CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/06/2020

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED:

Reten­tion of ten wig­wam accom­mod­a­tion units at Spey­side Trust Bad­aguish Out­door Centre Glen­more Aviemore High­land PH22 IQU

REF­ER­ENCE:

2020/0081/DET

APPLIC­ANT:

Spey­side Trust

DATE CALLED-IN:

30 March 2020

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve Sub­ject to Conditions

CASE OFFICER:

Ed Swales, Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/06/2020

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The applic­a­tion site is loc­ated at Bad­aguish, 6km to the east of Aviemore, along the road com­monly known as the ski road towards Cairngorm Moun­tain. This is an estab­lished out­door edu­ca­tion centre with numer­ous exist­ing facil­it­ies on site (offices, toilet/​shower block, lodges, café, play area, camp­ing, wig­wams, paths etc.) in a wood­land setting.

2. Land to the south of the Bad­aguish com­plex is des­ig­nated as a Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area, SSSI, and Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion and the entire site lies with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Scen­ic Area.

Pro­pos­al

1. The draw­ings and doc­u­ments asso­ci­ated with this applic­a­tion are lis­ted below and are avail­able on the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity web­site unless noted otherwise:

   http://​www​.eplan​ningcnpa​.co​.uk/​o​n​l​i​n​e​-​a​p​p​l​i​c​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​a​p​p​l​i​c​a​t​i​o​n​D​e​t​a​i​l​s​.​d​o​?​a​c​t​i​v​e​T​a​b​=​s​u​m​m​a​r​y​&​k​e​y​V​a​l​=​Q​6​N​X​T​I​S​I​0CH00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Loc­a­tion Plan	4111/LOC	01/11/15	30/03/20
Site Lay­out	4111⁄062	11/11/15	30/03/20
Sup­port­ing Statement			30/03/20
Site Pho­tos	4111⁄002		30/03/20

*Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the 1^st of the month.

1. The pro­pos­al is for the con­tinu­ation of use for a fur­ther three years for 10 wooden wig­wams. These are loc­ated on two dif­fer­ent sites with­in the wider com­plex. These wig­wams were gran­ted tem­por­ary plan­ning per­mis­sion in 2015 as part of the wider devel­op­ment of the site for 35 wig­wams and over­all upgrad­ing of the exist­ing infrastructure.

2. The reas­on for the required con­tinu­ation on a tem­por­ary basis is to raise the neces­sary fund­ing for the remainder of the devel­op­ment whilst retain­ing some income from their use.

3. A Sup­port­ing State­ment has been sub­mit­ted explain­ing the reas­on­ing behind the proposal.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/06/2020

His­tory

1. Tem­por­ary plan­ning per­mis­sion was gran­ted for the sit­ing of the 10 wig­wams in 2010 by the CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee (10/107/CP). In 2012 this con­sent was exten­ded to the end of 2014 (2012/0107/DET).

2. This con­sent expired and a sub­sequent ret­ro­spect­ive applic­a­tion (2015/0375/DET) was gran­ted con­sent to retain the wig­wams for a fur­ther year.

3. In 2017 a fur­ther tem­por­ary con­sent was gran­ted for the reten­tion of the 10 wig­wams for a peri­od of 3 years (2017/0008/DET).

4. The wider site has a lengthy plan­ning his­tory. In 2011 an applic­a­tion (2011/0206/DET) was approved for the erec­tion of 35 wig­wams, site activ­ity area and moun­tain bike free ride trail. It was later deemed that this per­mis­sion had been breached and a sec­tion 33a notice was served requir­ing the resub­mis­sion of the applic­a­tions to rem­edy the breaches of plan­ning con­trol. These were sub­mit­ted and approved in 2015 (2015/0133/DET and 2015/0132/DET).

5. In 2016 an applic­a­tion for plan­ning per­mis­sion (2016/00092/ DET) was gran­ted con­sent for the erec­tion of cook­ing and toi­let facil­it­ies. This was later amended to become accom­mod­a­tion for a 24 hour warden ser­vice (2017/0325/DET).

DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN CONTEXT

Policies

Nation­al Policy	Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy 2014
Stra­tegic Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 — 2022
Loc­al Plan Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2015)
	Those policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross
POLICY I	NEW HOUS­ING DEVELOPMENT
POLICY 2	SUP­PORT­ING ECO­NOM­IC GROWTH	X
POLICY 3	SUS­TAIN­ABLE DESIGN	X
POLICY 4	NAT­UR­AL HERITAGE	X
POLICY 5	LAND­SCAPE	X
POLICY 6	THE SIT­ING AND DESIGN OF DIGIT­AL COM­MU­NIC­A­TIONS EQUIPMENT
POLICY 7	RENEW­ABLE ENERGY
POLICY 8	SPORT AND RECREATION	X
POLICY 9	CUL­TUR­AL HERITAGE
POLICY 10	RESOURCES	X
POLICY 11	DEVELOPER CON­TRI­BU­TIONS

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/06/2020

1. All new devel­op­ment pro­pos­als require to be assessed in rela­tion to policies con­tained in the adop­ted Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. The full word­ing of policies can be found at:

   http://cairngorms.co.uk/uploads/documents/Park%20Authority/Planning/LDPI5.pdf

2. Oth­er rel­ev­ant loc­al policies are (delete if not applicable)

Plan­ning Guidance

1. Sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance also forms part of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan and provides more details about how to com­ply with the policies. Guid­ance that is rel­ev­ant to this applic­a­tion is marked with a cross.

Policy I	New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 3	Sus­tain­able Design Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance	X
Policy 5	Land­scape Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 7	Renew­able Energy Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance
Policy 8	Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 11	Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan

1. The emer­ging Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (“Pro­posed Plan”) which will cov­er the peri­od 2020 – 2025 is cur­rently being pro­gressed. The pro­posed plan has been through a pub­lic con­sulta­tion pro­cess and the form­al responses have been assessed and sub­mit­ted along with all oth­er rel­ev­ant mater­i­als to Scot­tish Min­is­ters for exam­in­a­tion. As the exam­in­a­tion of the Pro­posed Plan is still pro­gress­ing its con­tents cur­rently carry lim­ited weight.

CON­SULTA­TIONS

1. A sum­mary of the main issues raised by con­sul­tees now follows:

2. Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Her­it­age state that the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity is lead­ing on the HRA aspect of this and as such offer no com­ment on the application.

3. CNPA Con­ser­va­tion Officer states the advice remains the same from the 2017 applic­a­tion on the basis of the con­clu­sions of the Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tion Apprais­al car­ried out then.

4. Aviemore and Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil offered no com­ment on the application.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/06/2020

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. One objec­tion has been received in rela­tion to this devel­op­ment focus­ing on the wider site and its scale that has already been gran­ted per­mis­sion under the 2015 plan­ning applications.

APPRAIS­AL

Prin­ciple

1. The prin­ciple of recre­ation­al devel­op­ment at Bad­aguish is well estab­lished and fits well with the exist­ing activ­it­ies on site. Plan­ning per­mis­sion has pre­vi­ously been gran­ted on a num­ber of occa­sions for tem­por­ary wig­wams in the cur­rent loc­a­tion. The issue to be con­sidered now is wheth­er it is appro­pri­ate to con­tin­ue to per­mit the reten­tion of these wig­wams, again on this site until such time as the site to the north is more fully developed to a stage when these 10 wig­wams may be relocated.

2. If the applic­a­tion were to be refused, the wig­wams would have to be removed from their cur­rent loc­a­tions and the ground restored, but the wig­wams them­selves could be relo­cated to oth­er sites with­in the area as the wider devel­op­ment is built out.

3. Policy 2.2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth states that devel­op­ment which enhances form­al and inform­al tour­ism and leis­ure related infra­struc­ture facil­it­ies includ­ing accom­mod­a­tion will be sup­por­ted where it has no adverse envir­on­ment­al impacts on the site and adds to or extends the core tour­ist sea­son. The devel­op­ment fits well with­in its wood­land set­ting allow­ing a year round out­door learn­ing exper­i­ence as well as accom­mod­a­tion. The con­tin­ued reten­tion of these wig­wams allows the centre to gen­er­ate income until such time as fur­ther fund­ing becomes avail­able for the wider devel­op­ment. As such the pro­pos­al com­plies with Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.

4. Policy 8: Sport and Recre­ation also sup­ports the pro­vi­sion of this type of facil­it­ies where they are sus­tain­ably designed, do not intro­duce any envir­on­ment­al impacts and con­trib­ute to an iden­ti­fied vis­it­or need.

5. The prin­ciple of retain­ing the 10 wig­wams is accept­able sub­ject to com­pli­ance with policies relat­ing to design, ser­vi­cing, land­scape and envir­on­ment­al impacts.

Design and Servicing

1. Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design states that a design state­ment must accom­pany all devel­op­ment pro­pos­als to demon­strate how the pro­pos­al has been designed to use mater­i­als and land­scap­ing that will com­ple­ment the set­ting of the devel­op­ment. The 10 wig­wams have been on site for a num­ber of years now and have bed­ded into their sur­round­ings and relate well to the exist­ing build­ings and infrastructure.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/06/2020

1. Policy 10: Resources states that all devel­op­ment should have no sig­ni­fic­ant adverse impact on exist­ing or private water sup­plies or wastewa­ter treat­ment ser­vices and that they should be con­nec­ted to the pub­lic sew­er­age net­work unless it is in a small set­tle­ment where there is a lim­ited col­lec­tion sys­tem. The centre is a pre-exist­ing stan­dalone devel­op­ment and these facil­it­ies dis­charge to the exist­ing sewage treat­ment plant which is reg­u­lated by the Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency (SEPA). Access arrange­ments and waste man­age­ment pro­vi­sion will remain the same. Giv­en the above it is con­sidered that the pro­pos­al com­plies with both Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.

Envir­on­ment­al Issues

1. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 seeks to pro­tect des­ig­nated sites and pro­tec­ted spe­cies and con­serve biod­iversity. The key poten­tial envir­on­ment­al impact relates to any impacts upon the Cairngorms Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area (SPA) in terms of any impacts upon caper­cail­lie in the SPA. It is neces­sary to fully con­sider these impacts and this has been done through the Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tion Assess­ment and Appro­pri­ate Assess­ment (Appendix 3). This was under­taken dur­ing the pre­vi­ous assess­ment of this applic­a­tion in 2017 fol­low­ing advice from SNH. The advice with­in that Assess­ment remains as it was at that time. This con­cludes that any poten­tial impacts may be sat­is­fact­or­ily mit­ig­ated by the ongo­ing imple­ment­a­tion of the Vis­it­or Man­age­ment Plan. Sub­ject to this assess­ment, the con­di­tions attached to this per­mis­sion as well as the wider per­mis­sions will ensure that there are no adverse impacts on NATURA interests and that the pro­pos­al com­plies with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.

Land­scape

1. Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 seeks to con­serve and enhance land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Cairngorm Nation­al Park. The wig­wams have been on site for a num­ber of years and relate well with­in their con­text and wood­land set­ting. As such the land­scape impact of these struc­tures has lessened and is insig­ni­fic­ant now. Fur­ther­more there is a wider Vis­it­or Man­age­ment Plan which ensures all land­scap­ing is car­ried out and any dying trees are replaced. Land­scap­ing of the wider site remains con­trolled through con­di­tions on the pre­vi­ous per­mis­sions and as such the pro­pos­al com­plies with Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.

Oth­er Issues Raised in Con­sulta­tions and Representations

1. One objec­tion has been received in rela­tion to this devel­op­ment, but it relates to their dis­agree­ment with the wider 2015 con­sent and gen­er­al oper­a­tion of the Bad­aguish site. Issues regard­ing the land­scap­ing relat­ing to those applic­a­tions are not rel­ev­ant to this plan­ning application.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/06/2020

CON­CLU­SIONS

1. It is con­sidered that this pro­pos­al to retain ten wig­wams on this site at Bad­aguish, until such time as the lar­ger wig­wam site to the north is in a suit­able con­di­tion to relo­cate them to, is accept­able on its own mer­its in land use plan­ning terms. Ser­vi­cing impacts from the devel­op­ment are lim­ited and any land­scape impacts and envir­on­ment­al impacts upon NATURA interests can be con­trolled by plan­ning con­di­tions requir­ing adher­ence to the exist­ing Vis­it­or Man­age­ment Plan. It is import­ant to ensure there are no more than 35 wig­wams in total on the wider site as it is on that basis that the applic­a­tion has been assessed. It is there­fore recom­men­ded that a plan­ning con­di­tion be attached requir­ing relo­ca­tion or remov­al of the ten wig­wams into the main site with­in 3 years or as soon as there are 25 wig­wams on the main site, whichever is the sooner.

2. On this basis the applic­a­tion is con­sidered to com­ply with Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies and approv­al is recom­men­ded sub­ject to the sug­ges­ted plan­ning conditions.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion GRANT TEM­POR­ARY PLAN­NING PER­MIS­SION to retain exist­ing estab­lished 10. no wig­wam accom­mod­a­tion and asso­ci­ated land­scap­ing (Renew­al of per­mis­sion 2017/0008/DET (16/05607/FUL)) at Spey­side Trust, Bad­aguish Out­door Centre, Glen­more, Aviemore sub­ject to the fol­low­ing conditions:

Those con­di­tions lis­ted below in bold text are sus­pens­ive con­di­tions, which require to be dis­charged pri­or to imple­ment­a­tion of the development.

Con­di­tions

1. Not­with­stand­ing the approved sup­port­ing state­ment the wig­wams hereby approved and any sup­port­ing pads shall be removed from site with­in 3 years of the date of this per­mis­sion or before more than 25 wig­wams are erec­ted on the land to the north which is the sub­ject of plan­ning applic­a­tion ref­er­ences 2015/0132/DET, 2015/0133/DET and 2011/0206/DET, whichever is the soon­er and the ground restored to its pre­vi­ous con­di­tion pri­or to the erec­tion of the wigwams.

   Reas­on: To ensure the devel­op­ment is con­trolled to that applied for as envir­on­ment­al impacts have been con­sidered in rela­tion to a total of 35 wig­wams in com­pli­ance with Policies 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age, and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

2. No more than 35 wig­wams shall be loc­ated on the entire site, as out­lined in blue on the approved loc­a­tion plan (4111/LOC) at any giv­en time.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/06/2020

Reas­on: To ensure the devel­op­ment is con­trolled to that applied for as envir­on­ment­al impacts have been con­sidered in rela­tion to a total of 35 wig­wams in com­pli­ance with Policies 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age, and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. The devel­op­ment hereby approved shall be oper­ated in accord­ance with the approved Vis­it­or Man­age­ment Plan Ver­sion 5 dated Novem­ber 2015. Ongo­ing mon­it­or­ing shall be under­taken in accord­ance with the recom­mend­a­tions of the approved Vis­it­or Man­age­ment Plan through­out the life­time of the devel­op­ment hereby approved. The res­ults of mon­it­or­ing (togeth­er with details of any mit­ig­a­tion car­ried out) shall be sub­mit­ted on an annu­al basis to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity, start­ing from Janu­ary 2021 (and then every Janu­ary thereafter).

   Reas­on: To ensure the devel­op­ment con­serves and enhances the nat­ur­al her­it­age of the area and does not adversely affect the Cairngorms Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area in terms of impacts upon caper­cail­lie from the users of the site, and com­plies with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

2. The wig­wams shall be used only as short term tour­ist accom­mod­a­tion. No single peri­od of occu­pa­tion shall exceed two months in any cal­en­dar year unless oth­er­wise agreed in writ­ing with the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. Occu­pa­tion shall be restric­ted to use by per­sons stay­ing in the area for recre­ation­al purposes.

   Reas­on: To ensure that the units are used for recre­ation­al pur­poses in con­nec­tion with the oper­a­tion of a tour­ist facil­ity in accord­ance with Policy 2: Eco­nom­ic Growth of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Inform­at­ives

1. The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment is required to give the Plan­ning Author­ity pri­or writ­ten noti­fic­a­tion of the date which it is inten­ded to com­mence the devel­op­ment. Attached to this decision notice is a Notice of Ini­ti­ation of Devel­op­ment for com­ple­tion and sub­mis­sion. Sub­mis­sion of this inform­a­tion assists the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer in mon­it­or­ing act­ive work with­in the area to ensure com­pli­ance with the approved details and to identi­fy and cor­rect any poten­tial prob­lems, as they arise, rather than later when it may be more dif­fi­cult and more costly to rec­ti­fy. Fail­ure to give notice would con­sti­tute a breach of plan­ning con­trol which may res­ult in enforce­ment action being taken.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/06/2020

1. Fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, a noti­fic­a­tion of com­ple­tion shall, as soon as prac­tic­able, be giv­en to the Plan­ning Author­ity. Attached to this decision notice is a Notice of Com­ple­tion of Devel­op­ment for com­ple­tion and sub­mis­sion. Sub­mis­sion of this form will assist the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer in mak­ing a final inspec­tion and check­ing com­pli­ance with the approved draw­ings and con­di­tions. If the devel­op­ment hereby approved is to be car­ried out in phases, then a notice of com­ple­tion should be sub­mit­ted at the com­ple­tion of each phase.

The map on the first page of this report has been pro­duced to aid in the stat­utory pro­cess of deal­ing with plan­ning applic­a­tions. The map is to help identi­fy the site and its sur­round­ings and to aid Plan­ning Officers, Com­mit­tee Mem­bers and the Pub­lic in the determ­in­a­tion of the pro­pos­al. Maps shown in the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Report can only be used for the pur­poses of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee. Any oth­er use risks infringing Crown Copy­right and may lead to pro­sec­u­tion or civil pro­ceed­ings. Maps pro­duced with­in this Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Report can only be repro­duced with the express per­mis­sion of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and oth­er Copy­right hold­ers. This per­mis­sion must be gran­ted in advance.