Item5Appendix4ObjectionsUpdated20210105DETLaurelBank

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 Appendix 4 24/06/2022

AGENDA ITEM 5

APPENDIX 4

2021/0105/DET

PUB­LIC REPRESENTATIONS

OBJEC­TIONS

adri­an Craigs

From:adrian Craigs Sent:Thu, 18 Nov 2021 16:28:36 +0000 To:[email protected] Cc:Planning Subject:Aviemore Retail Development

Dear Sirs / Madam

Fur­ther to my pre­vi­ous objec­tion I would like to reit­er­ate that this devel­op­ment plan for 23 hol­i­day apart­ments, shops, com­mer­cial units and a sub­stan­tial 3 storey hotel con­tra­venes the aims of the Nation­al Park which are to con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the park. Hav­ing demol­ished the ori­gin­al Vic­tori­an home at this site to replace it with 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and an 80 room Hotel is an out­rage. It will oblit­er­ate any views to Craigel­lach­ie from the centre of Aviemore. There is a hous­ing crisis unfold­ing in this area with many key work­ers liv­ing in their vehicles. There is a short­age of staff and work­force across all sec­tors, includ­ing the NHS. Who is going to ser­vice these 80 rooms and 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and oper­ate the shops ? The Nation­al Park Author­ity must give this ser­i­ous con­sid­er­a­tion. These cent­ral apart­ments should surely be reserved for those liv­ing and work­ing here.

Yours sin­cerely

Adri­an Craigs

Aniko Toth

From: Aniko Toth Sent: Thu, 18 Nov 2021 15:55:12 +0000 To:Planning;[email protected] Subject:

Dear Sirs / Madam Fur­ther to my pre­vi­ous objec­tion I would like to reit­er­ate that this devel­op­ment plan for 23 hol­i­day apart­ments, shops, com­mer­cial units and a sub­stan­tial 3 storey hotel con­tra­venes the aims of the Nation­al Park which are to con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the park. Hav­ing demol­ished the ori­gin­al Vic­tori­an home at this site to replace it with 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and an 80 room Hotel is an out­rage. It will oblit­er­ate any views to Craigel­lach­ie from the centre of Aviemore. There is a hous­ing crisis unfold­ing in this area with many key work­ers liv­ing in their vehicles. There is a short­age of staff and work­force across all sec­tors, includ­ing the NHS. Who is going to ser­vice these 80 rooms and 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and oper­ate the shops ? The Nation­al Park Author­ity must give this ser­i­ous con­sid­er­a­tion. These cent­ral apart­ments should surely be reserved for those liv­ing and work­ing here.

King regards A loc­ally worker

From:Claire Banks Sent: Thu, 18 Nov 2021 13:48:36 +0000 To:[email protected];Planning Sub­ject: Hotel plans for Aviemore

Dear Sirs / Madam I would like to reit­er­ate that this devel­op­ment plan for 23 hol­i­day apart­ments, shops, com­mer­cial units and a sub­stan­tial 3 storey hotel con­tra­venes the aims of the Nation­al Park which are to con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the park.

Hav­ing demol­ished the ori­gin­al Vic­tori­an home at this site to replace it with 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and an 80 room Hotel is an outrage.

It will oblit­er­ate any views to Craigel­lach­ie from the centre of Aviemore.

There is a hous­ing crisis unfold­ing in this area with many key work­ers liv­ing in their vehicles. There is a short­age of staff and work­force across all sec­tors, includ­ing the NHS.

Who is going to ser­vice these 80 rooms and 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and oper­ate the shops? The Nation­al Park Author­ity must give this ser­i­ous con­sid­er­a­tion. These cent­ral apart­ments should surely be reserved for those liv­ing and work­ing here.

Kind regards, Claire Banks

From:Eilidh McLeod Sent: Thu, 18 Nov 2021 22:29:55 +0000 To:[email protected]; Plan­ning Subject:Planning — 2021/ 0105/DET

Dear Sir or Madam,

I object to the erec­tion of 23 self-cater­ing apart­ments, shops, com­mer­cial units, hotel, and under­ground parking.

Every green space in Aviemore has been developed over recent years, it does not have the infra­struc­ture to cope with more devel­op­ments. The erec­tion of such a large com­plex will over­power the centre of the vil­lage and cause more traffic con­ges­tion on Grampi­an Road. Demol­ish­ing a Vic­tori­an House, and repla­cing it with a large com­plex, is not in- keep­ing with the sur­round­ing area.

We have a newly built Premi­er Inn; there­fore, anoth­er nation­al hotel chain is not needed. The growth of loc­al busi­nesses, sus­tain­ab­il­ity, and eco-friendly devel­op­ments, to enhance the area should be con­sidered. Unfor­tu­nately, Aviemore already has empty shops, office units, and an empty con­crete multi-storey hotel complex.

Aviemore should learn from its past mis­takes and not repeat history.

I hope this will be taken into consideration,

Kind regards, Eilidh McLeod

Cam­brae Craig Na Gower Ave Aviemore

From:June Arm­strong Sent: Thu, 18 Nov 2021 13:13:37 +0000 To:[email protected];Planning Subject:Planning comm­ments ²⁰²¹⁄₀₁ 05 DET land 80M SW of Moun­tain Café, Aviemore

Dear Sirs / Madam Fur­ther to my pre­vi­ous objec­tion I would like to reit­er­ate that this devel­op­ment plan for 23 hol­i­day apart­ments, shops, com­mer­cial units and a sub­stan­tial 3 storey hotel con­tra­venes the aims of the Nation­al Park which are to con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the park. Hav­ing demol­ished the ori­gin­al Vic­tori­an home at this site to replace it with 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and an 80 room Hotel is an out­rage. It will oblit­er­ate any views to Craigel­lach­ie from the centre of Aviemore. There is a hous­ing crisis unfold­ing in this area with many key work­ers liv­ing in their vehicles. There is a short­age of staff and work­force across all sec­tors, includ­ing the NHS. Who is going to ser­vice these 80 rooms and 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and oper­ate the shops ? The Nation­al Park Author­ity must give this ser­i­ous con­sid­er­a­tion. These cent­ral apart­ments should surely be reserved for those liv­ing and work­ing here.

Yours sin­cerely June Armstrong

16 Dal­faber pk Aviemore PH22 1QF

From:Kat Heath­cote Sent: Thu, 18 Nov 2021 13:51:38 +0000 To:Planning;[email protected] Subject:Ref2021/0105/DET

Dear Sirs/​Madam I would like to protest, in the strongest pos­sible terms, the devel­op­ment plan for 23 hol­i­day apart­ments, shops, com­mer­cial units and a sub­stan­tial 3 storey hotel in the Centre of Aviemore. This pro­pos­al con­tra­venes the aims of the Nation­al Park, which are to con­serve and enhance nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age. I do not believe these plans meet those aims and, fur­ther­more, It will oblit­er­ate views to Craigel­lach­ie from the centre of Aviemore. There is a ser­i­ous hous­ing crisis in this area, with many key work­ers hav­ing to leave as they are unable to find hous­ing. There is a short­age of staff and work­force across all sec­tors, includ­ing the NHS. Many com­mer­cial premises are already on reduced hours due to the non avail­ab­il­ity of staff. It begs the ques­tion, Who is going to ser­vice these rooms, hol­i­day apart­ments and shops ? In the last month we have closed our own rent­al giv­en it over to long term accom­mod­a­tion — you are in grace danger of mak­ing my response a futile and point­less one. The Nation­al Park Author­ity must give this ser­i­ous con­sid­er­a­tion. These cent­ral apart­ments should surely be reserved for those liv­ing and work­ing here — it is out­rageous to even con­sider otherwise

Regards Kat Heath­cote Cor­rour House Inverdruie

Keith Wolfthorn

From:Keith Wolfthorn Sent:Thu, 18 Nov 2021 14:03:13 +0000 To:[email protected];Planning Subject:Wow more hol­i­day homes for rich non locals .

Dear Sirs / Madam Fur­ther to my pre­vi­ous objec­tion I would like to reit­er­ate that this devel­op­ment plan for 23 hol­i­day apart­ments, shops, com­mer­cial units and a sub­stan­tial 3 storey hotel con­tra­venes the aims of the Nation­al Park which are to con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the park. Hav­ing demol­ished the ori­gin­al Vic­tori­an home at this site to replace it with 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and an 80 room Hotel is an out­rage. It will oblit­er­ate any views to Craigel­lach­ie from the centre of Aviemore. There is a hous­ing crisis unfold­ing in this area with many key work­ers liv­ing in their vehicles. There is a short­age of staff and work­force across all sec­tors, includ­ing the NHS. Who is going to ser­vice these 80 rooms and 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and oper­ate the shops ? The Nation­al Park Author­ity must give this ser­i­ous con­sid­er­a­tion. These cent­ral apart­ments should surely be reserved for those liv­ing and work­ing here.

This is a joke for all res­id­ents a slap in the face for any one really try­ing to buy a house Regards Keith

From:kyle McRobert Sent: Thu, 18 Nov 2021 15:05:45 +0000 To:[email protected];Planning Subject:Fw: Objec­tion to the pro­posed hotel and hol­i­day apartments

Dear Sir/​Madam, I am writ­ing to show my objec­tion to the pro­posed hotel and hol­i­day apart­ments. I have lived in Aviemore for almost 4 years now. 1 year in a private ren­ted flat which I had to move out of due to the sale of it, share house as I could not find any­where else and then an HMO for 6 months as it was the only afford­able place before man­aging to scrape enough to buy a small one bed flat.

As a com­pany we struggle with hir­ing new engin­eers because there is no accom­mod­a­tion avail­able for them here so even if we wanted to offer them, they can’t find afford­able accom­mod­a­tion with­in com­mut­ing dis­tance. In the past we have had to pay for staff to live in hotel rooms until they find more per­man­ent accom­mod­a­tion. Anoth­er mem­ber of staff spent nearly a year liv­ing in a bnb. We have had two mem­bers of staff come from amer­ica one ren­ted an air bnb for 6 months before mov­ing to Grant­own on Spey (they are in a man­age­ment role which allowed them to buy hous­ing out­side of Aviemore.) and one lived in the bunk house youth hostel for a few months before find­ing accommodation.

Loc­al busi­nesses in the cater­ing industry are stretched to the lim­it with staff­ing and not being able to find any­where for new staff to live. This affected Anderson’s res­taur­ant in boat of Garten this year due to them not being able to find a chef. They were only able to resolve this by find­ing accom­mod­a­tion and offer­ing it as part of the job.

We des­per­ately need new afford­able accom­mod­a­tion in Aviemore before we look at more hol­i­day accom­mod­a­tion oth­er­wise there will be no one left to work in the hotels and shops or staff the hospital.

Thank you for tak­ing the time to read this and I eagerly await your response, Regards, Kyle McRobert

From:Mary Mac­Don­ald Sent: Thu, 18 Nov 2021 13:50:51 +0000 To:[email protected] Cc:Planning Subject:Planning Objection

Good After­noon, I would like to object to the plans for the devel­op­ment of a hotel and hol­i­day apart­ments along­side retail units in Aviemore.

Aviemore has been more than over developed in recent years. We need afford­able hous­ing for loc­al people and for loc­al busi­ness own­ers to provide accom­mod­a­tion to staff. There are more than enough hol­i­day homes in this town already, can we not take a second to think about the people who live here?

Kind Regards Mary

From:Nicola Dig­gins Sent: Thu, 18 Nov 2021 18:07:16 +0000 To:[email protected]; Plan­ning Subject:Aviemore Development

To the plan­ning officer/​office I would like to object to the plan for the devel­op­ment of an 80 room hotel in the middle of Aviemore and 23 self cater­ing apart­ments. The 3 storey devel­op­ment is out of keep­ing with the area and will oblit­er­ate any views to Craigel­lach­ie from the centre of Aviemore.

The type of accom­mod­a­tion pro­posed ( hotel & self cater­ing) is in sur­plus in the vil­lage already. In addi­tion, there is a hous­ing crisis unfold­ing in this area with many key work­ers unable to find afford­able and suit­able accom­mod­a­tion. There is a short­age of staff and work­force across all sec­tors, includ­ing the NHS. Who is going to ser­vice these 80 rooms and 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and oper­ate the shops ? The Nation­al Park Author­ity must give this ser­i­ous con­sid­er­a­tion. These cent­ral apart­ments should surely be reserved for those liv­ing and work­ing here.

Please advise me that this objec­tion will be taken into con­sid­er­a­tion Yours sin­cerely Nicki Diggins

Nikki Han­nay

From:Nikki Han­nay Sent:Thu, 18 Nov 2021 13:44:15 +0000 To:Planning Subject:Planning Objec­tion in Regards to 2021/0105/DET

Dear Sirs / Madam I would like to express my objec­tion to the devel­op­ment plan for 23 hol­i­day apart­ments, shops, com­mer­cial units and a sub­stan­tial 3 storey hotel con­tra­venes the aims of the Nation­al Park which are to con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the park. Hav­ing demol­ished the ori­gin­al Vic­tori­an home at this site to replace it with 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and an 80 room Hotel is an out­rage. It will oblit­er­ate any views to Craigel­lach­ie from the centre of Aviemore. There is a hous­ing crisis unfold­ing in this area with many key work­ers liv­ing in their vehicles. There is a short­age of staff and work­force across all sec­tors, includ­ing the NHS. Who is going to ser­vice these 80 rooms and 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and oper­ate the shops ? The Nation­al Park Author­ity must give this ser­i­ous con­sid­er­a­tion. These cent­ral apart­ments should surely be reserved for those liv­ing and work­ing here.

Regards Nikki & Kate Han­nay 41 Burn­side Road Aviemore PH22 1SQ

From:rgrahamh20 Sent: Thu, 18 Nov 2021 14:49:07 +0000 To:[email protected];Planning Subject:RE: 2021/0105/DET Importance:Normal

Ref­er­ence 2021/0105/DET

Dear Sirs / Madam Fur­ther to my pre­vi­ous objec­tion I would like to reit­er­ate that this devel­op­ment plan for 23 hol­i­day apart­ments, shops, com­mer­cial units and a sub­stan­tial 3 storey hotel con­tra­venes the aims of the Nation­al Park which are to con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the park. Hav­ing demol­ished the ori­gin­al Vic­tori­an home at this site to replace it with 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and an 80 room Hotel is an out­rage. It will oblit­er­ate any views to Craigel­lach­ie from the centre of Aviemore. There is a hous­ing crisis unfold­ing in this area with many key work­ers liv­ing in their vehicles. There is a short­age of staff and work­force across all sec­tors, includ­ing the NHS. Who is going to ser­vice these 80 rooms and 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and oper­ate the shops ? The Nation­al Park Author­ity must give this ser­i­ous con­sid­er­a­tion. These cent­ral apart­ments should surely be reserved for those liv­ing and work­ing here.

Regards, Richard Graham

Own­er @ Route 7 Café Sent from my Galaxy

From:Robyn Bra­ham Sent: Thu, 18 Nov 2021 14:09:30 +0000 To:[email protected];Planning Subject:2021/0105/DET

Dear Sir/​Madam I am writ­ing to raise my objec­tion to the devel­op­ment plan for 23 hol­i­day apart­ments, shops, com­mer­cial units and a sub­stan­tial 3 storey hotel.

I had been pre­vi­ously under the impres­sion that it would be res­id­en­tial hous­ing and some shops that were built on this site.

Aviemore is already crum­bling under the weight of too many hol­i­day lets and not nearly enough decent and afford­able long term lets. Nev­er mind the cost of hous­ing for any first time buy­ers who actu­ally want to put down roots and live and work here.

Almost every busi­ness is short staffed to the point of hav­ing to close 1 or 2 days a week. What use is job cre­ation if there is no way to fill those jobs?

Not because people don’t want to live and work here but because they are con­stantly being priced out. Every res­id­en­tial home that goes up for sale seems to end up selling for 10s of thou­sands over the ask­ing price and being con­ver­ted into a short term let. Until these issues are dealt with and prop­er, good qual­ity, afford­able hous­ing for people who want to live and work here is built we can­not keep build­ing hotels and hol­i­day lets.

Kind regards, Robyn Bra­ham PH22 1US Sent from my iPhone

From:Sarah Monro Sent: Thu, 18 Nov 2021 14:19:12 +0000 To:Planning Subject:Objection to new devel­op­ment for Hotel and 23 hol­i­day apartments

To whom it may concern,

I would strongly like to object to the plan­ning of an 80-bed­room hotel, 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and shops in the centre of Aviemore. The Cairngorm Nation­al Part Author­ity have done abso­lutely noth­ing to help Aviemore become an attract­ive area set in the nation­al park and seem to work very dif­fer­ently to any oth­er nation­al park. Aviemore has no afford­able hous­ing for those who work and live here, adults still liv­ing with par­ents as they can­not afford to buy and there is very little rent­al or afford­able rent­al as houses are now all hol­i­day lets or second homes. Young fam­il­ies hav­ing to move away from where they grew up as they can­not afford to live here. Every busi­ness is strug­gling to find staff, how would put­ting in yet more hotels and hol­i­day apart­ments going to help our com­munity apart from put­ting more strain on the vil­lage. How many hotels do you think a vil­lage in a nation­al park needs?

No new builds in Aviemore are in keep­ing or pretty just built cheap. The Cairngorm nation­al park should be look­ing at pro­tect­ing the Green­land that we have left, the wild­life and restrict­ing new builds that are not going to help our com­munity. The Tul­loch homes that are being built is a prime example of how the Cairngorm Nation­al Park have let down the Aviemore com­munity. Wild Life gone, Green­land where land was used by the com­munity gone, pro­tec­ted trees cut down for £160,000 1‑bedroom apart­ments which are not afford­able for those work­ing in Aviemore.

My main objec­tions, Aviemore can­not cope with more hotels, The design not in keep­ing with Aviemore, 3 Storey hotel will look ter­rible in middle of vil­lage (like McDon­alds does), There are not enough people work­ing here to ser­vice these.

I hope you ser­i­ously con­sider throw­ing this plan out of the win­dow and think about the com­munity. I would like a reply to say you have received this email and I would like to know what the plan­ning pro­cess is. So we know wild­life and Green­land are pro­tec­ted as you have done a ter­rible job at Santa Clause Land and the Horse Filed where the Tul­loch homes are being built, where more pro­tec­ted trees have just been cut down out with the plan­ning area.

I look for­ward to your reply. Kind regards Sarah Monro

From:Sarah Wise­man Sent: Thu, 18 Nov 2021 21:15:21 +0000 Subject:2021/0105/DET | Erec­tion of 23 self-cater­ing apartments

Dear Sir/​Madam, I would like to register my objec­tion to the plan­ning applic­a­tion for the devel­op­ment of an 80 room 3 story hotel in the centre of Aviemore and 23 Hol­i­day apart­ments. These plans con­tra­vene the aims of the Nation­al Park which are to con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the area and the park.

Hav­ing demol­ished the ori­gin­al Vic­tori­an home at this site to replace it with 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and an 80 room Hotel is an outrage.

It will oblit­er­ate any views to Craigel­lach­ie from the centre of Aviemore. There is a hous­ing crisis unfold­ing in this area with many key work­ers liv­ing in their vehicles.

There is a short­age of staff and work­force across all sec­tors, includ­ing the NHS. Who is going to ser­vice these 80 rooms and 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and oper­ate the shops? The Nation­al Park Author­ity must give this ser­i­ous con­sid­er­a­tion. These cent­ral apart­ments should surely be reserved for those liv­ing and work­ing here.

Plans here:

https://​www​.eplan​ningcnpa​.co​.uk/​o​n​line- applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=QQIYLYSI0CH00

Sarah Wise­man Loc­al resident

From:steven wylie Sent: Thu, 18 Nov 2021 19:45:18 +0000 To:[email protected];Planning Subject:Hotel in Aviemore plan­ning application

With ref­er­ence to the plan­ning applic­a­tion for the devel­op­ment of an 80 room hotel in the centre of Aviemore and 23 Hol­i­day apart­ments etc…I have made an objec­tion today by email to plan­ning office. The dead­line for com­ment­ing is today, please if you can find a minute to do the same…just email, takes seconds. I emailed to eplanning@​highland.​gov.​uk and planning@​cairngorms.​co.​uk This is my response…. Dear Sirs / Madam Fur­ther to my pre­vi­ous objec­tion I would like to reit­er­ate that this devel­op­ment plan for 23 hol­i­day apart­ments, shops, com­mer­cial units and a sub­stan­tial 3 storey hotel con­tra­venes the aims of the Nation­al Park which are to con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the park. Hav­ing demol­ished the ori­gin­al Vic­tori­an home at this site to replace it with 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and an 80 room Hotel is an out­rage. It will oblit­er­ate any views to Craigel­lach­ie from the centre of Aviemore. There is a hous­ing crisis unfold­ing in this area with many key work­ers liv­ing in their vehicles. There is a short­age of staff and work­force across all sec­tors, includ­ing the NHS. Who is going to ser­vice these 80 rooms and 23 hol­i­day apart­ments and oper­ate the shops ? The Nation­al Park Author­ity must give this ser­i­ous con­sid­er­a­tion. These cent­ral apart­ments should surely be reserved for those liv­ing and work­ing here.

Steven wylie Get Out­look fo

Stu­art Boon

From:Stuart Boon Sent:Thu, 18 Nov 2021 14:59:52 +0000 To:[email protected];Planning Subject:Objection to the pro­posed hotel and hol­i­day apartments

Dear Sir/​Madam, I am writ­ing to show my objec­tion to the pro­posed hotel and hol­i­day apart­ments. I have lived in Aviemore for 3 years now. 1 year in a privately ren­ted 2 bed­room flat that was unaf­ford­able due to high rent­al cost and a poor heat­ing sys­tem caus­ing large bills. My last two years I have had to move in with a small fam­ily in their spare room as it is the only afford­able hous­ing I can find in Aviemore that allows me to live close to my work. I work as a soft­ware developer for Quarch Tech­no­logy in dal­faber indus­tri­al estate.

As a com­pany we struggle with hir­ing new engin­eers because there is no accom­mod­a­tion avail­able for them here so even if we wanted to offer them they can’t find afford­able accom­mod­a­tion with­in com­mut­ing dis­tance. In the past we have had to pay for staff to live in hotel rooms until they find more per­man­ent accom­mod­a­tion. Anoth­er mem­ber of staff spent nearly a year liv­ing in a bnb. We have had two mem­bers of staff come from amer­ica one ren­ted an air bnb for 6 months before mov­ing to grant­own on spey (they are in a man­age­ment role which allowed them to buy hous­ing out­side of aviemore.) and one lived in the bunk house youth hostel for a few months before find­ing accomodation.

Loc­al busi­nesses in the cater­ing industry are stretched to the lim­it with staff­ing and not being able to find any­where for new staff to live. This affected anderson’s res­taur­ant in boat of garten this year due to them not being able to find a chef. They only were able to resolve this by sind­ing acco­mod­a­tion and offer­ing it as part of the job.

I per­son­ally live next to two hol­i­day homes either side of me on Pat­ter­son rd. Both homes lay empty most of the year and are used for a week or two out of the year max­im­um. These homes could be used for loc­als in the area.

We des­per­ately need new afford­able accom­mod­a­tion in Aviemore before we look at more hol­i­day accom­mod­a­tion oth­er­wise there will be no one left to work in the hotels and shops or staff the hospital.

Thank you for tak­ing the time to read this and i eagerly await your response, Regards, Stu­art Boon.

2021/0105/DET

Gus Jones

From:Gus Jones Sent:26 Apr 2021 23:44:35 +0100 To:Planning Subject:2021/0105/DET Comments

Badenoch & Strath­spey Con­ser­va­tion Group Fiod­hag, Nethy­bridge, Inverness-shire PH25 3DJ Tel Scot­tishChar­ity No. SC003846 Email Web­site bscg​.org​.uk/

CNPA Grant­own on Spey

26 April 2021

Dear Emma Bryce

2021/0105/DET | Erec­tion of 23 self-cater­ing apart­ments, shops, hotel and under­ground park­ing | Land 80M SW Of Moun­tain Café 111 Grampi­an Road Aviemore

BSCG wishes to object to the above devel­op­ment. We would like to request the oppor­tun­ity to address the plan­ning com­mit­tee, either remotely or in per­son, when the applic­a­tion is determined.

Impacts on the Milton (or Aviemore) Burn The pro­pos­al site is imme­di­ately upstream of the stretch of the Milton Burn des­ig­nated as part of the River Spey & Trib­u­tar­ies SAC. The pro­pos­al has thepo­ten­tial to adversely impact the integ­rity of the des­ig­nated site. The stretch of the burn that bor­ders the pro­posed devel­op­ment can be con­sidered to con­trib­ute to the integ­rity of the site and the long-term qual­ity of this part of the burn has implic­a­tions for the des­ig­nated site down­stream. The built foot­print of the devel­op­ment site is too close to the import­ant water course of the Milton Burn which sup­ports sig­ni­fic­ant biod­iversity. We con­sider there should be a sub­stan­tially lar­ger sep­ar­a­tion between the burn and built devel­op­ment. This would allow for high­er qual­ity hab­it­at in the ripari­an cor­ridor, with great­er resi­li­ence and high­er nat­ur­al­ness. This would enable a bet­ter-con­nec­ted land­scape with healthy hab­it­at net­works in- this import­ant ripari­an corridor.

Otters are known to use the burn, with spraints found at least as far up the burn as the cross­ing of the A9. It is reas­on­able to regard otters using all of the burn as part of the SAC pop­u­la­tion. An inver­teb­rate sur­vey under­taken for what was at that stage the new Tesco site and is now the retail park (a short way upstream of the pro­pos­al), estab­lished the use of the burn by North­ern Feb­ru­ary Red stone­fly Bra­chyptera putata. The burn is known to be used by Lamprey and sup­ports breed­ing amphi­bi­ans. Sal­monids have been recor­ded upstream of the pro­pos­al site. A full suite of eco­lo­gic­al sur­veys, under­taken at appro­pri­ate times of year, are needed to accom­pany this applic­a­tion and inform decisions.

The impacts of cli­mate change are pre­dicted to get worse, with great­er extremes of weath­er. The like­li­hood of low water levels becomes great­er, with poten­tially sig­ni­fic­ant eco­lo­gic­al con­sequences, such as raised water tem­per­at­ures and high­er con­cen­tra­tions of pol­lut­ants. In addi­tion, the like­li­hood of flood events, which can be eco­lo­gic­ally destruct­ive, becomes great­er. A lar­ger dis­tance between the burn and the built foot­print would allow for more trees and oth­er ripari­an veget­a­tion, which would provide shade and lower water tem­per­at­ure, as well as main­tain and poten­tially improve water qual­ity and provide organ­ic mat­ter and food sources in the burn.

Land­scape The land­scape plant­ing is hard to com­ment on in detail as most of the print on the plan avail­able on the plan­ning portal is unread­able. We are con­cerned that there is insuf­fi­cient space provided in the pro­pos­al for adequate green land­scap­ing in this prom­in­ent loc­a­tion in the vil­lage centre.

Cumu­lat­ive impacts We are con­cerned at the poten­tial for cumu­lat­ive impacts on the burn from devel­op­ments. A sub­stan­tial amount of build­ing along the Milton Burn has been con­struc­ted and per­mis­sioned in recent years. This includes: High­er Burn­side; devel­op­ments around Milton Side down­stream of the A9; the pro­pos­als for the pony field; and the retail park devel­op­ment, that involved the destruc­tion of one of the nation­al park’s most eco­lo­gic­ally rich ponds.

SUDS Pro­pos­als We are con­cerned as to wheth­er the SUDS arrange­ments are fully sus­tain­able in the face of sub­stan­tially worsen­ing effects of cli­mate change and the many uncer­tain­ties regard­ing future effects of cli­mate change.

Sur­face Water Drain­age We are con­cerned that, accord­ing to the plans provided, the size and route of the sur­face water drain­age are still to be confirmed.

Yours sin­cerely Gus Jones

Con­vener

2021/0105/DET

Com­ments for Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 21/01068/FUL

Applic­a­tion Sum­mary Applic­a­tion Num­ber: 21/01068/FUL Address: Land 80M SW Of Moun­tain Café 111 Grampi­an Road Aviemore Pro­pos­al: Erec­tion of 23 self-cater­ing apart­ments, shops, hotel and under­ground park­ing Case Officer: John Kelly

Cus­tom­er Details Name: Mr aaron sned­don Address: Not Available

Com­ment Details Com­menter Type: Mem­ber of Pub­lic Stance: Cus­tom­er objects to the Plan­ning Applic­a­tion Com­ment Reas­ons: Com­ment: These are too tall and over­bear­ing, hav­ing no sym­pathy for the sur­round­ings (Effect­ively block­ing off a view of the hills to the West), The glass could pos­sibly cre­ate sig­ni­fic­ant glare over the oth­er side of the road. We already have prob­lems with delays and con­ges­tion with the Tesco open­ing onto the main road, with the anti­cip­ated traffic, this is going to cre­ate yet anoth­er bot­tle­neck. What an abso­lute mon­stros­ity in the centre of the ​“vil­lage” that looks noth­ing like the painted up ver­sion on the fence that cur­rently sur­rounds the site now. Two storeys yes, three no chance. This is a high dens­ity devel­op­ment of little bene­fit to people liv­ing already in Aviemore, just more accommodation.

2021/0105/DET

Com­ments for Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 21/01068/FUL

Applic­a­tion Sum­mary Applic­a­tion Num­ber: 21/01068/FUL Address: Land 80M SW Of Moun­tain Café 111 Grampi­an Road Aviemore Pro­pos­al: Erec­tion of 23 self-cater­ing apart­ments, shops, hotel and under­ground park­ing Case Officer: John Kelly

Cus­tom­er Details Name: Dr Barry Middleton Address: Not Available

Com­ment Details Com­menter Type: Mem­ber of Pub­lic Stance: Cus­tom­er objects to the Plan­ning Applic­a­tion Com­ment Reas­ons: Comment:Given the lack of hous­ing (also afford­able) for loc­als isn’t plan­ning for this which is 23 self cater­ing apart­ments, against the grain? This site will greatly influ­ence the ambi­ence of aviemore espe­cially the centre of the vil­lage, not that aviemore will ever win archi­tec­ture awards. Will sur­round­ing build­ings be dwarfed by the height of these? The vil­lage is becom­ing more and more geared towards vis­it­ors (or developers) and not people who live there, this devel­op­ment is anoth­er example.

2021/0105/DET

Com­ments for Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 21/01068/FUL

Applic­a­tion Sum­mary Applic­a­tion Num­ber: 21/01068/FUL Address: Land 80M SW Of Moun­tain Café 111 Grampi­an Road Aviemore Pro­pos­al: Erec­tion of 23 self-cater­ing apart­ments, shops, hotel and under­ground park­ing Case Officer: John Kelly

Cus­tom­er Details Name: Mr Mar­tin John­son Address: Not Available

Com­ment Details Com­menter Type: Mem­ber of Pub­lic Stance: Cus­tom­er objects to the Plan­ning Applic­a­tion Com­ment Reas­ons: Comment:1) Afford­able Hous­ing This applic­a­tion includes 23 No. 2 bed­room, 4 per­son apart­ments all for short term let­ting. The CNPA Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan now requires that devel­op­ments include 45% afford­able hous­ing. There­fore, 11 or more of the apart­ments should be avail­able for lease­hold pur­chase or long term let to provide fam­ily homes.

2) Eco­nom­ic Bene­fit Giv­en that Aviemore has only recently acquired anoth­er hotel at the south end of the vil­lage, and that Mac­Don­dald resorts already had ample pro­vi­sion of hotel accom­mod­a­tion, I would ques­tion the eco­nom­ic bene­fit of yet more hotel and short term let capa­city in the village.

3) Sus­tain­able Design Policy 3 of the LDP requires that amen­ity of exist­ing res­id­ents be pro­tec­ted. The pro­posed shop­ping in the applic­a­tion will prob­ably be aimed at tour­ists, and there­fore is of no com­munity bene­fit. The extra traffic asso­ci­ated with such a sig­ni­fic­ant devel­op­ment will make an already ser­i­ous traffic situ­ation worse in the centre of the vil­lage — thus degrad­ing the amen­ity cur­rently enjoyed by neighbours.

2021/0105/DET

Com­ments for Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 21/01068/FUL

Applic­a­tion Sum­mary Applic­a­tion Num­ber: 21/01068/FUL Address: Land 80M SW Of Moun­tain Café 111 Grampi­an Road Aviemore Pro­pos­al: Erec­tion of 23 self-cater­ing apart­ments, shops, hotel and under­ground park­ing Case Officer: John Kelly

Cus­tom­er Details Name: Ms June Arm­strong Address: Not Available

Com­ment Details Com­menter Type: Mem­ber of Pub­lic Stance: Cus­tom­er objects to the Plan­ning Applic­a­tion Com­ment Reas­ons: Com­ment: The height of any devel­op­ment at this site should not exceed the exist­ing Tesco build­ing. At three storeys plus the roof space it will com­pletely over­whelm the centre on this elev­ated site and block the views towards Craigel­lach­ie. I would have to ques­tion the feas­ib­il­ity of anoth­er poten­tial budget hotel in Aviemore when the empty Four Sea­sons hotel towers above the beau­ti­ful Strath­spey Lawn. The CNPA town plan­ners need to con­sider all the implic­a­tions of this devel­op­ment closely. Aviemore is sadly lack­ing in com­munity leis­ure facil­it­ies with vari­ous com­munity groups try­ing des­per­ately to raise funds for the cre­ation of such facil­it­ies to serve the loc­al com­munity as well as the vis­it­ors to the area. A com­munity leis­ure centre with a vil­lage hall would be highly recom­men­ded at this cent­ral loc­a­tion. The only aspect of this devel­op­ment plan that I agree with is ​“The Gath­er­ing Space”. The over devel­op­ment and urb­an­isa­tion of Aviemore should be restric­ted to safe­guard the nat­ur­al beauty of our Nation­al Park.