Item8AABlairAtholl20190263DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 11/10/2019

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PRO­POSED: Erec­tion of 8 dwell­ing­houses, install­a­tion of replace­ment bridge and asso­ci­ated works (revised design) at Land 40 Metres North Of Little Orch­ard, Blair Atholl

REF­ER­ENCE: 2019/0263/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Atholl Estates

DATE CALLED-IN: 19 August 2019

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve sub­ject to Conditions

CASE OFFICER: Kath­er­ine Don­nach­ie (Plan­ning Officer)

CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site 0 12.5 25 Meters 50 N tore M Seona Health Centre THE SQUARE Sub Sta 5 Old Mill Cot­tage つっ Meml Hotel POPC Clach na b‑Jobairt M Ford FB Garry­side 4 G CH Cot­tages Π SP 7 SB Vie­whill 13 11 Mill House Cottage

1. 17 27 .21 FORD ROAD 10 2 10 The Shiel­ing El Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2019. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber 100040965 Mill 2 Mill House Saw­mill Cot­tage MP 35 CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 11/10/2019 Little Orch­ard View Tul­loch Dun­nock Cot­tage Clín­ic Hillview Lindora

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The applic­a­tion site com­prises a roughly tri­an­gu­lar shaped, open area of fairly level vacant grass­land with­in Blair Atholl under­stood to be formerly part of the yard for the old mill to the west. The site lies imme­di­ately to the south of the main Inverness Perth Rail­way line, sep­ar­ated from this line by an embank­ment. On the oth­er (north) side of the rail­way there is park­land. The site leads east­wards towards the River Tilt, and there is an inform­al path run­ning along­side the site lead­ing down to the river by the River Tilt Rail­way via­duct, which is a cat­egory B lis­ted build­ing of archi­tec­tur­al and his­tor­ic importance.
2. Imme­di­ately to the west of the pro­posed site is a dwell­ing house that has recently been com­pleted and occu­pied and bey­ond this is the Water­mill café and mill with car park­ing adja­cent. This mill build­ing is also a cat­egory B lis­ted build­ing of archi­tec­tur­al and his­tor­ic importance.
3. The site is accessed via a sur­faced private road lead­ing from Ford Road to the west over an exist­ing bridge to serve the applic­a­tion site and exist­ing hous­ing and build­ings. This access road runs along the south­ern bound­ary and there are vari­ous tra­di­tion­al build­ings lin­ing it.
4. This site is loc­ated with­in Blair Atholl Con­ser­va­tion Area and the River Tilt lies to the east which is part of a Spe­cial Area of Conservation.

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=PW9XK2SI0CH00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Loc­a­tion Plan	LOCI	13/12/2016	19/08/2019
Site Plan as Pro­posed (PV Panels)	P05 REV A	30/07/2019	19/08/2019
Site Plan Right of Way Tem­por­ary Diver­sion Proposal	P03 REV A	6/11/2017	19/08/2019
Pub­lic Access Statement	4734	21/11/2017	19/08/2019
Site Plan as Existing	E01	31/05/2017	19/08/2019
Pro­posed Site Plan – Sur­face Materials	600221-DG-0002-T2	01/02/2016	19/08/2019
Land­scape Layout	C1750.001 REVE	01/08/2019	19/08/2019
Plant Sched­ule	C1750.PSI REV A	01/08/2019	19/08/2019
5 Year Land­scape Main­ten­ance Pro­gramme Schedule	C1750.MP2	01/11/2017	19/08/2019

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Plant­ing Details Main­ten­ance Sched­ule and Plant Schedule	C1750.002	01/11/2017	19/08/2019
Drain­age and Flood Risk Assessment	6000221-REP-0002 – 01	04/09/2017	19/08/2019
Flood Rout­ing Plans	600221-DG-0032-P3	04/09/2017	19/08/2019
Roof Plans	P09 — REV A	29/07/2019	19/08/2019
Sol­ar Vol­ta­ic Panels			19/08/2019
Bridge — Con­struc­tion Meth­od Statement		01/06/2019	19/08/2019
Struc­tur­al Details 01B	01.B	01/03/2019	19/08/2019
Struc­tur­al Details 02A	02A	01/03/2019	19/08/2019
Struc­tur­al Details 03A	03A	01/03/2019	19/08/2019
Site Loc­a­tion Plan — Water­mill Bridge		01/03/2019	29/08/2019
Remedi­ation Strategy – Phase				1040−001−03	28/02/2019	29/08/2019
Hydraul­ic Bridge and Cul­vert Assessment	600221-CAL-0004 – 03	24/06/2019	29/08/2019
Mid Lade Photo Exhibit	600221-DG-0125-P2	28/06/2019	29/08/2019
Exist­ing and Pro­posed Bridge Plans and Sections	600221-DG-0150-PI	05/08/2019	29/08/2019
Bridge Hand­rail Sketch			29/08/2019
Met­al Hand­rail With Mesh Infill			29/08/2019
Appoint­ment of ECOW	4734÷20190621−154755−447	21/06/2019	29/08/2019
Fin­ishes For Bridge	4734÷20190723−152404−689	23/06/2019	29/08/2019
Meth­od State­ment Ver­sion 2	MS REV 2	05/08/2019	29/08/2019
Demoli­tion Meth­od Statement	MS June 2019	01/06/2019	19/08/2019
Anti-Pol­lu­tion		01/06/2019	19/08/2019
Plan/​Environmental Mit­ig­a­tion Statement
Hous­ing — Con­struc­tion Meth­od Statement		01/06/2019	19/08/2019
Design State­ment	4734	15/06/2019	19/08/2019
Eco­lo­gic­al Sur­vey Report		07/06/2019	19/08/2019
Hydraul­ic Bridge Assessment	600221-CAL-004 – 01	24/06/19	19/08/2019
Lade Visu­al­isa­tion			19/08/2019
Noise and Vibra­tion Impact Assessment	R‑7803-GH-MI	02/05/2017	19/08/2019
Con­tam­in­ated Land Remedi­ation Report	1040−002−04−01	20/06/2019	19/08/2019
Units I and 2 Plans Sec­tions and Elev­a­tions (PV Panels)	P06 REV A	17/07/2019	19/08/2019

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Units 3 to 8 Plans Sec­tions and Elev­a­tions (PV Panels)	P07 REV A	17/07/2019	19/08/2019
Mater­i­al Samples of Extern­al Finishes	P08	16/07/2019	19/08/2019
Plant Sched­ule	C1750.PSI REV A	01/05/2019	19/08/2019
Sur­face Water SUDS Details 2	600221-DRG-0012-P2	17/07/2019	19/08/2019
Water Envir­on­ment Photos			19/08/2019

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

1. Plan­ning con­sent was gran­ted in 2018 for eight, two-bed­roomed houses on this site. The cur­rent pro­pos­al seeks full plan­ning per­mis­sion for a revised devel­op­ment. The key changes may be sum­mar­ised as fol­lows: a) Install­a­tion of ​“in roof” photo­vol­ta­ic (PV) pan­els on the south­ern facing (front) elev­a­tions of the hous­ing blocks. This will take the form of a block of pan­els on the front of the two semi-detached units and four blocks of PV pan­els on the front of the ter­raced units; b) Amend­ments to the front porch design to provide a sim­pler lean-to design; c) Changes to the fin­ishes of the park­ing lay­out to have a slightly enlarged park­ing area extend­ing south­wards to the access road, and largely tar­macked as opposed to the lockblock park­ing and tar­macked turn­ing pro­vi­sion pre­vi­ously shown; and d) Changes to pre­vi­ously approved land­scape scheme which prin­cip­ally involve redu­cing the amount of pro­posed tree plant­ing, and remov­ing pro­posed hedging along west­ern site boundary.
2. These pro­pos­als are illus­trated in the plans con­tained in Appendix I – Plans. Plans of the ori­gin­ally approved elev­a­tions and lay­out are attached as Appendix 2 – Ori­gin­al Plans. All sus­pens­ive plan­ning con­di­tions asso­ci­ated with this ori­gin­al con­sent have been dis­charged and ini­tial work has star­ted on site in terms of access arrangements.
3. The applic­ants con­tac­ted the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity to ask if the changes now pro­posed could be dealt with as non-mater­i­al vari­ations to this ori­gin­al con­sent. Whilst some of the changes were con­sidered to be non-mater­i­al the pro­pos­al for new photo­vol­ta­ic pan­els on the roofs with­in a Con­ser­va­tion Area were con­sidered to be mater­i­ally dif­fer­ent whereby plan­ning con­sent was required.
4. The over­all lay­out remains unchanged in that the pos­i­tion­ing of the hous­ing units is the same, laid out in two blocks, one sep­ar­ate build­ing of two semi- detached houses in the north-west por­tion of the site, and a second ter­raced build­ing of six units set to the north of the access road. A park­ing area is still pro­posed in the south west part of the site in front of the semi-detached block. Fin­ishes are now pro­posed as being all tar­mac as opposed to the pre­vi­ously shown dif­fer­en­ti­ation of car park­ing fin­ished in grav­elled pav­ing with the main turn­ing area tarred. Two small areas of amen­ity land pre­vi­ously iden­ti­fied for SUDs have been relo­cated to the west­ern side of the new build­ings. Inform­al foot­path access through to the River Tilt to the east is to be retained. No street light­ing is pro­posed at the site.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8

1. The ter­raced block is to be built on a slight curve to fol­low the nat­ur­al line of the access lane here with fur­ther road­side park­ing provided along this front­age. All prop­er­ties will have covered entrances with ramped access. Changes to these covered entrances are now pro­posed which sim­pli­fy the design by provid­ing a lean to arrange­ment instead.
2. The pro­posed hous­ing is inten­ded to be ren­ted out as afford­able hous­ing with the aid of the Scot­tish Government’s Rur­al Hous­ing Fund in order to provide afford­able accom­mod­a­tion for loc­al res­id­ents. The Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment has agreed to fund feas­ib­il­ity work in rela­tion to this scheme for the pro­posed devel­op­ment and it will have to com­ply with the terms of the rur­al hous­ing fund scheme in order to receive sup­port from the Fund. These terms seek to ensure that rent levels are afford­able, equat­ing to what is gen­er­ally known as inter­me­di­ate or mid-mar­ket rental.
3. The pro­posed houses are all of single-storey, hipped-roof design with front pitched roof porch details along with lean-to porch fea­tures. Pro­posed fin­ishes are still white rough­cast walls and tim­ber detail­ing, and grey nat­ur­al slates roofs. Zinc roof­ing is pro­posed to pick out entrance fea­tures and the porch roofs. The doors and win­dows will be wood painted white, with black UPVC rain­wa­ter goods.
4. Low-key land­scap­ing is still pro­posed although the detail­ing has changed since the ori­gin­al approv­al. Site bound­ar­ies are also low-key, being post and wire fencing.
5. Con­nec­tion is pro­posed to pub­lic water and drain­age sup­plies with sur­face water to be dis­posed of via a SUDS scheme com­pris­ing fil­ter trenches and bio-reten­tion. The exist­ing access is to be used with a new bridge con­struc­ted imme­di­ately to the north of the exist­ing bridge which will be removed. This is in order to facil­it­ate emer­gency vehicles and improved access. Work has com­menced on this on site. A tarred entrance into the applic­a­tion site of this exist­ing access lane with turn­ing head in the site is proposed.
6. The ori­gin­al applic­a­tion was sup­por­ted by a num­ber of doc­u­ments includ­ing: a) Eco­lo­gic­al Sur­vey Report; b) Phase 2 Site Invest­ig­a­tion Report; c) Drain­age and flood risk assess­ment; d) Design State­ment; e) Noise and Vibra­tion Impact Assess­ment; f) Visu­al­isa­tions of the pro­posed devel­op­ment; g) Land­scape scheme and main­ten­ance details; and h) Inform­a­tion to show how meas­ures will be taken to ensure ped­es­tri­an access to the River Tilt is main­tained dur­ing con­struc­tion, along oth­er access lanes to the south.
7. Fur­ther to the grant­ing of the ori­gin­al con­sent mater­i­al was sub­mit­ted to ful­fil all sus­pens­ive con­di­tions as noted earli­er. This approved mater­i­al has been sub­mit­ted with the cur­rent applic­a­tion for com­plete­ness. This is because, if approved, this cur­rent applic­a­tion will be a stan­dalone con­sent whereby it is import­ant that all rel­ev­ant mater­i­al forms part of any permission.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8

His­tory

1. The erec­tion of 8 dwell­ing­houses for the land 40 metres north of Little Orch­ard in Blair Atholl was gran­ted plan­ning per­mis­sion sub­ject to con­di­tions at the April 2018 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee meet­ing (2017/0264/DET).
2. Pri­or to this there was no recent form­al plan­ning his­tory on the site. Pre-applic­a­tion advice on the poten­tial for hous­ing devel­op­ment here was sought in 2016 to which the CNPA input via Perth and Kinross Council.

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	X
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

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 start, the Pro­posed Plan and its con­tents cur­rently carry lim­ited weight. In addi­tion, pro­pos­als and policies which received heavy objec­tion fol­low­ing the pub­lic con­sulta­tion pro­cess are afforded even less weight.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8

1. The site is not covered by any spe­cif­ic des­ig­na­tion in either the Pro­posed Plan or the adop­ted Loc­al Devel­op­ment but lies with­in the set­tle­ment boundary.

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 | X | | Policy 10 | Resources Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance | X | | Policy 11 | Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance | X |

CON­SULTA­TIONS Sum­mary of the main issues raised by Consultees

1. Net­work Rail was con­sul­ted in view of the prox­im­ity to the rail­way line. The agency has no objec­tions in prin­ciple to the revised pro­pos­al, but due to the close prox­im­ity to the rail­way line requests that cer­tain mat­ters are taken into account to ensure that con­struc­tion is under­taken in a safe man­ner which does not dis­turb the oper­a­tion of the rail­way. Accord­ingly they will require details of all changes in ground levels, lay­ing of found­a­tions, and oper­a­tion of mech­an­ic­al plant in prox­im­ity to the rail line to be sub­mit­ted to Net­work Rail’s Asset Pro­tec­tion Engin­eer for approv­al pri­or to works com­men­cing on site. They advise that this can be covered by an advis­ory note if the applic­a­tion is supported.
2. Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Her­it­age was con­sul­ted on the ori­gin­al applic­a­tion in rela­tion to des­ig­nated sites in the area and had no comments.
3. Scot­tish Water has no objec­tion to the applic­a­tion. They pre­vi­ously advised that there is suf­fi­cient water sup­ply for the pro­posed devel­op­ment in the Kil­liecrankie water treat­ment works. They were unable to con­firm capa­city with­in the Blair Atholl waste water treat­ment works until a Pre-Devel­op­ment Enquiry form was sub­mit­ted by the applic­ant. They fur­ther noted that they would not accept a sur­face water con­nec­tion to their sew­er­age network.
4. SEPA was ori­gin­ally con­sul­ted as the site lies with­in an area of medi­um prob­ab­il­ity sur­face flood­ing. The Agency had no objec­tion on flood risk grounds and reques­ted a con­di­tion be attached to ensure that the capa­city of the new bridge is the same as the bridge that is being replaced to ensure that there was a neut­ral effect on flood risk. A

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8

con­di­tion was duly attached and the sub­mit­ted details approved in con­sulta­tion with SEPA and the Coun­cil Flood Pre­ven­tion Team.

1. His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land was con­sul­ted as the site has the poten­tial to affect the Blair Castle garden and designed land­scape des­ig­na­tion and has no comment.
2. Perth and Kinross Council’s Con­ser­va­tion Officer was con­sul­ted and has no objec­tions to the proposal.
3. Perth and Kinross Council’s Con­tam­in­ated Land Team pre­vi­ously advised that a pre­lim­in­ary risk assess­ment be under­taken giv­en the pre­vi­ous uses of the site and sur­round­ing area (saw­mill on site and gas­works to south) which may have affected the poten­tial for res­id­en­tial use. A plan­ning con­di­tion was duly attached and the sub­mit­ted details approved in con­sulta­tion with the Team.
4. Perth and Kinross Council’s Envir­on­ment­al Health Team was con­sul­ted on the ori­gin­al applic­a­tion and con­sidered that double glaz­ing as sug­ges­ted by the applic­ants was suf­fi­cient to address any poten­tial noise issues from the railway.
5. Perth and Kinross Council’s Struc­tures and Flood­ing Team is sat­is­fied with the pro­pos­als, not­ing that arrange­ments for the sof­fit level of the pro­posed replace­ment bridge have already been agreed with the pre­vi­ous applic­a­tion (2017/0263/DET).
6. Perth and Kinross Council’s Strategy and Policy Team noted that the devel­op­ment is inten­ded to be ren­ted out with the aid of the Rur­al Hous­ing Fund as low cost hous­ing. Perth and Kinross Coun­cil has sup­por­ted this pro­ject via the rur­al hous­ing fund pro­cess and will con­tin­ue dia­logue with the applic­ant to ensure the afford­able cri­ter­ia is met They have also re-con­firmed that there are no capa­city issues with respect to the primary school edu­ca­tion and no developer con­tri­bu­tions will be required.
7. Perth and Kinross Council’s Trans­port Plan­ning Team was con­sul­ted and do not have any comments.
8. CNPA Eco­logy Officer was con­sul­ted on the ori­gin­al applic­a­tion and was gen­er­ally sat­is­fied with the mater­i­al sub­mit­ted sub­ject to con­di­tions being attached relat­ing to con­struc­tion meth­od state­ments and land­scap­ing. This inform­a­tion was secured by con­di­tion and mater­i­al sub­mit­ted duly approved.
9. CNPA Land­scape Officer was con­sul­ted on the ori­gin­al applic­a­tion and con­sidered the devel­op­ment to be in char­ac­ter of the sur­round­ing area provid­ing vari­ety was intro­duced through land­scap­ing and bound­ary enclos­ure treat­ment along with using the pro­posed SUDS scheme to enhance biod­iversity and land­scape interests and cre­ate a more ​“relaxed” lay­out. This inform­a­tion was provided and forms part of the approved applic­a­tion and conditions.
10. CNPA Out­door Access Team was con­sul­ted on the ori­gin­al applic­a­tion and inform­a­tion to ensure that pub­lic access was main­tained to the River Tilt dur­ing and

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8

post-con­struc­tion. Mater­i­al was sub­mit­ted and approved dur­ing the con­sid­er­a­tion of the application.

1. Blair Atholl and Stru­an Com­munity Coun­cil was con­sul­ted on the ori­gin­al applic­a­tion and offered strong sup­port for the devel­op­ment, con­sid­er­ing that it would cre­ate needed new hous­ing in the vil­lage on a site which was unlikely to attract a con­ven­tion­al developer.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. No rep­res­ent­a­tions have been received.

APPRAIS­AL Principle

1. The prin­ciple of hous­ing devel­op­ment with­in a des­ig­nated set­tle­ment is well estab­lished by Policy I: New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015. This sets out in Policy 1.1 Hous­ing in Set­tle­ments that all new hous­ing devel­op­ments with­in set­tle­ments will be sup­por­ted where they occur with­in a des­ig­nated site or where they rein­force and enhance the char­ac­ter of the set­tle­ment max­im­ising oppor­tun­it­ies for infill, con­ver­sion, small scale devel­op­ment, use of derel­ict or under­used land or the redevel­op­ment of land. The devel­op­ment site read­ily com­plies with these prin­ciples being loc­ated with­in Blair Atholl and using a vacant site loc­ated adja­cent to exist­ing res­id­en­tial uses.
2. The site is also well loc­ated in terms of the amen­it­ies and facil­it­ies of Blair Atholl, being with­in ready walk­ing dis­tance of these. As such is con­sidered to be a sus­tain­able loc­a­tion com­ply­ing fully with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 which seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment is sited to make sus­tain­able use of resources.
3. In addi­tion it is import­ant to note that the prin­ciple of the hous­ing devel­op­ment is also already well estab­lished through the grant­ing of plan­ning per­mis­sion in 2018.
4. In these over­all cir­cum­stances the prin­ciple of this devel­op­ment is well estab­lished and com­plies with policy provid­ing the detail of the cur­rent pro­pos­als is sat­is­fact­ory. In this regard the ser­vi­cing, gen­er­al lay­out and design is already agreed with an exist­ing live con­sent in place whereby it is only the detail of the changes now pro­posed that is up for consideration.

Land­scape Impacts, Design and Layout

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. Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment also seeks to ensure that new devel­op­ment is suit­ably designed and sym­path­et­ic to the pat­tern and char­ac­ter of the sur­round­ing area.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8

1. The site is dis­cretely loc­ated with­in Blair Atholl, adja­cent to the rail­way line and oth­er build­ings and hous­ing. It forms an obvi­ous devel­op­ment site and as noted with the pre­vi­ous applic­a­tion care­fully designed hous­ing with suit­able land­scap­ing would read­ily com­ply with policy 5. Work was car­ried out to ensure that a good stand­ard of land­scap­ing was achieved with the pre­vi­ous applic­a­tion. The cur­rent sub­mis­sion now shows some changes to land­scap­ing which will involve few­er trees being planted and remov­al of pro­posed hedging.
2. This is not con­sidered to be ideal for the site and fur­ther dis­cus­sion is required to ensure that a suit­able level of land­scap­ing is imple­men­ted appro­pri­ate to the loc­a­tion. This should be read­ily cap­able of res­ol­u­tion and can be addressed by an appro­pri­ate plan­ning con­di­tion in the event of the applic­a­tion being approved. On this basis in land­scape terms the applic­a­tion is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 5.
3. Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment affect­ing lis­ted build­ings has no adverse effect on the struc­ture or the set­ting, and con­serves and enhances the struc­ture and the con­tri­bu­tion it makes to the cul­tur­al her­it­age of the Nation­al Park. The policy also requires the lay­out, design, scale, sit­ing and use of the devel­op­ment to be appro­pri­ate to its char­ac­ter and set­ting and that devel­op­ment in a Con­ser­va­tion Area enhances its char­ac­ter. Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design sim­il­arly requires devel­op­ment to be sym­path­et­ic­ally designed and sus­tain­able and to rein­force and enhance the char­ac­ter of the settlement.
4. In this regard the pro­posed site is loc­ated with­in a Con­ser­va­tion Area close to lis­ted build­ings and it was pre­vi­ously con­sidered that the mod­est scale of the build­ings, with ter­raced houses front­ing the site to reflect the build­ings lines oppos­ite and the semi- detached block set back into the site, reflec­ted the inform­al lay­out of this part of the Con­ser­va­tion Area. Pro­posed fin­ishes were also con­sidered to be entirely appro­pri­ate to the area along with the pro­pos­al for com­mun­al land­scap­ing and open areas.
5. The cur­rent pro­pos­als for sol­ar PV pan­els on the south­ern aspect of the roofs would be unlikely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant impact upon the land­scape char­ac­ter of the area or the char­ac­ter of this part of the Con­ser­va­tion area. Sim­il­arly the minor changes to the porch design are entirely accept­able. The Perth and Kinross Coun­cil Con­ser­va­tion Officer con­curs with this view rais­ing no objec­tions to the pro­pos­als. As such the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with policy.
6. Finally, the pro­pos­als for sol­ar PV pan­els on the south­ern aspect of the roofs fur­ther sup­ports Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 which seeks to make sus­tain­able use of resources, includ­ing energy.

Amen­ity Issues

1. In terms of res­id­en­tial amen­ity Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 seeks to ensure that new devel­op­ment pro­tects the amen­ity cur­rently enjoyed by neighbours.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8

1. In this regard the houses, which in terms of sit­ing remain unchanged, are suf­fi­ciently dis­tant from oth­er res­id­en­tial prop­er­ties to ensure no loss of amen­ity. Amen­ity in respect of the poten­tial for noise nuis­ance from the rail­way can con­tin­ue to be safe­guarded by the install­a­tion of double glaz­ing through plan­ning con­di­tion. Accord­ingly the applic­a­tion is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design.

Afford­able Hous­ing and Developer Contributions

1. Policy 1.4: Con­tri­bu­tion towards Afford­able Hous­ing of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 requires that pro­vi­sion gen­er­ally be made for 25% afford­able hous­ing pro­vi­sion on sites. This is exceeded with the cur­rent sub­mis­sion which is effect­ively for 100% afford­able ren­ted housing.
2. The hous­ing will con­tin­ue to be ren­ted in accord­ance with the Scot­tish Government’s Rur­al Hous­ing Fund require­ments, the pur­pose of which is to increase the sup­ply of afford­able hous­ing in rur­al areas. This will help ensure that rents remain afford­able and suit­able plan­ning con­di­tions can be attached again to this end. On this basis the pro­pos­als are con­sidered to com­ply with policy on afford­able housing.
3. Policy 11: Developer Con­tri­bu­tions of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 set 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.
4. The impacts of the devel­op­ment have been pre­vi­ously con­sidered and it was con­sidered that there are no capa­city issues with primary edu­ca­tion. There was also not con­sidered to be any impacts which would require oth­er com­munity facil­it­ies or ser­vices to be improved or increased. Indeed the intro­duc­tion of new res­id­ents should help sup­port the facil­it­ies of the vil­lage. In these cir­cum­stances the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 11: Developer Contributions.

Envir­on­ment­al Impacts

1. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 seeks to ensure that there is no adverse impact upon pro­tec­ted spe­cies or biodiversity.
2. Impacts on eco­lo­gic­al interests were fully con­sidered with the pre­vi­ous live applic­a­tion and appro­pri­ate con­di­tions attached and dis­charged to secure envir­on­ment­al protection.
3. Land­scap­ing of the site provides an ideal oppor­tun­ity to enhance biod­iversity with com­ments made by the CNPA her­it­age team pre­vi­ously taken on board to achieve this, and the oppor­tun­ity taken to ensure that the arrange­ments for sur­face water dis­pos­al incor­por­ated meas­ures to enhance biod­iversity. Sub­ject to some minor changes as noted earli­er the land­scap­ing may read­ily achieve these object­ives and on this basis the applic­a­tion is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Heritage.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8

1. Giv­en the pre­vi­ous use of the site Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 is also rel­ev­ant in respect of envir­on­ment­al impacts. This requires that assess­ment is car­ried out in rela­tion to any devel­op­ment affect­ing con­tam­in­ated land with appro­pri­ate remedi­al actions taken as neces­sary depend­ing on the out­come of invest­ig­a­tions. This mat­ter was resolved with the pre­vi­ous applic­a­tion and con­di­tions to ensure imple­ment­a­tion of all agreed meas­ures can be attached in the event of the applic­a­tion being supported.
2. Finally, with respect to envir­on­ment­al issues, Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 also requires that new devel­op­ment should be free from flood risk. This mat­ter was fully assessed with the pre­vi­ous applic­a­tion and the imple­ment­a­tion of the agreed details can be secured by plan­ning condition.

Renew­able Energy

1. Policy 8: Renew­able Energy of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 requires pro­pos­als for renew­able energy to be con­sidered favour­ably where they con­trib­ute pos­it­ively to the min­im­isa­tion of cli­mate change, com­ple­ment the sus­tain­ab­il­ity cre­den­tials of the devel­op­ment, and where they con­serve and enhance the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park
2. Policy 7: Renew­able Energy Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance sets out that sol­ar energy pro­pos­als require to be assessed against all of the policies includ­ing the inclu­sion of loc­a­tion­al and design assess­ments. Pro­pos­als need to ensure that adequate con­sid­er­a­tion has been giv­en to the impact on the site, the wider impacts on the sur­round­ings, the impact on the Nation­al Park and its spe­cial qual­it­ies, and the impact on loc­al com­munit­ies. Due to the small scale of the pro­posed PV sol­ar pan­els the impact on the site and the wider sur­round­ings are unlikely to be sig­ni­fic­ant and as noted earli­er the land­scape impacts are con­sidered to be sat­is­fact­ory. The devel­op­ment is there­fore con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 8.

Ser­vi­cing

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. Again ser­vi­cing in term of pub­lic water, drain­age, access/​parking and pub­lic access was fully con­sidered with the pre­vi­ous applic­a­tion and arrange­ments remain unchanged. The applic­a­tion is there­fore con­sidered to com­ply fully with policy.
2. In terms of over­all vehicu­lar access to the site involving erec­tion of a new bridge and remov­al of the exist­ing bridge, this was con­sidered to be sat­is­fact­ory by the tech­nic­al con­sul­tee at the time and, as noted by the Roads Author­ity, the cur­rent pro­pos­als do not change this.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8

CON­CLU­SION

1. The prin­ciple of the hous­ing devel­op­ment has been pre­vi­ously approved through grant­ing of plan­ning per­mis­sion sub­ject to con­di­tions (2017/0264/DET). The cur­rent applic­a­tion pro­poses minor changes to this per­mis­sion which are con­sidered to be entirely accept­able sub­ject to ensur­ing land­scap­ing remains of a good stand­ard. The pro­posed devel­op­ment will provide new afford­able hous­ing, well-loc­ated and well in excess of policy require­ments with­in the vil­lage of Blair Atholl which is greatly wel­comed. Build­ing new hous­ing of appro­pri­ate design, lay­out and scale, as proposed,