Item6AA20220241DETMacDonaldResortSkyBarCommitteeReport

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 11/08/2023

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PRO­POSED: Alter­a­tions and exten­sion at Mac­don­ald Aviemore Hotel The Aviemore Centre Grampi­an Road Aviemore High­land PH22 1PF REF­ER­ENCE: 2022/0241/DET APPLIC­ANT: Mac­don­ald Aviemore High­land Resorts Ltd DATE CALLED-IN: 25 July 2022 RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve sub­ject to Con­di­tions and Developer Con­tri­bu­tion CASE OFFICER: Stephanie Wade, Plan­ning Officer

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CNPA Plan­ning Committee

Applic­a­tion Site

0 40 80 Meters 160

DOD Path (um)

Aviemore High­land Resort

S N

ge Aviemore 100 7 Pol Sta Wks Hotel FB Hotel High­land Resort Tan Hotel ElSub Sta Path Path (um) Pond FB Play­ground Track Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2023. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber 100040965 Path

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 11/08/2023

Ban Sta TCBS Lea Hatt Meall Buidhe Laurel 3.1m Post Super­store Clune Kila 00 B Hotel211.8m El Sub Sed 212.8 80 El Sub Sta Aviemore Sta­tion Box Måst Mas ESub Sta Spey Bank Kin­a­pol Hame Gru­inard FB Feithlinn Dams­duch­us Hotel Gar­age Revoan Shingle Shingle River Spey

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 11/08/2023

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The site com­prises an area of 0.9ha situ­ated adja­cent to the east­ern site bound­ary of the Mac­Don­ald High­land Resort. The applic­a­tion site com­prises the Aviemore Hotel which cur­rently provides hol­i­day accom­mod­a­tion for fam­il­ies. The hotel com­prises 97 suites arranged over four floors with a res­taur­ant and gam­ing room on the ground floor. The build­ing takes form from a flat roofed, L‑shaped block with exist­ing vehicu­lar park­ing sited pre­dom­in­antly to the south­ern side of the build­ing. The park­ing area provides 42 vehicu­lar spaces. The hotel is sur­roun­ded by the intern­al road lay­out of the resort, with the main resort com­plex and facil­it­ies sites to the south-west. The red line area also includes land to the west of the hotel which is hard sur­faced and cur­rently used by the Aviemore Ice Rink. To the east, is the Tesco Super­store and bey­ond this is Grampi­an Road and the main high street of Aviemore.

2. The site is included with­in the Aviemore Moun­tain Resort Tree Pre­ser­va­tion Order.

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​line- applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=RF2FZZSIOC P00

Title Draw­ing Date on Date Received Num­ber Plan* PLANS Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan 10181/PL01 28/06/2022 25/07/2022 Plan – Exist­ing Site Plan 10181/ 28/06/2022 25/07/2022 PL02 Plan — Exist­ing Floor Plans 10181/PL 30/06/2022 25/07/2022 100 Plan — Exist­ing Elev­a­tions 10181/PL30 30/06/2022 25/07/2022 0 Plan – Pro­posed Site Lay­out 10181/PL03 10/03/2023 10/03/2023 Plan Rev.A

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Plan – Pro­posed Elev­a­tion A 10181/PL30 24/02/2023 10/03/2023 South West Facing 1 Rev.C Plan – Pro­posed Elev­a­tion B 10181/PL30 24/02/2023 10/03/2023 South East Facing 2 Rev.C Plan – Pro­posed Elev­a­tion C 10181/PL30 24/02/2023 10/03/2023 North East Facing 3 Rev.C Plan — Pro­posed Elev­a­tion D 10181/PL30 24/02/2023 10/03/2023 North West Facing 4 Rev.C CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 11/08/2023

Plan – Exist­ing and Pro­posed 10181/PL40 20/02/2023 10/03/2023 Roof Plans 0 Rev.B Plan – Pro­posed Third Floor 10181/PL 28/07/2023 31/07/2023 101 Rev.B Plan – Pro­posed Fourth and 10181/PL 09/03/2023 10/03/2023 Fifth Floor Lay­outs 101 Rev.C Plan — Typ­ic­al Bed­room Lay­out 10181/PL 29/06/2022 25/07/2022 103 Plan- Build­ing Heights – ¹⁰¹⁸¹⁄₇₀₃ 02/03/2023 10/03/2023 Pre­vi­ous Designs Plan — Visu­al­isa­tions 1010181 27/03/2023 31/03/2023 702 Rev.B SUP­PORT­ING DOC­U­MENT­A­TION Oth­er- Sup­port­ing State­ment 10181 01/07/2022 25/07/2022 Oth­er — Visu­al­isa­tions Report Rev.A 07/11/2022 Oth­er – Design State­ment 10181 07/11/2022 Addendum Oth­er – Drain­age Assess­ment GMC22- 10/10/2022 27/10/2022 1009 Oth­er — Agent response to 01/10/2022 03/10/2022 Roads Com­ments Oth­er — Trans­port Assess­ment Issue 01 25/08/2022 29/08/2022 Oth­er — Pre­lim­in­ary Bat Roost Rev.1 14/12/2022 15/12/2022 and Nest­ing bird Assess­ment Oth­er – Biod­iversity 19/07/2023 Enhance­ment State­ment *Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the 1^st of the month.

1. The applic­a­tion looks to expand the exist­ing hotel by adding two addi­tion­al floors to the build­ing, togeth­er with changes to the extern­al appear­ance of the build­ing. The pro­pos­al looks to cre­ate a total of 25 addi­tion­al accommodation

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 11/08/2023

rooms over the floors three and four togeth­er with the cre­ation of a sky bar on the fifth floor. The new bed­rooms would provide 23x 4‑person fam­ily rooms and 2×1 per­son rooms.

1. The pro­posed sky bar on the fifth floor com­prises a large, open plan area with a cent­ral bar, toi­lets, and seat­ing for cus­tom­ers, togeth­er with an extern­al, cir­cu­lar view­ing plat­form. Access to the fifth floor includes the install­a­tion of new stair­wells and a new, extern­al lift on the north west elev­a­tion. The roof of the sky bar is pro­posed to be a clad in zinc, with a mix of flat and pitched roof sec­tions. The elev­a­tions of the sky bar are to be cre­ated of glazed units. A glazed bal­us­trade sur­rounds the view­ing plat­form. The roof of the four-storey ele­ment of the build­ing is pro­posed to be altered to a pitched roof (north-east elev­a­tion). The upper storey elev­a­tions of the build­ing are pro­posed to be clad with zinc, col­oured grey.

2. The pro­pos­al also looks to cre­ate an addi­tion­al park­ing area for the hotel, to be loc­ated on a sep­ar­ate block of land to the west of the build­ing, which is cur­rently used for the com­munity ice rink. The new car park would provide 48 vehicu­lar spaces and 3 motor­cycle spaces togeth­er with covered secure cycle stor­age for 10 bicycles. The exist­ing park­ing area would also be recon­figured to provide an over­all total of 93 vehicu­lar spaces which includes 7 dis­abled park­ing spaces.

3. For ref­er­ence, the Design State­ment con­firms that the exist­ing com­munity ice rink will be sited on adja­cent land to its cur­rent loc­a­tion to con­tin­ue operation.

4. Plans of the pro­pos­al are included with­in Appendix 1.

His­tory

1. With­in the wider Mac­Don­ald High­land Resort, there are sev­er­al applic­a­tions run­ning con­cur­rently to this applic­a­tion which are out­lined below:

a) 2023/0030/PPP – Plan­ning per­mis­sion in prin­ciple for the res­id­en­tial devel­op­ment, staff accom­mod­a­tion and infra­struc­ture. Applic­a­tion sub­mit­ted 19^th Decem­ber 2022, and is cur­rently under con­sid­er­a­tion by the CNPA.

b) 2023/0004/DET – Change of use of land for sit­ing of 27 lodges, access road, land­scap­ing at site of dry ski slope, Mac­Don­ald Resort. Applic­a­tion sub­mit­ted on 9^th Janu­ary 2023 and is cur­rently under con­sid­er­a­tion by the CNPA.

c) 2022/0328/PPP – Erec­tion of hol­i­day apart­ments, at Land West of Cairngorm Hotel. Applic­a­tion sub­mit­ted 17 Octo­ber 02022 and is cur­rently under con­sid­er­a­tion by the CNPA.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 11/08/2023

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al [HRA] has been under­taken to con­sider the effects of the pro­pos­al upon the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the European Sites, as lis­ted with­in the doc­u­ment attached as Appendix 2. The sites poten­tially affected are the:

a) Kin­veachy Forest Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area [SPA] b) River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion [SAC].

1. The River Spey SAC is with­in 200m of the pro­posed devel­op­ment site how­ever there is a lack of dir­ect eco­lo­gic­al con­nectiv­ity between the site and the SAC and is scoped out of the remain­ing assess­ment. The HRA con­cludes that the pro­pos­al will not have an adverse impact on site integ­rity of the Kin­veachy Forest SPA as the con­ser­va­tion object­ives can be met.

DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN CONTEXT

Policies Nation­al Policy Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045

POLICY 1 Tack­ling the Cli­mate and Nature Crises POLICY 3 Biod­iversity POLICY 4 Nat­ur­al Places POLICY 6 Forestry, Wood­land, and Trees POLICY 7 His­tor­ic Assets and Places POLICY 13 Sus­tain­able Trans­port POLICY 14 Design, Qual­ity and Place POLICY 15 Loc­al Liv­ing and 20 minute neigh­bour­hoods POLICY 22 Flood Risk and Water Man­age­ment POLICY 30 Tour­ism Stra­tegic Policy Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 — 2022 Loc­al Plan Policy Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2021) Those policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross POLICY 1 NEW HOUS­ING DEVEL­OP­MENT X POLICY 2 SUP­PORT­ING ECO­NOM­IC GROWTH X POLICY 3 DESIGN AND PLACE­MAK­ING X POLICY 4 NAT­UR­AL HER­IT­AGE X POLICY 5 LAND­SCAPE X POLICY 6 THE SIT­ING AND DESIGN OF DIGIT­AL COM­MU­NIC­A­TIONS EQUIPMENT

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 11/08/2023

POLICY 7 RENEW­ABLE ENERGY POLICY 8 OPEN SPACE, SPORT AND RECRE­ATION POLICY 9 CUL­TUR­AL HER­IT­AGE POLICY 10 RESOURCES X POLICY 11 DEVELOPER CON­TRI­BU­TIONS X

1. All new devel­op­ment pro­pos­als require to be assessed in rela­tion to policies con­tained in the adop­ted Devel­op­ment Plan which com­prises Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. The full word­ing of policies can be found at:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-planning-framework- 4/​documents/​

and at:

https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​w​p​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​2​0​2​1​/​0​3​/​C​N​P​A​-​L​D​P​-​2021- web.pdf

1. With­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, the site forms part of a wider alloc­ated area for ​‘mixed use’, under alloc­a­tion Aviemore- M1. The Aviemore High­land Resort is a large site in the centre of Aviemore. It cur­rently has a range of dif­fer­ent uses includ­ing hotels and hol­i­day accom­mod­a­tion, retail, recre­ation, and hous­ing and has under­gone sig­ni­fic­ant devel­op­ment to cre­ate the resort it is today. The alloc­a­tion offers an oppor­tun­ity for the enhance­ment and diver­si­fic­a­tion of the cur­rent uses, includ­ing the pro­vi­sion of addi­tion­al hous­ing, retail, recre­ation, and employ­ment spaces. There is also a Devel­op­ment Brief for the site, which is non stat­utory plan­ning guid­ance provid­ing details on site con­straints and oppor­tun­it­ies and devel­op­ment requirements.

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 1 Hous­ing Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance. Policy 2 Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory X Guid­ance Policy 3 Design and Place­mak­ing Non Stat­utory Guid­ance X Policy 4 Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance X Policy 5 Land­scape Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X Policy 7 Renew­able Energy Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 11/08/2023

Policy 8 Open Space, Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance Policy 9 Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance Policy 10 Resources Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X Policy 11 Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance X

CON­SULTA­TIONS

Sum­mary of the main issues raised by consultees

1. High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team have no objec­tion to the pro­pos­al sub­ject to the inclu­sion of a plan­ning con­di­tion for the agree­ment of a final­ised drain­age report and lay­out, con­sid­er­ing updated cal­cu­la­tion methods.

2. High­land Coun­cil Con­tam­in­ated Land Officer has no objection.

3. High­land Coun­cil Forestry Officer notes that the site is in the Aviemore Moun­tain Resort Tree Pre­ser­va­tion Order (TPO NO.HRC42). Whilst the works would not dir­ectly impact exist­ing TPO trees, the Officer is con­cerned regard­ing con­struc­tion activ­ity caus­ing impacts. The Officer also quer­ies wheth­er tree remov­al is required for the car park install­a­tion. The Officer wel­comes the pro­posed tree plant­ing around the car park­ing area but requests fur­ther plant­ing and details to be sought by plan­ning condition.

4. High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team have provided com­ments on the latest amend­ments of the scheme. The Team has no objec­tion to the applic­a­tion sub­ject to the pay­ment of a developer con­tri­bu­tion to improve two ped­es­tri­an cross­ings on Grampi­an Road. This is required due to the Trans­port Assess­ment stat­ing that most of the trip to the new devel­op­ment would be on foot. Plan­ning con­di­tions are also recom­men­ded relat­ing to cycle park­ing for staff and elec­tric vehicles char­ging provision.

5. CNPA Land­scape Officer con­siders that the latest ver­sion is an improve­ment on the pre­vi­ous sub­mis­sions. The sim­pli­fic­a­tion of the lift hous­ing reduces the over­all com­plex­ity of the elev­a­tion from Grampi­an Road. It is now accept­able in respect of land­scape mat­ters. There are no land­scap­ing details sub­mit­ted and so a full land­scape plan is required. This must con­tain details of all plant­ing, ground pre­par­a­tion, plant­ing oper­a­tions and a land­scape main­ten­ance plan for at least 5 years after planting.

6. CNPA Eco­logy Officer notes that no roost­ing bats were iden­ti­fied dur­ing the sur­vey work under­taken although for­aging and com­mut­ing activ­ity was noted. The Officer there­fore recom­mends a bat spe­cies pro­tec­tion plan as a

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 11/08/2023

plan­ning con­di­tion. A plan­ning con­di­tion is also recom­men­ded to sched­ule works out­with the bird breed­ing sea­son togeth­er with the incor­por­a­tion of a pre-con­struc­tion check to con­firm any nest­ing. The Officer recom­mends fur­ther biod­iversity enhance­ment through addi­tion­al plant­ing and the install­a­tion of bat/​bird nest­ing boxes with­in the site.

1. CNPA Out­door Access Officer has no objec­tion to the scheme. The officer notes there are core paths nearby but unaf­fected by the devel­op­ment. The Officer sup­ports the secure cycle stor­age facil­ity pro­posed sub­ject to it meet­ing High­land Coun­cil standards.

2. Aviemore Com­munity Coun­cil were con­sul­ted on the latest design and con­sider that the pro­pos­als are inap­pro­pri­ate in the con­text of the centre of Aviemore. The scale and bulk would dom­in­ate the sur­round­ing, and the pro­posed ter­race would over­look the vil­lage centre, intrud­ing on oth­ers. They wel­come the pitch­ing of the roof, which helps to mit­ig­ate the worst of the visu­al impact. They are also con­cerned that the bound­ary of the over­all pro­posed devel­op­ment appears to impact on the site of the com­munity ice rink. Cop­ies of their full com­ments can be found at Appendix 3.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. The applic­a­tion was advert­ised when first sub­mit­ted. No let­ters of pub­lic rep­res­ent­a­tion have been received.

APPRAIS­AL

1. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions are the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment, the impact upon the land­scape, lay­out and design, the envir­on­ment­al impacts, access and ser­vi­cing and developer contributions.

Prin­ciple

1. The applic­a­tion site is situ­ated with­in the set­tle­ment of Aviemore and involves the alter­a­tion of an exist­ing hotel, with­in the Mac­Don­ald High­land Resort. Aviemore plays a key role as an employ­ment and ser­vice centre for the wider Badenoch and Strath­spey area. Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policy sup­ports oppor­tun­it­ies for busi­ness growth and those which will increase Aviemore’s attract­ive­ness as a tour­ist and recre­ation destination.

2. Policy 2:1 Town Centres First of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, sup­ports com­mer­cial and leis­ure devel­op­ment where they are loc­ated with­in an iden­ti­fied town centre. The applic­a­tion site in in the iden­ti­fied set­tle­ment bound­ary of Aviemore and forms part of a wider site alloc­a­tion under ref­er­ence M1- Aviemore. This LDP alloc­a­tion states that the

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 11/08/2023

alloc­a­tion offers the oppor­tun­ity for the enhance­ment and diver­si­fic­a­tion of the cur­rent uses, includ­ing the pro­vi­sion of addi­tion­al hous­ing, retail, recre­ation, and employ­ment spaces. The applic­a­tion looks to enhance the exist­ing tour­ist use of the site by expand­ing the facil­it­ies offered with­in the build­ing, which could help to con­trib­ute to the vital­ity and viab­il­ity of this exist­ing town centre in accord­ance with Policy 9 of NPF4.

1. Policy 30: Tour­ism of NPF4 offers sup­port to devel­op­ment pro­pos­als for new or exten­ded tour­ist facil­it­ies in loc­a­tions iden­ti­fied with­in the LDP. Pro­pos­als should consider:

a) The con­tri­bu­tion made to the loc­al eco­nomy. b) Com­pat­ib­il­ity with the sur­round­ing area in terms of the nature and scale of the activ­ity and impacts of increased vis­it­ors. c) Impacts on com­munit­ies, for example by hinder­ing the pro­vi­sion of homes and ser­vices for loc­al people. d) Oppor­tun­it­ies for sus­tain­able travel and appro­pri­ate man­age­ment of park­ing and traffic gen­er­a­tion and scope for sus­tain­ing pub­lic trans­port ser­vices par­tic­u­larly in rur­al areas. e) Access­ib­il­ity for dis­abled people. f) Meas­ures taken to min­im­ise car­bon emis­sions. g) Oppor­tun­it­ies to provide access to the nat­ur­al environment.

1. Policy 2:2 Tour­ist Accom­mod­a­tion of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sup­ports tour­ist related accom­mod­a­tion where:

a) it has no adverse envir­on­ment­al or amen­ity impacts on the site or neigh­bour­ing areas, b) it con­trib­utes to/​sup­ports the pro­vi­sion of a wide range of vis­it­or accom­mod­a­tion; and c) it sup­ports or con­trib­utes to a year-round economy.

1. The devel­op­ment involves the expan­sion of the hotel by adding two addi­tion­al floors of accom­mod­a­tion provid­ing a fur­ther 25 units of accom­mod­a­tion, and an addi­tion­al roof bar. The pro­pos­al would make use of an alloc­ated, exist­ing build­ing, and would expand on the exist­ing capa­city of an estab­lished tour­ist accom­mod­a­tion busi­ness, the High­land Resort. It would also provide a wider range of tour­ist accom­mod­a­tion through the pro­vi­sion of smal­ler units of the fam­ily and single occu­pancy rooms. Loc­a­tion wise, the site bene­fits from good recre­ation­al access links with Core Path HB54 being in prox­im­ity togeth­er with good sus­tain­able trans­port links along Grampi­an Road.

2. Giv­en the above, it is con­sidered that the prin­ciple of the devel­op­ment accords with Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan, sub­ject to com­pli­ance with oth­er rel­ev­ant Devel­op­ment Plan policies and Policy 30 of NPF4.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 11/08/2023

Land­scape Impacts, Lay­out and Design

1. Policy 14: Design, Qual­ity and Place of NPF4, pro­motes well designed devel­op­ments that make suc­cess­ful places by tak­ing a design-led approach and apply­ing the Place Prin­ciple. Pro­pos­als should be con­sist­ent with the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places: healthy, pleas­ant, con­nec­ted, dis­tinct­ive, sus­tain­able, and adaptable.

2. Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 pre­sumes against devel­op­ment which does not con­serve and enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park and in par­tic­u­lar the set­ting of the pro­posed devel­op­ment. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to rein­force and enhance the char­ac­ter of the exist­ing set­tle­ment and encour­age new devel­op­ment to be sym­path­et­ic to the tra­di­tion­al pat­tern and char­ac­ter of the area, whilst encour­aging innov­at­ive design and finishes.

3. The pro­pos­al seeks to add addi­tion­al floors to the hotel build­ing as well upgrade its exter­i­or appear­ance. The build­ing at present is a mul­tiple storey, flat roofed struc­ture with a lim­ited palette of mater­i­als and archi­tec­tur­al detail­ing which has a prom­in­ent pos­i­tion when viewed from Grampi­an Road. The cur­rent build­ing is not con­sidered to be of archi­tec­tur­al mer­it and does not pos­it­ively add to the char­ac­ter of the area. The pro­pos­al with its sim­pli­fic­a­tion of mater­i­als is con­sidered to improve on the exist­ing char­ac­ter of the build­ing and wider street scene. The latest ver­sion of the scheme is accept­able in respect of land­scape mat­ters with the sim­pli­fic­a­tion of the lift hous­ing redu­cing the over­all com­plex­ity of the elev­a­tion from Grampi­an Road. The reduc­tion in the height from the ori­gin­al scheme sub­mit­ted is wel­comed allow­ing views to Craigel­lach­ie to be par­tially maintained.

4. Regard­ing soft land­scap­ing works, the pro­pos­al includes a lim­ited plant­ing strategy. In accord­ance with the CNPA Land­scape Officer’s response, and in accord­ance with Policy 3 (Biod­iversity) of NPF4, a plan­ning con­di­tion is recom­men­ded to be attached to any sub­sequent decision, seek­ing the agree­ment of a revised land­scap­ing scheme and main­ten­ance strategy to provide more biod­iversity enhance­ment with­in the site. Addi­tion­al tree plant­ing is also recom­men­ded by the Council’s Forestry Officer, which can be incor­por­ated into any revised land­scap­ing plan.

5. Sub­ject to the inclu­sion of the recom­men­ded plan­ning con­di­tions, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to accord with Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing, Policy 1: New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 and Policies 3, and 14 of NPF4.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 11/08/2023

Envir­on­ment­al Impacts

1. Policy 1: Tack­ling the Cli­mate and Nature Crises of NPF4 requires that sig­ni­fic­ant weight is giv­en to the glob­al cli­mate and nature crisis when con­sid­er­a­tion is giv­en to new devel­op­ment. Policy 3: Biod­iversity seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment will con­serve, restore, and enhance biod­iversity. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Places seeks to pro­tect, restore, and enhance nat­ur­al assets includ­ing pro­tec­ted areas while Policy 6: Forestry, wood­land and trees seeks to pro­tect exist­ing wood­land and trees and expand cov­er where appropriate.

2. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, seeks to ensure there are no adverse impacts upon des­ig­nated areas, pro­tec­ted spe­cies, or biodiversity.

3. The applic­a­tion relates to pre­vi­ously developed land, and although it has no spe­cif­ic envir­on­ment­al des­ig­na­tions itself, regard­ing hab­it­ats and spe­cies, it is loc­ated with­in prox­im­ity to Kin­veachy Forest SPA. The HRA (attached at Appendix 2) con­cludes that due to dis­tance, and no dir­ect con­nectiv­ity, the pro­pos­al is not con­sidered to affect the integ­rity of the designations.

4. Regard­ing pro­tec­ted spe­cies, the pro­posed area has the poten­tial to sup­port bats. The sub­mit­ted sur­vey work con­firmed that the pro­pos­al would have no adverse impact on pro­tec­ted spe­cies sub­ject to the inclu­sion of plan­ning con­di­tions for a Bat Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan to be agreed and schedul­ing works out­with the bird breed­ing sea­son with pre-con­struc­tion checks to be under­taken. The Officer recom­mends eco­lo­gic­al enhance­ments which could be incor­por­ated into the scheme ran­ging from install­a­tion of bat boxes to enhance­ment of plant­ing with­in the land­scape design. These recom­mend­a­tions are to be secured through the plan­ning conditions.

5. Sub­ject to the recom­men­ded plan­ning con­di­tions, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 and Policies 3 and 4 of NPF4.

6. Regard­ing arbor­i­cul­tur­al impacts, a revised tree pro­tec­tion plan is recom­men­ded by con­di­tion to ensure that exist­ing trees are pro­tec­ted from con­struc­tion works. Addi­tion­al tree plant­ing will be provided through the revised land­scap­ing scheme.

7. Giv­en this, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, and policies 3 and 6 of NPF4.

Flood­ing, Drain­age and Water Issues

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 11/08/2023

1. Policy 2: Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion of NPF4 requires that devel­op­ment is sited and designed to adapt to cur­rent and future risks from cli­mate change while Policy 22 Flood risk and water man­age­ment seeks to reduce the vul­ner­ab­il­ity of exist­ing and future devel­op­ment to flood­ing. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 set out the need for new devel­op­ment to be sat­is­fact­or­ily ser­viced and without harm to resources or the environment.

2. The site lies out­with any flu­vi­al and plu­vi­al flood­ing dur­ing a 1:200-year event. The pro­pos­al would util­ise the exist­ing wastewa­ter drain­age meas­ures of the hotel. Regard­ing sur­face water drain­age for the pro­posed car park­ing area, the Council’s Flood Risk Man­age­ment Officer has no objec­tions to the use of a pro­posed infilt­ra­tion sys­tem with private main­ten­ance, how­ever a plan­ning con­di­tion is recom­men­ded for a final­ised drain­age report and lay­out, which uses the most recent meth­od­o­logy of rain­fall calculations.

3. It is con­sidered that there are tech­nic­al solu­tions to the drain­age issues on the site and appro­pri­ate con­di­tions are pro­posed to agree the final­ised scheme in accord­ance with Policy 22 of NPF4 and Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Con­tam­in­ated Land

1. Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that devel­op­ment affect­ing con­tam­in­ated land will be con­sidered favour­ably where assess­ments are under­taken to identi­fy actu­al and poten­tial impacts, on site and off site, of all stages of devel­op­ment pro­pos­als on the risks to human health and to the Park’s biod­iversity, geo­di­versity, hydro­logy and oth­er spe­cial qual­it­ies. The Con­tam­in­ated Land Officer has no objec­tion to the scheme not­ing that there are no issues regard­ing con­tam­in­ated mater­i­al with­in the build­ing or wider site.

Access

1. Policy 13: Sus­tain­able Trans­port of NPF4 sup­ports devel­op­ments that provide dir­ect, easy, segreg­ated, and safe links to loc­al facil­it­ies via walk­ing, wheel­ing, and cyc­ling net­works before occu­pa­tion. Policy 15: Loc­al Liv­ing and 20-minute neigh­bour­hoods sup­ports devel­op­ment which con­trib­utes to loc­al liv­ing and the Place Prin­ciple and where, among oth­er things, there is the oppor­tun­ity for sus­tain­able modes of trans­port includ­ing high qual­ity walk­ing, wheel­ing and cyc­ling net­works. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to promote

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 11/08/2023

sus­tain­able trans­port meth­ods and act­ive travel and max­im­ise oppor­tun­it­ies for respons­ible out­door access.

1. Policy 30: Tour­ism of NPF4 requires devel­op­ment pro­pos­als to pro­mote oppor­tun­it­ies for sus­tain­able travel and appro­pri­ate man­age­ment of park­ing and traffic gen­er­a­tion and scope for sus­tain­ing pub­lic trans­port ser­vices. Reg­u­lar bus ser­vices are access­ible from Grampi­an Road which is with­in a 5- minute walk­ing dis­tance from the applic­a­tion site. In addi­tion, Aviemore Train Sta­tion is with­in a 10-minute walk from the site. The sup­port­ing doc­u­ment­a­tion con­firms that most of the trips to the hotel will be on foot. The Trans­port Plan­ning Team there­fore request a developer con­tri­bu­tion towards improv­ing ped­es­tri­an access­ib­il­ity with­in the area by upgrad­ing two cross­ings on Grampi­an Road. The recom­men­ded improve­ments con­sist of bring­ing the exist­ing ped­es­tri­an cross­ing at the access road to the hotel up to cur­rent stand­ards and provid­ing a raised cross­ing at the exist­ing ped­es­tri­an cross­ing at the super­mar­ket. The works which include chan­ging tact­ile pav­ing and installing a road hump are rel­at­ively minor and will improve ped­es­tri­an safety in the town and there­fore provide bet­ter­ment for hotel guests, vis­it­ors and res­id­ents in Aviemore.

2. This policy also requires that the intern­al pro­vi­sion is made for ped­es­tri­ans and cyc­lists. Indic­at­ive plans have been provide show­ing cycle stor­age on site for 20 bicycles. The High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team also require the pro­vi­sion of staff cycle park­ing to be provided. This shall be secured by plan­ning condition.

3. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing also requires that new devel­op­ment should include an appro­pri­ate means of access, egress and space for off- street park­ing. The pro­pos­al will be served by the exist­ing private track that is with­in the resort, lead­ing from Grampi­an Road. The Coun­cil are sat­is­fied with the num­ber of park­ing spaces pro­posed but request a plan­ning con­di­tion for the pro­vi­sion of EV char­ging points.

4. Sub­ject to the inclu­sion of the recom­men­ded plan­ning con­di­tions and the pay­ment of the developer con­tri­bu­tion, the scheme is con­sidered to accord with road safety, sus­tain­able trans­port and access mat­ters as defined by Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, and Policies 13, 15 and 30 of NPF4.

Impact upon Amenity

1. In terms of amen­ity Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to ensure that new devel­op­ment pro­tects amen­ity cur­rently enjoyed by neigh­bour­ing occu­pants to sites and affords suf­fi­cient private amen­ity ground and off-street park­ing with the devel­op­ment. Policy 14: Design, Qual­ity and Place of NPF4 does not

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 11/08/2023

sup­port devel­op­ments that would be det­ri­ment­al to the amen­ity of the sur­round­ing area.

1. The pro­pos­al is com­pat­ible with the sur­round­ing land uses which com­prise com­mer­cial and tour­ist related uses. A Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment is recom­men­ded by con­di­tion to secure good con­struc­tion work­ing prac­tices are adhered to in the interests of neigh­bour­ing amenity.

2. The intro­duc­tion of a roof ter­raced bar would give rise to an increase in noise at a high­er loc­a­tion. The Envir­on­ment­al Health Team provided no com­ments in rela­tion to this. Noise impacts would be covered out­with the plan­ning sys­tem by licens­ing hours and the business’s own desire to main­tain a sens­ible envir­on­ment for guests of their hotel and wider resort. If it is sub­sequently found that noise from pat­rons using the ter­race can­not be adequately man­aged, the Licens­ing Author­ity would also have powers to put restric­tions in place.

3. With regards to poten­tial light pol­lu­tion, the sky bar has been designed with tin­ted glass to reduce light trans­mit­tance by 30%. In addi­tion, it is noted that the build­ing is loc­ated with­in a set­tle­ment which is not a light sens­it­ive envir­on­ment and will be seen in the con­text of the oth­er built form on the Resort which are of sim­il­ar scale. On this basis the pro­pos­al is not con­sidered to give rise to any adverse impacts on amen­ity of sur­round­ing occupants.

Developer Con­tri­bu­tions

1. Policy 11: Developer Oblig­a­tions of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that where devel­op­ment cre­ates a need to increase or improve pub­lic ser­vices, facil­it­ies, or infra­struc­ture, or mit­ig­ate adverse effects, the developer will be required to make a fair and reas­on­able con­tri­bu­tion in cash or in kind towards addi­tion­al costs or require­ments. The Policy also requires con­tri­bu­tions to afford­able hous­ing where applic­able and where no afford­able hous­ing is provided on site.

2. As pre­vi­ously noted, a developer con­tri­bu­tion towards Act­ive Travel to upgrade the exist­ing ped­es­tri­an cross­ings, is required. The applic­ant has indic­ated their will­ing­ness to pay the con­tri­bu­tion amount and sub­ject to its pay­ment, either by upfront pay­ment or by Sec­tion 75 leg­al agree­ment, the devel­op­ment com­plies with the require­ments of Policy 11: Developer Con­tri­bu­tions of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 11/08/2023

CON­CLU­SION

1. The expan­sion of an exist­ing hotel with­in a well-defined set­tle­ment is con­sidered to be accept­able and the pro­posed changes to the extern­al appear­ance look to enhance a well-estab­lished build­ing with­in the street scene. Any remain­ing points of detail that have not been suf­fi­ciently addressed will be resolved through the impos­i­tion of suit­able con­di­tions. Sub­ject to these recom­men­ded con­di­tions and the pay­ment of the developer con­tri­bu­tion fig­ure, the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with the policies con­tained with­in the adop­ted Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 and approv­al is there­fore recommended.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to APPROVE the Alter­a­tions and exten­sion at Mac­don­ald Aviemore Hotel The Aviemore Centre Grampi­an Road Aviemore High­land PH22 1PF sub­ject to: a) The pay­ment of the developer con­tri­bu­tion for Act­ive Travel; and b) 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. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site, until a final­ised sur­face water drain­age design and Drain­age Impact Assess­ment have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with the High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team. The works shall there­after be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the approved scheme.

Reas­on: To ensure that the drain­age is appro­pri­ate to meet the needs of the scheme and has been cal­cu­lated using up to date meth­ods in accord­ance with Policy 22: Floodri­sak and water man­age­ment of NPF4 and Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a fully detailed land­scap­ing scheme both hard and soft land­scap­ing pro­pos­als and the future main­ten­ance and man­age­ment of the pro­posed scheme has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the CNPA act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. This shall include, but not be lim­ited to: a) Hard land­scap­ing mater­i­al specification;

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 11/08/2023

b) Soft land­scap­ing plant and tree spe­cies includ­ing plant­ing spe­cific­a­tions (spe­cies, num­ber, size and plant­ing mix); c) Details of com­pens­at­ory tree plant­ing; d) Details of the biod­iversity enhance­ment meas­ures; e) Details of tree pro­tec­tion meas­ures for trees to be retained on site.

There­after the devel­op­ment shall be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with those approved details and not later than the expiry of the next plant­ing sea­son fol­low­ing com­mence­ment of the devel­op­ment or with­in such time as approved by CNPA act­ing as Plan­ning Authority.

Reas­on: To ensure the long-term reten­tion of an appro­pri­ate land­scap­ing set­ting, enhanced biod­iversity and to ensure the devel­op­ment will not have an adverse impact on the land­scape set­ting or eco­lo­gic­al qual­ity of the devel­op­ment in accord­ance with Policy 3: Biod­iversity and Policy 4: Natural