Item7AACairngormMountain20210112DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 14/05/2021

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED:

Recon­fig­ur­a­tion of exist­ing car park and pro­vi­sion of infra­struc­ture for camper van overnight facil­ity at Cairngorm Moun­tain Ciste Car Park, Glen­more, Aviemore High­land PH22 IRB

REF­ER­ENCE: 2021/0112/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Cairngorm Moun­tain (Scot­land) Limited

DATE CALLED-IN: 12 April 2021

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve sub­ject to conditions

CASE OFFICER: Stephanie Wade Plan­ning Officer

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CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Aa Applic­a­tion Site A N 0 25 50 100 Meters Ciste An t‑Aonach 550 ww ww 07 AAL CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 14/05/2021 A A Batha­ich Fionnd­ag عد الله 4 سلسل Coire Na Ciste Road ♡ ♡ سلاني 8 Car Park B 8 B B 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 B 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 9 8 Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2021. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber 100040965 Plaque Q B Pond 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 2

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 14/05/2021

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The applic­a­tion site is the Coire na Ciste car park loc­ated at approx­im­ately 570m AOD off the B970 access road to the main Cairngorm Moun­tain ski centre which lies to the south of the Coire na Ciste car park. The site is an exist­ing sur­faced car park which cur­rently has unres­tric­ted use by vari­ous users includ­ing walk­ers and motorhomes/​campervans both dur­ing the day and through­out the night.

2. The site lies out­with any des­ig­nated areas, although shares a bound­ary with the Glen­more Nation­al Nature Reserve. Oth­er des­ig­nated areas are loc­ated at approx­im­ately 0.2km north-west of the site. These include the Glen­more Forest SSSI, and the Cairngorms SPA.

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=QQXS4VSI0CH00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan			12/04/21
Plan — Pro­posed Site Plan			03/05/21
Plan — Sig­nage Plan			12/04/21
Plan — Cairngorms Estate Man­age­ment Zones			12/04/21
Plan — Bound­ary Plan			12/04/21
Plan — Single Neck Cesspool/​Sil­age Tank	DS0963P — 02.6 CP-SL	-	12/04/21
Oth­er — Vis­it­or Man­age­ment Plan		13/03/21	12/04/21

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

1. Plan­ning per­mis­sion is sought for the pro­vi­sion of overnight ser­viced park­ing facil­it­ies at the Coire na Ciste car park. The pro­pos­al includes the install­a­tion of fen­cing and entry points to segreg­ate the camper­van park­ing facil­ity from the oth­er mem­bers of the pub­lic park­ing area, togeth­er with sig­nage, a water sup­ply point, and chem­ic­al dis­pos­al point to a bur­ied stor­age tank for the camper­van waste. Pro­vi­sion for the stor­age and col­lec­tion of gen­er­al and recycled waste is also proposed.

2. Although the applic­a­tion title refers to ​“camper van” overnight facil­ity, the sup­port­ing doc­u­ments cla­ri­fy that this refers to motorhome users and camper­vans with cas­sette toi­lets. Camper­vans without toi­lets, cara­vans and tents will not be permitted.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 14/05/2021

1. Fol­low­ing the con­sulta­tion peri­od and in response to com­ments raised from con­sul­tees, a revised site plan has been sub­mit­ted redu­cing the num­ber of pro­posed berths from 68 to 50.

2. The applic­a­tion is sup­por­ted by the fol­low­ing documentation:

a) Vis­it­or Man­age­ment Plan- Demon­strates the rationale behind the applic­a­tion sub­mis­sion with graph­ic data evid­en­cing the overnight campervan/​motorhome usage of the Cairngorms car parks over a 6 year peri­od. The doc­u­ment ref­er­ences the demand for man­aged camper­van facil­it­ies to mit­ig­ate impacts on the wider area. The capa­city of the car park is pro­posed to be man­aged by a pre-book­ing sys­tem with a coded entrance to the camper­van facil­ity and daily checks by the CMSL employ­ees. Regard­ing park­ing for oth­er users of the area, a sep­ar­ate park­ing area is pro­posed with a capa­city for 56 cars.

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

His­tory

1. The most recent plan­ning applic­a­tion relat­ing to the imme­di­ate red line area of this applic­a­tion, dates to a plan­ning per­mis­sion gran­ted in Feb­ru­ary 2014 by the High­land Coun­cil for the ​“erec­tion of a stone Grouse Butt to cre­ate a shel­ter, inter­pret­a­tion board and dona­tion box in the Coire na Ciste car park” (High­land Coun­cil ref­er­ence: 13/04704/FUL).

2. Plan­ning per­mis­sion 2020/0076/DET is also of rel­ev­ance which gran­ted per­mis­sion for the works to the funicu­lar. With­in this per­mis­sion the west­ern side of the Coire na Ciste Car Park is to be used as a tem­por­ary com­pound for the heli­copter con­struc­tion activities.

3. With­in the wider land con­trolled by the applic­ant, there have been numer­ous plan­ning applic­a­tions relat­ing to the oper­a­tion of the ski centre.

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

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

2. The apprais­al con­cludes that provid­ing the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures are imple­men­ted for the devel­op­ment, then the con­ser­va­tion object­ives will be met and there­fore there will not be an adverse effect on site integ­rity for the Cairngorms SPA. The mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures to min­im­ise the poten­tial for effects caused by dis­turb­ance to caper­cail­lie are:

a) Peri­met­er post and rail fence as marked on the site lay­out plan to be in place pri­or to the car park being used for booked overnight motorhome stays, and main­tained in per­petu­ity while the motorhome overnight park­ing is in oper­a­tion. Inter­pret­a­tion pan­els with inform­a­tion about the sens­it­ive eco­logy of the area and

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 14/05/2021

pro­mot­ing walk­ing routes that can be accessed from the pro­posed motorhome overnight park­ing area to be in place pri­or to the car park being used for booked overnight motorhome stays, b) Online inform­a­tion to be in place on the book­ing site and Cairngorm Moun­tain web­site about the sens­it­ive eco­logy of the area and pro­mot­ing walk­ing routes that can be accessed from the pro­posed motorhome overnight park­ing area to be in place pri­or to the car park being used for booked overnight motorhome stays.

1. The mit­ig­a­tion is required to raise aware­ness and encour­age respons­ible beha­viour by users of the overnight park­ing, and to pro­mote use of less sens­it­ive routes access­ible from the park­ing area, there­fore min­im­ising the poten­tial for dis­turb­ance likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects on caper­cail­lie in the Cairngorms SPA and to dis­cour­age people from under­tak­ing off path activ­it­ies or increas­ing use of routes con­nec­ted to sens­it­ive habitat.

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
POLICY 2	SUP­PORT­ING ECO­NOM­IC GROWTH	X
POLICY 3	SUS­TAIN­ABLE DESIGN	X
POLICY 4	NAT­UR­AL HERITAGE	X
POLICY 5	LAND­SCAPE	X
POLICY 6	THE SIT­ING AND DESIGN OF DIGITAL
COM­MU­NIC­A­TIONS EQUIPMENT
POLICY 7	RENEW­ABLE ENERGY
POLICY 8	SPORT AND RECREATION
POLICY 9	CUL­TUR­AL HERITAGE
POLICY 10	RESOURCES	X
POLICY 11	DEVELOPER CON­TRI­BU­TIONS	X

1. All new devel­op­ment pro­pos­als require to be assessed in rela­tion to policies con­tained in the adop­ted 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.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 14/05/2021

Policy I	New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance (2015)
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
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
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. High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team has no objec­tions to the pro­pos­al sub­ject to the inclu­sion of a plan­ning con­di­tion regard­ing the pri­or agree­ment and imple­ment­a­tion of the required vis­ib­il­ity splays before the first oper­a­tion of the development.

2. High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team has no con­cerns regard­ing flood risk at this loc­a­tion. They are also sat­is­fied that there will be no change to the pre-devel­op­ment sur­face water run­off rates as there is no increase in hard­stand­ing. On this basis the Team has no objections.

3. High­land Coun­cil Envir­on­ment­al Health Officer has no objec­tions to the applic­a­tion not­ing that the site is inten­ded for the pro­vi­sion of overnight park­ing of camper­vans and motorhomes and not as a hol­i­day des­tin­a­tion. How­ever, it would still fall with­in the defin­i­tion of a cara­van site and would require to be licensed as such.

4. CNPA Eco­logy Officer con­firms that the pro­pos­al to recon­fig­ure the exist­ing car park will not cre­ate any addi­tion­al hab­it­at loss.

5. Regard­ing the des­ig­nated sites, an Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al has been under­taken which con­firms that there will not be an adverse effect on the site integ­rity of the Cairngorms Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area sub­ject to the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures as out­lined with­in the HRA being implemented.

6. CNPA Land­scape Officer com­men­ted on the scheme as ori­gin­ally sub­mit­ted not­ing that the land­scape char­ac­ter, visu­al amen­ity and SLQs of the area of the pro­posed devel­op­ment are very sens­it­ive, primar­ily because the site is loc­ated part- way up the side of Cairngorm Moun­tain (approx. 550m AOD). In this spe­cif­ic case, how­ever, the exist­ing ski centre car park already res­ults in adverse land­scape and visu­al effects and these form part of the baseline con­di­tions. As a con­sequence, the key issues raised by the pro­posed devel­op­ment are how and by what degree this would res­ult in addi­tion­al adverse land­scape and visu­al effects. Key factors in this regard include: the num­ber of motorhomes which would use the facil­ity; the extent and loc­a­tion of the motorhomes on the site in rela­tion to the loc­al land­scape character

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 14/05/2021

(par­tic­u­larly topo­graphy) and vis­ib­il­ity of these; and how the pro­pos­al would affect use of the exist­ing car park by the gen­er­al pub­lic (includ­ing those with lim­ited mobil­ity) to exper­i­ence the CNP landscape.

1. The Officer sug­ges­ted mit­ig­a­tion of the pre­dicted land­scape and visu­al effects of the pro­pos­al, of a reduced num­ber and extent of motorhome park­ing on the site, retain­ing pub­lic park­ing and access to view­points along the north­ern edge of the car park in the west, and asso­ci­ated ele­ments such as bar­ri­ers and signs are designed to relate to the dis­tinct land­scape char­ac­ter of the area. It will also be import­ant to avoid or min­im­ise the effects of light­ing (both site light­ing and vehicle lights).

2. The effects of the pro­pos­al will depend on the detailed con­struc­tion, man­age­ment and main­ten­ance of the site and it is advised that fur­ther inform­a­tion and/​or con­trols are provided on these aspects.

3. In response to these com­ments, the applic­a­tion details have been amended to reduce capa­city to 50 motorhomes and con­fine the overnight facil­ity to the east­ern side of the site.

4. Aviemore and Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil have no provided any form­al com­ments on the scheme.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. The applic­a­tion was advert­ised when first sub­mit­ted and is still live at the time of com­pos­ing this report. Any addi­tion­al let­ters of con­sulta­tion received dur­ing the remainder of the con­sulta­tion peri­od will be verbally repor­ted to com­mit­tee mem­bers. At the time of writ­ing this report, a total of three dif­fer­ent respond­ents have provided com­ments. One mem­ber of the pub­lic notes their sup­port for the scheme, one mem­ber of the pub­lic notes their objec­tion and one has provided gen­er­al com­ments. A copy of their full responses can be found at Appendix 3.

2. Regard­ing the let­ter of sup­port, the respond­ent states that the pro­pos­al would reg­u­lar­ise a situ­ation which has been occur­ring on an ad hoc basis for many years and the pro­pos­al would have little effect on any com­mer­cial sites in the val­ley. The respond­ent wel­comes the pro­vi­sion of a chem­ic­al dis­pos­al point.

3. Regard­ing the let­ter of con­cern, the respond­ent states that there are enough camp sites around the area and the applic­a­tion site is an over­flow car park to the main site which would inhib­it its use and walk­ers and ski­ers alike.

4. Regard­ing the let­ter of gen­er­al com­ments, the respond­ent con­siders that stayc­a­tion 2021 is like to mim­ic that seen in stayc­a­tion 2020 which saw a massive increase in the pur­chas­ing and hir­ing of motorhomes and camper­vans due to the Cov­id-19 restric­tions. The respond­ent iden­ti­fies that the pro­pos­al will only be oper­a­tion­al from May to 31^st Octo­ber which would have no impact on any ski­ing season.

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APPRAIS­AL CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 14/05/2021

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

Prin­ciple of Development

1. Policy 2.3: Oth­er tour­ism and leis­ure devel­op­ments of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 per­mits devel­op­ment which enhances form­al and inform­al recre­ation and leis­ure facil­it­ies; tour­ism and leis­ure-based busi­ness activ­it­ies and attrac­tions; and improved oppor­tun­it­ies for respons­ible out­door access will be sup­por­ted where:

a) it has no adverse envir­on­ment­al or amen­ity impacts on the site or neigh­bour­ing areas; and b) it makes a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the exper­i­ence of vis­it­ors; and c) it sup­ports or con­trib­utes to a year-round economy

1. This applic­a­tion for tour­ism facil­it­ies looks to address the lack of suit­able motorhome waste dis­pos­al facil­it­ies to improve the man­age­ment and ease the grow­ing pres­sure from camper­vans with­in the wider areas, which is anti­cip­ated to fur­ther increase by Cov­id-related hol­i­day pat­terns. The pro­pos­al util­ising an exist­ing car park at Coire na Ciste, and being in response to an emer­ging demand, is con­sidered pro­por­tion­ate to the loc­a­tion. By provid­ing ded­ic­ated and sus­tain­able waste dis­pos­al options to camper­van vis­it­ors, the facil­ity may be seen as attract­ive to vis­it­ors and com­pli­ment­ary to the exist­ing facil­ity, encour­aging a ded­ic­ated facil­ity for overnight stays in camper­vans whilst also assist­ing in avoid­ance of unman­aged waste dis­pos­al in the loc­al environment.

2. The form­al­ised use of the exist­ing car park addresses an exist­ing and increas­ing vis­it­or pres­sure in a quick and effi­cient way. How­ever, the site will be a new facil­ity in an exposed loc­a­tion. It is dif­fi­cult to pre­dict the use of the facil­ity over its open­ing months, or to assess the level of use or poten­tial beha­viour of people stay­ing there. For this reas­on officers con­sider that the peri­od for the con­sent should be lim­ited to a peri­od of three years in order that the suc­cess of the site and its vis­it­or man­age­ment arrange­ments can be reviewed and a future applic­a­tion for per­man­ent use can provide fur­ther screen­ing of the vehicles, improve­ments to the visu­al amen­ity of the site, and if required, incor­por­ate fur­ther vis­it­or man­age­ment needed to main­tain it suc­cess­fully in the longer term.

3. On this basis, the prin­ciple is con­sidered to accord with Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sub­ject to com­pli­ance with oth­er rel­ev­ant Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies and a con­di­tion lim­it­ing the dur­a­tion of the consent.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 14/05/2021

Land­scape Impacts, Sit­ing and Design

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 CNPA Land­scape Officer high­lights that the land­scape char­ac­ter, visu­al amen­ity and SLQs of the area of the pro­posed devel­op­ment are very sens­it­ive, primar­ily because the site is loc­ated part-way up the side of Cairngorm Moun­tain (approx. 550m AOD. The Officer notes that the key factors in this regard include: the num­ber of motorhomes which would use the facil­ity; the extent and loc­a­tion of the motorhomes on the site in rela­tion to the loc­al land­scape char­ac­ter (par­tic­u­larly topo­graphy) and vis­ib­il­ity of these; and how the pro­pos­al would affect use of the exist­ing car park by the gen­er­al pub­lic (includ­ing those with lim­ited mobil­ity) to exper­i­ence the CNP landscape.

3. To mit­ig­ate the pre­dicted land­scape and visu­al effects of the pro­pos­al, the Officer advised that the scheme was mod­i­fied to reduce the num­ber and extent of motorhome park­ing on the site, retain pub­lic park­ing and access to view­points along the north­ern edge of the car park in the west, and asso­ci­ated ele­ments such as bar­ri­ers and signs are designed to relate to the dis­tinct land­scape char­ac­ter of the area. The applic­a­tion details have sub­sequently been amended by the applic­ant to con­fine the camper­vans into the east­ern end of the exist­ing car park which is con­sidered to have the greatest capa­city of the site to accom­mod­ate the pro­pos­al. This also allows for more avail­ab­il­ity with­in the exist­ing car park­ing for any cas­u­al vis­it­ors wish­ing to stop near the north of the site to enjoy the views and once the tem­por­ary com­pound has been removed for the applic­a­tion 2020/0076/DET, more of the car park will again be avail­able for cas­u­al vis­it­ors. The amended plans show a reduc­tion in the capa­city of the camper­vans to 50 berths which is con­sidered to have a bet­ter land­scape impact at full capa­city than that ori­gin­ally submitted.

4. The pro­pos­al does not include any pro­vi­sion of light infra­struc­ture with­in the site and any light­ing man­age­ment required in rela­tion to the camper­vans them­selves will be con­trolled by the camper­van site licen­cing through High­land Coun­cil. Should the require­ment for light­ing change dur­ing the oper­a­tion of the facil­ity, a plan­ning con­di­tion is recom­men­ded to be attached to any decision notice to allow the full con­sid­er­a­tion of such details at any giv­en time dur­ing the con­sent. Non­ethe­less, the oper­a­tion of the site between May and Octo­ber means that the night time light­ing of vehicles will be out­side the darkest peri­ods of the year when they would be most visible

5. The devel­op­ment com­pon­ents would not intro­duce any not­able det­ri­ment­al change to the char­ac­ter of the site and imme­di­ate area, and sub­ject to the con­di­tions being included, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 14/05/2021

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 whilst Policy 10: Resources sets out the need to fully con­sider impacts on flood­ing and water resources.

2. The pro­pos­al is to recon­fig­ure the exist­ing car park to form­al­ise camper­van park­ing and provide a wastewa­ter dis­pos­al point and rub­bish recyc­ling facil­ity. There will no addi­tion­al hab­it­at loss as it is not pro­posed to increase the size of the car park. Regard­ing the impact of the pro­pos­al on des­ig­nated sites, an Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al has been under­taken (Appendix 2) which con­cludes that site integ­rity of the Cairngorms Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area will not be affected by the pro­pos­al sub­ject to the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures being imple­men­ted. These mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures include the need for some addi­tion­al detail in the vis­it­or man­age­ment plan to ensure people stay­ing at the site are dir­ec­ted to the appro­pri­ate exist­ing paths. It is recom­men­ded that plan­ning con­di­tions are attached to any sub­sequent decision notice to ensure this, and on this basis the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to accord with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

3. Regard­ing oth­er envir­on­ment­al mat­ters, 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. The pro­pos­al is there­fore con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Ser­vi­cing and Access

1. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sets out the need for new devel­op­ment to be sat­is­fact­or­ily ser­viced and without harm to resources or the environment.

2. It is pro­posed to install an under­ground, sealed tank for the col­lec­tion of the chem­ic­al waste from the camper­vans, with no efflu­ent out­fall. The risk of envir­on­ment­al pol­lu­tion is low, and the tank will be reg­u­larly emp­tied and dis­posed of off-site through the use of a spe­cial­ist waste dis­pos­al com­pany. The pro­pos­al for stor­age and remov­al of this waste, as out­lined under recently issued SEPA, Scot­tish Water and High­land Coun­cil Guid­ance ​‘Camper­van and motorhome waste dis­pos­al – A guide for inde­pend­ent devel­op­ment’ is con­sidered to be accept­able. In terms of sur­face water drain­age, the site is cur­rently sur­faced in per­meable mater­i­als (com­pacted gravel) and no pro­pos­als for tar­ring or oth­er­wise resur­fa­cing are presen­ted. There are no anti­cip­ated issues in respect of sur­face water man­age­ment as no new large struc­tures or imper­meable sur­fa­cing is pro­posed. This is to be secured by con­di­tion for the avoid­ance of doubt.

3. 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

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 14/05/2021

1. The car park has estab­lished access from the pub­lic road and the pro­pos­al looks to provide a more form­al­ised access point to the car park­ing area and the pro­posed camper­van overnight area. The pro­pos­al looks to provide 50 camper­van ser­vice bays and waste dis­pos­al point to the far east­ern side of the car park and a ded­ic­ated 56 space park­ing area to the south of the car park for oth­er road users. Once the tem­por­ary funicu­lar com­pound is removed from the west­ern side of the car park, then this provides fur­ther park­ing spaces once again. The access bene­fits from clear vis­ib­il­ity in both dir­ec­tions. The car park­ing area is a com­bin­a­tion of tar areas and aggreg­ate and no changes are pro­posed to that exist­ing. High­land Council’s trans­port plan­ning team has no objec­tion to the pro­pos­al sub­ject to the inclu­sion of a plan­ning con­di­tion to ensure the required vis­ib­il­ity splays for the access are imple­men­ted. The exist­ing park­ing and cir­cu­la­tion space is suf­fi­cient to accom­mod­ate the devel­op­ment and the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to accord with Policy 3: Design and Sus­tain­able Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

2. High­land Coun­cil Envir­on­ment­al Health Officer has no objec­tions to the applic­a­tion not­ing that the site is inten­ded for the pro­vi­sion of overnight park­ing of camper­vans and motorhomes and not as a hol­i­day des­tin­a­tion. How­ever, it would still fall with­in the defin­i­tion of a cara­van site and would require to be licensed as such through the Council.

3. On this over­all basis the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 with regards to its ser­vi­cing and access.

Amen­ity

1. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to ensure that new devel­op­ment pro­tects amen­ity cur­rently enjoyed by neigh­bour­ing occu­pants to devel­op­ment sites.

2. There are no dwell­ings near to the pro­pos­al. Chem­ic­al treat­ments to cas­sette toi­lets typ­ic­ally used in camper­vans serve to break down solids and reduce odours which, which con­sidered along with the bur­ied waste stor­age tank and lid­ded chem­ic­al toi­let dis­pos­al unit to be man­aged by the applic­ants with licenced pro­viders, and no sens­it­ive recept­ors nearby, would avoid unac­cept­able det­ri­ment­al impacts upon private or com­munity amen­ity from odour.

3. The pro­posed reduced num­ber of overnight camper­van pitches, in a reduced area of an exist­ing, large car park, would not intro­duce an unac­cept­able level of addi­tion­al activ­ity to the area. Tak­ing this into account, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to accord with the amen­ity require­ments of Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Developer Con­tri­bu­tions

1. Policy 11: Developer Oblig­a­tions of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that where devel­op­ment cre­ates a need to increase or improve pub­lic ser­vices, facil­it­ies or infra­struc­ture, or mit­ig­ate adverse effects, the

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 14/05/2021

developer will be required to make a fair and reas­on­able con­tri­bu­tion in cash or in kind towards addi­tion­al costs or require­ments. The pro­pos­al does not give rise to the require­ment of any developer contribution.

Oth­er Issues Raised in Con­sulta­tions and Representations

1. All mat­ters raised by con­sul­tees and third parties have been addressed above. No com­ments have been received from the Com­munity Coun­cil on this occa­sion. It is noted that the pub­lic com­ments received to date include com­ments of sup­port. One let­ter of objec­tion has been received which raises con­cern regard­ing the impact of the pro­pos­al on the use of the car park for ski­er and walk­ers. It is noted that the oper­a­tion of the overnight camper­van facil­ity is between May and Octo­ber (inclus­ive) and there­fore would not con­tin­ue with­in the ski sea­son. It is also noted that the com­pound for the funicu­lar is tem­por­ary in nature and will free up even fur­ther park­ing spaces upon its removal.

Dur­a­tion of Consent

1. The applic­a­tion sub­mit­ted seeks the grant­ing of a per­man­ent con­sent. The form­al­ised use of the exist­ing car park addresses an exist­ing and increas­ing vis­it­or pres­sure in a quick and effi­cient way. How­ever, the site will be a sig­ni­fic­ant new facil­ity in an exposed loc­a­tion, unlike most oth­er camper van sites in Scot­land. It is dif­fi­cult to pre­dict the use of the facil­ity over its open­ing months.

2. For this reas­on officers con­sider that the peri­od for the con­sent should be lim­ited to a peri­od of three years in order that the suc­cess of the site and its vis­it­or man­age­ment arrange­ments. A future pro­pos­al for a per­man­ent site can review the num­ber of berths that are most appro­pri­ate giv­en the use of the form­al­ised site and the wider camper van use of Glen­more, can review the vis­it­or man­age­ment arrange­ments, and can intro­duce screen­ing and visu­al improve­ments to the site to make it a more pleas­ant loc­a­tion to stay and to reduce its visu­al impact in the long term.

3. The applic­ant has been made aware of officers’ inten­tion to recom­mend a three year dur­a­tion to the use and has accep­ted that con­di­tion. They are con­fid­ent that the pro­ject will be a suc­cess so anti­cip­ate mak­ing a fur­ther applic­a­tion in future for a per­man­ent facil­ity in the con­text of a longer term mas­ter­plan for the Cairngorm that will be pub­lished by High­land and Islands Enter­prise in the com­ing months.

CON­CLU­SION

1. The applic­a­tion for tour­ism facil­it­ies looks to address the lack of suit­able motorhome waste dis­pos­al facil­it­ies to improve the man­age­ment and ease the grow­ing pres­sure from camper­vans with­in the wider areas, which is anti­cip­ated to fur­ther increase by Cov­id-related hol­i­day pat­terns. The pro­pos­al util­ises an exist­ing car park and does not intro­duce any phys­ic­al changes, which would res­ult in any addi­tion­al hab­it­at loss. Sub­ject to the inclu­sion of the plan­ning con­di­tions in addi­tion to the cre­ation of a tem­por­ary con­sent, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to accord with the rel­ev­ant local

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 14/05/2021

devel­op­ment plan policies of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 and approv­al is there­fore recommended.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to Approve the Recon­fig­ur­a­tion of exist­ing car park and pro­vi­sion of infra­struc­ture for camper van overnight facil­ity at Cairngorm Moun­tain Ciste Car Park Glen­more Aviemore High­land PH22 IRB 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 on site until a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment (CMS) and pro­gramme of works has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. The CMS shall include, but not be lim­ited to: a) The approach to site pre­par­a­tion, soils man­age­ment, res­tor­a­tion and rein­state­ment; b) Con­struc­tion pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion meas­ures; c) Pro­gramme of works; The con­struc­tion of the devel­op­ment shall there­after be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the approved details. Reas­on: The works are to be under­taken in an envir­on­ment­ally sens­it­ive area. It is there­fore neces­sary for a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment to be agreed pri­or to the com­mence­ment of any works to ensure that work on site pro­ceeds without dam­age to the envir­on­ment in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

2. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a Vis­it­or Man­age­ment Plan has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. The works shall there­after be under­taken in strict accord­ance with the details and imple­men­ted in full pri­or to the first oper­a­tion of the devel­op­ment. The doc­u­ment shall include but not be lim­ited to: a) Details, includ­ing loc­a­tion of, the inter­pret­a­tion pan­els to be installed on site, which should include inform­a­tion high­light­ing the sens­it­ive nature of the area and pro­mot­ing the walk­ing routes from the sites; the pan­els are to be erec­ted pri­or to the first oper­a­tion of the site; b) Details, includ­ing loc­a­tion of, the pro­posed sig­nage to identi­fy the pro­moted paths; c) Details of the online inform­a­tion to be in place on the book­ing site and Cairngorm Moun­tain web­site about the sens­it­ive eco­logy of the area

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 14/05/2021

and pro­mot­ing walk­ing routes that can be accessed from the pro­posed motorhome overnight park­ing area; Reas­on: To raise aware­ness and encour­age respons­ible beha­viour by users of the overnight park­ing, and to pro­mote use of less sens­it­ive routes access­ible from the park­ing area, there­fore min­im­ising the poten­tial for dis­turb­ance likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects on caper­cail­lie in the Cairngorms SPA in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a revised site lay­out plan and revised bound­ary treat­ment plan have been sub­mit­ted to and agreed in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. The revised plans shall include: a) Details of the bound­ary treatment/​barriers to con­tain the camper­van facil­ity with­in the east­ern site area only, with details of the bar­ri­ers to segreg­ate the facil­ity from the remain­ing car­park­ing area to the west; b) Details of the meth­ods to be used to mark the alloc­ated camper­van berths on site; The devel­op­ment shall there­after pro­ceed in accord­ance with the approved details with the bound­ary treat­ments imple­men­ted pri­or to the first oper­a­tion of the devel­op­ment and main­tained for the dur­a­tion of the plan­ning con­sent. Reas­on: To dis­cour­age people from under­tak­ing off path activ­it­ies or increas­ing use of routes con­nec­ted to sens­it­ive hab­it­at, there­fore min­im­ising the poten­tial for dis­turb­ance likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects on caper­cail­lie in the Cairngorms SPA and to lim­it the visu­al impact of the devel­op­ment in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

2. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until details, includ­ing plans, of the vis­ib­il­ity splays from the access onto the C1126 road has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. The details shall show vis­ib­il­ity splays with an X dis­tance of 2.4 metres and a Y dis­tance of 160 metres being provided and there­after, the devel­op­ment shall pro­ceed in accord­ance with the approved details and imple­men­ted pri­or to the first oper­a­tion of the devel­op­ment. Reas­on: In the interests of road safety in accord­ance with Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

3. Plan­ning per­mis­sion is hereby gran­ted for a tem­por­ary peri­od only and shall cease to have effect from three years of the date of this con­sent (the ​‘ces­sa­tion date’). Pri­or to the ces­sa­tion date, the applic­a­tion site shall be cleared of all devel­op­ment approved under the terms of this per­mis­sion (includ­ing any sub­sequent ancil­lary works, infra­struc­ture, fix­tures, fit­tings and any tem­por­ary devel­op­ment per­mit­ted under Class

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 14/05/2021

6. 7.

8.

9. 14 of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Gen­er­al Per­mit­ted Devel­op­ment) (Scot­land) Order 1992, (as amended)) and rein­stated in accord­ance to its con­di­tion pri­or to the install­a­tion and use as an overnight camper­van facil­ity on the site. Reas­on: In order to allow the applic­ant to mon­it­or the suc­cess of the pro­ject and the vis­it­or man­age­ment meas­ures due to the nature of the applic­a­tion being in response to an emer­ging demand and in recog­ni­tion of the tem­por­ary nature of the pro­posed devel­op­ment, to enable the plan­ning author­ity to reas­sess the impact of the pro­posed devel­op­ment after a giv­en peri­od of time in accord­ance with Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. No more than 50 camper­van berths shall occupy the red line applic­a­tion site area at any one time. Reas­on: To con­firm the terms of the plan­ning per­mis­sion in the interests of the nature and char­ac­ter of vehicles attrac­ted to the site and the char­ac­ter and appear­ance of the land­scape in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. The camper­van overnight facil­ity hereby approved shall not oper­ate between the months of Novem­ber to April inclus­ive. Reas­on: To reduce the proposal’s impact on the eco­lo­gic­al sens­it­iv­it­ies of the area and to ensure safe oper­a­tion of the devel­op­ment due to its loc­a­tion in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. The devel­op­ment, hereby per­mit­ted shall not be extern­ally lit unless the spe­cific­a­tion of the light­ing has been sub­mit­ted to and agreed in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. The light­ing shall accord with the approved details there­after. Reas­on: To pro­tect the eco­lo­gic­al interests of the area and lim­it the visu­al impact of the pro­pos­al in accord­ance with Policies 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. For the avoid­ance of doubt, the vehicle park­ing areas with­in the site shall be sur­faced in a per­meable mater­i­al unless design and pro­vi­sion of a Sur­face Water Drain­age Sys­tem (SuDS) suf­fi­cient to man­age run­off from all imper­meable areas so that no sur­face water run­off leaves the site, has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity and there­after imple­men­ted in accord­ance with those details. Reas­on: To ensure that any sur­face water drain­age require­ment com­plies with the prin­ciples of SUDS; in order to pro­tect the water envir­on­ment in accordance