure the pro­tec­tion of retained trees through­out the con­struc­tion peri­od and so ensure that the devel­op­ment con­serves and enhances the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park in accord­ance with Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until the fol­low­ing inform­a­tion has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity in con­sulta­tion with the Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Envir­on­ment Team:

a) Details of any photo­vol­ta­ic pan­els and ground source heat­ing. Guid­ance should be sought from His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scotland’s Man­aging Change Guid­ance Note on Micro- renew­ables; b) samples of all mater­i­als to be used in the devel­op­ment includ­ing the pro­posed harling and the sur­fa­cing of park­ing areas; and c) details of the alter­a­tions to the walls and pil­lars on School Lane, the design of which must be as close to the ori­gin­al as possible.

The devel­op­ment shall there­after be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the approved details.

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

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1. No res­id­en­tial unit shall be occu­pied until the vis­ib­il­ity and access widen­ing works at the access points onto School Lane have been imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the approved plans, which shall be retained there­after through­out the life­time of the devel­op­ment hereby approved.

Reas­on: in the interests of road and ped­es­tri­an safety to ensure that there is appro­pri­ate access to the site in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity has approved a con­struc­tion meth­od state­ment and the devel­op­ment shall be con­struc­ted in accord­ance with the meth­od state­ment so approved. All con­struc­tion works shall be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the approved Con­struc­tion Traffic Man­age­ment Plan.

Reas­on: in the interests of amen­ity, road and ped­es­tri­an safety to ensure that dis­turb­ance to adja­cent res­id­ents is min­im­ised and that there is appro­pri­ate access to the site in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. Devel­op­ment shall be under­taken in accord­ance with the approved ​‘Swift Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan’ and any mit­ig­a­tion or com­pens­at­ory fea­tures required to be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the approved plan including:-

(a) The pro­vi­sion of a single swift brick to be incor­por­ated in the second-storey level on a north-facing wall of one of the new build­ings dur­ing con­struc­tion and before com­ple­tion of the rel­ev­ant unit; and (b) details of works under­taken to pro­tect or mit­ig­ate the loss of the exist­ing nest­ing sub­mit­ted in writ­ing to and approved by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity before any unit is occupied.

All fea­tures to be retained there­after through­out the life­time of the devel­op­ment hereby approved.

Reas­on: to ensure that the devel­op­ment does not adversely affect wild­life interests in the area in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Resources of Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. Devel­op­ment shall be under­taken in accord­ance with the approved ​‘Bat Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan’. All mit­ig­a­tion set out in the approved plan, includ­ing the tim­ing of works, shall be imple­men­ted in accord­ance the details con­tained in the plan and any com­pens­at­ory fea­tures shall be retained through­out the life­time of the devel­op­ment hereby approved.

Reas­on: to ensure that the devel­op­ment does not adversely affect European Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies in the area in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. The res­id­en­tial units hereby approved shall be retained as social ren­ted housing.

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Reas­on: to ensure that pro­vi­sion is made for afford­able hous­ing and that the ten­ure remains as con­sidered in this applic­a­tion in rela­tion to the required park­ing pro­vi­sion in accord­ance with Policy 1: Hous­ing Devel­op­ment and Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. No res­id­en­tial unit shall be occu­pied until it is con­nec­ted to pub­lic water and drain­age supplies.

Reas­on: to ensure that the devel­op­ment is appro­pri­ately ser­viced in accord­ance with Policy 10: Resources and Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. No res­id­en­tial unit shall be occu­pied until the cycle park­ing, car park­ing, ped­es­tri­an and vehicu­lar accesses, deliv­ery and turn­ing arrange­ments have been formed and sur­faced in accord­ance with the approved plans. All park­ing and turn­ing spaces shall be kept free for this pur­pose at all times and park­ing spaces shall not be alloc­ated to indi­vidu­al prop­er­ties and shall be there­after retained in this man­ner through­out the life­time of the devel­op­ment hereby approved.

Reas­on: in the interests of road and ped­es­tri­an safety to ensure that there is sat­is­fact­ory park­ing and turn­ing pro­vi­sion made on site in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 and to avoid over­spill park­ing in the wider area.

1. The devel­op­ment shall be com­pleted in accord­ance with the approved plans and design and con­ser­va­tion statements.

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

Sched­ule of approved plans Traffic Man­age­ment Plan; 1 Janu­ary 2018; Loc­a­tion Plan 001; 1 Decem­ber 2015; Exist­ing Roof/​Site Plan 003; 1 Octo­ber 2016; Exist­ing Elev­a­tions Sec­tions 004 Rev A; 1 Octo­ber 2016; Exist­ing Elev­a­tions Sec­tions 005 Rev A; 1 Octo­ber 2016; Pro­posed roof /​site plan 012 Rev D; 5 April 2018; Pro­posed Ground Floor Plan 010 Rev H; 5 April 2018; Pro­posed First Floor Plan 011 Rev F; 5 April 2018; Pro­posed Elev­a­tions and Sec­tions 1 Plan 013 Rev F; 5 April 2018 Sec­tions I Plan — Pro­posed Elev­a­tions and Sec­tions 2 014 Rev F; 5 April 2018 Sec­tions 2 Plan — Pro­posed Demoli­tion 017; 1July 2017 Pro­posed Hous­ing Units 015 Rev F; 5 April18 Design Amend­ments com­par­is­on; 1 April 2018 Com­mun­al Bin Store B232 Oth­er — Bike Store Details

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Pre­lim­in­ary Sur­faces Lay­out 102 Rev C; 6 April 2018 Design State­ment 1 July 2018 Design Amend­ment State­ment; 1 April 2017 Tree Sur­vey Report by 01/02/17 Stru­an Dalgleish Arbor­i­cul­ture Tree Sur­vey Draw­ing by Stru­an Dalgleish Arbor­i­cul­ture Tree Sur­vey Sched­ule by Stru­an Dalgleish Arbor­i­cul­ture; 1 Janu­ary 2018 Tree Pro­tec­tion Plan by Stru­an Dalgleish Arbor­i­cul­ture; 1 Janu­ary 2018 Swift Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan; 01/02/18 Bat Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan; 01/02/18 Drain­age Impact C2522 Rev C; 4 April 2018 Pre­lim­in­ary drain­age lay­out 10 I Rev E; 06/04/18 Pro­posed cell loc­a­tions 001 Rev A 01/03/18 I 1/04/18, Oth­er- show­ing root­space 1 cell with trees in soft land­scape; 0001 rev.A; 1 March 2018 Oth­er — tree pit sys­tem install­a­tion root­space under foot­path GBU 2018 Rev A; 1 Feb­ru­ary 2018 Swept paths — van and car 100 rev F; 6 April 2018 Asbes­tos refur­bish­ment and com­bined demoli­tion sur­vey. Environtec J346282; 1 Novem­ber 2016 Ground Invest­ig­a­tion Report by Green Cat Renew­ables; 21 April 2017 Tim­ber sur­vey report by Richard­son and Starling 7 April 20118

Inform­at­ives

1. This plan­ning per­mis­sion will lapse on the expir­a­tion of a peri­od of three years from the date of this decision notice, unless the devel­op­ment has been star­ted with­in that peri­od (See sec­tion 58(1) of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997 (as amended)).

2. The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment should note that should any con­tam­in­a­tion of the ground be dis­covered dur­ing devel­op­ment the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity shall be noti­fied imme­di­ately. The extent and nature of the con­tam­in­a­tion shall be invest­ig­ated and a suit­able scheme for the mit­ig­a­tion of any risks arising from the con­tam­in­a­tion should be agreed and imple­men­ted to the sat­is­fac­tion of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with Aber­deen­shire Council’s Sci­entif­ic Officer. The respons­ib­il­ity for ensur­ing the safe devel­op­ment of the site rests with the developer.

3. The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment should note that adequate pro­vi­sion must be made for intern­al sur­face water drain­age to ensure that sur­face water does not run from the site onto the pub­lic road or vice versa; and that adequate pre­cau­tions must be taken to pro­tect any stat­utory under­takers’ plant which may be affected by the development.

4. The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment should note that an applic­a­tion for a road excav­a­tion per­mit must be sub­mit­ted to Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Infra­struc­ture Area Roads Office at least 15 days pri­or to the com­mence­ment of any excav­a­tion works with­in the bound­ar­ies of the pub­lic road. Fail­ure to obtain a per­mit is an offence under the terms of Sec­tion 56 of the Roads (Scot­land) Act 1984. The pub­lic road may incor­por­ate car­riage­way, verge, cycleway/​footway and vis­ib­il­ity envel­opes. Fur­ther details can be obtained from the council’s web­site or call the Area Office (Marr) on 019755 64920.

5. The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment should note that a leg­al agree­ment under the terms of Sec­tion 56 of the Roads (Scot­land) Act 1984 will be required for any major works

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required to be under­taken on the exist­ing pub­lic road net­work. A road bond or secur­ity will be required as a con­di­tion of any such agreement.

1. The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment should note that the remov­al and dis­pos­al of asbes­tos con­tain­ing mater­i­als should be under­taken in accord­ance with rel­ev­ant legis­la­tion. Fur­ther inform­a­tion is provided in the attached guid­ance note can be obtained from the plan­ning authority.

2. The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment should note that Scot­tish Water are unable to reserve capa­city at their water and waste treat­ment plant and will require to apply to Scot­tish Water for form­al con­nec­tion at which time the agency will review capacity.

3. The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment should keep in con­tact with the Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Hous­ing Ser­vice to dis­cuss and agree the pro­vi­sion and deliv­ery of afford­able housing.

4. Con­struc­tion work should not take place out­with the hours of 0800 hours to 1900 hours Mondays to Fri­days, 0800 hours to 1300 hours on Sat­urdays or at any time on Sundays or Pub­lic Hol­i­days in order to min­im­ise dis­turb­ance to res­id­ents in the area.

5. The per­son car­ry­ing out the devel­op­ment must give advance notice in writ­ing to the plan­ning author­ity of the date when it is inten­ded to start. Fail­ure to do so is a breach of plan­ning con­trol. It could res­ult in the plan­ning author­ity tak­ing enforce­ment action (See sec­tions 27A and 123(1) of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997 (as amended)). Sub­mis­sion of this inform­a­tion assists the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer in mon­it­or­ing act­ive work with­in the area to ensure com­pli­ance with the approved details and to identi­fy and cor­rect any poten­tial prob­lems, as they arise, rather than later when it may be more dif­fi­cult and more costly to rectify.

6. Fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, a noti­fic­a­tion of the com­ple­tion shall, as soon as prac­tic­able, be giv­en to the Plan­ning Author­ity and a Notice of Com­ple­tion of Devel­op­ment can be obtained from the plan­ning author­ity. 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.

7. A notice must be dis­played on or near the site while work is being car­ried out. The plan­ning author­ity can provide more inform­a­tion about the form of that notice and where to dis­play it (See sec­tion 27C of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997 Act (as amended) and Sched­ule 7 to the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment Pro­ced­ure) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2013.

Plan­ning and Envir­on­ment­al Appeals Divi­sion Appeal Decision Notice T: 0300 244 6668 F: 0131 244 8988 E: [email protected] Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Riaghaltas na h‑Alba gov.scot Decision by Chris Nor­man, a Report­er appoin­ted by the Scot­tish Min­is­ters • Lis­ted build­ing con­sent appeal ref­er­ence: LBA-001‑2000 • Site address: Bal­later Old School, Abergel­die Road, Bal­later AB35 5RR • Appeal by Grampi­an Hous­ing Asso­ci­ation against the decision by Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity • Applic­a­tion for lis­ted build­ing con­sent 2017/0285/LBC dated 24 July 2017 refused by notice dated 25 May 2018 • The works pro­posed: demoli­tion of ancil­lary build­ings, con­ver­sion of school to 10 dwell­ing­houses, rein­state­ment of school­houses to form 2 dwell­ing­houses, erec­tion of 3 dwell­ing­houses and 11 flats (afford­able houses), form­a­tion of access and alter­a­tions to bound­ary walls. • Applic­a­tion draw­ings lis­ted in sched­ule • Date of site vis­it by Report­er: 17 Septem­ber 2018 Date of appeal decision: 22 Octo­ber 2018 Decision I allow the appeal and grant lis­ted build­ing con­sent sub­ject to the two con­di­tions at the end of this notice. Atten­tion is also drawn to the advisory