Item5Appendix2Objections20210229DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 Appendix 2 12/11/2021

AGENDA ITEM 5

APPENDIX 2

2021/0229/DET

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS OBJECTIONS

Com­ments for Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 2021/0229/DET

Applic­a­tion Sum­mary Applic­a­tion Num­ber: 2021/0229/DET Address: 13 High Street Kin­gussie High­land PH21 1HS Pro­pos­al: Con­ver­sion of build­ing into 3No flats and erec­tion of 2No cot­tage flats Case Officer: Alan Atkins

Cus­tom­er Details Name: Mrs Ailsa Schofield Address: 7 Croila View Kingussie

Com­ment Details Com­menter Type: Mem­ber of Pub­lic Stance: Cus­tom­er objects to the Plan­ning Applic­a­tion Com­ment Reas­ons: Comment:The build­ing imme­di­ately adja­cent to the applicant’s prop­erty is the former bank build­ing. This is now owned by com­munity run char­ity Caber­feidh Hori­zons and is the base for many of the charity’s ini­ti­at­ives, look­ing after people from the loc­al com­munity and bey­ond, espe­cially those who are vul­ner­able. The scale of this applic­a­tion is likely to be det­ri­ment­al to Caber­feidh on sev­er­al counts, as it includes exten­sions to the rear plus fur­ther detached accom­mod­a­tion in the small garden. This could affect access both to the rear and the side of the build­ing, which would be cata­stroph­ic for the smooth run­ning of the hub and its cli­ents, many of whom have mobil­ity issues. To date, Caber­feidh has enjoyed unlim­ited access to their build­ing without let or hindrance. There would also be issues relat­ing to over-look­ing, and block­ing light from the Caber­feidh build­ing. Such a devel­op­ment would com­pletely over-devel­op what is cur­rently quite a tight site, and des­troy some of the remain­ing pre­cious green space in Kin­gussie town centre in the pro­cess. It would also affect the sort of ser­vices Caber­feidh may wish to provide in the future. There are mature trees on the site bound­ary which although not cur­rently covered by tree pro­tec­tion orders are still of note and worthy of pro­tec­tion, as not only are they beau­ti­ful they are prob­ably a sig­ni­fic­ant hab­it­at for wild­life, includ­ing bats. Any of the site not built on is likely to be used for car park­ing, which will undoubtedly cause dam­age to the trees. Inter­est­ingly, the tree sched­ule only shows illus­tra­tions of the Lawson Cypress but does not show the spec­tac­u­lar Cop­per Beech in all its glory. As this applic­a­tion would be det­ri­ment­al to both Caber­feidh and by asso­ci­ation the wider com­munity, I feel that it is wholly inap­pro­pri­ate, and urge the plan­ners to reject it. How­ever in the event of the applic­a­tion being approved, I ask for attach­ment of the fol­low­ing conditions:

1. That the full access cur­rently enjoyed by Caber­feidh to be maintained.
2. Only the exist­ing Old Bank House build­ing to be developed; to pre­serve the char­ac­ter of one of

Kingussie’s most import­ant build­ings, and pre­vent over-devel­op­ment of the site.

1. Any car park­ing to have appro­pri­ate land­scap­ing to enhance the site.
2. Per­meable sur­fa­cing to help reduce the pres­ence of excess­ive sur­face water — as I note from Scot­tish Water’s response that they will not accept any sur­face water con­nec­tions into their com­bined system.

Com­ments for Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 2021/0229/DET

Applic­a­tion Sum­mary Applic­a­tion Num­ber: 2021/0229/DET Address: 13 High Street Kin­gussie High­land PH21 1HS Pro­pos­al: Con­ver­sion of build­ing into 3No flats and erec­tion of 2No cot­tage flats Case Officer: Alan Atkins

Cus­tom­er Details Name: Mrs J C Kin­naird Address: West Ter­race Kingussie

Com­ment Details Com­menter Type: Mem­ber of Pub­lic Stance: Cus­tom­er objects to the Plan­ning Applic­a­tion Com­ment Reas­ons: Comment:Badenoch House 11 High Street Kin­gussie PH21 1HS Ref. No: 21/03088/FUL

I am writ­ing to make com­ment on the above plan­ning applic­a­tion. Con­ver­sion of Badenoch House to fam­ily accom­mod­a­tion I believe would be wel­comed in the town .One bed­room and two bed­room prop­er­ties are not suit­able accom­mod­a­tion for fam­il­ies and there­fore this is not a suit­able con­ver­sion for our com­munity. The pro­posed new build with­in the grounds are of a fin­ish not asso­ci­ated with the sur­round­ing build­ings and have little in com­mon with the area nor the char­ac­ter of the town. Park­ing spaces are alloc­ated on the plan but no ref­er­ence is made to exit­ing onto a con­ges­ted road with the town. I also note that nowhere on the plan is any space des­ig­nated as out­side or green space for the res­id­ents of this pro­posed devel­op­ment. Giv­en the atten­tion placed on Health and Well-being this should surely be a con­sid­er­a­tion in any devel­op­ment. Yours etc.

Janet Kin­naird

From:Gregor Rimell Sent:7 Aug 2021 10:05:55 +0100 To:Planning Subject:Application 13 High Street Kin­gussie on behalf of High­land Council

From Gregor Rimell, Broom­lea, Golf Course Road, NEW­TON­MORE PH20 1AT The Objection:

This prop­erty was built as a Vic­tori­an House, with garden ground, for accom­mod­a­tion for the Man­ager of the adjoin­ing branch of the Bank. Before High­land Coun­cil acquired it for tem­por­ary home­less hous­ing, the ground was cul­tiv­ated by the then own­er and had chick­ens. It had always been a green island. This applic­a­tion ignores the cul­tur­al her­it­age of the build­ing and garden, by seek­ing over devel­op­ment (with no regard for obtrus­ive new build­ings not fit­ting in with oth­er build­ings), it reduces access, it des­troys a unique nat­ur­al haven in Kin­gussie town centre. The applic­a­tion was ori­gin­ally made for the wrong address. Access mat­ters were over rid­den. (This was described in the press, by an HC offi­cial, as an ​“over­sight”. When will this ​“over­sight” be cor­rec­ted? Is it a stat­utory change of use from tem­por­ary accom­mod­a­tion to per­man­ent hous­ing? Why did a loc­al author­ity ignore the need for eco­lo­gic­al sur­veys? Why is it sug­ges­ted to put two new gar­ish build­ings on garden ground, when the accom­mod­a­tion could be developed as one entity? Why did not HC Hous­ing Dept con­sult HC col­leagues in Trans­port Dept, which has sub­mit­ted an objec­tion? If CNPA had not called this in, would Coun­cil Plan­ning Com­mit­tee have judged a Plan­ning Applic­a­tion made by its Hous­ing Dept, opposed by its Trans­port Dept? CNPA Plan­ners have a proud track record of work­ing with applic­ants to achieve accept­able bal­ance for the Park Plan­ning Com­mit­tee to be able to con­sider grant of an amended applic­a­tion. May I sug­gest that this applic­a­tion is brought speedily to Com­mit­tee, for decision, in its unaltered unpro­fes­sion­al state? Pity the archi­tect who had to work to such instructions.

Gregor Rimell 05/08/2021

Com­ments for Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 2021/0229/DET

Applic­a­tion Sum­mary Applic­a­tion Num­ber: 2021/0229/DET Address: Badenoch House 11 High Street Kin­gussie PH21 1HS Pro­pos­al: Con­ver­sion of build­ing into 3No flats and erec­tion of 2No cot­tage flats Case Officer: Alan Atkins

Cus­tom­er Details Name: Mrs Christine Brid­don Address: Caber­feidh Hori­zons 16 High Street Kingussie

Com­ment Details Com­menter Type: Neigh­bour Stance: Cus­tom­er objects to the Plan­ning Applic­a­tion Com­ment Reas­ons: Comment:Caberfeidh Hori­zons is a vibrant Social Enter­prise work­ing with adults & young people at the heart of their loc­al com­munity in Kin­gussie. Our Com­munity Hub is the oth­er half of the build­ing fea­tured in the plan­ning applic­a­tion. At our Board Meet­ing on Monday 19^th July 2021, it was agreed to sub­mit our views on the plan­ning applic­a­tion: 2021/0229/DET | Con­ver­sion of build­ing into 3No flats and erec­tion of 2No cot­tage flats | Badenoch House 11 High Street Kin­gussie PH21 1HS

Back­ground: The former bank premises are one build­ing, made up of the bank offices and the manager’s accom­mod­a­tion. There was one area of back garden. When the Bank of Scot­land sold off the manager’s accom­mod­a­tion, they included most of the back garden, leav­ing just a small area of land behind the bank offices. Caber­feidh Hori­zons pur­chased the former bank offices with sup­port from the Scot­tish Land Fund, to be a Com­munity Hub. Con­sid­er­able fund­ing was giv­en by THC and the CNPA to help ren­ov­ate and devel­op the new facil­ity. Dur­ing the time of pur­chase of the bank offices Caber­feidh Hori­zons tried to pur­chase the area of garden behind their part of the build­ing. This would have provided valu­able out­side space for cli­ents, enhan­cing phys­ic­al and men­tal well­being. After some dis­cus­sion the THC even­tu­ally refused to sell any land because they said they had plans to devel­op their half of the build­ing which was cur­rently in use as home­less hous­ing. This was likely to include usage of the garden area. There­fore, the plan­ning applic­a­tion from THC was expec­ted. But we were not expect­ing the plans to include an invas­ive two-storey sep­ar­ate build­ing tak­ing over the back-garden area, res­ult­ing in the total loss of green area and the remov­al of valu­able trees.

We fully sup­port the bank house provid­ing hous­ing. Caber­feidh Hori­zons has worked with and sup­por­ted the tem­por­ary res­id­ents over the years. Our eth­os is of integ­ra­tion and break­ing down bar­ri­ers. Under pres­sure THC has now re-sub­mit­ted plans to hon­our its oblig­a­tion for access for Caber­feidh Hori­zons. We oppose the pro­posed devel­op­ment of the site for the fol­low­ing reas­ons: The High­land Coun­cil and CNPA, in recog­nising the need for the Com­munity Hub, have con­trib­uted con­sid­er­able fund­ing to set up this much needed pro­vi­sion. This plan­ning pro­pos­al would hem in the Hub, block out light and be det­ri­ment­al to the well­being of all those, of all abil­it­ies, who use the facil­ity. The planned new two storey unit ​“garden house” would over­whelm what is basic­ally a house back garden. Devel­op­ment of the site in this way would res­ult in the loss of a small valu­able area of green oas­is in the middle of Kin­gussie. Mature trees would be felled, the remain­ing mature cop­per beech tree would be dam­aged by cov­er­ing of its root area. Birds, bats and many oth­er forms of wild­life would lose their hab­it­at. The site is not big enough for this type of devel­op­ment. Access for cars to the pro­posed park­ing area is inad­equate, access for ped­es­tri­ans would be totally unsafe. The road­way can­not be expan­ded to provide appro­pri­ate access. We believe the exist­ing premises should be developed to provide improved hous­ing without tak­ing away the garden ground.

From:ePlanning Sent:11 Aug 2021 10:58:13 +0100 To:Planning Subject:FW: CNPA ref 2021/0229/DET

From: Mor­ag Camp­bell Sent: 11 August 2021 10:33 To: ePlan­ning ePlanning@​highland.​gov.​uk Sub­ject: CNPA ref 2021/0229/DET

CAU­TION: This email was sent from out­side of the organ­isa­tion. Do not click links or open attach­ments unless you recog­nise the sender and know the con­tent is safe.

Dear Sir As sec­ret­ary of the Badenoch and Strath­spey Dis­abled Access Pan­el, I have been instruc­ted to con­vey to you the Panel’s dis­may at High­land Council’s mis­hand­ling of this plan­ning applic­a­tion. To pub­licly admit that fail­ure to respect the access path­way for ambu­lant dis­abled and wheel­chair users was an ​“over­sight” shows scant respect for the leg­al require­ments of the Equal­ity Act. Fur­ther­more, the pan­el wishes to emphas­ise the value of the garden area for the men­tal health of the cli­ents of the Kin­gussie Hub and urge High­land Coun­cil to retain this valu­able asset. The import­ance of men­tal health is rein­forced by High­land Council’s sup­port of the Green Health cam­paign in con­junc­tion with NHS High­land. The Pan­el hopes that revised plans will take these views into con­sid­er­a­tion. Yours truly.

James Camp­bell (Sec­ret­ary) Unless related to the busi­ness of The High­land Coun­cil, the views or opin­ions expressed with­in this e‑mail are those of the sender and do not neces­sar­ily reflect those of The High­land Coun­cil, or asso­ci­ated bod­ies, nor does this e‑mail form part of any con­tract unless so stated. Mura h‑eil na beach­dan a tha air an cur an cèill sa phost‑d seo a’ buntainn ri gnothachas Chom­hairle na Gàid­healtachd, ​‘s ann leis an neach fhèin a chuir air falbh e a tha iad, is chan eil iad an-còm­h­naidh a’ rioch­dachadh beach­dan na Com­hairle, no buidh­nean buntain­neach, agus chan eil am post‑d seo na phàirt de chun­nradh sam bith mura h‑eil sin air innse.

Sandy Max­well Com­ment sub­mit­ted date: Thu 29 Jul 2021 Plan­ning applic­a­tion 21/​03088/​ful Police Sta­tion, bet­ter known as old bank house Dear Sirs As a nearby neigh­bour I would like to make the fol­low­ing objec­tions to these plans:- I. The unne­ces­sary remov­al of two mature trees (Lawson Cypress labeled Txxxx & TxxxxxX in tree sur­vey) which are prom­in­ent, attract­ive fea­tures in the loc­al sky­line and provide a hab­it­at for birds, insects and poten­tially bats at heights of up to 20metres above the ground not well sup­plied in the imme­di­ate locality.

1. The sit­ing of a bin shel­ter struc­ture over the root sys­tem of a mature Cop­per Beach (T6750). In the Mon­ck­ton tree report sup­plied by the archi­tects the dam­age to its roots is noted from cement wash and rubble cre­ated dur­ing a pre­vi­ous devel­op­ment on the Old Bank build­ing by the applic­ants agent (Leslie Hutt Archi­tect). The plans pro­posed include a con­crete slab hard­stand­ing for bin shel­ters to be per­man­ently sited imme­di­ately beside the Cop­per Beach. The Cop­per Beach is an impress­ive spe­ci­men that should be cel­eb­rated rather than fur­ther con­strained with no fur­ther con­struc­tion traffic or struc­tures on the already com­pacted root sys­tem. Yours truly Sandy Maxwell

Alan Mil­lar Com­ment sub­mit­ted date: Thu 15 Jul 2021 Dear Sirs

CON­VER­SION OF BUILD­ING INTO 3NO FLATS AND EREC­TION OF 2NO COT­TAGE FLATS POLICE STA­TION, 13 HIGH STREET, KIN­GUSSIE, PH21 IHS I write in con­nec­tion with the above plan­ning applic­a­tion. I have examined the plans and I know the site well. I wish to object strongly to the devel­op­ment of these flats in this location.

The reas­on for my objec­tion is that Main Street has an inad­equacy to accom­mod­ate increases in traffic and park­ing. There is already a haz­ard with the increased park­ing on the oppos­ite side of the road due to the loc­al shops and with reduced vis­ib­il­ity due to parked vehicles at the cross­ing for ped­es­tri­ans. If the res­id­ents of the flats have vehicles and park out­side the flats this will con­trib­ute to acci­dents hap­pen­ing. There also will be light and noise pol­lu­tion com­ing into our house from cars, street-secur­ity lights from the rear of the Police Station.

Can you advise who polices park­ing in Kin­gussie? I live in the old Police house at num­ber I Mill Road, with the change of use to flats that are dir­ectly in front of the prop­erty this will encroach on our pri­vacy. There are young kids who play out­side, and their safety is imper­at­ive. It will be a gross inva­sion of our pri­vacy. I, espe­cially if there will be two extra flat cot­tages con­struc­ted closer to my prop­erty with no high bound­ary fence in place. What type of work is there in Kin­gussie for res­id­ents of flats? If being sold/​rented and advert­ised as easy com­mute South and North, they are likely to have cars. Moreover, it will be danger to chil­dren-ped­es­tri­ans hav­ing cars cross­ing the pave­ment to access park­ing from Ard­broilach Road into and out of the Police Sta­tion espe­cially when the build­ing com­pletely blocks the drivers view of any ped­es­tri­ans that may be com­ing; chil­dren will not stop to look for the cars as it is a pave­ment the cars are cross­ing not at junc­tion. There is a busy plumb­ing busi­ness on the corner of Ard­broilach Road, access to their stor­e­room is at the rear of the Police Sta­tion this could make it extremely dan­ger­ous as there would be more ped­es­tri­ans in the access than usu­al and they may come to harm if there was extra traffic access­ing the rear of the Police Sta­tion. Also, you can­not have two cars trav­el­ling in oppos­ite dir­ec­tions passing each oth­er in the access to the rear of the office Police Sta­tion, this would cause dif­fi­culties, con­ges­tion, noise, and danger to ped­es­tri­ans. There is also school which already struggles to take all the new nurs­ery chil­dren, addi­tion­al flats will not help this situ­ation as there will be no room for extra pupils? Flats are not suited in Kin­gussie, they look out of place and lower the qual­ity of liv­ing stand­ards. Hope­fully, this is the last time the Coun­cil is going to con­sider plan­ning to use the Police Sta­tion as res­id­en­tial build­ings and will only con­sider plan­ning on things that will bene­fit the vil­lage. Finally, please note that my sub­mis­sion is in respect of the pro­posed devel­op­ment. While I have taken every effort to present accur­ate inform­a­tion for your con­sid­er­a­tion, I am not a decision maker or stat­utory con­sul­tee, I can­not accept any respons­ib­il­ity for unin­ten­tion­al errors or omis­sions, and you should sat­is­fy yourselves on any facts before reach­ing your decision. Yours sin­cerely Alan Millar