Item5PostCommitteeApplicationsUpdate

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 24/04/2020

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

FOR INFORM­A­TION

Title: UPDATE ON APPLIC­A­TIONS APPROVED BY COM­MIT­TEE SUB­JECT TO CON­CLU­SION OF DEVELOPER CON­TRI­BU­TIONS Pre­pared by: Gav­in Miles, Head of Plan­ning and Communities

Pur­pose To update the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee on pro­gress in secur­ing developer con­tri­bu­tions, leg­al agree­ments or oth­er mat­ters asso­ci­ated with plan­ning applic­a­tions pre­vi­ously determ­ined by the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee that mean that decision notices for the applic­a­tions can­not yet be issued. If it appears to officers that the out­stand­ing mat­ters are unlikely to be con­cluded, a fur­ther recom­mend­a­tion to refuse an applic­a­tion may be made to the Committee.

Recom­mend­a­tion That the Committee:

i. Note the pro­gress in con­clud­ing out­stand­ing mat­ters for the two plan­ning applic­a­tions where three months or more has passed since they were determ­ined by the Plan­ning Committee.

Back­ground

1. The CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee con­siders plan­ning applic­a­tions that have been called- in by the CNPA because they are of sig­ni­fic­ance to the aims of the Nation­al Park. Those applic­a­tions are often lar­ger or more com­plex plan­ning applic­a­tions with sig­ni­fic­ant impacts, some of which can­not be addressed by plan­ning con­di­tions, but where developer con­tri­bu­tions or leg­al agree­ments can over­come a bar­ri­er to plan­ning con­sent and allow a devel­op­ment to be approved.

2. In such cases, the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee make a decision on an applic­a­tion sub­ject to any neces­sary con­di­tions and the con­clu­sion of any out­stand­ing mat­ters. The plan­ning ser­vice does not issue a decision notice for an applic­a­tion until those mat­ters are con­cluded, so plan­ning per­mis­sion for that pro­pos­al exists. Once the mat­ters are con­cluded, nor­mally once a leg­al agree­ment has been con­firmed as registered on the title deeds of land, or where a cash con­tri­bu­tion for infra­struc­ture pro­vi­sion has been depos­ited with the receiv­ing pub­lic body, the decision notice is issued by the plan­ning service.

3. The con­clu­sion of these mat­ters can be com­plex and time con­sum­ing, par­tic­u­larly where leg­al agree­ments cov­er­ing land, money and mul­tiple parties are involved. The CNPA has a pro­cess for updat­ing the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee on applic­a­tions where more than three months has passed since a com­mit­tee decision without the decision notice being cap­able of being issued. The pur­pose is to inform the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee of the reas­ons for the delay and if it appears to officers that mat­ters are unlikely to be con­cluded, ask the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee to refuse the plan­ning applic­a­tion. To date, the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee have not be asked to refuse any such applic­a­tions. How­ever, the abil­ity to do so has helped move some cases to con­clu­sion where there were unne­ces­sary delays.

Cur­rent applic­a­tions determ­ined but without decision notices

1. The CNPA cur­rently has three plan­ning applic­a­tions that have been determ­ined by the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee but where decision notices can­not yet be issued. Only two of those applic­a­tions have hit or passed the three month trig­ger for report­ing. They are sum­mar­ised below.

Applic­a­tions	Com­mit­tee Decision Date
2019/0209/DET Erec­tion of a dis­til­lery, vis­it­or centre, ware­house, car park­ing, road junc­tion and asso­ci­ated infra­struc­ture and land­scap­ing, Land SE of Lower Gaich, Dul­nain Bridge	11 Octo­ber 2019
2019/0298/DET Spey House Phase 2 — Devel­op­ment of 14 no dwell­ings includ­ing 6no ter­raced houses, 4no bun­ga­lows and 4no cot­tage flats, off Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore	24 Janu­ary 2020

Applic­a­tion 2019/0209/DET, Erec­tion of Distillery

1. This applic­a­tion for a Dis­til­lery at Lower Gaich between Dul­nain Bridge and Grant­own-on-Spey was determ­ined by the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee on 11 Octo­ber 2019. The Plan­ning Com­mit­tee have received reg­u­lar updates on the pro­gress towards issu­ing a decision notice. The applic­a­tion is covered by a pro­cessing agree­ment between applic­ant and CNPA.

2. At the start of 2020, all parties thought that the leg­al agree­ment would be com­pleted quickly. How­ever final land and title searches iden­ti­fied a fur­ther land own­er and addi­tion­al work was required to estab­lish con­trol of that land.

3. The agree­ment is now final­ised between all parties and in the pro­cess of being signed. Under nor­mal con­di­tions, we would expect the agree­ment to be registered with Registers of Scot­land the next few weeks. The CNPA will issue the decision notice as soon as the regis­ter­ing pro­cess can be com­pleted. The applic­a­tion is covered by a pro­cessing agree­ment between applic­ant and CNPA.

4. This applic­a­tion for afford­able hous­ing close to the new Aviemore com­munity hos­pit­al health­care facil­ity was approved by the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee on 24 Janu­ary 2020. The applic­a­tion is covered by a pro­cessing agree­ment between applic­ant and CNPA and the developer con­tri­bu­tions between the parties are agreed.

5. How­ever Covid19 has led to some organ­isa­tions freez­ing con­tracts until there is more cer­tainty over future work­ing con­di­tions and their abil­ity to deliv­er pro­jects. In this case, the applic­ant Upland Devel­op­ments, was mak­ing the applic­a­tion as part of a con­tract with Albyn Hous­ing Soci­ety who would pur­chase the com­pleted devel­op­ment. Albyn Hous­ing Soci­ety has stopped com­mit­ting to new devel­op­ments until the end of June 2020 in order to review their abil­ity to deliv­er and this places the applic­ant in some dif­fi­culty in the short term.

6. CNPA officers will work with the applic­ant to see if there is an altern­at­ive solu­tion to allow the con­sent to be issued but will also work with Albyn Hous­ing Soci­ety and High­land Coun­cil to ensure that this site, which could be imple­men­ted rel­at­ively quickly, stays at the top of afford­able hous­ing invest­ment plans once con­struc­tion pro­jects are allowed to start again.

Con­clu­sion

1. Although there are delays in secur­ing developer con­tri­bu­tions for both plan­ning applic­a­tions sum­mar­ised in this paper that means that decision notices can­not yet be issued, in neither case are officers con­cerned that pro­gress has stalled without legit­im­ate reas­on. We expect to be able to issue a decision notice for applic­a­tion 2019/0209/DET (Dis­til­lery) as soon as the asso­ci­ated leg­al agree­ment is registered. The delay asso­ci­ated with applic­a­tion 2019/0298/DET (Spey House Phase 2 afford­able hous­ing) is due to Covid19 related con­trac­tu­al matters.

2. Both applic­a­tions have pro­cessing agree­ments that can accom­mod­ate in these delays and officers are con­fid­ent that all parties are work­ing to con­clude them as quickly as pos­sible. The Plan­ning Com­mit­tee will receive fur­ther updates at future meetings.

Gav­in Miles April 2020 gavinmiles@​cairngorms.​co.​uk