Item6AAKilliecrankieHousingCommitteeReport

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/04/2022

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PRO­POSED: Erec­tion of 6 dwell­ing houses and asso­ci­ated works at Former Rail­way Yard Killiecrankie

REF­ER­ENCE: 2022/0012/DET

APPLIC­ANT: White­burn Investments

DATE CALLED-IN: 17 Janu­ary 2022

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve sub­ject to conditions.

CASE OFFICER: Alan Atkins — Plan­ning Officer

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CNPA Plan­ning Committee

Applic­a­tion Site

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/04/2022

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/04/2022

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment site cov­ers an area of approx­im­ately 0.35 hec­tares and is cur­rently a brown­field site in Kil­liecrankie. The site com­prises of mossy veget­a­tion, trees and shrubs and is gen­er­ally flat. There is a steep slope along the south bound­ary, slop­ing to the south with anoth­er smal­ler slope in the north­ern corner of the site. There is a gravel / tar­mac road run­ning from the south­w­est corner to the north­east corner of the site, and along the north­ern bound­ary. The site is bounded to the north by a rail­way line, and to the west by the B8079 road. There are no exist­ing build­ings on site, apart from a small, dis­used shed in the south­ern corner. There is exist­ing hous­ing loc­ated approx­im­ately 40m from the pro­posed devel­op­ment site and the River Garry flows 50m south of the site.

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=R5JOXASI0C100

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
PLANS
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan.	3991/LP/01 VER2	May 2021	19/01/22
Plan — Exist­ing Site Plan.	3991-SD-01 VERI	May 2021	19/01/22
Plan	3991/PD/01 VER3	May 2021	19/01/22
Plan — Pro­posed Floor Plans.	3991/PP/10 VER 2	May 2021	19/01/22
Plan — Pro­posed Elevations.	3991/PD/11 /VER 3	May 2021	19/01/22
Plan — Rur­al Loc­a­tion Plan.	3991/LP/02/ VER I	May 2021	19/01/22
Plan — Pro­posed Drain­age Plan.	3991/PD/02 /VER 3	May 2021	19/01/22
Plan — Tree Con­straints Plan.		May 2021	19/01/22
Plan — Tree Con­straints Plan.		May 2021	19/01/22
Plan — Tree Survey.		May 2021	19/01/22
Plan — Pro­posed Typ­ic­al Secur­ity Fence Detail.		May 2021	19/01/22

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/04/2022

| Plan — 3D Visu­al 1. | 3991/PD/12 VER3 | May 2021 | 19/01/22 | | Plan — 3D Visu­al 2. | 3991/PD/13 V ER3 | May 2021 | 19/01/22 | | Plan — 3D Visu­al 3. | 3991/PD/14 VER3 | May 2021 | 19/01/22 | | SUP­PORT­ING DOC­U­MENT­A­TION | | | | | Oth­er — Design State­ment. | | May 2021 | 19/01/22 | | Oth­er — Noise and Vibra­tion Impact Assess­ment. | | May 2021 | 19/01/22 | | Oth­er — Phase I Hab­it­at and Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies Assess­ment. | | May 2021 | 19/01/22 | | Oth­er — Site Invest­ig­a­tion Report. | | May 2021 | 19/01/22 | | Oth­er — Site Invest­ig­a­tion Report Appendix A | | May 2021 | 19/01/22 | | Oth­er — Site Invest­ig­a­tion Report Appendix C — F. | | May 2021 | 19/01/22 | | Oth­er — Sur­face Water State­ment. | | May 2021 | 19/01/22 | | Oth­er — Tree Plant­ing. | | March 2022 | 08/03/22 | | Oth­er — Tree Plant­ing and Main­ten­ance. | | March 2022 | 08/03/22 | | *Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the 1^st of the month. | | | |

1. It is pro­posed to erect six new dwell­ing houses on former rail­way yard land in Kil­liecrankie. The new houses will be posi­tioned in three semi – detached blocks, one posi­tioned at the entrance to the site and one on either side of the turn­ing area. The pro­posed dwell­ings will be three-bed­room, 1.5 storey prop­er­ties, with a pitched roof, dormer win­dows and con­ser­va­tion style roof­lights. The houses will each have a floor area of 110 square metres and its own private garden ground. The houses are of a tra­di­tion­al appear­ance with a palette of mater­i­als includ­ing a slate roof, rendered walls, and tim­ber cladding.

2. Plans of the pro­pos­als are included in Appendix 1.

His­tory

1. The fol­low­ing is a plan­ning his­tory for the pro­posed devel­op­ment site. The applic­a­tions have been sub­mit­ted to Perth and Kinross Council.

a) 99/0167/OUT- Erec­tion of three dwell­ing houses in out­line. Approved. b) 02/01870/OUT- Renew­al of plan­ning con­sent to erect three dwell­ing houses in out­line. Approved. c) 06/00121/OUT- Renew­al of plan­ning con­sent for the erec­tion of three dwell­ing houses in out­line. Approved. d) 07/02013/FLL — Plan­ning per­mis­sion for the erec­tion of six dwell­ing houses. Approved 24/02/2010.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/04/2022

e) 21/00801/FLL — Plan­ning per­mis­sion for the erec­tion of six dwell­ing houses. Refused 14/07/2022.

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al [HRA] has been under­taken (5÷08÷21) to con­sider the effects of the pro­pos­al upon the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the European Sites of the Cairngorms Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area. The full apprais­al is attached at Appendix 2.

2. The Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al con­cluded that the pro­posed devel­op­ment at Kil­liecrankie is unlikely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the pro­tec­ted site at the River Tay Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC). In this instance, the qual­i­fy­ing interests are Atlantic sal­mon, sea lamprey, river lamprey, brook lamprey, ands otter. The River Gary, which is loc­ated approx­im­ately 50m south of the pro­posed devel­op­ment site, is part of the River Tay SAC. The pro­posed site is set back some way from an inter­ven­ing steep, wooded embank­ment that bor­ders the River Gary. The rocky and fast flow­ing River Gary is unsuit­able hab­it­at for otter and giv­en that there is exist­ing hous­ing in closer prox­im­ity to the SAC than the pro­posed devel­op­ment site, the level of exist­ing human activ­ity and the loc­a­tion of the pro­posed site means that there is no risk of dis­turb­ance for otter. Fur­ther­more, giv­en the dis­tance of the site from the River Gary and the inter­ven­ing wooded embank­ment, there should be no risk of sed­i­ment release dur­ing the con­struc­tion stage, reach­ing the SAC. There­fore, there are no indir­ect effects likely from the pro­posed devel­op­ment and asso­ci­ated infra­struc­ture. In addi­tion, there are no effects on hab­it­ats and sup­port­ing pro­cesses of the qual­i­fy­ing interests.

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 (2021)
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
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
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

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/04/2022

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:

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 I	New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance (2015)	X
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 3	Sus­tain­able Design Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance (2015)	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	X
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 11	Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance (2015)	X

CON­SULTA­TIONS

Sum­mary of the main issues raised by consultees

1. Scot­tish Water has no objec­tion to the pro­pos­al. They con­firm that the devel­op­ment would be fed from Kil­liecrankie Water Treat­ment Works although capa­city will have to be reviewed once per­mis­sion is gran­ted for the scheme. Regard­ing wastewa­ter, the devel­op­ment would be ser­viced by Kil­liecrankie SEP Waste Water Treat­ment Works and again capa­city would be reviewed once plan­ning per­mis­sion is granted.

2. Net­work Rail has no objec­tions in prin­ciple to the devel­op­ment. How­ever, due to its close prox­im­ity to the oper­a­tion­al rail­way, it is reques­ted that the fol­low­ing mat­ters are con­sidered, and, if neces­sary and appro­pri­ate, included as advis­ory notes, if grant­ing the applic­a­tion: The prox­im­ity and type of plant­ing pro­posed are import­ant when con­sid­er­ing a land­scap­ing scheme. Leaf fall in par­tic­u­lar can greatly impact upon the reli­ab­il­ity of the rail­way in cer­tain sea­sons. Where trees/​shrubs are to be planted adja­cent to the rail­way bound­ary these should be posi­tioned at a min­im­um dis­tance from the bound­ary which is great­er than their pre­dicted mature height. Cer­tain broad leaf decidu­ous spe­cies should not be planted adja­cent to the rail­way bound­ary. The applic­ant must ensure that the con­struc­tion and sub­sequent main­ten­ance of pro­posed dwell­ing houses can be car­ried out without adversely affect­ing the safety of, or encroach­ing upon, Net­work Rail’s adja­cent land.

3. Fur­ther­more, the applic­ant should note that all con­struc­tion work must be under­taken in a safe man­ner which does not dis­turb the oper­a­tion of the neigh­bour­ing rail­way. The

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/04/2022

applic­ant must be aware of any embank­ments and sup­port­ing struc­tures that are in close prox­im­ity to the pro­posed devel­op­ment. Details of all changes in ground levels, lay­ing of found­a­tions, and oper­a­tion of mech­an­ic­al plant in prox­im­ity to the rail line must be sub­mit­ted to Net­work Rail’s Asset Pro­tec­tion Engin­eer for approv­al pri­or to works com­men­cing on site. Where any works can­not be car­ried out in a ​“fail-safe ​“man­ner, it will be neces­sary to restrict these works to peri­ods when the rail­way is closed to rail traffic, i.e., by a ​“pos­ses­sion”, which must be booked via Net­work Rail’s Asset Pro­tec­tion Engin­eer and are sub­ject to a min­im­um pri­or notice peri­od for book­ing of 20 weeks.

1. As all, or part, of this land was pre­vi­ously owned by Net­work Rail, or its pre­de­cessors, title oblig­a­tions may exist that require devel­op­ment con­sent to be obtained from Net­work Rail. No build­ing works may com­mence until such con­sent has been con­firmed. This must be obtained by the applic­ant out with the plan­ning pro­cess. The developer must con­tact Net­work Rail’s Asset Pro­tec­tion Engin­eer regard­ing this matter.

2. His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land have noted that the pro­pos­als are for the erec­tion of 6 no. 2‑storey dwell­ing houses in the former rail­way yard at Kil­liecrankie Vil­lage, adja­cent to the River Garry. How­ever, it is fur­ther noted that these devel­op­ment pro­pos­als sit with­in the Invent­ory His­tor­ic Bat­tle­field of Kil­liecrankie. The area of pro­posed devel­op­ment is not with­in the core of the Bat­tle­field but sits with­in 50m of the fam­ous Soldier’s Leap. The area of the pro­posed devel­op­ment sits on the route of the Gov­ern­ment advance and sub­sequent rout and retreat, both events likely to have con­trib­uted archae­olo­gic­al mater­i­al in the form of arte­fact scat­ters to the Bat­tle­field. There is also the sug­ges­tion of graves across the Bat­tle­field area, although none have been form­ally iden­ti­fied, includ­ing around the devel­op­ment area. Any archae­olo­gic­al poten­tial of the site will have been lessened by the site’s pre­vi­ous use as a rail­way yard, which is likely to have involved earth­mov­ing, excav­a­tions, and the lev­el­ling of the ground surface.

3. Giv­en the low poten­tial for archae­olo­gic­al impacts, His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land do not have sig­ni­fic­ant con­cerns about the poten­tial of the devel­op­ment to impact neg­at­ively on archae­olo­gic­al mater­i­al crit­ic­al to the under­stand­ing of the Battle. How­ever, it is recom­men­ded that appro­pri­ate archae­olo­gic­al mit­ig­a­tion is applied to the site pri­or to con­struc­tion, such as met­al detect­ing and a watch­ing brief of any ground- break­ing works. While near Soldier’s Leap, the drop of ground from the area of the pro­posed devel­op­ment and the inter­ven­ing veget­a­tion makes it highly unlikely that the roofline of the pro­posed dwell­ing houses would be vis­ible from the Soldier’s Leap itself. Equally, the sit­ing of the pro­posed struc­tures would be in line with the estab­lished set­tle­ment plan of Kil­liecrankie vil­lage, with cot­tages arrayed either side of the rail­way line, main­tain­ing the char­ac­ter of the area on the approach to Soldier’s Leap, and when viewed from else­where on the Battlefield.

4. Whilst these factors mean that there are no sig­ni­fic­ant con­cerns in rela­tion to the pro­posed devel­op­ment, it is encour­aged that meas­ures to mit­ig­ate any impact to the char­ac­ter of the area, in par­tic­u­lar the reten­tion as far as pos­sible of exist­ing screen­ing veget­a­tion on the south side of the allot­ted devel­op­ment area facing Soldier’s Leap.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/04/2022

1. NatureScot has stated that the pro­posed site is loc­ated with­in, and adja­cent to, nation­ally and inter­na­tion­ally import­ant pro­tec­ted areas. How­ever, it is advised that none of these will be adversely affected by the pro­posed development.

2. It is noted that in the pre­vi­ously refused applic­a­tion (28/00801/FLL) the applicant’s inten­tion was to con­nect to the exist­ing sew­er­age sys­tem served by Scot­tish Water’s Kil­liecrankie Sep­tic Waste Water Treat­ment Works. It is noted that Scot­tish Water, in its response to the cur­rent applic­a­tion, is still unable to con­firm wheth­er there is suf­fi­cient capa­city at this stage. Should it tran­spire that the devel­op­ment is unable to con­nect to the exist­ing waste water treat­ment works and an on-site solu­tion is required this could risk poten­tial effects on the interests of the River Tay SAC and would need fur­ther assessment.

3. The pro­posed devel­op­ment site is adja­cent to a small sec­tion of The Pass of Kil­liecrankie Site of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest (SSSI) sep­ar­ated by the minor road from Kil­liecrankie. The SSSI is des­ig­nated for its diverse oak wood­land and a num­ber of nation­al rare fly spe­cies. The devel­op­ment will not affect the wood­land oppos­ite but should any upgrades to the minor road be required for deliv­ery of mater­i­als etc, care should be taken to avoid dam­aging trees and dis­rupt­ing soil struc­ture on the SSSI side of the road. In terms of the River Tay SAC, they con­firm that there is suf­fi­cient capa­city in the Kil­liecrankie Water Treat­ment Works for the pro­posed development.

4. Perth and Kinross Coun­cil Com­munit­ies Con­ser­va­tion Officer has no objec­tion to the pro­posed devel­op­ment in terms of its impact on the set­ting of the lis­ted build­ing. There is clear sep­ar­a­tion from the applic­a­tion site and the pro­posed devel­op­ment would be visu­ally legible as part of the exist­ing group of build­ings adja­cent to the site.

5. Perth and Kinross Con­tam­in­ated Land Officer has noted that records show that a site invest­ig­a­tion was car­ried out for the site above by Mason Evans Ltd, where a report was pro­duced on the 9^th of Feb­ru­ary 2015. The report recom­mends that remedi­al meas­ures are car­ried out to address the con­tam­in­a­tion on the site. Giv­en this, it is recom­men­ded that the remedi­al pro­ced­ures out­lined in the site invest­ig­a­tion are car­ried out, and that a Pre­lim­in­ary Risk Assess­ment (Phase I Desk Study) is sub­mit­ted for consideration

6. Perth and Kinross Coun­cil Envir­on­ment­al Health (Noise) have no objec­tions to the applic­a­tion but has recom­men­ded con­di­tions to be included in any giv­en con­sent. The applic­a­tion site is loc­ated adja­cent to the rail­way line and there­fore there is the poten­tial for noise from rail traffic to affect future res­id­ents of this site.

7. Des­pite exist­ing hous­ing loc­ated in close prox­im­ity to the rail­way line in this area, it is noted that the pro­posed dwell­ings, in par­tic­u­lar the dwell­ing to the West of the site would appear to be closer to the rail­way line and that future res­id­ents could not fail to be aware of rail noise, par­tic­u­larly dur­ing the night-time peri­od or when outdoors.

8. It was recom­men­ded that a Noise Impact Assess­ment (NIA) be under­taken by a suit­ably qual­i­fied con­sult­ant to assess the impact of rail noise on the pro­posed res­id­en­tial units. It was noted dur­ing the noise sur­vey that the gen­er­al night-time ambi­ent sound level is

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/04/2022

rel­at­ively high for a rur­al loc­a­tion and that this was attrib­uted to the River Garry being a dom­in­ant noise source.

1. The NIA pre­dicts the intern­al and extern­al noise levels along with the vibra­tion levels and con­cludes that whilst extern­al tar­get levels and vibra­tion levels are being met, intern­al levels allow­ing for open win­dows can­not be met for either day or night-time peri­ods. It is import­ant that an appro­pri­ate level of noise, depend­ant on the time of day, is nev­er exceeded. It is con­cluded that mit­ig­a­tion is required to pro­tect the res­id­en­tial amen­ity of any future occu­pants of the pro­posed devel­op­ment. In cir­cum­stances that require mit­ig­a­tion from road and/​or rail sources, altern­at­ive means of vent­il­a­tion, such as trickle vent­il­at­ors can be accept­able. The most oner­ous glaz­ing require­ments will be required in the first floor hab­it­able rooms, whilst less oner­ous glaz­ing will be required on the ground floor rooms.

2. There are no objec­tions in terms of noise to the pro­posed devel­op­ment. How­ever, to pre­vent any loss of res­id­en­tial amen­ity for future occu­pants of the devel­op­ment, a con­di­tion should be included that all hab­it­able rooms have win­dows, and mech­an­ic­al vent­il­a­tion, designed and con­struc­ted in accord­ance with the sub­mit­ted NIA.

3. Perth and Kinross Coun­cil Biod­iversity Officer has stated that the eco­lo­gic­al report sub­mit­ted for this applic­a­tion is of excel­lent qual­ity. Com­pens­at­ory plant­ing for the loss of 9 trees is pro­posed and should be secured by con­di­tion, includ­ing repla­cing any failed plant­ing. Fur­ther­more, the recom­men­ded action points with­in the sup­port­ing biod­iversity sur­vey sub­mit­ted, and hereby approved, shall be fully adhered to, respec­ted and under­taken as part of the con­struc­tion phase of devel­op­ment. Meas­ures to pro­tect anim­als from being trapped in open excav­a­tions and/​or pipe and cul­verts should be imple­men­ted for the dur­a­tion of the con­struc­tion works of the development.

4. Perth and Kinross Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Officer has stated that there are no objec­tions to the pro­posed devel­op­ment sub­ject to the inclu­sion of a con­di­tion that relates to the Council’s roads con­struc­tion guid­ance regard­ing the pro­posed access. It is fur­ther recom­men­ded that inform­at­ives are included relat­ing to street­light­ing, dis­pos­al of sur­face water and roads open­ing consent.

5. Perth and Kinross Coun­cil Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Officer has out­lined that the assess­ment of nil con­tri­bu­tions is on the basis that there is extant con­sent for devel­op­ment for the site (ref 07/02013/FLL) and an Afford­able Hous­ing com­muted sum was paid up-front to release plan­ning con­sent around 29 Janu­ary 2010. The cur­rent applic­a­tion does not pro­pose addi­tion­al development.

6. The Coun­cil Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance requires a fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tion towards increased primary school capa­city in areas where a primary school capa­city con­straint has been iden­ti­fied. A capa­city con­straint is defined as where a primary school is oper­at­ing at over 80% and is likely to be oper­at­ing fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of the pro­posed devel­op­ment, extant plan­ning per­mis­sions and Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan alloc­a­tions, at or above 100% of total capa­city. This pro­pos­al is with­in the catch­ment of Pit­lo­chry Primary School. Edu­ca­tion & Children’s Ser­vices have no capa­city con­cerns in this catch­ment area at this time.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/04/2022

1. Perth and Kinross Coun­cil Flood Pre­ven­tion Officer has no objec­tions to the pro­posed devel­op­ment in terms of flood risk. How­ever, the applic­ant is advised to refer to Perth and Kinross Council’s Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance on Flood Risk and Flood Risk Assess­ment 2021, as it con­tains advice rel­ev­ant to the pro­posed development.

2. Perth and Kinross Her­it­age Trust states that the site is con­sidered to be of his­tor­ic sig­ni­fic­ance giv­en it is loc­ated with­in a poten­tial core route for troops to the Battle of Kil­liecrankie (1689) as defined by the Invent­ory of His­tor­ic Bat­tle­field. There is some evid­ence on the poten­tial for remains in and around the bat­tle­field site. Giv­en its former use as a rail­way yard any archae­olo­gic­al remains may have been dis­turbed. It’s loc­a­tion to the fam­ous Sol­diers Leap spot how­ever means there may still be poten­tial for bat­tle­field related remains to sur­vive. A pro­gramme of archae­olo­gic­al works is recom­men­ded, the scope of which will need agreed in a WSI pri­or to works com­men­cing. In terms of visu­al impacts and screen­ing from cer­tain view­points, it is import­ant that new build­ings fit with the char­ac­ter of Kil­liecrankie vil­lage and are not vis­ible from key land­marks such as Sol­diers Leap.

3. CNPA Land­scape Officer has noted that the site is an old rail­way yard and has few sens­it­ive fea­tures. Fur­ther­more, the 9 trees to be felled are not a sig­ni­fic­ant loss to the area con­sid­er­ing the adja­cent wood­land this will not affect the land­scape char­ac­ter or its visu­al amenity.

4. The pro­posed build­ings are of a design and scale sim­il­ar to nearby prop­er­ties and the dens­ity is not high and leave small but adequate gar­dens and com­mun­al areas. It is con­sidered that this will not detract from the char­ac­ter of the vil­lage or its visu­al amenity.

5. The applic­a­tion has pro­pos­als for 9 new trees around the site to com­pensate for the loss of the exist­ing ones. The pro­posed tree plant­ing plan and spe­cific­a­tion for plant­ing and main­ten­ance is wholly accept­able. How­ever, here is a ref­er­ence to an on-line nurs­ery being the source of plant mater­i­al. This is based in the south of the UK. Plant mater­i­al from here may be less hardy and the proven­ance less appro­pri­ate. It is, there­fore, sug­ges­ted that they source mater­i­al from nurs­er­ies in the north of Scot­land, which would elim­in­ate these problems

6. CNPA Eco­logy Officer has noted that the pro­posed devel­op­ment site is loc­ated approx­im­ately 50m away from the River Gary, which forms part of the River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC). How­ever, giv­en the exist­ing, and inter­ven­ing, steep, wooded slope, the pro­posed devel­op­ment will not impact on the SAC, or any pro­tec­ted spe­cies therein.

7. It is pro­posed to remove 9 trees from the site. How­ever, none of the exist­ing trees form part of the ancient wood­land invent­ory. Fur­ther­more, com­pens­at­ory plant­ing is pro­posed, which, once estab­lished, will res­ult in an over­all neg­li­gible change. How­ever, it should be noted that all com­pens­at­ory plant­ing should be imple­men­ted as per the sub­mit­ted plant­ing scheme, and that only nat­ive spe­cies are used.

8. Giv­en the loss of trees, there may be some hab­it­at destruc­tion and dis­turb­ance dur­ing the con­struc­tion peri­od. In order to min­im­ise any such dis­turb­ance to protected

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/04/2022

spe­cies, includ­ing birds and rep­tiles, and to com­ply with spe­cies pro­tec­tion legis­la­tion, any tree and ground clear­ance works should be under­taken out with the breed­ing birds sea­son (March to August inclus­ive) If this is not pos­sible, a pre- start breed­ing bird sur­vey should be car­ried out by a suit­ably qual­i­fied eco­lo­gist. Fur­ther­more, a sur­vey for rep­tiles should also be car­ried out, pri­or to works com­men­cing on site. The res­ults of the sur­veys should be used to inform a Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan, to be sub­mit­ted for the writ­ten approv­al of CNPA, before any tree, or ground clear­ing works, can commence.

1. Fur­ther­more, all pro­posed rep­tile and breed­ing bird mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures should be imple­men­ted as per the Exten­ded Phase I Hab­it­at Sur­vey and Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies Assess­ment. As recom­men­ded in the sub­mit­ted sur­vey and assess­ment, bird boxes, and bat boxes should be installed with­in the pro­posed devel­op­ment site, fol­low­ing the advice of a suit­ably qual­i­fied eco­lo­gist. All pro­posed tim­ber bound­ary fen­cing should incor­por­ate hedge­hog passing holes, so that the private garden ground of the pro­posed houses does not exclude, or trap hedgehogs.

2. CNPA Out­door Access Team have stated that the pro­posed devel­op­ment will not impact on pub­lic access, or recre­ation in the vicinity.

3. Kil­liecrankie and Fin­castle Com­munity Coun­cil have not made any com­ments regard­ing this application.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. There have been no rep­res­ent­a­tions sub­mit­ted in response to this application.

APPRAIS­AL

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

Prin­ciple of Development

1. Policy 1: New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sup­ports new hous­ing devel­op­ment only where it is loc­ated with­in an iden­ti­fied set­tle­ment bound­ary sub­ject to that devel­op­ment meet­ing the require­ments for the set­tle­ment and rein­for­cing and enhan­cing the char­ac­ter of the set­tle­ment. Fur­ther­more, hous­ing devel­op­ment should max­im­ise oppor­tun­it­ies for infill, con­ver­sion, small-scale devel­op­ment, and the redevel­op­ment or reuse of derel­ict and under­used land.

2. The pro­posed hous­ing devel­op­ment is small in scale and will provide 6 new dwell­ings on an exist­ing brown­field site, loc­ated with­in the defined set­tle­ment bound­ary of Kil­liecrankie. As a res­ult of the pro­pos­als, an area of vacant land will be brought back into use, which will enhance the char­ac­ter of the set­tle­ment. Fur­ther­more, the devel­op­ment will provide a wel­come addi­tion to the exist­ing, loc­al hous­ing stock.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/04/2022

1. Policy 1:5 Afford­able Hous­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 nor­mally seeks the pro­vi­sion of afford­able hous­ing with­in devel­op­ment schemes of at least 25% of the devel­op­ment. Devel­op­ments con­sist­ing of four or more dwell­ings should include pro­vi­sion for afford­able hous­ing. Developers seek­ing to nego­ti­ate a reduc­tion in afford­able hous­ing pro­vi­sion must demon­strate through a Viab­il­ity Assess­ment that the require­ments make an oth­er­wise com­mer­cially viable pro­pos­al unviable.

2. A com­muted sum for afford­able hous­ing on this site has already been paid by the applic­ant to Perth and Kinross Coun­cil under a pre­vi­ous applic­a­tion (ref­er­ence num­ber 07/02013/FLL). There is no change in the amount of con­tri­bu­tion required, and this con­tri­bu­tion there­fore has been car­ried for­ward to this application

3. On this basis, the prin­ciple of hous­ing on this site is con­sidered to be accept­able in terms of Policy 1: New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment, sub­ject to com­pli­ance with oth­er rel­ev­ant Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies.

Land­scape Impacts

1. 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.

2. The pro­posed devel­op­ment site at Kil­liecrankie is a former rail­way yard and has very few sens­it­ive fea­tures. As part of ground clear­ance works, it is pro­posed to remove nine trees, which will have a small impact on the land­scape of the site. How­ever, giv­en the cur­rent nature of the site, its former use, and the lack of land­scape char­ac­ter, the remov­al of the trees is not con­sidered to be an issue. Fur­ther­more, full com­pens­at­ory plant­ing is pro­posed, with nat­ive trees to be planted in the gar­dens of the new houses, includ­ing hazel and Scot’s pine. There are also areas of hawthorn based, mixed hedges pro­posed, includ­ing oth­er nat­ive spe­cies such as alder, cherry and black­thorn. There­fore, the pro­posed devel­op­ment, and asso­ci­ated plant­ing, will res­ult in an enhance­ment in the visu­al qual­ity of the land­scape of the site.

3. In light of the above, the pro­posed devel­op­ment will not intro­duce any not­able det­ri­ment­al changes to the land­scape char­ac­ter of the site and imme­di­ate area, and is, there­fore, con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 5: Land­scape, of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Lay­out, Sit­ing, Amen­ity, and Design

1. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that all devel­op­ments must be designed to be sym­path­et­ic to the tra­di­tion­al pat­tern and char­ac­ter of the sur­round­ing area, loc­al ver­nacu­lar and loc­al dis­tinct­ive­ness, whilst encour­aging innov­a­tion in design and use of mater­i­als. All mater­i­als and land­scap­ing should com­ple­ment the set­ting of the development.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/04/2022

1. The pro­posed lay­out includes access from the south­w­est which links to the B8079 and incor­por­ates a small turn­ing area with­in the site. The lay­out has 3 sets of 3‑bedroom, semi- detached blocks. Two of the semi-detached blocks are posi­tioned side by side, with the third block sit­ting adja­cent to the entrance to the site and the B8079. The prop­er­ties are all 1.5 storey in height and each unit has a floor area of 110 square metres. The pro­posed build­ings are of a tra­di­tion­al design and scale, sim­il­ar to nearby prop­er­ties and include a com­ple­ment­ary palette of mater­i­als of a slate roof, rendered walls and tim­ber clad­ding. The devel­op­ment is low dens­ity and each prop­erty has its own mod­est garden. Fur­ther­more, the sit­ing of the pro­posed dwell­ings are in keep­ing with the estab­lished set­tle­ment pat­tern of Kil­liecrankie vil­lage, with cot­tages arrayed either side of the rail­way line, main­tain­ing the char­ac­ter of the area. It is con­sidered that the pro­posed devel­op­ment will not detract from the char­ac­ter of the vil­lage or its visu­al amenity.

2. In terms of res­id­en­tial amen­ity Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to ensure that new devel­op­ment pro­tects the amen­ity cur­rently enjoyed by neigh­bours and affords suf­fi­cient private amen­ity ground and off-street park­ing. Each prop­erty will be set with­in reas­on­ably sized plots with suf­fi­cient dis­tance between them and exist­ing prop­er­ties and there are no win­dows pro­posed for any of the facing gables of the new houses to ensure there will be no issues of over­look­ing and loss of pri­vacy and an adequate level of amen­ity will be afforded to future occu­pants. Each dwell­ing has its own private garden and car park­ing pro­vi­sion. The pro­pos­al there­fore com­plies with Policy 3 in this respect.

3. Giv­en the loc­a­tion of the pro­posed hous­ing adja­cent to the rail­way line, there is the poten­tial for noise from rail traffic to affect future res­id­ents of this site. This being the case, a con­di­tion is recom­men­ded that win­dows of all hab­it­able rooms shall be fit­ted with glaz­ing and trickle/​mechanical vent­il­a­tion as doc­u­mented in the Noise Impact Assessment.

4. In terms of its lay­out, sit­ing and design, and sub­ject to the recom­men­ded con­di­tion, the pro­posed devel­op­ment will not have an adverse impact on the vil­lage of Kil­liecrankie and affords a sat­is­fact­ory level of amen­ity for both exist­ing and future occu­pants. The pro­pos­als are con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Envir­on­ment­al Impacts

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

2. It is con­sidered that the pro­pos­als will not have any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse eco­lo­gic­al impacts. Fur­ther­more, there are not any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse impacts on spe­cies of con­ser­va­tion con­cern. There are not any stat­utory or non-stat­utory nature des­ig­na­tions with­in the site bound­ary, though the Pass of Kil­liecrankie Spe­cial Site of Sci­entif­ic Interest (SSSI) is across the road to the west. The site is of lim­ited eco­lo­gic­al value, dom­in­ated by a hard stand­ing gravel sur­face with scrub and tall and non-ruder­al veget­a­tion around the mar­gins. Although, it is pro­posed to fell nine trees as part of works, com­pens­at­ory plant­ing of nine nat­ive trees and plant­ing two boundary

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 22/04/2022

hedgerows will reduce the impact for the loss of the trees, the loss of scrub and tall veget­a­tion for nest­ing birds.

1. Sub­ject to the mit­ig­a­tion pro­posed with the plan­ning applic­a­tion and con­tained in appro­pri­ately worded con­di­tions, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan

Ser­vi­cing and Access

1. Policy 10: Resources, of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sets out the need to fully con­sider impacts on flood­ing and water resources.

2. In this instance, there is suf­fi­cient capa­city at the Kil­liecrankie Water Treat­ment Works to ser­vice the pro­posed devel­op­ment. Regard­ing water con­nec­tions, the pro­pos­al would be con­nec­ted to the mains water in the area, and to which Scot­tish Water have no objections.

3. Sur­face water run-off from the site will be dealt with in accord­ance with cur­rent SuDS guidelines. The sur­face water from the indi­vidu­al roofs of the new dwell­ings will be taken to indi­vidu­al soakaways loc­ated in the garden ground of each dwell­ing- All down­pipes from the houses will be taken to this soakaway. All drive­ways with­in the plots will have a free drain­ing finish.

4. It is con­firmed that the site is not at risk of flood­ing from any source, nor will it impact on any neigh­bour­ing res­id­en­tial prop­er­ties in terms of flood­ing. There­fore, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

5. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that all new devel­op­ment must include an appro­pri­ate means of access, egress and space for off street parking.

6. The pro­posed devel­op­ment will be accessed from the south­w­est, via the B8079. A turn­ing head has been proposed