Item7AAMillAndHousingHillockhead20210069DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 25/06/2021

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED:

Con­ver­sion Alter­a­tions and Exten­sion of Mill (to form Short Term Let­ting Accom­mod­a­tion) Erec­tion of 3 Dwell­ing­houses (Short Term Let­ting Accom­mod­a­tion) and Erec­tion of Multi use Build­ing at Hil­lock­head Glendeskry Strath­don Aber­deen­shire AB36 8XL

REF­ER­ENCE: 2021/0069/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Mr Steph­en Campbell

DATE CALLED-IN: 8 March 2021

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: APPROVE WITH CONDITIONS

CASE OFFICER: Katie Crerar, Plan­ning Officer

CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site 0 40 80 N 160 Meters Willy­duke 木 Hil­lock­head 350 Balachailach 331 Spr Fog­gie A 330 Hib­lock­head Sks 376m Bal­lachail­loch Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2021. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber 100040965 375m 366m 360m Drain CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 25/06/2021 2 358m

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 25/06/2021

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The applic­a­tion site lies adja­cent to Hil­lock­head Farm­house, approx­im­ately 5 miles by road to the south-east of Strath­don, Aber­deen­shire. The devel­op­ment site itself lies on an elev­ated south east facing land­form shelf over­look­ing the road to the south east. It is an agri­cul­tur­al area in between wood­land to the north and large scale moor­land hills to the south and south east. The site com­prises the empty and par­tially ruin­ous former agri­cul­tur­al build­ings which are sur­roun­ded by grass and a few dis­persed trees. There is an exist­ing access track to the south west of the site which leads up to the exist­ing biomass/​greenhouse build­ing and then onto the vacant steadings.

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=QPE7QFSI0CH0 0

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan	2028-038 P05	01/02/21	08/03/21
Plan — Site Plan	2028-03 POI	01/02/21	08/03/21
Plan Site Sections	2028 – 038_P05	01/02/21	08/03/21
Plan — Stable — Exist­ing floor plans, sec­tions and elevations	2018-038 S02	01/03/19	08/03/21
Plan — Exist­ing floor plans, sec­tions and elevations	2018-038 S03	01/03/19	08/03/21
Plan — Stable — Plans, elev­a­tions and sections	2028-038 P04	01/02/21	08/03/21
Plan — The Byre — Plans, elev­a­tions and sections	2028 – 038_P03	01/02/21	08/03/21
Plan — The Mill — Plans, elev­a­tions and sections	2028-038 P02	01/02/21	08/03/21
Oth­er — Design Statement		01/02/21	08/03/21
Oth­er — Bat Survey		01/02/21	08/03/21
Oth­er — Con­tam­in­ated Land Sur­vey Form		22/03/21	26/03/21

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

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 25/06/2021

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

2. The pro­pos­al is for the con­ver­sion, alter­a­tion and exten­sion of three exist­ing redund­ant stead­ings to form four hol­i­day lets and a multi-use build­ing (See Appendix 2 Site Plan).

3. The Stable build­ing com­prises the main stable with the adjoin­ing ​‘Wee Cartie Shed’ on its south west­ern elev­a­tion and the ​‘Cruik House’ on the north­ern elev­a­tion. The Stable is the biggest of the three stead­ings and will be demol­ished and re-built on the exist­ing foot­print to form two hol­i­day units one three bed unit over two floors and a one bed ground floor unit (See Appendix I: The Stable plans, elev­a­tions and sec­tions). The new devel­op­ment will util­ise the stone to reform new walls on the south east­ern (front) facing elev­a­tion and south west gable end (of the Wee Cartie Shed) whilst incor­por­at­ing a num­ber of full height win­dows for light and views. The stable will be re-built in a sim­il­ar tra­di­tion­al pitched roof form with a rear exten­sion to the stable to provide two floors. The rear of the Stable will com­prise a gently slop­ing roof and will be fin­ished in blackened tim­ber clad­ding. The Stable and ​‘Wee Cartie Shed’ will have a red pro­filed sheet­ing roof with six front facing roof/​Velux style win­dows. All win­dows and doors will be tim­ber framed.

4. The adjoin­ing ​‘Cruik House’ will be rebuilt to house a multi-pur­pose area which will be a single open space (384m²) with toi­lets and a store at the rear. It will com­prise a cruck framed struc­ture with full height glaz­ing between the frames on the south east and north east elev­a­tions and a light­weight sedum green roof. It will have a low stone rubble walling around the peri­met­er to reflect the exist­ing ruin and the rear of the build­ing will be fin­ished in blacked timber.

5. The Byre lies to the north of the Stable build­ings and will also be demol­ished and reformed using the down­tak­ings from the ori­gin­al build­ing. The Byre will be rebuilt with a tim­ber clad, flat roofed, glass fron­ted link on its east­ern elev­a­tion which con­nects to a new blackened tim­ber clad exten­sion mir­ror­ing the ori­gin­al stead­ing. The ori­gin­al stead­ing will have a red pro­file sheet­ing roof whilst the new tim­ber clad stead­ing will have a black pro­file sheet­ing roof. This will cre­ate a three bed­room hol­i­day unit (See Appendix I: The Byre plans, elev­a­tions and sec­tions).

6. The Horse Mill to the north of the Byre and Stable will be ren­ov­ated to provide a two bed­room hol­i­day unit. The stone walling is to be retained (and re-poin­ted) with new open­ings formed to cre­ate accesses and win­dows. It will be fin­ished with a new slate rood and tim­ber framed doors and win­dows. A tim­ber clad exten­sion will be added to the west­ern elev­a­tion of the build­ing to provide a bed­room. This addi­tion will be fin­ished in blackened tim­ber clad­ding and a black pro­filed sheet­ing roof (with three roof/​velux style win­dows) (See Appendix 1: The Horse Mill plans, elev­a­tions and sec­tions).

7. All the build­ings will be built using high per­form­ance insu­la­tion and will be heated by the exist­ing bio­mass boil­er sys­tem which has suf­fi­cient capa­city to serve the devel­op­ment provid­ing dis­trict heating.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 25/06/2021

1. Access to the devel­op­ment is via an exist­ing track to the south west of the devel­op­ment. Park­ing (9 spaces) for the hol­i­day units will be provided adja­cent to the Byre and Horse Mill build­ings, just north of the Stable build­ing. Addi­tion­al park­ing can be accom­mod­ated on the site to the north of the exist­ing Bio­mass shed/​greenhouse.

2. In terms of drain­age, a soakaway is pro­posed for the devel­op­ment although the details will be con­firmed through conditions.

His­tory

1. Plan­ning per­mis­sion was gran­ted for an exten­sion to the main dwell­ing­house at Hil­lock­head which whilst it lies with­in the applic­a­tion site, does not form part of the pro­pos­al (APP/2005/1536). In addi­tion, per­mis­sion was more recently gran­ted for the erec­tion of an agri­cul­tur­al build­ing with a glass­house, boil­er room, wood­chip hop­per and stor­age area (APP/2013/2659) (iden­ti­fied as Bio­mas shed on the site plan).

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

Oth­er rel­ev­ant loc­al policies are (delete if not applicable)

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 25/06/2021

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)
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	Open Space, Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 11	Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance (2015)

CON­SULTA­TIONS

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

2. Roads (Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil) noted that the devel­op­ment must be accessed by a single entry and the exist­ing vis­ib­il­ity splay should be cleared of shrub­bery to ensure min­im­um vis­ib­il­ity splay is achieved. They reques­ted the fol­low­ing con­di­tions and informatives:

a) The max­im­um gradi­ent of the first 5m of the new access must not exceed I in 20 b) Pri­or to occu­pancy of devel­op­ment, first 5 of access (meas­ured from the edge of road or back of foot­way) to be fully paved c) Pri­or to occu­pancy of devel­op­ment, off-street park­ing for 9 cars, sur­faced in hard stand­ing mater­i­als must be provided with­in the site d) Pri­or to com­mence­ment of devel­op­ment, a lay-by meas­ur­ing 8m x 2.5m with 45° splays to be formed on front­age of the site and the pro­posed vehicu­lar access to be taken via this. Con­struc­tion shall be to a stand­ard appro­pri­ate to the loc­a­tion & must be agreed in advance with Roads Devel­op­ment. e) Pri­or to com­mence­ment of devel­op­ment, vis­ib­il­ity splays, meas­ur­ing 2.4m by 45m splays to be formed on either side of the junc­tion of the vehicu­lar access with the pub­lic road. The vis­ib­il­ity splays so formed shall there­after be kept free of all per­man­ent obstruc­tions above adja­cent car­riage­way level. f) Pri­or to occu­pancy of devel­op­ment a refuse bin uplift store area shall be con­struc­ted (behind any vis­ib­il­ity splay) so as to be access­ible for bin uplift & shall be secure enough to pre­vent empty bins from being wind blown. Details must be sub­mit­ted to Roads Devel­op­ment for approv­al. g) Pri­or to occu­pancy of devel­op­ment a suit­able vehicle turn­ing area, meas­ur­ing not less than 7.6m x 7.6m, must be formed with­in the site to enable all

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 25/06/2021

vehicle move­ments onto or from the pub­lic road to be car­ried out in a for­ward gear.

Inform­at­ives:

a) The pro­posed vehicu­lar access onto the pub­lic road shall be formed at the Developer’s expense & must be con­struc­ted in accord­ance with the Council’s Spe­cific­a­tion. b) Adequate pro­vi­sion to be made for intern­al sur­face water drain­age to ensure that sur­face water does not run from the site onto the pub­lic road or vice versa. c) Adequate pre­cau­tions to be taken to pro­tect any Stat­utory Undertaker’s plant which may be affected by the works/​development. d) An applic­a­tion for a Road Excav­a­tion Per­mit must be sub­mit­ted to Infra­struc­ture Ser­vices, Area Roads Office at least 15 days pri­or to the com­mence­ment of any excav­a­tion works with­in the bound­ar­ies of the pub­lic road. Applic­ants should note that fail­ure to obtain a Per­mit is an offence in terms of s56 of the Roads (Scot­land) Act 1984. Note: The Pub­lic Road may incor­por­ate- Car­riage­way, Verge, Cycleway/​Foot­way and Vis­ib­il­ity Envel­opes. Fur­ther details and applic­a­tion forms may be obtained by email­ing the rel­ev­ant Area Roads Office (see below) or on the Coun­cils web­site: marr.​roads@​aberdeenshire.​gov.​uk.

1. Envir­on­ment­al Health (Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil) do not object to the application.

2. Waste Man­age­ment (Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil) do not object to the applic­a­tion sub­ject to the pro­posed lay­out being designed to the sat­is­fac­tion of Roads Devel­op­ment. They note the stand­ards required for LGVs to be able to ser­vice a devel­op­ment how­ever this is addressed through the roads standards.

3. Con­tam­in­ated Land (Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil) was sat­is­fied that there is no indic­a­tion of any past use that may have caused con­tam­in­a­tion. How­ever they reques­ted that the fol­low­ing inform­at­ive is added:

This site has been used for activ­it­ies asso­ci­ated with farm­ing. Some farm­ing activ­it­ies have his­tor­ic­ally been, or are poten­tially con­tam­in­at­ive. The applic­ant is advised that should any con­tam­in­a­tion of the ground be dis­covered dur­ing the devel­op­ment the Plan­ning Author­ity shall be noti­fied imme­di­ately. The extent and nature of the con­tam­in­a­tion should be invest­ig­ated and a suit­able scheme for the mit­ig­a­tion of any risks arising from the con­tam­in­a­tion should be agreed and imple­men­ted to the sat­is­fac­tion of the Plan­ning Author­ity. The respons­ib­il­ity for ensur­ing the safe devel­op­ment of the site rests with the developer.

1. Archae­ology (Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil) note that this site affects the archae­ology site NJ30NE0014 a fer­mtoun dated to the 19^th cen­tury or earli­er and requires the fol­low­ing con­di­tion and inform­at­ive is applied:

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 25/06/2021

Con­di­tion: Pho­to­graph­ic Survey

No demoli­tion or any oth­er works in con­nec­tion with the devel­op­ment hereby approved shall com­mence unless a pho­to­graph­ic sur­vey of the exist­ing build­ings and struc­tures on the applic­a­tion site has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the plan­ning author­ity. All extern­al and intern­al elev­a­tions of the build­ings and struc­tures togeth­er with the set­ting of the build­ings and struc­tures and any unus­al fea­tures of the exist­ing build­ings and struc­tures shall be pho­to­graphed. The pho­to­graph­ic view­points must be clearly annot­ated on a plan to accom­pany the sur­vey. The pho­to­graphs and plan must be in a digit­al format and must be clearly marked with the plan­ning ref­er­ence number.

Reas­on: To ensure that a his­tor­ic record of the build­ings is made for inclu­sion in the Nation­al Monu­ments Record for Scot­land and in the loc­al Sites and Monu­ments Record.

1. Inform­at­ive: Archae­olo­gic­al Dis­cov­er­ies Bona Vacantia

The developer has a leg­al require­ment, under the laws of bona vacan­tia to report to the Treas­ure Trove Unit any objects or arte­facts found dur­ing the devel­op­ment works.

1. NESBReC’s response did not high­light any not­able bio­lo­gic­al inform­a­tion relat­ing to the site.

2. Land­scape Advisor (CNPA) is con­tent that the site is dis­creet being loc­ated on a land­form shelf with­in broad, south facing strath slopes. The site lies with­in a largely agri­cul­tur­al area in between wood­land to the north and open scale moor­land to the south and south east. Hil­lock­head farm­house, its out­build­ings and grounds cre­ate a col­lect­ive loc­al land­scape feature.

Tak­ing into account the con­di­tions and sur­round­ings, the design prin­ciples and concept are con­sidered to be very suit­able relate well to the land­scape character.

1. Eco­logy Advisor (CNPA) noted that the bat sur­veys did not detect any bat pres­ence how­ever reques­ted that a pre-com­mence­ment check for signs of roost­ing bats should be under­taken pri­or to any demoli­tions tak­ing place.

It is also noted that the build­ings sup­port barn owl and breed­ing birds such as swal­lows and house mar­tins. Com­pens­at­ory nest boxes are required and bird strike pre­ven­tion required due to the large glazed areas in the design.

Also, the Eco­logy Advisor notes that sur­face run off for the site is pro­posed via a filled sub-sur­face soakaway how­ever sug­gests that a planted swale or rain garden type design would have biod­iversity benefits.

1. Don­side Com­munity Coun­cil have not sub­mit­ted any com­ments to this application.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 25/06/2021

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. No rep­res­ent­a­tions have been received for this application.

APPRAIS­AL

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

Prin­ciple of development

1. The prin­ciple of devel­op­ment is con­sidered against all rel­ev­ant parts of Policy 2: Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021

2. Over­all it is con­sidered that the devel­op­ment com­plies with the cri­ter­ia set out in Policy 2.2 Tour­ist Accom­mod­a­tion. It is not anti­cip­ated that this pro­pos­al will have any adverse envir­on­ment­al impacts and it will con­trib­ute to the pro­vi­sion of year round vis­it­or accom­mod­a­tion with­in the Nation­al Park. It is noted in Para. 4.37 of Policy 2 that pro­pos­als for new houses which meet res­id­en­tial stand­ards will be sub­ject to developer oblig­a­tions for res­id­en­tial pur­poses. Tak­ing into account that the devel­op­ment, whilst meet­ing res­id­en­tial stand­ards, has been designed to accom­mod­ate vis­it­ors and it is con­sidered more appro­pri­ate to use a con­di­tion to ensure that the hol­i­day units are occu­pied for this use and require a fur­ther plan­ning applic­a­tion should this change.

3. It is con­sidered that the prin­ciple of this applic­a­tion com­plies with Policy 2: Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Sit­ing and Design

1. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to rein­force and enhance the char­ac­ter of the exist­ing set­tle­ment and encour­ages new devel­op­ment to be sym­path­et­ic to the tra­di­tion­al pat­tern and char­ac­ter of the area whilst encour­aging innov­at­ive design and finishes.

2. In terms of the lay­out and design, the devel­op­ment com­prises a group of redund­ant agri­cul­tur­al build­ings with­in a largely agri­cul­tur­al land­scape and over­all it is con­sidered that the redevel­op­ment of these build­ings will be sym­path­et­ic and in keep­ing with its sur­round­ing con­text. The pro­pos­al has sought to reflect the ver­nacu­lar shapes and char­ac­ter of the exist­ing build­ings and will re-use much of the exist­ing stone for the front facing walls along with pro­file sheet­ing roofs to reflect the exist­ing red cor­rug­ated roofs. The use of blackened tim­ber will also enhance the ver­nacu­lar char­ac­ter of the redeveloped buildings.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 25/06/2021

1. The devel­op­ment has also been designed to min­im­ise its impact on cli­mate change by max­im­ising sol­ar gain, using high per­form­ance energy effi­cient insu­la­tion and the units will all be heated by an exist­ing bio­mass heat­ing sys­tem onsite.

2. Con­sid­er­a­tion is also giv­en to Policies 3.4: Repla­cing exist­ing build­ing stock; 3.5: Con­vert­ing exist­ing build­ing stock and 3.6: Alter­a­tions to exist­ing build­ing stock. The pro­pos­al com­plies with each of these policies as the build­ings are not lis­ted, they all incor­por­ate the ori­gin­al foot­print of the exist­ing build­ings, and they are no longer used for their exist­ing pur­pose and can­not oth­er­wise be used.

3. Addi­tion­ally, in respect of the Mill which is being con­ver­ted, it will retain its char­ac­ter and over­all will con­trib­ute pos­it­ively to the con­text and set­ting of its sur­round­ings. For the alter­a­tions pro­posed, it is con­sidered that these respect the design and visu­al appear­ance of the build­ing whilst provid­ing appro­pri­ate park­ing pro­vi­sion and off street parking.

4. Over­all, it is con­sidered that the pro­pos­als com­ply with Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Land­scape

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. As high­lighted by the Land­scape Advisors response, over­all it is con­sidered that the devel­op­ment will relate well to the dis­tinct land­scape char­ac­ter, Spe­cial Land­scape Qual­it­ies and visu­al amen­ity of the site with­in the Nation­al Park. The loc­a­tion of the site on elev­ated dis­creet land­form shelf min­im­ises wider land­scape impacts. In addi­tion, the design and mater­i­als of the pro­pos­al have sought to reflect the ver­nacu­lar char­ac­ter of the ori­gin­al build­ings which help to integ­rate it with­in the landscape.

3. The Land­scape Advisor did query the level of vehicu­lar activ­ity to the site. Whilst there may be capa­city on site for the vis­it­ors, it is not clear how many vis­it­ors will be using the mul­ti­func­tion­al space and it would be import­ant to ensure that the num­ber of vehicles would not adversely affect the rur­al land­scape character.

4. Whilst this is noted, there is the pro­vi­sion of addi­tion­al park­ing to the rear of the Bio­mass building/​greenhouse which may provide an over­flow if required. Over­all it is not con­sidered that the scale of this devel­op­ment, and spe­cific­ally the mul­ti­func­tion­al space, would res­ult in a sig­ni­fic­ant addi­tion­al level of traffic and cars on the site.

5. Sub­ject to stand­ard con­di­tions to ensure the prop­er estab­lish­ment and longev­ity of the land­scap­ing scheme the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to comply

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 25/06/2021

with Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Eco­logy

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

2. Whilst a bat sur­vey was under­taken as part of the plan­ning applic­a­tion and no bats were found to be roost­ing on the site, it has been noted by the Eco­logy Advisor that this last sur­vey vis­it was car­ried out in Septem­ber 2019. They state that there is a small chance that bats may have star­ted to use the build­ings in the inter­im peri­od (e.g. small num­bers of non-breed­ing pipestrelles). There­fore pre- com­mence­ment checks should be made. If works are under­taken dur­ing the act­ive peri­od (May – Septem­ber), an emer­gence sur­vey must be under­taken and an advis­ory note is recom­men­ded in this instance to ensure this is car­ried out if necessary.

3. The recent pres­ence of barn owl along with swallows/​house mar­tins has been noted and the demoli­tion and re-build of the build­ings on site will res­ult in loss of the cur­rent nest­ing sites for barn owl, swallow/​house mar­tin. There­fore com­pens­at­ory nest­ing sites are encour­aged to provide a safe place for these birds to return to. Over­all it is con­sidered that whilst there may be an impact, appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures can be used to min­im­ise this.

4. It is con­sidered that the pro­pos­al com­plies with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Access and Servicing

1. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to pro­mote sus­tain­able trans­port meth­ods and act­ive travel and max­im­ise oppor­tun­it­ies for respons­ible out­door access.

2. The devel­op­ment will be accessed via an exist­ing track from the main access road and there is adequate park­ing at the site to accom­mod­ate the devel­op­ment. Whilst the final spe­cific­a­tions of the road and park­ing sur­faces have not been provided, these will be con­di­tioned and approved pri­or to construction.

3. Due to the rur­al loc­a­tion of the devel­op­ment site, there is no pub­lic trans­port serving the devel­op­ment and it will primar­ily be accessed by private car. How­ever, in terms of act­ive travel, Strath­don (which has some loc­al ser­vices) is loc­ated approx­im­ately 5 miles away by road and could be accessed by bicycle. There is con­sidered to be suf­fi­cient space on the site for the park­ing of bicycles.

4. Over­all, due to the nature of the loc­a­tion, oppor­tun­it­ies for sus­tain­able travel are lim­ited, how­ever giv­en the small scale of the pro­pos­al and efforts to ensure

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 25/06/2021

the devel­op­ment itself is low impact and energy effi­cient, it is con­sidered that the pro­pos­al is still con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 3: Design and Placemaking.

CON­CLU­SION

1. It is con­sidered that this pro­pos­al for the con­ver­sion, alter­a­tion and exten­sion of three exist­ing redund­ant stead­ings to form four hol­i­day lets and a multi-use build­ing is accept­able in land use plan­ning terms. The prin­ciple, char­ac­ter and design of the pro­pos­al is com­pat­ible with its sur­round­ings and it is not con­sidered that there will be any sig­ni­fic­ant land­scape or eco­lo­gic­al impacts as a res­ult of the pro­pos­al and there­fore the applic­a­tion is con­sidered to com­ply with the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies and is recom­men­ded for approval.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to APPROVE the Con­ver­sion Alter­a­tions and Exten­sion of Mill (to form Short Term Let­ting Accom­mod­a­tion) Erec­tion of 3 Dwell­ing­houses (Short Term Let­ting Accom­mod­a­tion) and Erec­tion of Multi use Build­ing at Hil­lock­head Glendeskry Strath­don Aber­deen­shire AB36 8XL for the fol­low­ing reasons/​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 fully detailed land­scap­ing scheme both hard and soft land­scap­ing pro­pos­als and the future main­ten­ance and man­age­ment of the pro­posed scheme has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the CNPA act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. This shall include, but not be lim­ited to hard land­scap­ing mater­i­al spe­cific­a­tion, soft land­scap­ing plant and tree spe­cies and plant­ing specifications.

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

Reas­on: To ensure the long term reten­tion of an appro­pri­ate land­scap­ing set­ting, enhance biod­iversity and ensure the devel­op­ment will not have an adverse impact on the land­scape set­ting or eco­lo­gic­al qual­ity of the devel­op­ment in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 25/06/2021

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until spe­cific­a­tion details for the pro­posed access and road sur­face fin­ish is sub­mit­ted to and approved by the CNPA act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Roads Development.

Reas­on: To ensure the pro­posed access and access road sur­face com­plies with policy guid­ance and is fin­ished to a suit­able stand­ard to ensure an appro­pri­ate means of access and egress to the site as spe­cified by Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Roads Devel­op­ment and in accord­ance with Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a lay-by meas­ur­ing 8m x 2.5m with 45° splays shall be formed on the front­age of the site and the pro­posed vehicu­lar access shall be taken via this. Con­struc­tion shall be to a stand­ard appro­pri­ate to the loc­a­tion and shall be approved by the CNPA act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Roads Development.

Reas­on: In the interests of road safety and to ensure safe access and egress for the development.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site (except for those works asso­ci­ated with the pro­vi­sion of the vis­ib­il­ity splay) until vis­ib­il­ity splays, meas­ur­ing 2.4m by 45m splays shall be formed on either side of the junc­tion of the vehicu­lar access with the pub­lic road. The vis­ib­il­ity splays so formed shall there­after be kept free of all per­man­ent obstruc­tions above adja­cent car­riage­way level.

Reas­on: In the interests of road safety and to ensure safe access and egress for the devel­op­ment as spe­cified by Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Roads Devel­op­ment and in accord­ance with Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. Pri­or to occu­pancy of the devel­op­ment, the first 5m of access (meas­ured from the edge of the road or back of the foot­way) shall be fully paved.

Reas­on: In the interests of road safety and to ensure safe access and egress for the development.

1. Pri­or to occu­pancy of the devel­op­ment, off-street park­ing for 9 cars, sur­faced in hard stand­ing mater­i­als must be provided with­in the site.

Reas­on: To ensure there is adequate park­ing pro­vi­sion to accom­mod­ate vis­it­ors to the development.

1. Pri­or to occu­pancy of the devel­op­ment a refuse bin uplift store area shall be con­struc­ted (behind any vis­ib­il­ity splay) so as to be access­ible for bin uplift & shall be secure enough to pre­vent empty bins from

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 25/06/2021

being wind blown. Details must be sub­mit­ted to and approved by the CNPA act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Roads Development.

Reas­on: To ensure there is adequate waste pro­vi­sion in place for the development.

1. Pri­or to occu­pancy of the devel­op­ment a suit­able vehicle turn­ing area, meas­ur­ing not less than 7.6m x 7.6m, must be formed with­in the site to enable all vehicle move­ments onto or from the pub­lic road to be car­ried out in a for­ward gear.

Reas­on: To ensure there is adequate waste pro­vi­sion in place for the development.

1. The max­im­um gradi­ent of the first 5m of the new access must not exceed I in 20.

Reas­on: To ensure the pro­posed access and access road sur­face com­plies with policy guid­ance and is fin­ished to a suit­able stand­ard to ensure an appro­pri­ate means of access and egress to the site as spe­cified by Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Roads Devel­op­ment and in accord­ance with Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. No demoli­tion or devel­op­ment shall com­mence unless a pho­to­graph­ic sur­vey of the exist­ing build­ings and struc­tures on the applic­a­tion site has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the plan­ning author­ity. All extern­al and intern­al elev­a­tions of the build­ings and struc­tures togeth­er with the set­ting of the build­ings and struc­tures and any unusu­al fea­tures of the exist­ing build­ings and struc­tures shall be pho­to­graphed. The pho­to­graph­ic view­points must be clearly annot­ated on a plan to accom­pany the sur­vey. The pho­to­graphs and plan must be in a digit­al format and must be clearly marked with the plan­ning ref­er­ence number.

Reas­on: To ensure that a his­tor­ic record of the build­ings is made for inclu­sion in the Nation­al Monu­ments Record for Scot­land and in the loc­al Sites and Monu­ments Record.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until full details of the final drain­age design are sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Roads Devel­op­ment and Flood Risk Man­age­ment teams.

There­after the approved drain­age scheme shall be imple­men­ted and main­tained in accord­ance with the approved details in full pri­or to the occu­pa­tion of any dwell­ings with­in the development.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 25/06/2021

Reas­on: To ensure the sat­is­fact­ory arrange­ments for the dis­pos­al of sur­face water are provided in accord­ance with Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until details of com­pens­at­ory nest­ing sites and the timetable for their install­a­tion, for Barn Owl, Swal­lows and House Mar­tins have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Authority.

There­after the approved details shall be imple­men­ted and main­tained in full pri­or to the occu­pa­tion of any dwell­ings with­in the development.

Reas­on: To ensure the pro­vi­sion of altern­at­ive nest­ing sites for these spe­cies in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until a pre-con­struc­tion check for bats has been under­taken in accord­ance with best prac­tice advice, and if present, a license to dis­turb them has been gran­ted by NatureScot, and the sub­mit­ted to and con­firmed in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Authority.

Reas­on: To ensure the pro­tec­tion of bats in in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. The hol­i­day units hereby approved shall be used solely as tem­por­ary hol­i­day let­ting accom­mod­a­tion and for no oth­er pur­poses what­so­ever includ­ing use as per­man­ent res­id­en­tial units without the pri­or express grant of plan­ning per­mis­sion by the plan­ning author­ity. The hol­i­day units shall not be occu­pied as a person’s sole or main res­id­ence and the own­er of the hol­i­day units shall main­tain an up-to- date register of the name of each occu­pi­er of the hol­i­day units on the site, their length of stay and their main home address and shall make this inform­a­tion avail­able at all reas­on­able times to the plan­ning authority.

Reas­on: The occu­pa­tion of the hol­i­day units as per­man­ent res­id­en­tial units would be assessed under dif­fer­ent Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies and require appro­pri­ate con­tri­bu­tions towards afford­able hous­ing. Use of the hol­i­day units as a per­man­ent res­id­en­tial dwell­ing would require plan­ning per­mis­sion for this use.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 25/06/2021

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 notice 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