Item6AAFormerPoliceStationKingussie20200031DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/05/2020

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED:

Con­ver­sion, exten­sion and change of use of exist­ing office build­ing to cre­ate 8 num­ber flat­ted dwell­ings for hol­i­day let­ting use at Former Police Sta­tion Kin­gussie High­land PH21 IHS

REF­ER­ENCE: 2020/0031/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Mr Gor­don Thomson

DATE CALLED-IN: 10 Feb­ru­ary 2020

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approv­al sub­ject to conditions

CASE OFFICER: Rob­bie Cal­vert, Gradu­ate Planner

CNPA Plan­ning Committee

Applic­a­tion Site

N 0 5 10 20 Meters CLE RE 0 uidhe चल PRO Hotel POSta Liby + Sewage Works KIN­GU 乙 A ε S Bank Mill Road 乙 L Mast 17 9 13 15 1 5 37 Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2020. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber 100040965 HIGH STREET (A86) 2 CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/05/2020

Ard­broilach Road 230.7m Cre­ag­beag 19 21 23 ㅈ Star Hotel

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/05/2020

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The applic­a­tion site cur­rently com­prises of an exist­ing detached, two storey build­ing with a single storey, mono-pitched exten­sion attached to the north­ern elev­a­tion of the ori­gin­al build­ing, a detached gar­age and off-street park­ing. The build­ing was con­struc­ted in 1973 and was pre­vi­ously used as a Police Sta­tion but has remained vacant for a num­ber of years. It is loc­ated at 15 – 17 Kin­gussie High Street (A86) in the vil­lage core of Kingussie.

2. The exist­ing primary ped­es­tri­an access for the site is from the High Street and vehicu­lar access is towards the north of the site from the Ard­broilach Road which runs along the east­ern site bound­ary of the site.

3. The applic­a­tion site meas­ures approx­im­ately 38m x 28m and takes the form of an L- Shape. The site is bounded by res­id­en­tial prop­er­ties to the north and a mix­ture of com­mer­cial and res­id­en­tial prop­er­ties to the east, south and west. The built form sur­round­ing the site is pre­dom­in­antly lin­ear to the road net­work and com­prises a mix of com­mer­cial and res­id­en­tial uses. Regard­ing scales, the imme­di­ate prop­er­ties on the north­ern side of the High Street are two-storey. On the south south­ern side of the High Street, imme­di­ately oppos­ite the applic­a­tion site are a mix of single storey/​two storey struc­tures and lar­ger two and a half storey struc­tures fea­tur­ing pitched roof gabled dormers on the prin­cip­al elev­a­tions. Fur­ther along the High Street, three storey struc­tures are present.

4. The site is not covered by any spe­cif­ic envir­on­ment­al designations.

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=Q56131SI0BY00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Site Loc­a­tion Plan	(PL) 100	01/07/19	11/02/20
Pro­posed Ground Floor Site Plan	(PL)04.2	01/12/19	24/02/20
Pro­posed Elev­a­tion and Sec­tion Plans	(PL)06.2 Revi­sion A	01/12/19	11/02/20
Pro­posed Elev­a­tion Plan	(PL)05.2 Revi­sion A	01/12/19	11/02/20
Pro­posed Floor Plan	(PL)03.2	01/12/19	11/02/20
Exist­ing Site Elev­a­tion Plans	(PL)01	01/09/18	11/02/20
Exist­ing Site Lay­out Plan	(PL)02	01/09/18	11/02/20

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

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/05/2020

1. The plans seek full plan­ning per­mis­sions for the change of use of the exist­ing office block (Class 4) to short-term hol­i­day let accom­mod­a­tion (sui gen­er­is) and demoli­tion of an exist­ing gar­age on the site.

2. It is pro­posed to con­vert the office block into 8 short-term hol­i­day let apart­ments which will be a mix of one and two bed­room units. Pro­pos­als include a new ¹¹⁄₂ storey pitched roof exten­sion extend­ing 12m into the exist­ing car park to the North. Changes to the exter­i­or of the build­ing include the con­struc­tion of 4 pitched dormer roofs, erec­tion of new entrance on the west of the prop­erty, alter­a­tion of the win­dow fen­es­tra­tion and remov­al of an exist­ing chim­ney flue. Details of the pro­posed alter­a­tions and elev­a­tions are included in Appendix I – Plans.

3. The fin­ish of the pro­posed exten­sion will be a mix­ture of tim­ber clad­ding, render for the elev­a­tions and UPVC windows.

4. A total of 8 park­ing spaces are pro­posed to be provided includ­ing one for dis­abled users.

5. Bin stor­age has been included to the north-east of the devel­op­ment. Secure cycle stor­age will be incor­por­ated as part of the development.

6. The pro­pos­al will con­tin­ue to use the exist­ing pub­lic water and drain­age con­nec­tions which cur­rently serve the site.

7. The applic­a­tion is sup­por­ted by the fol­low­ing inform­a­tion: History

a) Design State­ment; and b) Bat Roost Assess­ment Survey.

1. This pro­pos­al is a resub­mis­sion of a pre­vi­ous applic­a­tion (2019/0225/DET) which was with­drawn on the 20/09/19 for revi­sion and resubmission.

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	X
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

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/05/2020

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

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/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​d​o​c​u​m​e​n​t​s​/Park Authority/Planning/LDP15.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 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
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 2020

1. The emer­ging Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (“Pro­posed Plan”) which will cov­er the peri­od of 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 on- going, the Pro­posed Plan and its con­tents cur­rently carry lim­ited weight.

CON­SULTA­TIONS

1. A sum­mary of the main issues raised by consultees.

2. Trans­port Scot­land were con­sul­ted and made no objec­tion to proposals.

3. Scot­tish Water made no objec­tion to the pro­posed applic­a­tion with suf­fi­cient water capa­city at Aviemore Water Treat­ment Works and Kin­gussie Waste Water Treat­ment Works but note that the applic­ant will require to make a form­al con­nec­tion applic­a­tion for water and sewage con­nec­tions and the Agency will review capa­city at that time.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/05/2020

1. High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning made no objec­tion but asked that bin stor­age not be loc­ated on the embank­ment adjoin­ing the site and Ard­broilach Road, rais­ing con­cern that it might dam­age the struc­tur­al integ­rity of the road if removed. The applic­ant sub­sequently sub­mit­ted a revised plan show­ing an altern­at­ive bin stor­age loc­a­tion con­firm­ing that no alter­a­tion would occur to the embankment.

2. High­land Coun­cil Con­tam­in­ated Land Team raised con­cerns that the gar­age on the north of the applic­a­tion site, if used for vehicle main­ten­ance or fuel stor­age, may be con­tam­in­ated. In absence of a site his­tory, and in the event that the applic­a­tion were to be sup­por­ted, it was recom­men­ded that a con­di­tion be attached requir­ing the sub­mis­sion of an assess­ment which appraises the poten­tial nature, extent and type of con­tam­in­a­tion, iden­ti­fies pol­lut­ant link­ages and includes an assess­ment of risk and a remedi­al strategy to address issues. If remedi­al action is required a val­id­a­tion report and mon­it­or­ing state­ments would also need sub­mit­ted and approved.

3. CNPA Eco­logy Officer noted ini­tially that insuf­fi­cient inform­a­tion had been provided in regards to neces­sary sur­vey work to eval­u­ate the poten­tial pres­ence of bat roosts. A full Pre­lim­in­ary Roost Assess­ment was sub­sequently sub­mit­ted by the applic­ant con­clud­ing that there was no pres­ence of bats and unlikely to be any roosts there­fore no fur­ther sur­vey work was required. The sub­mit­ted assess­ment did not how­ever include an eval­u­ation of poten­tial bat roosts in the car park­ing gar­age due to be demol­ished. It was there­fore recom­men­ded that in the event that the applic­a­tion be sup­por­ted a con­di­tion be attached man­dat­ing a bat roost sur­vey for the gar­age pri­or to any works.

4. CNPA Access Officer had no com­ments to make on the pro­pos­als regard­ing pub­lic access con­sid­er­a­tions. Inclu­sion of cycle stor­age was wel­comed to sup­port act­ive travel choices.

5. Com­munity Coun­cil have been con­sul­ted but made no comment.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. A total of six let­ters of rep­res­ent­a­tion have been received from indi­vidu­al mem­bers of the pub­lic. Cop­ies of the pub­lic responses can be viewed at Appendix 2. Five of the rep­res­ent­a­tions object to the applic­a­tion and are sum­mar­ised below: a) Insuf­fi­cient park­ing has been provided. b) Pro­pos­al would neg­at­ively impact on amen­ity dur­ing the con­struc­tion peri­od and dur­ing the oper­a­tion of the site. Impacts includ­ing: noise, loss of pri­vacy, and loss of day­light. c) Remov­al of exist­ing access arrange­ment for coal deliv­ery to neigh­bour­ing res­id­en­tial premises. d) Increase in traffic and noise. e) Devel­op­ment not in keep­ing with loc­al character.

2. One gen­er­al com­ment was con­trib­uted wel­com­ing the pro­pos­al in gen­er­al but seek­ing cla­ri­fic­a­tion on arrange­ments for dis­abled access.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/05/2020

APPRAIS­AL

Prin­ciple

1. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 and the Kin­gussie set­tle­ment state­ment with­in it, encour­ages new devel­op­ment, where appro­pri­ate, to con­sol­id­ate the exist­ing set­tle­ment and max­im­ise use of exist­ing loc­al ser­vices and infrastructure.

2. In this case the applic­a­tion site lies with­in the defined set­tle­ment bound­ary of Kin­gussie and involves the con­ver­sion of a vacant build­ing and erec­tion of an exten­sion on part of the site cur­rently used as a car park. As such the site may be con­sidered to be a brown­field site and the pro­pos­al as redevel­op­ment from an exist­ing vacant prop­erty as well as change of use from office to short term let­ting accom­mod­a­tion. There is gen­er­al policy sup­port for the prin­ciple of reuse of redund­ant build­ings and land as well as the pro­vi­sion of vis­it­or accom­mod­a­tion with the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Prin­ciple of Short-term Let Accom­mod­a­tion on This Site

1. Policy 2.2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth – Tour­ism and leis­ure devel­op­ment provides sup­port for tour­ist accom­mod­a­tion where it has no adverse envir­on­ment­al impacts on the site or neigh­bour­ing areas; it makes a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the exper­i­ence of vis­it­ors; and it adds to or extends the core tour­ist sea­son. The pro­pos­al to reuse the police sta­tion will bring a vacant build­ing into use and provide bespoke vis­it­or accom­mod­a­tion, increas­ing capa­city for tour­ists to stay in Kin­gussie and com­plies in gen­er­al terms with Policy 2.2.

2. Policy 2.3: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth – Oth­er eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment provides sup­port devel­op­ments that sup­port or extend the eco­nomy or which enhance the range and qual­ity of eco­nom­ic oppor­tun­it­ies or facil­it­ies, where they are Com­pat­ible or com­ple­ment exist­ing busi­ness activ­ity in the area and sup­port the vital­ity and viab­il­ity of the loc­al eco­nomy and the broad­er eco­nomy of the Park. The pro­pos­al will provide vis­it­or accom­mod­a­tion in Kin­gussie, provide cus­tom­ers for loc­al busi­nesses and attrac­tions, with a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the loc­al and wider eco­nomy. The pro­pos­al com­plies with Policy 2.3.

3. Policy 2.4: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth – Pro­tect­ing Exist­ing Sus­tain­able Eco­nom­ic Activ­ity allows for altern­at­ive use of sites or build­ings cur­rently in, or last used for, eco­nom­ic and employ­ment pur­poses where this pro­motes the sus­tain­able use of land in accord­ance with oth­er nation­al and loc­al policies and where it is demon­strated that it is not prac­tic­al for fin­an­cial and oth­er reas­ons to con­tin­ue with the use; the site and build­ings are unsuit­ably loc­ated and impact adversely on the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment, loc­al char­ac­ter or neigh­bour­ing prop­er­ties; and the exist­ing use can be appro­pri­ately relo­cated to anoth­er suit­able site.

4. In this case, the pre­vi­ous use as police sta­tion meant a range of uses includ­ing office and accom­mod­a­tion. How­ever, the police sta­tion has since closed and is no longer required for that use. In spite of being mar­keted as office space over a peri­od of

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/05/2020

years, the build­ing has remained unoc­cu­pied and vacant. The pro­posed new use as short term let­ting units will cre­ate vis­it­or accom­mod­a­tion for a part of the mar­ket that has more widely, led to a reduc­tion in hous­ing that is avail­able for people to live in. The cre­ation of bespoke units that can be con­trolled by a plan­ning con­di­tion lim­it­ing the occu­pa­tion by any indi­vidu­al per­son to no more than 28 days in any cal­en­dar year. This will cre­ate a new sup­ply of vis­it­or accom­mod­a­tion rather than remove exist­ing res­id­en­tial hous­ing from the loc­al mar­ket. The pro­pos­al com­plies with Policy 2.4 and over­all, sub­ject to assess­ment of the design and any envir­on­ment­al and amen­ity impacts, the applic­a­tion com­plies with Policy 2 Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Land­scape Impacts, Lay­out and Design

1. Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 seeks to ensure that all new devel­op­ment is sym­path­et­ic to the tra­di­tion­al pat­tern and char­ac­ter of the sur­round­ing areas, loc­al ver­nacu­lar and loc­al dis­tinct­ive­ness. It provides sup­port for the con­ver­sion of exist­ing build­ing stock where the build­ing is redund­ant for its ori­gin­al use, and is unlikely to have a com­mer­cial or eco­nom­ic future in its cur­rent form and the con­ver­sion works main­tain the style and char­ac­ter of the ori­gin­al build­ing in terms of form, scale, mater­i­als and detail­ing, where they con­trib­ute pos­it­ively to the con­text and set­ting of the area. The policy also sup­ports alter­a­tions to the exist­ing build­ing stock where pro­pos­als respect the design, mass­ing, pro­por­tions, mater­i­als and gen­er­al visu­al appear­ance of the area and main­tain an appro­pri­ate level of private ground, includ­ing space for off-street parking.

2. Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 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. Kin­gussie High Street is char­ac­ter­ised by a mix of build­ing styles and scales includ­ing single storey, two storey struc­tures, two and a half storey and three storey struc­tures fea­tur­ing pitched roof gabled dormers on the prin­cip­al elev­a­tions. In terms of mass­ing and scale the pro­posed exten­sion and con­ver­sion of the exist­ing build­ing is con­sidered appro­pri­ate and will not detract from the visu­al appear­ance from the area. The exist­ing build­ing form to the High Street will be main­tained and the exten­sion to the rear of the prop­erty will com­ple­ment the main building.

4. The over­all design is con­sidered to be simple, func­tion­al and sat­is­fact­ory, with an accept­able range of mater­i­als in keep­ing with the exist­ing build­ing and wider area. Full details of extern­al mater­i­al can be con­trolled by stand­ard plan­ning con­di­tion. The applic­a­tion is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Envir­on­ment­al Impacts

1. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 seeks to ensure that there are no adverse effects on European Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies and oth­er biod­iversity interests. The applic­a­tion site is cur­rently com­prised of

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/05/2020

build­ings and hard stand­ing. The only poten­tial sig­ni­fic­ant eco­lo­gic­al interest in the site was poten­tial for bat roosts in the buildings.

1. A Pre­lim­in­ary Bat Roost Assess­ment was sub­sequently under­taken by the applic­ant. This con­cluded that no bats were recor­ded using the build­ing and there were no signs of past use. It also stated that the build­ing con­struc­tion meant there was low poten­tial for bats to be able to access it. Although the report con­cluded that no fur­ther sur­vey work was required, the sur­vey did not include an intern­al check of the gar­age to the rear so a con­di­tion requir­ing a pre-start check of the gar­age pri­or to any con­struc­tion is pro­posed. Sub­ject to the appro­pri­ate con­di­tion, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

2. Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 includes a policy on Con­tam­in­ated land (Policy10.7). This con­tains pro­vi­sions for the invest­ig­a­tion and remedi­al works of any con­tam­in­ated land found or sus­pec­ted in a devel­op­ment pro­pos­al. The High­land Con­tam­in­ated Land Officer has recom­men­ded that giv­en the pre­vi­ous use of the gar­age, a con­di­tion is applied to any con­sent requir­ing a scheme to deal with poten­tial con­tam­in­a­tion on site to be sub­mit­ted and agreed in writ­ing by the Plan­ning Author­ity. Sub­ject to this con­di­tion the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Gen­er­al Ser­vi­cing, Access and Parking

1. Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 set out the need for the devel­op­ment to be sat­is­fact­or­ily ser­viced. Policy 3 in par­tic­u­lar requires that new devel­op­ments pro­mote sus­tain­able trans­port meth­ods includ­ing mak­ing pro­vi­sion for the stor­age of bicycles and redu­cing the over­all need to travel.

2. The loc­a­tion of the pro­pos­al in the centre of Kin­gussie means it is well-con­nec­ted to loc­al ser­vices and to exist­ing pub­lic trans­port links. The devel­op­ment includes bike stor­age to the rear of the prop­er­ties. The site access is con­sidered accept­able to the High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team and to Trans­port Scot­land. The car park­ing pro­vi­sion of one space per unit is also con­sidered accept­able on the basis that the units are for short term let­ting. Fur­ther pubic park­ing is avail­able approx­im­ately 100m from the site off Gyn­ack Road.

3. The bin stor­age area was revised dur­ing the pro­cessing of the applic­a­tion to avoid alter­a­tions to an embank­ment sup­port­ing Arbroilach Road and is con­sidered appro­pri­ate. The site will be con­nec­ted to the mains water sup­ply and foul water system.

4. In these over­all cir­cum­stances the applic­a­tion is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/05/2020

Impacts on Neighbours/​Residential Amenity

1. Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 seeks to pro­tect the amen­ity of neigh­bours. Con­cerns have been expressed by object­ors about the devel­op­ment res­ult­ing in a loss of amen­ity in terms of pri­vacy and access to day­light and an increase in noise.

2. Con­cerns were raised by object­ors relat­ing to the loss of amen­ity in terms of pri­vacy to neigh­bour­ing prop­er­ties to the north of the pro­posed site on Mill Rd. The rear exten­sion will be approx­im­ately 2 metres fur­ther away from Mill Road prop­er­ties than the exist­ing gar­age and its north­ern elev­a­tion facing those prop­er­ties will no win­dows which will help safe­guard the pri­vacy and amen­ity of exist­ing prop­er­ties to the north. On bal­ance it is con­sidered that the pro­posed exten­sion and alter­a­tion of the build­ing will be suf­fi­ciently far away from neigh­bour­ing prop­er­ties both in terms of scale and poten­tial overlooking/​window dis­tances to main­tain amen­ity and privacy.

3. Con­cerns were raised by object­ors relat­ing to the loss of amen­ity to neigh­bour­ing prop­er­ties in terms of noise and traffic con­ges­tion. Both the High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team and Trans­port Scot­land are sat­is­fied with the vehicle access arrange­ment and have not raised any con­cerns over traffic con­ges­tion or road safety. It is recog­nised that the short term nature of use is likely to lead to a high­er turnover of new indi­vidu­als stay­ing in the prop­er­ties that the cur­rent use or a res­id­en­tial use. How­ever, the nature of the loc­a­tion on Kin­gussie High Street as a prin­ciple thor­ough­fare with an array of hotels, hos­tels, res­taur­ants and bars means that some degree of noise/​dis­turb­ance would be expec­ted in this location.

4. The primary entrance to the apart­ments is loc­ated on the High Street and would there­fore min­im­ise dis­turb­ance to the neigh­bour­ing res­id­en­tial prop­er­ties on the north­ern side of the applic­a­tion site. Addi­tion­ally, the pro­posed flats are one and two bed­room and rel­at­ively mod­est in size. They would there­fore be poorly suited to accom­mod­at­ing large groups of indi­vidu­als, and would be more suited to use by single occu­pants, couples or fam­il­ies. This would reduce, to some extent, the like­li­hood of reg­u­lar dis­turb­ance arising from anti-social beha­viour by guests inside, or out­side the entrance to the flats. It is con­sidered that the build­ing could be used for short-term hol­i­day let­ting without any mater­i­ally det­ri­ment­al effects on the liv­ing con­di­tions of nearby residents.

5. Finally with regard to res­id­en­tial amen­ity dur­ing con­struc­tion, it is recog­nised that there will inev­it­ably be a degree of dis­turb­ance from the con­struc­tion of new devel­op­ment with­in the centre of a town or vil­lage such as Kin­gussie. How­ever, lim­its to any dis­turb­ance can be con­trolled through Envir­on­ment­al Health legis­la­tion. A stand­ard inform­at­ive on con­struc­tion hours is con­sidered suf­fi­cient to draw atten­tion to the nor­mal work­ing prac­tice with­in accept­able limits.

6. It is there­fore con­sidered that the devel­op­ment com­plies with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 in rela­tion to the res­id­en­tial amen­ity of neighbours.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/05/2020

Developer Con­tri­bu­tion

1. Policy 11: Developer Con­tri­bu­tions of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015, which sets out that where devel­op­ment gives rise to a need to increase or improve pub­lic ser­vices, facil­it­ies or infra­struc­ture or to mit­ig­ate adverse effects the developer will be required to be make a fair and reas­on­able con­tri­bu­tion con­sist­ent with the scale and nature of the devel­op­ment. No developer con­tri­bu­tions are con­sidered neces­sary for the pro­posed devel­op­ment. The devel­op­ment is likely to sup­port loc­al ser­vices and amen­it­ies rather than place a bur­den upon them. The devel­op­ment will not intro­duce res­id­ents who will be using edu­ca­tion­al ser­vices etc.

Oth­er Issues Raised in Con­sulta­tions and Representations

1. Mat­ters raised by con­sul­tees and con­trib­ut­ors have been addressed through­out this report. Con­cern had been raised by a mem­ber of the pub­lic regard­ing con­ges­tion levels of Kin­gussie High Street and sur­round­ing are from arising from the devel­op­ment and neigh­bour­ing land uses. The con­sid­er­a­tion of the devel­op­ment and road safety mat­ters has been out­lined earli­er in this report.

CON­CLU­SION

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment for 8 new short-term hol­i­day let accom­mod­a­tion units on a brown­field site, with the reuse of a vacant prop­erty, in Kin­gussie is wel­comed in prin­ciple, provid­ing fur­ther facil­it­ies for vis­it­ors to the area and sup­port­ing the eco­nomy. Whilst the pro­pos­al includes an exten­sion and roof dormer win­dows res­ult­ing in an increase in size of the prop­erty, the scale is appro­pri­ate for the loc­a­tion. The design and detail­ing of the pro­pos­al is of good qual­ity which will enable it to help enhance the char­ac­ter of the area over time.

2. The design of the units is spe­cific­ally for res­id­en­tial let­ting use which can be con­trolled by con­di­tion. Any change of use would require a plan­ning applic­a­tion to be approved and any plan­ning applic­a­tion would be con­sidered against rel­ev­ant plan­ning policy and mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions at the time.

3. In these over­all cir­cum­stances the devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with all rel­ev­ant policies of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 and the col­lect­ive aims of the Nation­al Park. There are no oth­er mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions which would war­rant the refus­al of plan­ning per­mis­sion. Approv­al is there­fore recom­men­ded sub­ject to appro­pri­ate plan­ning conditions.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/05/2020

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to approve the con­ver­sion, exten­sion and change of use of exist­ing office build­ing to cre­ate 8 num­ber flat­ted dwell­ings for hol­i­day let­ting use at Former Police Sta­tion, Kin­gussie, High­land, PH21 IHS, 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. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until a scheme to deal with poten­tial con­tam­in­a­tion on site has been sub­mit­ted to and agreed in writ­ing by CNPA act­ing as the Plan­ning Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with the High­land Coun­cil Con­tam­in­ated Land Officer. The scheme shall include: a) The nature, extent and type of con­tam­in­a­tion on site and iden­ti­fic­a­tion of pol­lut­ant link­ages and assess­ment of risk (i.e. a land con­tam­in­a­tion invest­ig­a­tion and risk assess­ment), the scope and meth­od of which shall be sub­mit­ted to and agreed in writ­ing by the CNPA act­ing as the plan­ning author­ity, and under­taken in accord­ance with PAN 33 (2000) and Brit­ish Stand­ard BS 10175:2011+A2:2017 Invest­ig­a­tion of Poten­tially Con­tam­in­ated Sites
   • Code of Prac­tice; b) The meas­ures required to treat/​remove con­tam­in­a­tion (remedi­al strategy) includ­ing a meth­od state­ment, pro­gramme of works, and pro­posed veri­fic­a­tion plan to ensure that the site is fit for the uses pro­posed; c) Meas­ures to deal with con­tam­in­a­tion dur­ing con­struc­tion works; d) In the event that remedi­al action be required, a val­id­a­tion report that will val­id­ate and veri­fy the com­ple­tion of the agreed decon­tam­in­a­tion meas­ures; e) In the event that mon­it­or­ing is required, mon­it­or­ing state­ments shall be sub­mit­ted at agreed inter­vals for such time peri­od as is con­sidered appro­pri­ate by the CNPA act­ing as the Plan­ning Authority.

No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until writ­ten con­firm­a­tion has been received that the scheme has been imple­men­ted, com­pleted and, if required, mon­it­or­ing meas­ure­ments are in place, all to the sat­is­fac­tion of the CNPA act­ing as the Plan­ning Authority.

Reas­on: In order to ensure that the site is suit­able for redevel­op­ment, giv­en the nature of pre­vi­ous uses/​processes on the site in accord­ance with Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. Pri­or to any demoli­tion works com­men­cing on the gar­age build­ing, as iden­ti­fied on the exist­ing site plan, draw­ing num­ber, (PL) 02, for the devel­op­ment hereby per­mit­ted, an addi­tion­al intern­al bat sur­vey shall be under­taken with the find­ings of the sur­vey sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority,

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/05/2020

act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. The bat sur­vey will be car­ried out in accord­ance with the Bat Con­ser­va­tion Trust Guidelines (2016).

Reas­on: To ensure that there are no adverse impacts to bats, which are a European Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies and one of the qual­i­fy­ing interests, dur­ing con­struc­tion works in accord­ance Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. The hol­i­day let­ting units hereby approved shall not be used oth­er­wise than for the pro­vi­sion of short-term let hol­i­day accom­mod­a­tion. The prop­er­ties shall not be occu­pied as per­man­ent res­id­en­tial accom­mod­a­tion and shall not be occu­pied by any person(s) for a peri­od exceed­ing 28 days in any twelve month peri­od. The own­er or oper­at­or shall main­tain a register of occu­pants for each cal­en­dar year. This register shall be made avail­able on request for inspec­tion by any duly author­ised officer of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

Reas­on: To enable the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity to exer­cise appro­pri­ate con­trol over the use of the build­ing, in recog­ni­tion of the use applied for in accord­ance with Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic growth of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.

1. No con­struc­tion work shall com­mence on the cre­ation of any hol­i­day let­ting units, hereby per­mit­ted, until samples of the pro­posed extern­al mater­i­als have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Authority.

Reas­on: To ensure that the new devel­op­ment con­serves and enhances the land­scape char­ac­ter of Kin­gussie and is sym­path­et­ic to the char­ac­ter of the area in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. No unit of accom­mod­a­tion shall be occu­pied until the park­ing, access, bin and cycle stor­age pro­vi­sion, and turn­ing pro­vi­sion per­tain­ing to the unit have been con­struc­ted in accord­ance with the approved site plan.

Reas­on: To ensure that suit­able park­ing, bicycle stor­age and waste man­age­ment pro­vi­sion is made for res­id­ents in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. The devel­op­ment shall be con­struc­ted in accord­ance with the approved plans.

Reas­on: To ensure that the new devel­op­ment con­serves and enhances the land­scape char­ac­ter of Kin­gussie and is sym­path­et­ic to the char­ac­ter of the area in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/05/2020

Inform­at­ives

1. The devel­op­ment hereby approved must com­mence with­in 3 years of the date of this decision notice. If devel­op­ment has not com­menced with­in this peri­od then this plan­ning per­mis­sion will lapse.

2. The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment is required to give the Plan­ning Author­ity pri­or writ­ten noti­fic­a­tion of the date on which it is inten­ded to com­mence the devel­op­ment. Attached to this decision notices 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.

3. Fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, a noti­fic­a­tion of the 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.

4. Con­struc­tion work on the applic­a­tion site (includ­ing the loading/​unloading of deliv­ery vehicles, plant or oth­er machinery) should not take place out with the hours of 0800 hours to 1900 hours Mondays to Fri­days, 0800 hours to 1300 hours on Sat­urdays or at any time on Sundays or Bank Hol­i­days in order to min­im­ise dis­turb­ance to res­id­ents in the area.

5. The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment should note that they will require to apply to Scot­tish Water for form­al con­nec­tion to pub­lic water and drain­age sup­plies at which time the Agency will review capa­city – fur­ther details avail­able in their con­sulta­tion response. They will also require to con­tact Scot­tish Water’s Assets Impact Team with regard to any Scot­tish Water infra­struc­ture on the applic­a­tion site – con­tact service.​relocation@​scottishwater.​co.​uk.

6. In rela­tion to con­di­tion 2, if bats or bat roosts are present in the exist­ing build­ing, it would be a crim­in­al offense to dis­turb them without first hav­ing gained a licence from Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Heritage.

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.