Item5Appendix4CommunityCouncil20180043DETFillingStation

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 Appendix 4 22/03/2019

AGENDA ITEM 5

APPENDIX 4

2018/0043/DET

COM­MUNITY COUN­CIL COMMENTS

aviemore & vicin­ity com­munity coun­cil ​“Stand fast, Craigellachie”

‘Colon­say’ 12 Mor­lich Place, Aviemore, Inverness-shire. PH22 1TH

11^th Janu­ary 2019

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 The Square Grant­own on Spey Scot­land PH26 3HG

Dear Sir,

Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 2018/0043/DET | Erec­tion of 28 no apart­ments with asso­ci­ated works (amended design)

I refer to the above applic­a­tion and must inform you that Aviemore and Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil main­tains its objec­tion to the applic­a­tion for the fol­low­ing reasons;

Policy 1 ‑The pro­posed devel­op­ment does not com­ply with Policy 1 of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. The site is not iden­ti­fied in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015, nev­er­the­less, the Com­munity Coun­cil accepts that this site is a good one for infill hous­ing. How­ever, this is an over­de­vel­op­ment of what is a prom­in­ent site on the entrance approaches to Aviemore. This pro­posed devel­op­ment at the south end of Aviemore should make a pos­it­ive state­ment about Aviemore’s status as a world class resort, how­ever we sub­mit that it will not.

The devel­op­ment does not rein­force or enhance the char­ac­ter of its sur­round­ings. The devel­op­ment in no way reflects or com­ple­ments the scale, mater­i­als and details of Chair­man John Gri­er­son Sec­ret­ary Al Dar­gie Vice-chair­man Treas­urer Al Dar­gie Wilma Grierson

exist­ing devel­op­ment in Aviemore and the applic­ant has not demon­strated how their devel­op­ment sup­ports the sus­tain­ab­il­ity of the loc­al community.

In the Design State­ment Report dated 22/11/18, the developer describes the build­ings as 3 or four storey. How­ever, in a para­graph on page 17 where they point out that object­ors are incor­rect to say the build­ings are 5 storey and by refer­ring to Robert J Nai­s­miths book they state that the build­ing is 4.5 storeys; an admis­sion that the build­ings are not 3 and 4 storey. The 4.5 storey state­ment is also a mis­dir­ec­tion on the behalf of the developers as the build­ing has 5 hab­it­a­tion floors. This mis­dir­ec­tion is fur­ther accen­tu­ated by Floor Plans for blocks B and D not hav­ing the fifth floors shown. The top (fourth floor) does not appear to have a kitchen/​living/​dining area. The same applies in the floor plans for blocks A and C. Blocks A and C have 4 hab­it­a­tion floors but only 3 are shown on the floor plans. The plans are there­fore inac­cur­ate and do not show a true pic­ture of what is intended.

To fur­ther say in the Developer’s Design State­ment that the pro­posed build­ings will ​‘remain in scale with the nat­ur­al land­scape and built set­tle­ment’ is inac­cur­ate and mis­lead­ing. There are no oth­er domest­ic build­ings of that height, oth­er than in Mac­don­alds Aviemore High­land Resort, in Aviemore, or indeed Badenoch and Strath­spey. The build­ings imme­di­ately adja­cent on the north side of the devel­op­ment are single storey and the res­id­en­tial flats next to them in Grampi­an Court are 2 storey. The nearest build­ing of any height will be the new Premi­er Inn which is only 3 storey. There are no build­ings along the length of Grampi­an Road that are more than 2.5 storeys high.

The ​‘Street Elev­a­tion from Grampi­an Road’ shows the build­ings with the trees vis­ible behind them, yet the Sec­tion 1 – 1 and Sec­tion 2 – 2 clearly show that the trees will not be vis­ible above the build­ings to any­one on Grampi­an Road. The ​‘Street Elev­a­tion from Grampi­an Road’ shows a view from some way off over towards Rothiemurchus and not from Grampi­an Road. It is a total mis­rep­res­ent­a­tion of what the visu­al impact of the build­ings will be to any­one on Grampi­an Road.

Policy 5 — The pro­posed devel­op­ment also does not com­ply with Policy 5 of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan in that it does not ensure that devel­op­ment con­serves and enhances the dis­tinct­ive char­ac­ter­ist­ics of Aviemore.

Land­scape includes the built land­scape of the set­tle­ments. Aviemore, at its south end is open and not built up. What hous­ing there is, and any oth­er prop­er­ties are ​‘low level’ and do not exceed two storeys. The only build­ings that bor­der on to the pave­ment are res­taur­ants and they are single storey.

Posi­tioned, as the devel­op­ment is, close to the pave­ment, it will be impos­ing and give a city like vista. It will tight­en up what is and still could be an open approach. It will not give vis­it­ors approach­ing from the south a good impres­sion of the rur­al aspects of the village/​small town that Aviemore is. A city streets­cape is not apt in Aviemore. Chair­man John Gri­er­son Sec­ret­ary Al Dar­gie Vice-chair­man Treas­urer Al Dar­gie Wilma Grierson

All the older res­id­en­tial accom­mod­a­tion in Aviemore and most of the retail out­lets are also set back off the road so main­tain­ing a good open aspect. The build­ings in the pro­posed devel­op­ment are dis­pro­por­tion­ate to all the oth­er build­ings Aviemore. It should be designed to ensure the char­ac­ter of the set­tle­ment is rein­forced but in fact, it is doing more the opposite.

Unlike oth­er vil­lages in Badenoch and Strath­spey, Aviemore is rel­at­ively new and because of this is not built with most of the build­ings on its main street dir­ectly on the street. Aviemore has a rur­al vil­lage feel to it with plenty of space. This devel­op­ment will remove that open aspect and does noth­ing to enhance the land­scape or the attract­ive­ness of Aviemore for tourism..

Afford­able Hous­ing — We are dis­ap­poin­ted that there is no afford­able hous­ing ele­ment at the devel­op­ment. The re-loc­at­ing of the afford­able hous­ing ele­ment to anoth­er hous­ing devel­op­ment cre­ates a ​‘them and us’ feel­ing which should be avoided.

The Design State­ment says that agree­ment was reached with The High­land Coun­cil to trans­lo­cate the 7 no afford­able units from Grampi­an Road site to Slug­gan, Aviemore. A sep­ar­ate doc­u­ment out­lining the back­ground and agree­ments reached regard­ing the trans­lo­ca­tion of the afford­able hous­ing ele­ment to anoth­er site with­in Aviemore will be sub­mit­ted as part of this plan­ning applic­a­tion. We could find no trace of the agree­ment in the plan­ning doc­u­ments. It is essen­tial for fair­ness to all con­cerned that all doc­u­ments referred to should be avail­able for scru­tiny by con­sul­tees. How­ever, in any case, the hous­ing devel­op­ment at Slug­gan is now com­pleted and fully occu­pied. The High­land Coun­cil and CNPA plan­ners are put­ting the cart before the horse and agree­ing and imple­ment­ing some­thing before it has been agreed by the Plan­ning Author­ity. We con­sider that such an action by High­land Coun­cil and CNPA plan­ners could be ultra vires and is deserving of scrutiny.

Street Light­ing — We note that High­land Coun­cil request that the developers install new street light­ing appar­at­us designed to a stand­ard accept­able to the Council’s Street Light­ing Depart­ment. The Com­munity Coun­cil sug­gest that the light­ing should be of the same design to match the exist­ing light­ing at the south­ern entrance to Aviemore, i.e. wood framed.

In con­clu­sion;

Aviemore and Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil objects to the applic­a­tion. The Com­munity Coun­cil accepts that this site is a good one for infill hous­ing but con­tends that the scale pro­posed devel­op­ment is totally dis­pro­por­tion­ate to all oth­er build­ings in the whole of Aviemore and fails to reflect exist­ing hous­ing devel­op­ment in terms of pos­i­tions, dens­ity and scale and, as such, does not com­ply with Policies 1 and 5 of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. Chair­man John Gri­er­son Sec­ret­ary Al Dar­gie Vice-chair­man Al Dar­gie Treas­urer Wilma Grierson

The Com­munity Coun­cil requests that a rep­res­ent­at­ive be allowed to address the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee in order that the mem­bers of the CNP board may have a bet­ter under­stand­ing in terms of plan­ning and its effect on Aviemore and its environs of this devel­op­ment. Yours faith­fully, Chairman

Chair­man John Gri­er­son Vice-chair­man Al Dar­gie Sec­ret­ary Al Dar­gie Treas­urer Wilma Grierson

aviemore & vicin­ity com­munity coun­cil ​“Stand fast, Craigellachie”

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 The Square Grant­own on Spey Scot­land PH26 3HG ​‘Colon­say’ 12 Mor­lich Place, Aviemore, Inverness-shire. PH22 1TH

22^nd Feb­ru­ary 2018

Dear Sir,

Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 2018/00043/DET | Erec­tion of 32 no apart­ments with asso­ci­ated works (amended design)

I refer to the above applic­a­tion and must inform you that Aviemore and Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil wishes to object to the applic­a­tion for the fol­low­ing reasons;

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment does not com­ply with Policy 1 of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. This is an over­de­vel­op­ment of what is a prom­in­ent site on the entrance approaches to Aviemore.

2. The build­ings are 4.5÷5 storey and not 4 as described in the design state­ment. There are no oth­er such build­ings in Aviemore of that height. The build­ings imme­di­ately adja­cent on the north side of the devel­op­ment are single storey and the res­id­en­tial flats next to them in Grampi­an Court are 2 storey. The nearest build­ing of any height will be the new Premi­er Inn which is only 3 storey. A reduc­tion in height to 3 storey would be more in keep­ing with the rest of the built envir­on­ment in Aviemore.

3. To say in the Developer’s Design State­ment that the pro­posed build­ings will ​‘remain in scale with the nat­ur­al land­scape and built set­tle­ment’ is inac­cur­ate and mis­lead­ing. Yes, there are tall trees behind the devel­op­ment how­ever, the built set­tle­ment is in no way com­par­able to the size of the pro­posed build­ings. The build­ings are dis­pro­por­tion­ate to all the oth­er build­ings in the area. It should be designed to ensure the char­ac­ter of the set­tle­ment is rein­forced, in fact it is more the opposite.

4. The pro­posed devel­op­ment also does not com­ply with Policy 7 of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan in that it does not ensure that devel­op­ment con­serves and enhances the dis­tinct­ive char­ac­ter­ist­ics of Aviemore.
5. Land­scape includes the built land­scape of the set­tle­ments. Aviemore, at its south end is open and not built up. What hous­ing there is and any oth­er prop­er­ties are ​‘low level’ and do not exceed two storeys. The only build­ings that bor­der on to the pave­ment are res­taur­ants and single storey. Posi­tioned, as the devel­op­ment is, close to the pave­ment, it will be impos­ing and give a city like vista. It will tight­en up what is and still could be an open approach. It will not give vis­it­ors approach­ing from the south a good impres­sion of the rur­al aspects of the village/​small town that Aviemore is.
6. Unlike oth­er vil­lages in Badenoch and Strath­spey Aviemore is rel­at­ively new and because of this is not built up with most of the build­ings on its main street dir­ectly on the street. There are no build­ings over 3 storey. Aviemore has a rur­al vil­lage feel to it with plenty of space. This devel­op­ment will remove that open aspect and does noth­ing to enhance the landscape.
7. The descrip­tion of the park­ing is unclear. Park­ing is insuf­fi­cient for the num­ber of res­id­ences. Park­ing in this area is at a premi­um with only two small laybys nearby. These laybys ser­vice the two res­taur­ants and this usage will increase as the devel­op­ment will take away oth­er park­ing that is used by pat­rons. Aviemore is ser­i­ously restric­ted when it comes to pub­lic park­ing and the pro­posed park­ing at the site will exacer­bate the problem.
8. We are dis­ap­poin­ted that there is no afford­able hous­ing ele­ment at the devel­op­ment. The re-loc­at­ing of the afford­able hous­ing ele­ment to anoth­er hous­ing devel­op­ment cre­ates a ​‘them and us’ feel­ing which should be avoided. In any case the design state­ment does not give a loc­a­tion for the afford­able hous­ing oth­er than ​‘Slug­gan’. There is no indic­a­tion of which houses are to be afford­able, their size or how it will be managed.
9. We note the inten­tion to use dis­trict heat­ing via a bio­mass boil­er. Atten­tion is drawn to Health and Safety Exec­ut­ive Safety Notice OPSTD 3 – 2012. This notice points out the dangers inher­ent in the stor­age of wood pel­let bio­mass. Oper­at­ives work­ing with the bio­mass should be aware of the dangers, how­ever, the general

pub­lic more than likely are not. It is recom­men­ded that appro­pri­ate safety notices and secur­ity be put in place to ensure pub­lic safety. In con­clu­sion; Aviemore and Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil objects to the applic­a­tion. The Com­munity Coun­cil accepts that this site is a good one for infill hous­ing but con­tends that the scale pro­posed devel­op­ment is totally dis­pro­por­tion­ate to oth­er build­ings in the whole of Aviemore, Four Sea­sons Hotel excep­ted, and fails to reflect exist­ing hous­ing devel­op­ment in terms of pos­i­tions, dens­ity and scale and, as such, does not com­ply with Policies 1 and 7 of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. The Com­munity Coun­cil requests that a rep­res­ent­at­ive be allowed to address the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee in order that the mem­bers of the CNP board may have a bet­ter under­stand­ing in terms of plan­ning and its effect on Aviemore and its environs of this devel­op­ment. Yours faith­fully, Chairman