CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 08/12/2023

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED:

Erec­tion of 7no self cater­ing cab­ins, toi­let and shower block, erec­tion of manager’s house at Land 110M SE Of Boat Of Bal­lie­furth, Grant­own On Spey

REF­ER­ENCE: 2023/0199/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Mr And Mrs Ron­ald and Emmeline MacPherson

DATE CALLED-IN: 15 May 2023

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve sub­ject to conditions

CASE OFFICER: Emma Bryce — Plan­ning Man­ager (Devel­op­ment Management)

---

CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site 0 65 130 260 Meters River Spey River Spey Bal­lie­furth Wood

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 08/12/2023

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The site is a field lying to the north east of the Boat of Bal­lie­furth Croft. A wood­land of mixed spe­cies (sil­ver birch, alder, aspen, cherry, juni­per) lies along the north west bound­ary and runs from north to south divid­ing it cent­rally. Graz­ing land lies to the north and east with the River Spey mean­der­ing bey­ond. A track serving the exist­ing Boat of Bal­lie­furth croft and asso­ci­ated build­ings and Bal­lie­furth Wood Cot­tage lies to the south. This track is unadop­ted and is accessed from the B970 which runs between Grant­own on Spey and Nethy Bridge. The site is cur­rently used for inform­al camping.

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​=​R​U​7​1​7​F​S​I​0CP00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
PLANS
Plan — Gen­er­al Plan – site	201039	20/12/23	09/05/23
Access Vis­ib­il­ity	(PL) 103
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan	201039	11/04/23	09/05/23
	(PL) 100
Plan – Pro­posed Site Plan	21039	06/09/23	06/10/23
	(PL) 101
Plan — Topo­graphy Plan	RM-114 – 001	13/02/22	09/05/23
Plan — Sec­tion Plan – Cross Sections	CL-144 – 002	13/02/22	09/05/23
Plan – Pro­posed Hol­i­day Pods	22010	20/03/23	09/05/23
	(PL) 310
Plan – Pro­posed Toi­let Shower Block	22010	20/03/23	09/05/23
	(PL) 410

---

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 08/12/2023

Plan – Pro­posed House Floor Plans	22010	07/03/23	09/05/23
	(PL) 110
Plan – Pro­posed House Elevations	210399	07/03/23	09/05/23
	(SK) 111
Plan – Pro­posed Site Access	21039	11/04/23	09/05/23
	(PL) 102
Plan — Tree Con­straints Plan	001	17/03/22	09/05/23
Plan — Tree Pro­tec­tion Plan	002	16/10/23	18/10/23
Plan – Tree Plant­ing Plan	003	18/04/23	09/05/23
Plan — Bike Shed	21039	15/11/23	15/11/23
	PL510
Plan — Bin Store	21039	15/11/23	15/11/23
	PL610
SUP­PORT­ING INFORMATION
Oth­er – Sup­port­ing Statement		18/04/23	09/05/23
Oth­er – Draft House Design			26/09/23
Oth­er – Manager’s House			05/10/23
Mater­i­als
Oth­er — Pod Materials		06/04/23
Oth­er – Drain­age Impact
Assess­ment
Oth­er – Pre­lim­in­ary Ecological		09/03/22	09/05/23
Apprais­al
Oth­er – Arbor­i­cul­tur­al Impact			18/10/23
Assess­ment
Oth­er – Road Sur­vey Data			27/09/23

*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 is for the con­struc­tion of sev­en, self-cater­ing cab­ins, a toi­let and shower block, bike store and asso­ci­ated car park­ing, and a refuse and recyc­ling point. The cab­ins will be rect­an­gu­lar in form fin­ished in blackened ver­tic­al tim­ber clad­ding with mono-pitched roofs clad in olive green, plastic coated cor­rug­ated sheets with match­ing flash­ings and fix­ings. Alu­mini­um or steel rain­wa­ter goods will be used with exposed beams and posts made of tim­ber. Win­dows and doors will also be tim­ber. The toi­let and shower block and the bike store will take the same form and fin­ish as the cab­ins. There will also be a small refuse/​recycling point. Low level bol­lard light­ing will be employed to illu­min­ate sur­round­ing paths and park­ing areas.

---

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 08/12/2023

1. The applic­a­tion also pro­poses the con­struc­tion of a single dwell­ing house adja­cent to the cab­ins. The house will be single storey, with a pitched roof and an integ­ral gar­age. Extern­al fin­ishes will be off-white harling or smooth white render with ran­dom nat­ur­al stone work and blackened ver­tic­al tim­ber clad­ding. The roof will be clad in nat­ur­al slate with gal­van­ised steel ridges and lead flash­ings. Rain­wa­ter goods will be either alu­mini­um or steel and win­dows, doors and exposed beams and posts will be tim­ber. The house will be occu­pied by the man­ager of the site and their fam­ily to over­see the run­ning of the camp­site and the wider croft.

His­tory

1. Applic­a­tion ref­er­ence 2022/0345/DET – erec­tion of owner’s/manager’s accom­mod­a­tion; erec­tion of 7no self cater­ing cab­ins, shower/​toilet block – applic­a­tion withdrawn.

HAB­IT­ATS REG­U­LA­TIONS APPRAISAL

1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al [HRA] has been under­taken to con­sider the poten­tial effects of the devel­op­ment upon the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the Natura sites lis­ted with­in the HRA doc­u­ment which is attached as Appendix 2. The pro­posed devel­op­ment lies approx­im­ately 100 metres south of River Spey SAC and 600 metres north west of Craigmore Wood SPA.

2. The HRA iden­ti­fies that there are poten­tial impacts on the River Spey SAC in terms of impacts on otter in both the short term dur­ing con­struc­tion activ­ity and in the long term from activ­ity asso­ci­ated with the occu­pa­tion of the cab­ins and camp­site and the manager’s house. Fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel, sea lamprey and Atlantic sal­mon are also poten­tially impacted in both the short term, dur­ing con­struc­tion, and in the longer term from sed­i­ment released dur­ing con­struc­tion activ­ity enter­ing the river. Giv­en the cur­rent levels of recre­ation­al activ­ity along this stretch of the River Spey, any otters with­in this ter­rit­ory are habitu­ated to some level of human dis­turb­ance and there­fore the pro­pos­al is unlikely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect. In terms of fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel, sea lamprey and Atlantic sal­mon, as no devel­op­ment will occur in the water­course, there will be no dir­ect impacts, how­ever pol­lu­tion from con­struc­tion could indir­ectly affect hab­it­ats. A Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan is recom­men­ded to ensure good prac­tice is under­taken dur­ing con­struc­tion to reduce the risk of acci­dent­al pol­lu­tion and if there is, any pol­lu­tion is kept to an abso­lute minimum.

---

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 08/12/2023

1. Craigmore Wood is known to sup­port breed­ing caper­cail­lie, how­ever giv­en the pro­posed devel­op­ment is unlikely to increase any off-path activ­ity, it is not con­sidered that it will cause addi­tion­al disturbance.

DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN CONTEXT

Policies

Nation­al Policy	Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045
POLICY 1	Tack­ling the Cli­mate and Nature Crises
POLICY 2	Cli­mate Mit­ig­a­tion and Adaptation
POLICY 3	Biod­iversity
POLICY 4	Nat­ur­al Places
POLICY 6	Forestry, Wood­land and Trees
POLICY 7	His­tor­ic Assets and Places
POLICY 9	Brown­field, Vacant and Derel­ict Land and Empty Buildings
POLICY 14	Design, Qual­ity and Place
POLICY 16	Qual­ity Homes
POLICY 17	Rur­al Homes
POLICY 22	Flood Risk and Water Management
POLICY 29	Rur­al Development
POLICY 30	Tour­ism

Stra­tegic Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027
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 DEISGN OF DIGIT­AL COM­MU­NIC­A­TIONS EQUIPMENT
POLICY 7	RENEW­ABLE ENERGY
POLICY 8	OPEN SPACE, SPORT AND RECREATION
POLICY 9	CUL­TUR­AL HER­IT­AGE X
POLICY 10	RESOURCES X
POLICY 11	DEVELOPER OBLIG­A­TIONS X

---

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 08/12/2023

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​-​2​0​2​1​-​w​e​b.pdf

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	X
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 3	Design and Place­mak­ing Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 5	Land­scape Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 7	Renew­able Energy Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 8	Open Space, Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 11	Developer Oblig­a­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance	X

CON­SULTA­TIONS

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

2. Scot­tish Water has no objec­tion to the pro­pos­als, but sug­gest the applic­ant com­pletes a Pre-Devel­op­ment Enquiry (PDE) form ensur­ing the devel­op­ment can be ser­viced. There is cur­rently capa­city in the Aviemore Water Treat­ment Works to ser­vice the pro­posed devel­op­ment. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is with­in the Aviemore Waste Water Treat­ment Works catch­ment area but sug­gest the applic­ant com­pletes a Pre-Devel­op­ment Enquiry (PDE) form ensur­ing the devel­op­ment can be serviced.

---

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 08/12/2023

1. There is no Scot­tish Water Wastewa­ter infra­struc­ture in the vicin­ity there­fore the applic­ant is advised to invest­ig­ate private treat­ment options. SW will only accept sur­face water con­nec­tions into their com­bined sew­er sys­tem in excep­tion­al cir­cum­stances and advise the applic­ants to con­tact them with strong jus­ti­fic­a­tion should they wish to make a con­nec­tion request.

2. SEPA has no objec­tions, how­ever, note that there are his­tor­ic records of flood­ing along the River Spey and in this area in gen­er­al. The topo­graph­ic level inform­a­tion and cross sec­tions provided show there is marked elev­a­tion dif­fer­ence between the banks of the Spey and the pro­posed areas of devel­op­ment. They also note that the fin­ished floor levels of the hol­i­day pods and manager’s house are to be at least 203.5 m AOD based on the drain­age impact assess­ment. This fur­ther indic­ates that the devel­op­ment will be well elev­ated above the river bank and is unlikely to be at risk of flooding.

3. High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team ini­tially raised objec­tions seek­ing fur­ther inform­a­tion regard­ing the access lay­out, a main­ten­ance agree­ment for the access road and vis­ib­il­ity splays. The applic­ants have sub­mit­ted addi­tion­al inform­a­tion and the team are now sat­is­fied with the proposals.

4. High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team has no objec­tions to the pro­pos­als. They note that the Drain­age Impact Assess­ment along with the topo­graph­ic draw­ings and cross sec­tions show that the site is elev­ated approx­im­ately 7m above the level of the River Spey. There is also a clear increase in elev­a­tion between the areas iden­ti­fied as being at risk of flood­ing on SEPA’s indic­at­ive flood maps and the area where the pods and house are to be loc­ated. They are con­tent that the flood risk is likely to be low and have no objec­tion. They recom­mend that SEPA are con­sul­ted on flood risk as they may hold fur­ther information.

5. High­land Coun­cil Con­tam­in­ated Land Officer has no objec­tions sub­ject to a ques­tion­naire being com­pleted and a con­di­tion requir­ing evid­ence to show that an assess­ment of poten­tial con­tam­in­a­tion has been under­taken and that the site is suit­able for the pro­posed development.

6. High­land Coun­cil Forestry Officer has no objec­tion to the pro­pos­als sub­ject to a con­di­tions requir­ing the spe­cified tree pro­tec­tion meth­ods and the tree plant­ing and main­ten­ance are imple­men­ted in full.

---

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 08/12/2023

1. High­land Coun­cil His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Team (Archae­ology) has no objec­tion, how­ever giv­en the site lies with­in an area of archae­olo­gic­al poten­tial, they recom­mend a con­di­tion requir­ing a watch­ing brief to be car­ried out dur­ing site clear­ance and excav­a­tion works. The applic­ant will need to engage the ser­vices of a pro­fes­sion­al archaeologist.

2. High­land Coun­cil Envir­on­ment­al Health Officer has no objec­tions but recom­mend an inform­at­ive regard­ing a short term let licence.

3. CNPA Land­scape Officer states that the pro­pos­als will relate to some exist­ing char­ac­ter­ist­ics such as the agri­cul­tur­al use, exist­ing build­ings and wood­land. The camp­ing pods are loc­ated with­in the exist­ing pad­dock, sur­roun­ded by trees and near to exist­ing farm build­ings and access track and will likely intro­duce an increase in activ­ity. The manager’s house will be more prom­in­ent loc­ated in an open set­ting. Fur­ther inform­a­tion was sought to enable a more com­pre­hens­ive assess­ment and mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures recom­men­ded to lessen the impact of the development.

4. CNPA Eco­logy Officer states the site is with­in 40m of the River Spey SSSI, 40m from the River Spey SAC and 600m from Craigmore Wood SPA. They have no objec­tion to the pro­pos­als, how­ever, sub­ject to con­di­tions requir­ing pre-con­struc­tion sur­veys for pro­tec­ted spe­cies, all works to com­mence out­with the breed­ing bird sea­son unless pre-start sur­veys are under­taken, the imple­ment­a­tion of tree pro­tec­tion meas­ures and tree plant­ing and main­ten­ance and a pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion plan to be agreed and imple­men­ted accord­ingly. The only biod­iversity enhance­ment is the plant­ing of 93 trees between the pods and the dwell­ing house. Fur­ther enhance­ments could be achieved through the plant­ing of wild­flowers and install­a­tion of bee boxes, bug ​‘hotels’ bird and bat boxes.

5. CNPA Out­door Access Officer has no objec­tions how­ever states that if any works affect the exist­ing path and gate these will have to be rein­stated. Sig­nage will also be required on the track giv­en its increased usage. They note the pro­vi­sion of the exist­ing camp­ing area and its bene­fit for users of the River Spey. They are not clear if this will be retained.

6. Nethy Bridge Com­munity Coun­cil object to the pro­pos­als on the grounds of its envir­on­ment­al impacts. They note that the area is home to sev­er­al import­ant spe­cies and sev­er­al envir­on­ment­al des­ig­na­tions. Fur­ther­more, they believe the road is unsuit­able for the increase in vehicu­lar traffic that the devel­op­ment will cause.

---

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 08/12/2023

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. There have been three let­ters of objec­tion, includ­ing one from the Badenoch and Strath­spey Con­ser­va­tion Group. Cop­ies of these can be viewed in Appendix 2. The main points of objec­tion are sum­mar­ised as follows:

a) Det­ri­ment­al impact on the scen­ic qual­ity and land­scape set­ting of the site con­trary to LDP Policy 5: Land­scape; b) Det­ri­ment­al impact on numer­ous spe­cies of birds, otter and hare that use the site due to increased dis­turb­ance as a res­ult of the pro­pos­al con­trary to Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the LDP; c) Poten­tial increase in dogs using the site will have det­ri­ment­al impacts on the wild­life through dis­turb­ance and pol­lut­ants; d) Poten­tial impacts of fires on wild­life using the site; e) Poor stand­ard of design not appro­pri­ate to its loc­a­tion and set­ting; f) Impact of light­ing on the wild­life using the site; g) The EIA does not spe­cify any mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures to ensure the pro­tec­tion of pro­tec­ted spe­cies and the risk to the envir­on­ment has not been adequately addressed at this stage; h) The sub­mit­ted Pre­lim­in­ary Eco­lo­gic­al Assess­ment does not provide suf­fi­cient inform­a­tion for this site of such qual­ity, import­ance and com­plex­ity; i) Sub­mit­ted doc­u­ments are out of date; j) The revised applic­a­tion is now being viewed more favour­ably; k) The devel­op­ment will have a det­ri­ment­al impact on the private access road where there is no main­ten­ance agree­ment for the road sup­port­ing this devel­op­ment; I) Det­ri­ment­al impact on neigh­bour­ing res­id­en­tial amen­ity in terms of LDP Policy 1.3: Oth­er Hous­ing in the Coun­tryside, as the devel­op­ment does not reflect the exist­ing pat­tern of devel­op­ment, does not sup­port an exist­ing busi­ness and is on a green­field site; m) Det­ri­ment­al impact on neigh­bour­ing res­id­en­tial amen­ity in terms of LDP Policy 2.2: Tour­ism, as the envir­on­ment­al impacts have not been adequately addressed and the undis­turbed char­ac­ter of the site will be sig­ni­fic­antly changed due to noise, light, smell and traffic; n) Det­ri­ment­al impact on neigh­bour­ing res­id­en­tial amen­ity in terms of LDP Policy 3.3: Sus­tain­able Design giv­en the devel­op­ment will intro­duce an unac­cept­able level of use onto the site, the access via the private road is inad­equate and the vis­ib­il­ity splays are not com­pli­ant and wild­life will be dis­turbed and there meas­ures to pro­mote biod­iversity or eco­lo­gic­al enhancement.

---

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 08/12/2023

o) Det­ri­ment­al impact on neigh­bour­ing res­id­en­tial amen­ity in terms of LDP Policy 10.1: Water Resources, as the devel­op­ment will put a strain on exist­ing private water sup­plies and the impact on the River Spey has not been adequately addressed. p) Det­ri­ment­al to Policy 4.1: Inter­na­tion­al Des­ig­na­tions of the LDP as the prox­im­ity of the devel­op­ment to the River Spey SAC and the Craigmore SPA has not be adequately addressed. q) Det­ri­ment­al to Policy 4.2: Nation­al Des­ig­na­tions as the prox­im­ity of the devel­op­ment to the River Spey SSSI and the Wild­cat Pri­or­ity Area has not been adequately addressed.

APPRAIS­AL

1. Sec­tion 25 of the 1997 Act as amended requires applic­a­tions to be determ­ined in accord­ance with the Devel­op­ment Plan. This now com­prises the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 and the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4. Where there is con­flict between policies, NPF4 policies will take precedent.

2. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions are con­sidered to be: the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment; envir­on­ment­al impacts; land­scape, sit­ing and design; cul­tur­al her­it­age issues; con­tam­in­ated land and access and servicing.

Prin­ciple

1. There are two ele­ments to the pro­posed devel­op­ment, and each must be con­sidered in determ­in­ing the accept­ab­il­ity of the pro­pos­al in terms of prin­ciple. The first ele­ment of the pro­pos­al is form­al­ising the use of the exist­ing camp­site with the intro­duc­tion of sev­en, self-cater­ing cab­ins with a shower and toi­let block, bike store and recyc­ling facil­it­ies. Policy 9: Brown­field, vacant and derel­ict land and empty build­ings of Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4), para­graph 9 b) states that ​‘pro­pos­als on green­field sites will not be sup­por­ted unless the site has been alloc­ated for devel­op­ment or the pro­pos­al is expli­citly sup­por­ted by policies in the LDP.’ The pro­posed devel­op­ment is a green­field site, and forms part of an exist­ing croft. Policy 29: Rur­al devel­op­ment of NPF4 encour­ages rur­al eco­nom­ic activ­ity, innov­a­tion and diver­si­fic­a­tion whilst ensur­ing the dis­tinct­ive char­ac­ter of the rur­al area…, nat­ur­al assets and cul­tur­al her­it­age are safe­guarded. Spe­cific­ally, the policy sup­ports devel­op­ment pro­pos­als that con­trib­ute to the viab­il­ity, sus­tain­ab­il­ity and diversity of rur­al com­munit­ies and loc­al rur­al economy.

2. Policy 30: Tour­ism of NPF4 seeks to encour­age, pro­mote and facil­it­ate sus­tain­able tour­ism devel­op­ment which bene­fits loc­al people, is

---

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 08/12/2023

con­sist­ent with net zero and nature com­mit­ments and inspires people to vis­it Scot­land. The policy requires tour­ism related devel­op­ment to take into account the con­tri­bu­tion made to the loc­al eco­nomy and its com­pat­ib­il­ity with the sur­round­ing area in terms of the nature and scale of the activ­ity and impacts of increased visitors.

1. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 also encour­ages appro­pri­ate eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, sup­port­ing new and exist­ing busi­nesses by cre­at­ing a flex­ible frame­work which allows the best eco­nom­ic devel­op­ments to thrive and prosper. Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth, para­graph 2.2: Tour­ist accom­mod­a­tion sup­ports pro­pos­als for tour­ist related accom­mod­a­tion where they:

a) have no adverse envir­on­ment­al or amen­ity impacts on the site or neigh­bour­ing areas; and b) con­trib­ute to/​support the pro­vi­sion of a wide range of vis­it­or accom­mod­a­tion options includ­ing low cost accom­mod­a­tion: and c) sup­port or con­trib­ute to a year-round economy.

1. Policy 2, under para­graph 2.4: Oth­er Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment favours pro­pos­als that sup­port or extend the eco­nomy, or which enhance the range and qual­ity of eco­nom­ic oppor­tun­it­ies for facil­it­ies where they:

a) have no adverse envir­on­ment­al or amen­ity impacts on the site or neigh­bour­ing areas; b) are compatible/​complementary with exist­ing busi­ness activ­ity in the area; and c) sup­port the vital­ity and viab­il­ity of the loc­al economy.

1. As stated above, the site forms part of an exist­ing croft owned and oper­ated by the applic­ants and their fam­ily. The croft cov­ers an area of approx­im­ately 15 hec­tares where the applic­ants breed sheep and pro­duce hay. The site was used for camp­ing pri­or to the applic­ants pur­chas­ing the croft in 1986 and has con­tin­ued to be used as an inform­al camp­site since then. The applic­ants have sub­mit­ted evid­ence demon­strat­ing that the site has been estab­lished and used for inform­al camp­ing for a num­ber of years by a vari­ety of indi­vidu­als and groups from all over the UK. Giv­en its loc­a­tion and its access­ib­il­ity dir­ectly adja­cent to the River Spey, the site has grown increas­ingly pop­u­lar and the applic­ants are now seek­ing to form­al­ise and improve the camp­ing exper­i­ence with the intro­duc­tion of the camp­ing pods and asso­ci­ated facil­it­ies to com­ple­ment the more inform­al camp­ing pro­vi­sion there. The part use of the land as a camp­site com­ple­ments the croft land use and in turn will con­trib­ute to the long term, sus­tain­ab­il­ity of the croft. This ele­ment of the pro­posed devel­op­ment will intro­duce additional

---

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 08/12/2023

tour­ist accom­mod­a­tion in a loc­a­tion that will be able to sup­port such pro­vi­sion giv­en the demand and high num­ber of vis­it­ors using it.

1. The second part of the pro­posed devel­op­ment is the intro­duc­tion of a single dwell­ing house which will provide accom­mod­a­tion for the applic­ant and their fam­ily who man­age the exist­ing croft and the camp­site. Policy 17: Rur­al homes of NPF4 sup­ports new homes in rur­al areas where it can be demon­strated to be neces­sary to sup­port the sus­tain­able man­age­ment of a viable rur­al business…and there is an essen­tial need for a work­er to live per­man­ently at or near their place of work. Policy 1: New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment, para­graph 1.3: Oth­er hous­ing in the coun­tryside of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sup­ports pro­pos­als where they rein­force the exist­ing pat­tern of devel­op­ment, and:

a) are neces­sary for or improve the oper­a­tion­al and eco­nom­ic viab­il­ity of an act­ive busi­ness which has a loc­a­tion­al require­ment dir­ectly linked to the coun­tryside; or b) are on a rur­al brown­field site.

1. The applic­ants con­sider that being per­man­ently based on the site is integ­ral to the suc­cess of the camp­site and the run­ning of the wider croft land sur­round­ing the site. Their fam­ily have owned and man­aged the Boat of Bal­lie­furth Croft for over 40 years and they and their eld­erly par­ents are keen for the croft to be retained in a long-term sus­tain­able use. The camp­site is cur­rently used by a num­ber of indi­vidu­als and groups from all over the UK. The pro­posed devel­op­ment will intensi­fy this use which the applic­ants sug­gest will require a level of man­age­ment and super­vi­sion that jus­ti­fies them being per­man­ently loc­ated there. The applic­ants have sub­mit­ted sup­port­ing inform­a­tion evid­en­cing the use of the site over a long peri­od of time by such indi­vidu­als and groups who take advant­age of its loc­a­tion dir­ectly adja­cent to the River Spey. Not­with­stand­ing this is a green­field site, it is con­sidered that there is suf­fi­cient evid­ence to demon­strate that there is an estab­lished busi­ness on the site. It is clear the unique loc­a­tion of site con­trib­utes to its inform­al use as a camp­site and the pro­pos­al will fur­ther enhance this by offer­ing an addi­tion­al type of tour­ist accom­mod­a­tion which is not sea­son­ally lim­ited allow­ing year long use.

2. Policy 11: Developer Oblig­a­tions and Policy 1, para­graph 1.4: Design­ing for afford­ab­il­ity and spe­cial­ist needs and para­graph 1.5: Afford­able hous­ing of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan seek to ensure that devel­op­ments provide a mix of dwell­ing types, with an emphas­is on smal­ler dwell­ings and that pro­pos­als for few­er than four mar­ket dwell­ings will be required to make a con­tri­bu­tion towards afford­able hous­ing. This will be a mon­et­ary pay­ment towards meet­ing housing

---

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 08/12/2023

need in the loc­al com­munity. The pro­pos­al is for a three bed­room house and is not a type of devel­op­ment that is exempt from provid­ing an afford­able hous­ing con­tri­bu­tion. In this instance a com­muted sum of £1850 (cost per unit for res­id­en­tial devel­op­ments of under four units) will be required to be paid by the applicants.

1. The prin­ciple of the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to be accept­able on this site, in accord­ance with both NPF4 and LDP policies, how­ever sub­ject to com­pli­ance with oth­er rel­ev­ant devel­op­ment plan policies and the pay­ment of the spe­cified com­muted sum.

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 while Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Places seeks to pro­tect, restore and enhance nat­ur­al assets includ­ing pro­tec­ted areas.

2. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to restrict devel­op­ment that would have an adverse impact on pro­tec­ted spe­cies and where this can­not be avoided that appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures are provided.

3. The site lies adja­cent to the River Spey SAC and Craigmore Wood SPA. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al has been under­taken by CNPA to assess any impacts on the qual­i­fy­ing interests. NatureScot has been con­sul­ted and agree with the con­clu­sion reached and the recom­mend­a­tions made. There are no objec­tions to the pro­pos­als, how­ever this is sub­ject to the impos­i­tion of appro­pri­ate con­di­tions which will require pre-con­struc­tion sur­veys for pro­tec­ted spe­cies to be under­taken and any sub­sequent spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans to be approved, all works com­men­cing out­with the breed­ing bird sea­son unless pre-start sur­veys are under­taken and a pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion plan to be agreed and imple­men­ted accord­ingly. Biod­iversity enhance­ment pro­pos­als include the plant­ing of 93 trees between the cab­ins and the house. Fur­ther enhance­ments should be sought through the impos­i­tion of appro­pri­ate conditions.

4. NPF Policy 6: Forestry, wood­land and trees sup­ports devel­op­ment pro­pos­als that enhance, expand and improve wood­land and tree cov­er while stat­ing that devel­op­ment will not be sup­por­ted where it would res­ult in frag­ment­ing or sever­ing wood­land hab­it­ats. Where woodland

---

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 08/12/2023

remov­al is neces­sary com­pens­at­ory plant­ing will be expec­ted to be delivered.

1. Both the Eco­logy Officer and the Council’s Forestry Officer do not have any objec­tions to the pro­posed devel­op­ment in terms of its impact on exist­ing trees and wood­land, how­ever they recom­mend a con­di­tion requir­ing the imple­ment­a­tion of the spe­cified tree pro­tec­tion meas­ures and the sub­mis­sion of a tree plant­ing and main­ten­ance pro­gramme for sub­sequent approval.

2. Sub­ject to the impos­i­tion of the recom­men­ded con­di­tions, the pro­posed devel­op­ment will com­ply with the terms of Policy 1: Tack­ling the cli­mate and nature crises, Policy 3: Biod­iversity and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Places of NPF4 and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Land­scape, Sit­ing and Design

1. NPF4 Policy 14: Design, qual­ity and place sup­ports devel­op­ment where it is con­sist­ent with the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places; healthy, pleas­ant, con­nec­ted, dis­tinct­ive, sus­tain­able and adapt­able while Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to ensure that all new devel­op­ment is sym­path­et­ic to the tra­di­tion­al pat­tern and char­ac­ter of the area, whilst encour­aging innov­at­ive design and finishes.

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.

3. In terms of its land­scape con­text, the applic­a­tion site is fairly dis­creet with sur­round­ing wood­land and the screen­ing provided by the river bank ter­races. The pro­posed cab­ins will be loc­ated with­in an exist­ing field to the west of the site sur­roun­ded by trees to the north­w­est and north­east, with exist­ing build­ings and their access track lying dir­ectly adja­cent. The impact of the cab­ins will be min­im­al. The pro­posed manager’s house is sited with­in a more open loc­a­tion. This will be vis­ible from aspects from the east and in the dis­tance from the north. It is unlikely to be seen from the Spey­side Way due to land­form and tree screen­ing from this route. Both ele­ments of the pro­pos­als will intro­duce dif­fer­ent levels of human and vehicu­lar activ­ity. It is pre­dicted that there is some land­scape capa­city for the type of devel­op­ment being pro­posed. The Land­scape Officer is still con­cerned about the visual

---

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 08/12/2023

impacts and recom­mends sus­pens­ive con­di­tions requir­ing fur­ther land­scape mit­ig­a­tion and its long-term main­ten­ance and management.

1. Sub­ject to suit­ably worded con­di­tions to ensure addi­tion­al land­scape mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures are imple­men­ted along with its prop­er estab­lish­ment and long-term man­age­ment the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with NPF4 Policy 14 and Policy 3 and 5 of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Issues

1. NPF4 Policy 7: His­tor­ic assets and places of NPF4 states that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als with poten­tially sig­ni­fic­ant impact on his­tor­ic assets or places will be accom­pan­ied by an assess­ment which is based on an under­stand­ing of the cul­tur­al sig­ni­fic­ance of the his­tor­ic asset and/​or place. The policy goes on to state that where there is poten­tial for non-des­ig­nated bur­ied archae­olo­gic­al remains to exist below site, developers will provide an eval­u­ation of the archae­olo­gic­al resource at an early stage so that plan­ning author­it­ies can assess impacts. Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 requires devel­op­ment that affects a site, fea­ture or use of land of loc­al or wider cul­tur­al, his­tor­ic or archae­olo­gic­al sig­ni­fic­ance or its set­ting should;

a) con­serve and enhance the fea­ture and its set­ting in situ where pos­sible; or b) take reas­on­able meas­ures to avoid, min­im­ise and mit­ig­ate any adverse effects.

1. It has been iden­ti­fied by the Council’s archae­olo­gist that the site lies with­in an area of archae­olo­gic­al poten­tial. In accord­ance with both nation­al and loc­al policies