Item8AA9HousesBoatOfGarten20190215DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 21/02/2020

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PRO­POSED: Demoli­tion of house, erec­tion of 9 houses, form­a­tion of access track and path at Tigh Mhuileann, Boat Of Garten, High­land, PH24 3BG

REF­ER­ENCE: 2019/0215/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Mr Ham­ish MacLeod

DATE CALLED-IN: 15 July 2019

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: APPROVE WITH CONDITIONS

CASE OFFICER: Rob­bie Cal­vert Gradu­ate Planner

CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site 0 15 30 60 Meters Doch­lag­gie MS A www wiww Drain Drain X Dru­mult­tie Saw 224 Mill Milton D FB N The K 3 Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2020. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber 100040965 A95 2 224.3m + 224.0m A95 + BB High Mhuileann CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 21/02/2020 219.8m El Sub Sta Silo + 213

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 21/02/2020

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The applic­a­tion site at Tigh Mhuileann cur­rently com­prises a mix­ture of graz­ing land, wood­land, an exist­ing 1970s detached bun­ga­low and tim­ber gar­age. It is loc­ated approx­im­ately 950m to the north of Boat of Garten, on the oppos­ite side of the minor road C1128 to an exist­ing saw­mill oper­ated by BSW tim­ber. A water­course enters the site at the south west­ern corner which con­nects to Milton Loch, with all water­courses feed­ing into the River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC). On the south and west, the site is bounded by graz­ing land. A high voltage 132kV pylon line runs along the south­ern bor­der of the site, which is cur­rently being by installing under­ground cables. Low voltage lines run along the west­ern and north­ern bound­ary markers.

2. Access is pro­posed from the C1128 minor road that runs from Boat of Garten to the A95 along the east­ern site bound­ary via a new access point. To the south east of the site runs the core path from Boat to Dru­mul­lie (Core path ref: LBS71).

3. The applic­a­tion site is approx­im­ately 1.1 Ha in area and takes the form of an L‑Shape. The site slopes gently from north­east to south­w­est and has a lin­ear mound on its north­ern edge which sep­ar­ates it from the A95. To the east­ern side of the applic­a­tion is an Aspen and Birch wood­land which wraps around to the south­ern edge of the site. The wood­land is approx. 0.6ha in size and is clas­si­fied as nat­ive wood­land in the Nat­ive Wood­land Sur­vey of Scotland.

4. The site is part of a pro­posed wider devel­op­ment with an asso­ci­ated applic­a­tion for the erec­tion of three houses (2019/0245/DET) on land to the west.

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=PUFKHRSI0CH00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Site Lay­out Plan	BSW_3_002	June, 2019	12/11/19
	Revi­sion D2
Site Sec­tion Plan	BSW_3_003	June, 2019	12/11/19
	Revi­sion A
Loc­a­tion Plan Phases I and 2	BSW_3_001	June, 2019	12/11/19
	Revi­sion B
Land­scape Plan	Land­scape	05/02/20	06/02/20
	Mas­ter­plan Final
	Revi­sion 4
Gen­er­al Arrangement	AA6178/EW/02	23/01/19	30/01/20
	Revi­sion C

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 21/02/2020

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Drain­age Layout	AA6178/EW/03	23/01/19	30/01/20
	Revi­sion C
Land­scape Sections	Land­scape	29/10/19	12/11/19
	Sec­tions
	Revi­sion I
Tree Pro­tec­tion Plan	Tree Pro­tec­tion	29/10/19	12/11/19
	Plan Revi­sion I
Envir­on­ment­al Pro­tec­tion Plan	AA6178/EW/04	01/11/19	12/11/19
	Revi­sion A
Passing Places and Road Width	AA6178/EW/10	23/01/19	12/11/19
Plan
Barn House Elevations	BSW_3_021	June, 2019	15/07/19
Barn House Floor Plans	BSW_3_019	June, 2019	15/07/19
Barn House Sections	BSW_3_020	June, 2019	15/07/19
Croft House Elevations	BSW_3_015	June, 2019	15/07/19
Croft House Roof and Floor Plans	BSW_3_ΟΙ	June, 2019	15/07/19
Croft House Sections	BSW_3_014	June, 2019	15/07/19
Fair and Square Elevations	BSW_3_012	June, 2019	15/07/19
Fair and Square Roof and Floor	BSW_3_010	June, 2019	15/07/19
Plans
Fair and Square Sections	BSW_3_011	June, 2019	15/07/19
For­est­ers House Elevations	BSW_3_018	June, 2019	15/07/19
For­est­ers Roof and Floor Plans	BSW_3_016	June, 2019	15/07/19
For­est­ers House Sections	BSW_3_017	June, 2019	15/07/19
3 Bay Gar­age Plans and Elevations	BSW_3_022	June, 2019	15/07/19
2 Bay Gar­age Plans and Elevations	BSW_3_023	June, 2018	15/07/19
Exist­ing Lay­out and Services	AA61788/EW/01	12/09/18	10/10/19
	Revi­sion B
Sup­port­ing Design Statement		17/06/19	15/07/19
Exten­ded Phase I Sur­vey Report		Feb­ru­ary 201	15/07/19
		9
Land­scape Char­ac­ter Area			12/11/19
Drain­age Impact Assessment	AA6178/8.4/DIA	30/10/19	30/01/20
	Revi­sion B
Land­scape Design Statement			12/11/19
Land­scape and Mitigation		Octo­ber,	12/11/19
Pro­pos­als		2019
Land­scape and Visu­al Impact		Octo­ber,	12/11/19
Assess­ment		2019
Typ­ic­al Road­works Details	AA6178/EW/07	04/10/19	30/01/20
	Revi­sion C
Con­struc­tion Meth­od Statement	AA6178	01/11/19	12/11/19
	Revi­sion A
Hous­ing Need and Demand			12/11/19
Assess­ment

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 21/02/2020

Title		Date on	Date
Traffic State­ment	AA6178	29/01/20	30/01/20
	Revi­sion B
Geo-envir­on­ment­al Investigation	MM11842.RI.CT	Feb­ru­ary,	22/08/19
Part I	.SDM​.SG	2019
Geo-envir­on­ment­al Investigation	1926594361	31/01/2019	22/08/19
Part 2
Geo-envir­on­ment­al Investigation	MM11842	13/09/18	22/08/19
Part 3
Bat Roost Assess­ment and	19/015/TIL/R01	19/06/19	15/07/19
Activ­ity Survey	Revi­sion 1.2
*Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the Ist of the month.

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

2. The site is part of a wider pro­posed devel­op­ment with an asso­ci­ated applic­a­tion for the erec­tion of three houses (2019/245/DET) on land to the west. The applic­a­tion seeks full plan­ning per­mis­sion for demoli­tion of the exist­ing house and gar­age, and the erec­tion of 9 res­id­en­tial units includ­ing plot lay­out, infra­struc­ture and land­scap­ing. These units com­prise of 4 semi-detached and 5 detached houses with 7 detached car park­ing gar­ages, sep­tic tank and soakaway, SUDS sys­tem and a new adop­ted ​“spur” road and intern­al road lay­out con­nect­ing the devel­op­ment to the main access road. There are no pro­posed changes to ground levels.

3. Vehicle access will be provided through a new 5.5m wide adop­ted spur road from the C1128. Intern­al tracks lead­ing to houses will be 4m wide and con­struc­ted with a rolled dust fin­ish on type‑1 sub base. New paths with­in the site will link to paths that require sep­ar­ate plan­ning con­sent to link to the BSW saw­mill to the east and a longer path link­ing to Milton Loch and Boat of Garten.

4. The site will be con­nec­ted to the pub­lic mains water sup­ply and take elec­tri­city from a low voltage under­ground line that serves the exist­ing build­ings on site. Foul water from each prop­erty will be con­veyed via a private foul drain­age net­work to a shared sep­tic tank and soakaway sys­tem designed for a pop­u­la­tion equi­val­ent of 50 people. This is pro­posed to be loc­ated to the south of the site, out­side of the red line of the applic­a­tion but with­in the blue line.

5. It is pro­posed that both private tracks and the adop­ted car­riage­ways will be drained using fil­ter drains. The adop­ted road will include road gullys to col­lect and dis­charge into the non-infilt­ra­tion drains, with water mov­ing to two pro­posed infilt­ra­tion basins.

6. Sur­face water from the prop­er­ties will be col­lec­ted and trans­ferred to 5 raingar­dens, provid­ing a min­im­um of 1.5m² storm­wa­ter stor­age per plot and nat­ur­al fil­tra­tion ser­vices. Dur­ing high flow events over­flow pipes will also carry excess water into per­for­ated precast con­crete man­hole rings act­ing as addi­tion­al stor­age and infiltration.

7. The house types are a range mod­ern tim­ber framed build­ings inten­ded to reflect a range of ver­nacu­lar build­ings. The walls and roofs of both houses and gar­ages are clad in tim­ber with either slate or cor­rug­ated roof materials.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 21/02/2020

1. A total of 22 car park­ing spaces have been provided, 5 of which have been indic­ated as vis­it­or parking.

2. The applic­a­tion was ori­gin­ally sup­por­ted by the fol­low­ing inform­a­tion: a) Design State­ment; b) Eco­lo­gic­al Sur­vey and Assess­ment Report; and c) Bat Roost Assess­ment and Survey.

3. Dur­ing the pro­gres­sion of the applic­a­tion, the agent has provided addi­tion­al and amended inform­a­tion in response to quer­ies raised dur­ing the con­sulta­tion pro­cess, which is sum­mar­ised as fol­lows: a) Amended and addi­tion­al plans: includ­ing amended gen­er­al arrangements,

   drainage layout, typical roadworks details, proposed masterplan, landscape
   masterplan, tree protection plan and proposed site sections; additional plans for
   landscape design rationale, environmental protection measures and existing
   layout and services.
   

   b) Soils Invest­ig­a­tions Report: sup­ple­ment­ing the Drain­age Impact Assess­ment. c) Drain­age Impact Assess­ment and amended Drain­age Impact

   Assessment.
   

   d) Trans­port Assess­ment and amended Trans­port Assess­ment. e) C1128 Road Passing Places Assess­ment. f) Hous­ing Need and Demand Assess­ments: sup­ple­men­ted by an

   engagement event with the local community with a drop-in session held at the
   Boat of Garten Village Hall. The study concludes severe lack of affordable
   housing in Boat of Garten and that the development meets demand for both 3-4
   bedroom houses and 1-2 bedroom houses. This supplemented by details of the
   affordable housing requirements of the Rural Housing Fund that would be used
   to fund the project.
   

   g) Land­scape and Visu­al Impact Assess­ment: that con­cludes that the

   proposals will have a low impact on the landscape at local level only and a low
   impact on visual receptors close to the site.
   

Pro­cessing of Application

1. This applic­a­tion was ori­gin­ally sub­mit­ted incor­rectly describ­ing 12 houses. The applic­a­tion was sub­sequently revised to describe 9 houses and addi­tion­al inform­a­tion was sub­mit­ted. The applic­a­tion was sub­sequently re-noti­fied to neigh­bours, re- advert­ised to loc­al press and stat­utory con­sul­tees were re-consulted.

His­tory

1. The site has a long-estab­lished use for agri­cul­ture and for the res­id­en­tial use of the cur­rent house, Tigh Mhuileann. The neigh­bour­ing BSW saw­mill has expan­ded to its cur­rent size since 1973.

2. There are a small num­ber of his­tor­ic plan­ning applic­a­tions relat­ing to the applic­a­tion site. Plan­ning per­mis­sion was gran­ted on 14/05/2004 for change of use to pub­lic sales/​display area, office and park­ing (04/00061/FULBS).

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 21/02/2020

1. In 2018, Plan­ning Per­mis­sion in Prin­ciple was sought for the demoli­tion of house, erec­tion of 9 houses, com­posed of 4No. semi-detached and 5No. detached houses. (8/02776/PIP). The applic­a­tion was with­drawn on 29/06/2018.

2. An applic­a­tion for the erec­tion of three houses (2019/0245/DET) on land to the west of the site is run­ning con­cur­rently with this application.

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Assess­ment (HRA)

1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Assess­ment has been under­taken to con­sider the effects of the pro­pos­al upon the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the Natura Sites on the River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC) and the fol­low­ing Spe­cial Areas of Con­ser­va­tion: Boat of Garten woods, Aber­nethy Forest, Kin­veachy Forest, Craigmore Wood, Cairngorms and Anagach Woods.

2. The pro­pos­al was not con­sidered to have an effect, either dir­ect or indir­ect on the fol­low­ing spe­cies with­in the SPAs: Scot­tish cross­bill, Caper­cail­lie, osprey, dot­ter­el, golden eagle, mer­lin and per­eg­rine fal­con. The assess­ment high­lighted the need to assess the pro­pos­al against its likely effect on the River Spey SAC. It was con­cluded that sub­ject to mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures iden­ti­fied in the appro­pri­ate assess­ment and applied through con­di­tions to any con­sent, the pro­pos­al will not adversely affect the integ­rity of the River Spey SAC. A copy of the HRA is attached at Appendix 2.

DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN CONTEXT

Policies | Nation­al Policy | Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy 2014 | | —- | —- | | Stra­tegic Policy | Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 — 2022 | | Loc­al Plan Policy | Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2015) | | | Those policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross | | POLICY I | NEW HOUS­ING DEVEL­OP­MENT | X | | POLICY 2 | SUP­PORT­ING ECO­NOM­IC GROWTH | | | 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: http://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​d​o​c​u​m​e​n​t​s​/Park Authority/Planning/LDP15.pdf

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 21/02/2020

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	X
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 3	Sus­tain­able Design Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance	X
Policy 5	Land­scape Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 7	Renew­able Energy Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance
Policy 8	Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 11	Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance	X

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2020

1. The emer­ging Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (“Pro­posed Plan”) which will cov­er the peri­od 2020 – 2025 is cur­rently being pro­gressed. The pro­posed plan has been through a pub­lic con­sulta­tion pro­cess and the form­al responses have been assessed and sub­mit­ted along with all oth­er rel­ev­ant mater­i­als to Scot­tish Min­is­ters for exam­in­a­tion. As the exam­in­a­tion of the Pro­posed Plan is yet to con­clude, the Pro­posed Plan and its con­tents cur­rently carry lim­ited weight.

CON­SULTA­TIONS

Sum­mary of the Main Issues Raised by Consultees

1. SEPA advised that poten­tial impact upon ground­wa­ters from such a large sewage dis­charge meant strin­gent treat­ments stand­ards and sig­ni­fic­ant invest­ig­at­ory and mon­it­or­ing work was required for SEPA to issue a license for the foul drain­age sys­tem. The fol­low­ing inform­a­tion was reques­ted: a) Install­a­tion of three boreholes/​piezometers record­ing loc­a­tion, ground­wa­ter qual­ity depth of ground­wa­ter and flow dir­ec­tion, hydraul­ic gradi­ent, aquifer per­meab­il­ity, descrip­tion of unsat­ur­ated zone and con­sid­er­a­tion of the pres­ence and con­cen­tra­tion of vari­ous sub­stances in the efflu­ent. b) Details of pro­posed SUDs systems.

2. When re-con­sul­ted on pro­pos­als SEPA high­lighted in the Drain­age Lay­out draw­ing, no. AA6178/EW/03 Rev A, the sep­tic tank and soakaway appear to be loc­ated out­side the applic­a­tion bound­ary and reit­er­ated advice pre­vi­ously provided.

3. SNH advised on pos­sible impacts sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the River Spey SSSI/SAC and impacts on caper­cail­lie from poten­tially increased recre­ation­al use and dis­turb­ance in Boat of Garten Woods:

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 21/02/2020

a) River Spey SAC — the pro­pos­al is likely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the River Spey SAC unless waste water arrange­ments are in place that ensure that neither the water course or the River Spey SAC are neg­at­ively impacted upon by nutri­ents or oth­er pol­lu­tion arising from the sep­tic tank or soakaway. b) Caper­cail­lie — on bal­ance it was con­cluded that recre­ation­al dis­turb­ance to caper­cail­lie Boat of Garten Wood would not increase as a res­ult of the pro­pos­al and is there­fore unlikely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect either dir­ectly or indir­ectly. An appro­pri­ate assess­ment of this ele­ment is there­fore not required.

1. When re-con­sul­ted on pro­pos­als SNH con­cluded that there would likely be a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel and otter fea­tures of the River Spey SAC and there­fore objec­ted to the pro­pos­al unless it is made sub­ject to con­di­tions that ensure foul water drain­age pro­pos­als are sat­is­fact­or­ily designed, imple­men­ted and man­aged in order to min­im­ise any risk of pol­lu­tion which may affect inter­na­tion­ally import­ant nat­ur­al her­it­age interests. In accord­ance with the Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al car­ried out by CNPA if the appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion is fol­lowed, there will not be an adverse effect upon the integ­rity of the River Spey SAC.

2. Scot­tish Water advised that they had no objec­tion to the proposal.

3. The High­land Coun­cil (Trans­port Plan­ning Team) object to the applic­a­tion, advised that the inform­a­tion sub­mit­ted with it was inad­equate and reques­ted more inform­a­tion in order to fully assess the impacts of the proposal.

4. Fol­low­ing a num­ber of stages of fur­ther inform­a­tion being sub­mit­ted and reviewed, The High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning team con­tin­ue to object for the fol­low­ing reas­ons: a) Car park­ing for detached houses does not meet Coun­cil guidelines. b) No pro­pos­als have been provided to demon­strate that path con­nec­tion to Boat of Garten can be delivered and the site is not access­ible by pub­lic trans­port. c) Sur­face water drain­age sys­tem for roads not adequate for adoption.

   Oth­er issues requir­ing res­ol­u­tion were high­lighted as fol­lows: a) Con­di­tion should be included to main­tain vis­ib­il­ity recom­men­ded vis­ib­il­ity splay from the access road junc­tion to the C1128. b) Con­di­tion required to ensure C1128 from the access road to the a95 junc­tion is a min­im­um of 5.5 metres wide. c) Indi­vidu­al drive­ways for the dwell­ings at the entrance of the site to the north- east are amended to have an angle of no less than 75°. d) Turn­ing head to be enlarge for refuse vehicles as a part of the Road Con­struc­tion Con­sent (RCC) pro­cess. e) Passing places be added to private tracks to pre­vent dam­ages to verges. f) Lay­out for two houses at the south­ern bounds be amended so res­id­ents do not have to reverse into adja­cent drive­ways. g) All road con­struc­tion details be treated as indic­at­ive and be agreed through the RCC process.

5. The High­land Coun­cil (Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team) ini­tially objec­ted to the drain­age strategy for the site, but fol­low­ing the sub­mis­sion of fur­ther information,

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 21/02/2020

with­drew the objec­tion sub­ject to a suit­ably worded con­di­tion requir­ing final detailed drain­age design be sub­mit­ted for review and approval.

1. The High­land Coun­cil (Forestry Team) objec­ted to the pro­posed devel­op­ment pending fur­ther inform­a­tion to identi­fy the impact of pro­pos­als on trees. The forestry officer was con­sul­ted on addi­tion­al details provide but has not com­men­ted fur­ther. How­ever, the CNPA’s her­it­age team are sat­is­fied that con­di­tions can be applied to pro­tect trees and man­age impacts.

2. CNPA Land­scape Officer advised that over­all the approach of land­scap­ing of the site is wel­comed, sit­ting well with­in the wider land­scape con­trib­ut­ing to both visu­al amen­ity and enhan­cing biod­iversity. They request con­di­tions on land­scape plant­ing, estab­lish­ment, ground pre­par­a­tion and long-term man­age­ment to include the aspen wood­land to the north of the site.

3. CNPA Eco­logy Officer is sat­is­fied that con­di­tions can be applied to address poten­tial impacts on spe­cies, hab­it­ats and pro­tec­ted sites.

4. CNPA Out­door Access Officer sup­ports the inclu­sion of facil­it­ies to pro­mote act­ive travel

5. Boat of Garten Com­munity Coun­cil advised that they had no objec­tion to this applic­a­tion and were sup­port­ive of the design and mix of hous­ing pro­posed. How­ever the fol­low­ing con­cerns were noted: a) Con­cerns were raised over the safety of the junc­tion to the north of the pro­posed devel­op­ment join­ing the A95. b) Con­cerns were raised over the eco­lo­gic­al impact over a path con­nec­tion to Milton Loch.

6. A copy of their full response is attached at Appendix 4.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. One let­ter of objec­tion has been sub­mit­ted from the Badenoch and Strath­spey Con­ser­va­tion Group (BSCG) which is attached in Appendix 3.

2. The main points of con­cern are high­lighted and sur­mised below: a) Site unal­loc­ated in LDP. b) Eco­lo­gic­al value of sur­round­ing woods. c) Increased dis­turb­ance of Caper­cail­lie. d) That the devel­op­ment should be con­nect to pub­lic sew­er. e) Sur­face water run-off. f) Plant­ing plans. g) Buf­fer between trees and houses. h) Replace­ment peri­od for failed trees. i) Main­ten­ance of private track and affordability.

3. One gen­er­al com­ment has been sub­mit­ted from the Boat of Garten Com­munity Com­pany and Boat of Garten Wild­life Group which is attached in Appendix 3.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 21/02/2020

1. The groups were sup­port­ive of con­sid­er­a­tions made to the poten­tial impact on sur­round­ing wood­land, the Milton Loch and asso­ci­ated tributaries.

APPRAIS­AL

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

Prin­ciple of Housing

1. Policy 1.5: New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment (Afford­able Hous­ing Devel­op­ments) of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 provides sup­port for devel­op­ment of 100% afford­able hous­ing where it meets a demon­strable loc­al need shown through com­munity needs assess­ments, hous­ing needs and demand assess­ments or oth­er inform­a­tion avail­able at the time of applic­a­tion. This applic­a­tion is for 100% afford­able hous­ing in an area with an iden­ti­fied need for afford­able hous­ing. Policy 1.3b: New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment (Oth­er Hous­ing in the Coun­tryside) sup­ports hous­ing pro­pos­als on a rur­al brown­field site. Part of the applic­a­tion site is on a site of an exist­ing house. The prin­ciple of the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to be accept­able in accord­ance with the require­ments of Policy 1: New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015, sub­ject to the oth­er plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions out­lined below.

Land­scape Issues, Lay­out and Design

1. Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 pre­sumes against devel­op­ment which does not con­serve and enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park and in par­tic­u­lar the set­ting of the pro­posed devel­op­ment. This is rein­forced by Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design, which seeks to ensure that all new devel­op­ment is sym­path­et­ic to the tra­di­tion­al pat­tern and char­ac­ter of the sur­round­ing areas, loc­al ver­nacu­lar and loc­al distinctiveness.

2. The over­all the approach to land­scap­ing of the site is con­sidered appro­pri­ate, sit­ting well with­in the wider land­scape con­trib­ut­ing to both visu­al amen­ity and enhan­cing biod­iversity. This is sup­por­ted by sub­mit­ted Land­scape Visu­al Impact Assess­ment that con­cluded that pro­pos­als will have a low impact on the land­scape at loc­al level only and a low impact on visu­al recept­ors close to the site.

3. Sub­ject to appro­pri­ate plan­ning con­di­tions to ensure the approv­al of final details of land­scap­ing, lay­out and design, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to accord with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 21/02/2020

Envir­on­ment­al Impacts

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

2. The Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) for the applic­a­tion con­cludes that the devel­op­ment will not res­ult in an increase in dis­turb­ance to Caper­cail­lie so will not have an impact on European SPA sites des­ig­nated for Caper­cail­lie. The HRA also con­cludes that with the use of an appro­pri­ate con­di­tion to con­trol waste water dis­charge, the pro­pos­al will not have adverse effects on the site integ­rity of the River Spey SAC.

3. Fur­ther con­di­tions can be applied to ensure that impacts on oth­er spe­cies and hab­it­ats are avoided and neces­sary mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures incor­por­ated in the devel­op­ment so the applic­a­tion is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Flood­ing and Sur­face Water Drainage

1. Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Policy 10: Resources requires that all devel­op­ment should be free from sig­ni­fic­ant risk of flood­ing, not increase the risk of flood­ing else­where, not add to the area of land requir­ing flood pre­ven­tion meas­ures and not affect the abil­ity of the func­tion­al flood plain to store or move flood waters. This policy also requires that all devel­op­ment should avoid det­ri­ment­al impacts on the water envir­on­ment, with exist­ing and poten­tial impacts up and down­stream of the devel­op­ment, par­tic­u­larly in respect of poten­tial flood­ing, to be addressed. It pre­sumes against unne­ces­sary cul­vert­ing of water­courses and any unne­ces­sary engin­eer­ing works in the water envir­on­ment. This policy also requires that sur­face water be treated in accord­ance with the SUDS manual.

2. The pro­pos­als will not increase flood risk and incor­por­ate appro­pri­ate SUDS. Although High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning team con­tin­ue to object to the detail of sur­face water drain­age form roads, this is on the basis that the details are not to an adopt­able stand­ard. A con­di­tion can be applied to ensure that details are sub­mit­ted for approv­al that com­ply with the council’s require­ments. Sub­ject to an appro­pri­ate con­di­tion regard­ing amended details of detailed drain­age design and roads drain­age infra­struc­ture the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Ser­vi­cing and Access

1. Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 set out the need for new devel­op­ment to be sat­is­fact­or­ily ser­viced and without harm to resources or the environment.

2. The prin­ciple of a road access to the site form the C1128 minor road is con­sidered accept­able sub­ject to main­ten­ance of an appro­pri­ate vis­ib­il­ity splay. The intern­al lay­out of new road for adop­tion and private access tracks is also considered

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 21/02/2020

accept­able. The High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team con­tin­ue to object to the fine detail of a num­ber of ele­ments of road infra­struc­ture includ­ing the loc­a­tion of vis­it­or car park­ing and adop­ted road turn­ing head in addi­tion to the roads drain­age. Some of the issues they raise will be addressed through the sep­ar­ate Roads Con­struc­tion Con­sent (RCC) pro­cess that the applic­ant will need to apply for sep­ar­ately. The road turn­ing head, revised park­ing pro­vi­sion for vis­it­ors cars and addi­tion­al passing places on private tracks can be addressed through a con­di­tion for a revised roads lay­out plan.

1. The abil­ity for res­id­ents to travel to nearby facil­it­ies without the need for private car has been an import­ant con­sid­er­a­tion in this applic­a­tion. The full details of foot­path pro­vi­sion toward Boat of Garten and the BSW saw­mill site have not been provided with the applic­a­tion, but both are cap­able of being delivered on land with­in the con­trol of the applic­ant. A sus­pens­ive con­di­tion that pre­vents devel­op­ment until detailed con­sents for those paths have been approved and a fur­ther con­sent that pre­vents occu­pa­tion of any dwell­ings until the con­struc­tion of those paths have been com­pleted, will provide assur­ance that these neces­sary parts of infra­struc­ture are provided as part of the over­all development.

2. Sub­ject to appro­pri­ate con­di­tions, the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Developer Con­tri­bu­tions

1. Policy 11: Developer Con­tri­bu­tions of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 sets out that where devel­op­ment gives rise to a need to increase or improve pub­lic ser­vices, facil­it­ies or infra­struc­ture or mit­ig­ate adverse effects then the developer will nor­mally be required to make a fair and reas­on­able con­tri­bu­tion towards addi­tion­al costs or require­ments. The devel­op­ment is not pre­dicted to have an impact on the capa­city of Boat of Garten Primary School or Grant­own Gram­mar School and no con­tri­bu­tion is con­sidered neces­sary. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 11: Developer Con­tri­bu­tions of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Oth­er Issues Raised in Con­sulta­tions and Representations

1. A num­ber of con­cerns and com­ments were raised in rela­tion to the path connection