Item7Appendix3CCcomments20230007DETLaurelBank

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 7 Appendix 3 10/03/2023

AGENDA ITEM 7

APPENDIX 3

2023/0007/DET

COM­MUNITY COUN­CIL COMMENTS

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Emma Green­lees

From: CNPAplanning@​lochlomond-​trossachs.​org Sent: 13 Janu­ary 2023 14:00 To: Plan­ning Sub­ject: Com­ments for Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 2023/0007/DET Cat­egor­ies: Con­sulta­tion Response

Com­ments summary

Dear Sir/​Madam,

Plan­ning Applic­a­tion com­ments have been made. A sum­mary of the com­ments is provided below.

Com­ments were sub­mit­ted at 13/01/2023 2:02 PM from Mr Peter Long.

Applic­a­tion Summary Address: Land 80M SW Of Moun­tain Café 111 Grampi­an Road Aviemore Pro­pos­al: Erec­tion of 22 self cater­ing apart­ments, shops, hotel and under­ground park­ing Case Officer: Alan Atkins

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Cus­tom­er Details Name: Mr Peter Long Email: aviemoreccchair@​gmail.​com Address: Milton, 16 Mor­lich Place, Aviemore, High­land PH22 1TH

Com­ments Details Com­menter Type: Com­munity Coun­cil Stance: Cus­tom­er objects to the Plan­ning Applic­a­tion Reas­ons for com­ment: Com­ments: Aviemore and Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil objects to this applic­a­tion on the fol­low­ing grounds

1. Pre­vi­ous objec­tion. AVCC objec­ted to a pre­vi­ous applic­a­tion for this site in Novem­ber 2021. Des­pite some minor modi­fic­a­tions to the build­ing height and the intro­duc­tion of some more appro­pri­ate build­ing mater­i­als and fin­ishes we feel that some of the key con­cerns remain unaddressed.

2. Con­text. This is a key site in the heart of Aviemore. Any size­able devel­op­ment here will define the char­ac­ter of the centre for gen­er­a­tions to come. The Com­munity Coun­cil recog­nises the inev­it­ab­il­ity of a large scale, mixed devel­op­ment on the site, as out­lined in the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. How­ever we feel that it is essen­tial that any devel­op­ment on this site incor­por­ates attract­ive and high qual­ity com­mun­al space, and that the build­ings them­selves are on a scale that fits sym­path­et­ic­ally into the loc­al environment.

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1. Scale and height. The pro­posed build­ings, par­tic­u­larly the hotel, are on a scale which would dom­in­ate the centre of Aviemore. Views towards Craigel­lach­ie from the north along Grampi­an Road would be obstruc­ted, sig­ni­fic­antly alter­ing the ​“feel” of cent­ral Aviemore.

2. Traffic. The devel­op­ment cre­ates 83 bed­rooms, plus 22 self cater­ing apart­ments. This will inev­it­ably res­ult in a high volume of vehicle traffic, with the asso­ci­ated con­ges­tion and park­ing issues. It will also sig­ni­fic­antly add to noise and air pol­lu­tion in an already busy area. We are par­tic­u­larly con­cerned about the impact of vehicles enter­ing and leav­ing the site dir­ect onto Grampi­an Road. We are dis­ap­poin­ted to note that the park­ing ele­ment of the trans­port sur­vey day was car­ried out in Novem­ber of 2019. Novem­ber is tra­di­tion­ally one of the quietest months in and around Aviemore, and in no way reflects the situ­ation for most of the year. It also inev­it­ably does not take account of the post-lock­down upsurge in vis­it­or num­bers. Many of the park­ing areas iden­ti­fied in this study are either time lim­ited, being attached to exist­ing shops, or are now chargeable. It is not appro­pri­ate to base any decision on the inform­a­tion provided in this study.

3. Pub­lic space. The idea and intro­duc­tion of a pub­lic gath­er­ing space is wel­comed and befits the import­ance of this site with­in the centre of Aviemore. How­ever, the vast major­ity of the cent­ral area is giv­en over to car park­ing which will greatly detract from any use of this space. Surely this is missed oppor­tun­ity to cre­ate a high qual­ity pub­lic realm in this key location.

4. Over-pro­vi­sion. We ques­tion the loc­al need for a hotel devel­op­ment on this scale. Although vis­it­or num­bers remain high we are con­cerned that over­de­vel­op­ment will impact on the qual­ity of life for res­id­ents and vis­it­ors alike. We are also con­cerned that the pro­vi­sion for staff accom­mod­a­tion is very low (2 bed­rooms) giv­en the well doc­u­mented short­age of afford­able hous­ing loc­ally. This will only increase pres­sure on an already stretched hous­ing and labour market.

5. Self cater­ing flats. As noted above, there is a chron­ic hous­ing short­age loc­ally. It would be greatly prefer­able if flats for rent­al or afford­able own­er­ship could be provided on the site.

Kind regards

The con­tent of this email and any attach­ments is con­fid­en­tial and is sub­ject to the terms of the Nation­al Park Authority’s email dis­claim­er at https://​www​.lochlomond​-trossachs​.org/​d​i​s​c​l​aimer and is inten­ded only for the use of the indi­vidu­al or entity to which it is addressed.