Item5Appendix2aObjections20180350DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 Appendix 2A 24/05/2019

AGENDA ITEM 5

APPENDIX 2A

2018/0350/DET

OBJEC­TIONS

25 SEP 2018 Allar­gue House Cor­garff Strath­don Aber­deen­shire AB36 8YP

Plan­ning Applic­a­tion Ref­er­ence: 2018/0350/DET

Com­ments on the pro­posed devel­op­ment of twelve Hol­i­day Cab­ins on forestry land at Lagh­lass­er, Cor­garff AB36 8ΥΡ.

Dear Sir,

We are object­ing to this plan­ning applic­a­tion for a num­ber of reas­ons. These are set out below and, where rel­ev­ant, I have put in brack­ets the policies in the Cairngorm Nation­al Park Author­ity Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 which apply.

Our first objec­tion relates to the scale of the devel­op­ment. 12 houses is a dis­pro­por­tion­ate devel­op­ment in the area. Cor­garff is a small, dis­persed, vil­lage. West of the Luib there are cur­rently 19 houses of which 5 (3 hol­i­day homes and 2 per­man­ently occu­pied) are well away from the A939 road. Of the 14 closer to the road 6 are hol­i­day homes, 3 of which are on the devel­op­ment site, 1 is an edu­ca­tion­al centre and 7 are per­man­ently occu­pied. Stated anoth­er way we already have 9 hol­i­day homes in this part of the vil­lage against 10 per­man­ently occu­pied. The pro­posed devel­op­ment will increase the hol­i­day homes to 21 against 10 per­man­ently occu­pied and of the 21 hol­i­day homes 15 will be grouped on the devel­op­ment site. This con­sti­tutes a dis­pro­por­tion­ate and unreas­on­able con­cen­tra­tion of hol­i­day homes and will sub­stan­tially alter the char­ac­ter of the vil­lage. (Policy 1.2b)

Our second objec­tion con­cerns the sit­ing of the 12 hol­i­day homes in the pro­posed devel­op­ment. The top end of Strath­don west of the Luib, is a bowl with the devel­op­ment site, a hill, in the middle of the bowl. The river Don curves around the north of the site and the A939 road around the south. This cent­ral pos­i­tion means that the site forms the fore­ground of the out­look from almost all the exist­ing houses in the area. All the exist­ing houses north of the river Don, includ­ing our own, look south dir­ectly at the pro­posed devel­op­ment site. The sit­ing of the 12 pro­posed hol­i­day homes on the highest part of the ridge means that they look dir­ectly out at the exist­ing homes. A recent walk around the site showed that each of the exist­ing houses is over-looked by more than one of the pro­posed hol­i­day homes. This is a clear and unreas­on­able inva­sion of the exist­ing community’s pri­vacy and a reduc­tion of the amen­ity enjoyed by res­id­ents. (Policy 3.1i)

Fur­ther­more the visu­al impact from sit­ing the 12 hol­i­day homes on the highest part of the ridge will be con­sid­er­able and will have a dam­aging effect on wider, ​“land­scape” views of the area, includ­ing those from the main vis­it­or view­points near the road at ​“the Watch­ers”, from Cor­garff Castle and on the drive down the Hill of Allar­gue. (Policies 2.2b) and 5) Efforts to screen the hol­i­day homes in the trees are neg­ated by the more exposed indus­tri­al qual­it­ies of the Plant Room, Sol­ar Pan­el Park ( Policy 7.1c) and large car park­ing circle on the top of the ridge (Policy 5b)). The tree cov­er is in any

case only par­tial and is only there while the trees remain in place. Future felling will expose the full site.

This visu­al impact will be most pro­nounced at night when the com­bined effect of the lights from this con­cen­tra­tion of homes would amount to light pol­lu­tion. The ​“Christ­mas Tree Light” effect on the site will be increased by the design of the hol­i­day homes which fea­ture large plate glass front­ages and by the con­cen­tra­tion. Cor­garff cur­rently enjoys unof­fi­cial Dark Sky status which is enjoyed by res­id­ents and vis­it­ors alike. This devel­op­ment threatens that status (Policies 2.2a and 5.7.10).

Our third objec­tion is that he com­bin­a­tion of the phys­ic­al char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the site and the con­cen­tra­tion of hol­i­day homes will cre­ate a noise prob­lem. The intro­duc­tion of up to 36 people with vehicles and assor­ted pets into the centre of this part of the vil­lage means noise will carry to all exist­ing homes. This will be amp­li­fied by the bowl shape of this part of the vil­lage. (Policies 2.2a and 3.1i)

The noise, dis­turb­ance and light pol­lu­tion from this con­cen­tra­tion of build­ings will have an impact on wild­life on the site and on adjoin­ing areas. There has been a healthy pop­u­la­tion of red squir­rels in the Lagh­lass­er forestry plant­a­tion for years which will be adversely affected by the devel­op­ment ( Policy 4.4). The site is loc­ated close to estab­lished wader nest­ing areas which are sens­it­ive to dis­turb­ance in the spring/​early sum­mer (Policy 4.5).

Our fourth objec­tion con­cerns the size of this pro­posed devel­op­ment and the demand the 12 houses will have for water. It is well known loc­ally that the site is not well served by nat­ur­al water sup­plies. The demand from up to a fur­ther 36 people is likely to deplete the sup­ply to the exist­ing prop­er­ties on the site (Policy 10.1c) and pos­sibly lead to great­er abstrac­tion from the Cock burn and/​or river Don. We have con­cerns over poten­tial run off from the sep­tic tanks sited on the slopes above the Cock Burn and the River Don (Policy 10.1f).

Our fifth objec­tion is on the grounds of road safety. The stretch of the A939 road between the Luib Bridge and the Cock Bridge, on either side of the pro­posed devel­op­ment site, has become an acci­dent hot spot. Traffic volumes are high and pro­jec­ted to increase. Traffic speeds, par­tic­u­larly after the des­cent going south from Hill of Allar­gue, are high and com­bine with poor vis­ib­il­ity as the road bends around the pro­posed site. The access point to and from the pro­posed devel­op­ment is on this bend and it is not dif­fi­cult to see that the poten­tial for a ser­i­ous acci­dent on this already high­er risk sec­tion of the road will increase.

Our sixth objec­tion is to the busi­ness plan behind the pro­posed devel­op­ment which we believe cre­ates a high risk of fail­ure. As explained to us the devel­op­ment seeks to take advant­age of the increase in the num­bers of people driv­ing the newly branded ​“Snow Road”/ NE 250 which has the poten­tial to rep­lic­ate the suc­cess the NC 500 has had on the tour­ist industry in the north and west of Scot­land. While we have undoubtedly seen a rise in traffic on the A939 in recent years and are likely to see more, the pro­posed devel­op­ment is unlikely to bene­fit dir­ectly from that rise. The les­son from the NC 500 is that the demand from a drive and stay cus­tom­er is for one or two night stays and is primar­ily catered for by Hotels and B & B’s. The pro­posed busi­ness is neither of these and aims to tar­get the four to sev­en night stays. As such they are com­pet­ing with every oth­er com­mer­cial hol­i­day home in the area and there is no evid­ence that this part of the mar­ket will track the increase in drivers (Policy 2.3 a) and b)).

It can’t even be said that the Cab­ins on the pro­posed devel­op­ment being of an ​“Eco-house” design makes them unique. There are devel­op­ments of this type of hol­i­day home in Tomin­toul and a fur­ther 8 are being built at Bellabeg both around ten miles away. The lat­ter two devel­op­ments are on the edge of vil­lages which at least provides their cli­ents with easy access to shops and activ­it­ies which in turn bene­fits the loc­al eco­nomy. There are none of these bene­fits in Cor­garff. The addi­tion of 12 addi­tion­al hol­i­day homes will sat­ur­ate the loc­al mar­ket and almost cer­tainly lead to gen­er­ally lower occu­pancy levels. (Policy 2.3a))

While views on the fin­an­cial suc­cess or oth­er­wise of this pro­posed devel­op­ment are not strictly a plan­ning issue it does have rel­ev­ance in this case. If this con­cen­tra­tion of pur­pose built hol­i­day homes is not a fin­an­cial suc­cess what is going to hap­pen to them?

Our final objec­tion is that the pro­posed devel­op­ment will offer noth­ing to the com­munity in Cor­garff. It includes no ele­ment of afford­able hous­ing, no new activ­it­ies or facil­it­ies nor does it add to or extend the core tour­ist sea­son (Policy 2.2c)). The two loc­al busi­nesses, the Lecht Ski Com­pany and Good­brand & Ross, already bene­fit from the increased num­ber of vis­it­ors using the road through Cor­garff and would receive little extra bene­fit from this devel­op­ment. Above all it offers no new longer term employ­ment oppor­tun­it­ies in the area. As we under­stand it the developer will remotely ser­vice the first phase of build­ings them­selves and would only employ help as the num­ber built approached 12. These jobs would be low paid clean­ing jobs, many of which are already avail­able in the area.

In resume I see no obvi­ous bene­fits from this pro­posed devel­op­ment and none which will off­set the clear dis­ad­vant­ages of the visu­al impact it will have and noise and light pol­lu­tion it will gen­er­ate for res­id­ents (Policy 2.2a)). Yours faithfully

AJ Walk­er

Com­ments for Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 2018/0350/DET

Applic­a­tion Sum­mary Applic­a­tion Num­ber: 2018/0350/DET Address: Site At Lagh­lass­er Cor­garff Strath­don AB36 8YP Pro­pos­al: Erec­tion of 12 Hol­i­day Cab­ins and Asso­ci­ated Ancil­lary Plant Build­ing, Ground Moun­ted Sol­ar Pan­els and Form­a­tion of Park­ing Area Case Officer: Emma Wilson

Cus­tom­er Details Name: Mr Anthony Comer­ford Address: Parkneuk Logie Cold­stone Tarland

Com­ment Details Com­menter Type: Mem­ber of Pub­lic Stance: Cus­tom­er objects to the Plan­ning Applic­a­tion Com­ment Reas­ons: Comment:As a former res­id­ent of Cor­garff I object to this plan­ning applic­a­tion on the fol­low­ing grounds:

1. Visu­al impact on des­cend­ing the Lecht road.
2. There is already a sur­plus of hol­i­day homes in the area.
3. The area at present is wood­land and should remain so.
4. Increased dis­turb­ance will have a det­ri­ment­al effect on wildlife.
5. Any devel­op­ment in this area should have the abil­ity to cre­ate full time jobs.
6. The area at present is suf­fer­ing from rur­al depop­u­la­tion and needs full time res­id­ents rather than tem­por­ary vis­it­ors and absent­ee land owners.

THE Cairngorms CAM­PAIGN 2018/0350/DET

Erec­tion of 12 Hol­i­day Chalets at Lagh­lass­er Corgaff

The Cairngorms Cam­paign Objects to this pro­pos­al for a num­ber of reas­ons, lis­ted below in no par­tic­u­lar order.

1) The devel­op­ment is an unac­cept­able intru­sion to what is cur­rently an enjoy­able and peace­ful area with land­scape, wild­life and flora so import­ant to the value of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. 2) A Hab­it­ats Assess­ment needs to be car­ried out before any decision is made. 3) The num­ber of chalets and pro­vi­sion of hol­i­day accom­mod­a­tion means that hol­i­day­ing sites out­weigh loc­al res­id­en­tial des­troy­ing the way of life and feel of com­munity for them. 4) We can­not find any tech­nic­al data on the sol­ar pan­els – what is the back up to them? If gen­er­at­ors are to be used what is the noise and emis­sions pol­lu­tion from them. 5) The site is not alloc­ated for devel­op­ment in the Loc­al Plan. 6) There is pos­sib­il­ity of scope creep, ie future applic­a­tions for fur­ther cab­ins. Plan­ning con­di­tions are inad­equate to pre­vent this, so this applic­a­tion is effect­ively open­ing the door for the equi­val­ent of a small set­tle­ment on a new site. 7) What assess­ment has been made of water sup­plies in the area? These should be done in low water con­di­tions. 8) What is the over­all light­ing effect in the area? 9) The wood chalets detract from the cul­tur­al her­it­age of the Nation­al Park. The pro­lif­er­a­tion of wood cab­ins, wig­wams and hol­i­day chalets through­out the Nation­al Park is hav­ing a sig­ni­fic­ant cumu­lat­ive effect on our cul­tur­al her­it­age. 10) If we are to have such devel­op­ments they should pro­duce real, adequately paid, full time jobs that enhance the loc­al com­munit­ies, designed and built in har­mony with the loc­al land­scape, com­munit­ies and envir­on­ment not driv­en by profit for the landowner.

If fur­ther inform­a­tion is forth­com­ing after the clos­ing date for com­ments we request an oppor­tun­ity to com­ment on it before the case officers report is compiled.

Regards Susan Mat­thews on behalf of the Cairngorms Campaign

15^th Octo­ber 2018

The Firs, Khantore, Crath­ie, Bal­later, AB35 5TJ

Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil, Plan­ning and Build­ing Stand­ards, View­mount, Arduth­ie Road, STONE­HAVEN. AB39 2DQ.

RECEIVE 03 OCT 2018

Eliza­beth Tawse, Luib Lodge, Cor­garff, Strath­don. AB36 8YP. 1^st Octo­ber 2018

Dear Sirs

Applic­a­tion Ref­er­ence: APP/2018/2149 12 Hol­i­day Cab­ins at Lagh­lass­er, Corgarff

I am the pro­pri­et­or of Luib Lodge, Cor­garff lying approx­im­ately to the south west of the above pro­posed devel­op­ment site at Lagh­lass­er, Corgarff.

I object to the above Plan­ning Applic­a­tion and would ask that the Applic­a­tion be rejec­ted by the Council.

I have read the Let­ter of Objec­tion by Col­on­el and Mrs Tuck dated 18^th Septem­ber 2018 and would gen­er­ally agree with and adopt the grounds of objec­tion (oth­er than 1 and 12) in that letter.

The Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan would only sup­port this applic­a­tion where the accom­mod­a­tion has no adverse envir­on­ment­al impact, provides appro­pri­ate eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment which ensures sus­tain­able growth and sup­ports communities.

This Plan­ning Applic­a­tion fails to sat­is­fy the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan require­ments in that the pro­posed development:-

does not cre­ate sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic growth but rather an isol­ated hol­i­day set­tle­ment bene­fit­ting an indi­vidu­al. does not cre­ate any employ­ment help­ing people stay in the park. does not cre­ate any addi­tion­al amen­it­ies shop, cof­fee shop, restaurant/​bar, sports/children’s facil­it­ies. will have neg­at­ive car­bon issues as tour­ists will have to drive 8½ miles to the nearest shop. is not part of an exist­ing com­munity. is not com­pat­ible with the pat­tern of single houses and if gran­ted it would set a bad pre­ced­ent mak­ing future sim­il­ar applic­a­tion dif­fi­cult to refuse.

Fur­ther I would reit­er­ate the grounds of objec­tion regarding;-

the new, unsightly, tarred road con­struc­ted on the devel­op­ment site for tree extrac­tion which it tran­spires is sought to serve a res­id­en­tial devel­op­ment and should be re- assessed. the pro­posed devel­op­ment being vis­ible and detract­ing from both the main tour­ist view in the area, (that from the park­ing space approach­ing the Lecht) and a vis­it to Cor­garff Castle. the pro­posed devel­op­ment caus­ing dis­turb­ance and an adverse affect on rare wild­life, par­tic­u­larly due to what is likely to be a sig­ni­fic­ant intro­duc­tion of dogs to the area. my primary con­cern about the pro­posed devel­op­ment being one of safety. I was pre­vi­ously refused a per­mis­sion due to access issues with my own prop­erty which I accep­ted and amended due to my know­ledge of the dan­ger­ous nature of the road which is sus­cept­ible to fast speed­ing vehicles. The pro­posed development’s access would be used twelve times more which would greatly height­en the danger of accidents.

For your inform­a­tion although a Notice was served on me as occu­pi­er of Luib Lodge dated 6^th Septem­ber 2018, I did not receive it until 17^th Septem­ber 2018.

Please acknow­ledge safe receipt of this let­ter and con­firm that the points made will be taken into account in the assess­ment of the Plan­ning Applic­a­tion. Yours faithfully

Com­ments for Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 2018/0350/DET

Applic­a­tion Sum­mary Applic­a­tion Num­ber: 2018/0350/DET Address: Site At Lagh­lass­er Cor­garff Strath­don AB36 8YP Pro­pos­al: Erec­tion of 12 Hol­i­day Cab­ins and Asso­ci­ated Ancil­lary Plant Build­ing, Ground Moun­ted Sol­ar Pan­els and Form­a­tion of Park­ing Area Case Officer: Emma Wilson

Cus­tom­er Details Name: Mrs FIONA SEY­MOUR Address: 47 HILL ST INVERNESS

Com­ment Details Com­menter Type: Mem­ber of Pub­lic Stance: Cus­tom­er objects to the Plan­ning Applic­a­tion Com­ment Reas­ons: Comment:I am a reg­u­lar and fre­quent vis­it­or to Cor­garff and have been since the late 1950’s. I wish to object to the above pro­posed devel­op­ment on sev­er­al grounds: The main attrac­tions of this area are its rur­al, wild and tran­quil atmo­sphere where wild life flour­ishes. This devel­op­ment threatens to dis­turb the fra­gile eco­logy of the area and thus the pop­u­la­tions of red squir­rel, water vole, otter, dip­per, sand­piper, osprey, roe deer, sev­er­al spe­cies of owl, her­on, birds of prey all of which are seen reg­u­larly. I have even seen fresh water mus­sels and wild­cat in this area in the past. I under­stand that the water sup­ply for this devel­op­ment is to come from the Cock Burn/​River Don. As the upper reaches of the Don are import­ant breed­ing grounds for both brown trout and sal­mon, the deple­tion of the river is likely to have a det­ri­ment­al effect on these and oth­er spe­cies. The extra noise caused by so many vis­it­ors and their dogs is likely to dis­turb both wild life and loc­als. Most of the tour­ists to this area appre­ci­ate its remote­ness and are often seen pho­to­graph­ing Cor­garff Castle and its sur­round­ings from the view­point on the Hill of Allar­gue. The size of this devel­op­ment would have a neg­at­ive impact on this view. At present, Cor­garff con­sists mostly of indi­vidu­al prop­er­ties which are fairly remote from each oth­er. The nature of the pro­posed devel­op­ment would sig­ni­fic­antly alter the char­ac­ter of the area. In addi­tion, the pos­i­tion of the chalets will greatly reduce the pri­vacy of sev­er­al of the exist­ing prop­er­ties. There are already sev­er­al prop­er­ties for rent in the area. Such a large devel­op­ment would com­pete dir­ectly with them and there­fore may cause them to suf­fer. There are no loc­al amen­it­ies so every vis­it­or will have to drive to any attractions/​activities/​amenities. This will cre­ate a sub­stan­tial increase in traffic on an already dan­ger­ous bend of the A939.

Plan­ning Team, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, 14 The Square, Grant­own on Spey, PH26 3HG

25 SEP 2018 Stable Cot­tage Allar­gue Cor­garff Strath­don Aber­deen­shire AB36 8YP 24 Septem­ber 2018

Dear Sirs, Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 2018/0350/DET — Abdn APP/2018/2149

My wife and I live on the oppos­ite side of the River Don from the pro­posed devel­op­ment by Colin Tawse of Lagh­lass­er on the Dul­ridge Hill. He lives else­where, but he and his fam­ily own two hol­i­day cot­tages on the South side of the hill and we under­stand that they plan to build 12 chalets of ​“eco” design on the upper slopes of the hill.

We strongly object to this devel­op­ment and I attach my detailed com­ments on a sep­ar­ate sheet.

I am afraid I am not clev­er with com­puters and any­way we have poor broad­band recep­tion so I hope that you will accept hard copy. If not please let me know and I will ask someone else to do it for me.

I have already sub­mit­ted this to Aber­deen­shire plan­ners, but don’t know wheth­er they for­ward this to you when you call it in. I am glad that you have since the devel­op­ment con­flicts with many of your Aims. Yours faith­fully, Col­on­el F.M.K.Tuck

Com­ment by Col and Mrs Tuck, Stable Cot­tage, Allar­gue, Cor­garff, Strath­don. AB36 8YP Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 2018/0350/DET (Abdn APP/2018/2149)

1. Our cot­tage is on the Allar­gue Estate on the oppos­ite side of the River Don to the pro­posed devel­op­ment. We strongly object to what is proposed.
2. This area of Cor­garff is entirely rur­al and lies with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The main aims of the Park are to pre­serve the envir­on­ment and par­tic­u­larly its visu­al appear­ance. There­fore all new build­ing should be of tra­di­tion­al style and fit in to the loc­al rather scattered and ran­dom lay­out. The pro­posed devel­op­ment does not do this with a cluster of so-called eco-designed buildings.
3. It is accep­ted that the Park does encour­age the eco­nom­ic bene­fit of loc­al com­munit­ies. How­ever any tour­ists stay­ing in these cot­tages will bring no bene­fit to us. There is no longer a loc­al coun­try hotel, nor any shop or res­taur­ant which will bene­fit from their cus­tom. The Good­brand Shop and Lecht Ski Centre both attract only day­time cus­tom from passing traffic.
4. The developer has taken advant­age of a felling licence to build an improved road­way, car­park and cir­cuit on the Dul­ridge Hill, far in excess of what was required for the forestry oper­a­tion. It is not clear wheth­er he has fin­ished the felling, although what is left is in an unsat­is­fact­ory state. While, depend­ing on the exact sit­ing of the chalets, the present stand of trees may con­ceal the build­ings; this will not be the case for long when the trees come down. What is clear is that the move­ment of vehicles in and out of the wood­land onto the main A939 road will be dan­ger­ous. We are appalled at the stand­ard and speed of the tour­ist drivers round the bends and up and down the steep Lecht Hill.
5. The River Don is spe­cial in its upper reaches. The water is clean and clear, but falls to low volume in dry sum­mers. The plan to pump water to the top of the hill for the chalets from the Lagh­lass­er sup­ply is highly sus­pect. Exper­i­ence shows that there is no arter­i­al sup­ply to the hill area and the water will be taken more or less dir­ectly from the Cock Burn and there­fore from the Don. This is an unsat­is­fact­ory and unre­li­able plan which may fail the chalets, which would be heavy users, and also have a bad effect on the river. This is espe­cially a worry in regards to the out­flow from any sep­tic tank system.
6. The busi­ness plan is sus­pect. Most of the tour­ists passing here are on their way to the North­ern High­lands. At the most they will stop to vis­it Cor­garff Castle and have a quick cuppa at Good­brands or the Lecht. There is already ample pro­vi­sion for weeklong stays in hol­i­day cot­tages in the area (includ­ing the owner’s own Lagh­lass­er Cot­tage) as well as sev­er­al BandBs. Overnight stays have proved unprof­it­able over the years as we have found with the fail­ure of the Allar­gue Arms Hotel. Not only that, the turnover of the chalets on Sat­urdays will be a major prob­lem with no loc­al labour available.
7. We would recom­mend a bet­ter option to try one or two more cot­tages of tra­di­tion­al design along­side the A939 on the South side and there­fore facing the sun.
8. We fore­see a major noise and light pol­lu­tion prob­lem from the occu­pi­ers of the chalets. This is cur­rently a won­der­fully quiet and light-free area at night.
9. The entrance to the devel­op­ment will be adja­cent to the drive­way of the Queen’s Del­nadamph Estate. We are con­cerned that this may lead to a secur­ity prob­lem for the Bal­mor­al authorities.
10. The Dul­ridge Hill is home to many rare spe­cies includ­ing red squir­rels, roe and red deer, and birds of prey. All would be massively dis­turbed by tour­ist activity.
11. The chalets are pur­por­ted to be ​“dog friendly “. If the dogs are not kept under con­trol they could dis­turb loc­al farm anim­als as well as the rare spe­cies men­tioned above.
12. Finally we have an interest in pre­serving the view from our cot­tage. It was already unfor­tu­nate that a totally inap­pro­pri­ate plant­ing of trees all over the Dul­ridge Hill took place at Gov­ern­ment expense in the 1970s, but still that is bet­ter than a cluster of eco-chalets !

Com­ments for Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 2018/0350/DET

Applic­a­tion Sum­mary Applic­a­tion Num­ber: 2018/0350/DET Address: Site At Lagh­lass­er Cor­garff Strath­don AB36 8YP Pro­pos­al: Erec­tion of 12 Hol­i­day Cab­ins and Asso­ci­ated Ancil­lary Plant Build­ing, Ground Moun­ted Sol­ar Pan­els and Form­a­tion of Park­ing Area Case Officer: Emma Wilson

Cus­tom­er Details Name: Mrs Gil­lian Cook Address: Old Semeil Strathdon

Com­ment Details Com­menter Type: Mem­ber of Pub­lic Stance: Cus­tom­er objects to the Plan­ning Applic­a­tion Com­ment Reas­ons: Comment:I object to this pro­posed devel­op­ment on the grounds that it is too big for a small com­munity like Cor­garff. Access to water and dis­pos­al of sew­er­age is a con­cern. There are already many hol­i­day homes for rent in the area there is n o need for any more. Access to the site from the pub­lic road is in a place where acci­dents have happened in the past.

Com­ments for Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 2018/0350/DET

Applic­a­tion Sum­mary Applic­a­tion Num­ber: 2018/0350/DET Address: Site At Lagh­lass­er Cor­garff Strath­don AB36 8YP Pro­pos­al: Erec­tion of 12 Hol­i­day Cab­ins and Asso­ci­ated Ancil­lary Plant Build­ing, Ground Moun­ted Sol­ar Pan­els and Form­a­tion of Park­ing Area Case Officer: Emma Wilson

Cus­tom­er Details Name: Mr JOHN MOR­RIS Address: Mill of Newe Strathdon

Com­ment Details Com­menter Type: Mem­ber of Pub­lic Stance: Cus­tom­er objects to the Plan­ning Applic­a­tion Com­ment Reas­ons: Comment:I feel that this devel­op­ment is too large for a quiet rur­al area like Cor­garff. Cor­graff in par­tic­u­lar is remote, wild and tran­quil with a few houses spread out over the area with very few hous­ing clusters and cer­tainly none of this scale. I find it hard to believe that these hol­i­day homes can be sens­it­ively placed in such an area and will in fact be an eye­sore from many miles away. 12 houses and all the infa­struc­ture will in my opin­ion have an irre­vers­ible impact on the wild eco­logy of this site and will per­man­ently scar the land­scape. It will also in my opin­ion bring little eco­nom­ic bene­fit to the people who live in the com­munity. I believe that this pro­posed devel­op­ment is in dir­ect con­tra­dic­tion to the spe­cial qual­it­ies that are meant to be pre­served inside the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

3 Octo­ber 2018 AIEN APΙΣΤΕΥΕΙΝ KELVIN­SIDE ACADEMY 1878

Cairngorm Nation­al Park Author­ity Plan­ning Depart­ment 14 The Square Grant­own-on-Spey MORAY PH26 3HG

Dear Sir/​Madam

Plan­ning Applic­a­tion Ref­er­ence: 2018/0350/DET

Objec­tion to the pro­posed devel­op­ment of twelve Hol­i­day Cab­ins on forestry land at Lagh­lass­er, Cor­garff AB36 8YP

Kelvin­side Academy object to this plan­ning applic­a­tion primar­ily due to the scale of the pro­posed devel­op­ment which we believe will change the nature of the area. Cor­garff was selec­ted for our out­door edu­ca­tion centre because of its primary rur­al nature and the rel­at­ive isol­a­tion from devel­op­ment. This was an import­ant factor in our choice of loc­a­tion and the scale of the pro­posed devel­op­ment. 12 houses are out of kil­ter with the scale of devel­op­ment in the area and will sub­stan­tially alter the char­ac­ter of the sur­round­ings, includ­ing the vicin­ity around the his­tor­ic­ally import­ant Cor­garff Castle.

Our second objec­tion con­cerns the sit­ing of the 12 hol­i­day homes which will be very prom­in­ent and effect the views from our out­door centre The sit­ing of the 12 hol­i­day homes on the highest part of the ridge will have a dam­aging effect on wider views of the area, includ­ing those from the main vis­it­or view­points from Cor­garff Castle and on the drive down the Hill of Allar­gue. The exposed indus­tri­al nature of the pro­posed Plant Room, Sol­ar Pan­el Park and size of the car park­ing circle on the top of the ridge are also areas of concern.

Our stu­dents attend­ing the centre take part in night time activ­it­ies when the visu­al impact of the devel­op­ment will be most pro­nounced. Cor­garff cur­rently enjoys unof­fi­cial Dark Sky status which is enjoyed by res­id­ents and vis­it­ors alike. This devel­op­ment threatens that status

The phys­ic­al char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the site and the con­cen­tra­tion of hol­i­day homes will sig­ni­fic­antly alter the level of noise in the area which will affect wild­life and the rur­al Kelvin­side Academy War Memori­al Trust E: bursar@​kelvinside.​org 33 Kirklee Road, Glas­gow G12 0SW T: 0141 357 3376 www​.kelvin​side​.org The Kelvin­side Academy War Memori­al Trust (a com­pany lim­ited by guar­an­tee, with char­it­able status, and registered in Scot­land No. 11734, Char­ity Num­ber: SCO03962)

exper­i­ence enjoyed by our stu­dents. This will also be changed by the addi­tion­al traffic gen­er­ated from the houses dur­ing the con­struc­tion and occupation.

Yours faith­fully

DAV­ID POCOCK Bursar & Com­pany Sec­ret­ary : Com­ments for Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 2018/0350/DET

Applic­a­tion Sum­mary Applic­a­tion Num­ber: 2018/0350/DET Address: Site At Lagh­lass­er Cor­garff Strath­don AB36 8YP Pro­pos­al: Erec­tion of 12 Hol­i­day Cab­ins and Asso­ci­ated Ancil­lary Plant Build­ing, Ground Moun­ted Sol­ar Pan­els and Form­a­tion of Park­ing Area Case Officer: Emma Wilson

Cus­tom­er Details Name: Mr Neil and Fiona Brown Address: RISING SUN STRATHDON

Com­ment Details Com­menter Type: Neigh­bour Stance: Cus­tom­er objects to the Plan­ning Applic­a­tion Com­ment Reas­ons: Comment:My wife and I wish to object to the erec­tion of 12 hol­i­day cab­ins at Laghass­er, Cor­garff, AB368YP

This pro­posed devel­op­ment does noth­ing to safe­guard or enhance the out­stand­ing nat­ur­al beauty of the area and is likely to have a det­ri­ment­al effect on wildlife.

The hol­i­day cab­ins, plant room, car park and sol­ar pan­els will be vis­ible from many of the sur­round­ing hills which look onto the site. Also, as you head towards Cor­garff on the A939 views of the devel­op­ment will be ines­cap­able from all directions.

A site vis­it, com­men­cing on the Snow Road at the Watch­ers, is essen­tial to observe the sig­ni­fic­ant visu­al impact this devel­op­ment will have on the landscape.

The scale of the pro­pos­al is dis­pro­por­tion­ate to the sparsely pop­u­lated com­munity and provides no obvi­ous social or eco­nom­ic bene­fits to the loc­al area or busi­nesses bey­ond the ini­tial construction.

Private water sup­plies have failed in Cor­garff this sum­mer. The bur­den of 36 addi­tion­al users will sig­ni­fic­antly reduce pre­cious sup­plies through­out the year.

In addi­tion, we have con­cerns regard­ing the install­a­tion of the access road which was evid­ently designed to ser­vice this devel­op­ment and con­struc­ted under the pre­tence of a forestry track.

Com­ments for Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 2018/0350/DET

Applic­a­tion Sum­mary Applic­a­tion Num­ber: 2018/0350/DET Address: Site At Lagh­lass­er Cor­garff Strath­don AB36 8YP Pro­pos­al: Erec­tion of 12 Hol­i­day Cab­ins and Asso­ci­ated Ancil­lary Plant Build­ing, Ground Moun­ted Sol­ar Pan­els and Form­a­tion of Park­ing Area Case Officer: Emma Wilson

Cus­tom­er Details Name: Mr PAUL TOO­HEY Address: nochty view strath­don aberdeenshire

Com­ment Details Com­menter Type: Mem­ber of Pub­lic Stance: Cus­tom­er objects to the Plan­ning Applic­a­tion Com­ment Reas­ons: Comment:A man made struc­ture of 12 cab­ins will detract from the beauty of a wild upland rur­al set­ting that is Corgarff.The addi­tion of 12 hol­i­day homes will res­ult in 21 homes against 10 per­man­ently occupied,an unhealthy situation.More people will have a det­ri­ment­al impact on nat­ive wild­life includ­ing red squirrels,deer and bird populations.The com­mer­cial forestry on site will even­tu­ally be felled increas­ing the vis­ib­il­ity of the struc­ture for all to see.. Increased traffic on the already busy A939,now part of the new snow road,will increase the poten­tial for accidents.There are two bridges with only a single lane.There are suf­fi­cient hol­i­day lets in Strath­don for present and future needs.For all these reas­ons I do not sup­port this devel­op­ment and recom­mend its rejection.

ROW­AN­TREE COT­TAGE 11 Octo­ber 2018 Cairngorm Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 The Square Grant­own on Spey PH26 3HG

Dear Sirs,

Re 2018/0350/DET | Erec­tion of 12 Hol­i­day Cab­ins and Asso­ci­ated Ancil­lary Plant Build­ing, Ground Moun­ted Sol­ar Pan­els and Form­a­tion of Park­ing Area | Site At Lagh­lass­er Cor­garff Strath­don AB36 8YP

Philip G Dawson was a ten­ant of Row­an­tree Cot­tage since 1979 and has been the own­er since 1984. We refer to the above applic­a­tion and wish form­ally to object to the pro­posed development.

We would wish the Park Author­ity to take note of the mat­ters noted below many of which are con­trary to the Nation­al Park Aims, Strategy, Policy and the Strath­don set­tle­ment page of the con­sulta­tion doc­u­ment for the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2020

1. The size of the pro­posed devel­op­ment is dis­pro­por­tion­ately large and is not in the char­ac­ter of the vil­lage of Cor­garff. There are already a num­ber of prop­er­ties avail­able for hol­i­day rent­al in this area which is threatened by res­id­ent rur­al depopulation.
2. The pro­posed devel­op­ment will have a neg­at­ive visu­al impact from main sites of tour­ist interest such as Cor­garff Castle and the ​‘Watch­ers’ view­point. The Watch­ers fea­tures as a key attrac­tion on Vis­it Scotland’s Walk­ing in Scot­land 2018 pub­li­city (front Cov­er attached). The pro­posed devel­op­ment and asso­ci­ated plant room Row­an­tree Cot­tage Cor­garff Aber­deen­shire AB36 8YP

and car park is sited on the top of the Dul­ridge Hill in clear view of many sur­round­ing prop­er­ties and the A939 scen­ic route.

1. From the Park web­site you sug­gest that, ​“the Cairngorms Nation­al Park is a par­tic­u­larly import­ant place for nature con­ser­va­tion. Around half of the Park is des­ig­nated as being of European import­ance for nature and over a quarter of the UK’s rare and threatened spe­cies are found here. It is import­ant that the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan con­tin­ues to ensure the pro­tec­tion of the Nation­al Park’s unique envir­on­ment. In par­tic­u­lar, we must ensure that none of the pro­pos­als with­in the Plan will have an adverse effect on European pro­tec­ted sites and spe­cies”. The Park there­fore has respons­ib­il­ity for con­serving and enhan­cing the nat­ur­al her­it­age of the area. The pro­posed devel­op­ment site is a hab­it­at of a num­ber of pro­tec­ted spe­cies. Any increase in human activ­ity will dis­turb wild­life. The area is known to have a num­ber of red squir­rels, a threatened spe­cies. In addi­tion we have observed the fol­low­ing pro­tec­ted spe­cies over the last few months. Osprey, Golden Eagle, Hen Har­ri­er, Gold­finch, Cross­bill, Sis­kin, Short Eared Owl, Bats, Red and Roe Deer.

2. One of the attrac­tions of Cor­garff is the lack of light pol­lu­tion. The pro­posed devel­op­ment would inev­it­ably put this at risk, par­tic­u­larly giv­en the design which includes extern­al deck­ing and out­door bath tubs in addi­tion to the light­ing asso­ci­ated with the plant area and car park.

3. Although the applic­a­tion lacks detail we under­stand that water will be provided to each of the Cab­ins from an exist­ing sup­ply at Lagh­lass­er. The addi­tion­al demand for occu­pants of 12 cab­ins may have a det­ri­ment­al effect on the water table feed­ing the Cock burn and the upper reaches of the river Don. This may have an adverse effect on exist­ing water sources for oth­er prop­er­ties in the area.

4. Pro­mo­tion of the Snow Road has res­ul­ted in increased traffic in the area. Fol­low­ing a num­ber of acci­dents close to the site Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil has taken steps to try to reduce the speed of traffic near to the site access. If this devel­op­ment goes ahead there will be turn­ing traffic adding to the cur­rent risks.

5. The cab­ins are designed with out­side bath tubs. Winter in Cor­garff res­ults in sub-zero tem­per­at­ures for many days at a time. To pre­vent frost dam­age to plumb­ing con­sid­er­able energy will need to be used to main­tain these facil­it­ies — this is not a sus­tain­able use of nat­ur­al resources. The A939 itself is reg­u­larly closed by snow. Once on the pro­posed site the loc­a­tion of the cab­ins near the top of the hill will make access par­tic­u­larly dif­fi­cult in winter.
6. The pro­posed devel­op­ment will have no bene­fit to sus­tain­able employ­ment and social devel­op­ment of the area. The developer is not based loc­ally, nor even with­in the bound­ary of the Nation­al Park.

Yours faith­fully,

Philip G. Dawson Dr Gra­ham Stewart

WALK IN SCOT­LAND 2018 TAKET­OR A MOMENT TO BEHOLD KNOW THE CODE BEFORE YOU GO VIS​ITSCOT​LAND​.COM

Com­ments for Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 2018/0350/DET

Applic­a­tion Sum­mary Applic­a­tion Num­ber: 2018/0350/DET Address: Site At Lagh­lass­er Cor­garff Strath­don AB36 8YP Pro­pos­al: Erec­tion of 12 Hol­i­day Cab­ins and Asso­ci­ated Ancil­lary Plant Build­ing, Ground Moun­ted Sol­ar Pan­els and Form­a­tion of Park­ing Area Case Officer: Emma Wilson

Cus­tom­er Details Name: Dr Rachel Pet­rie Address: 12 Robins­land Drive West Linton

Com­ment Details Com­menter Type: Mem­ber of Pub­lic Stance: Cus­tom­er objects to the Plan­ning Applic­a­tion Com­ment Reasons: