Item8AADalfaberHousingReport20210307DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 25/02/2022

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PRO­POSED: Erec­tion of 9 houses, gar­ages, re-align­ment of road and land­scap­ing at Land 75M SE Of Paw Prints, Cor­rour Road, Aviemore

REF­ER­ENCE: 2021/0307/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Sco­tia Homes Ltd

DATE CALLED-IN: 11 Octo­ber 2021

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve sub­ject to conditions

CASE OFFICER: Alan Atkins — Plan­ning Officer

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CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site 0 40 80 Meters Ring Cairn m N 160 14 Brew­ery LCCH Dal­faber 23 26 60 Dal­faber Drive Track Cor­rour-Road Track CH Pit (dis) CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 25/02/2022 Track More Road Beinn Ghuil­binn / Ben Goolabin 212m Drain ■ Dal­faber Vil­lage Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2021. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber 100040965 210m 205m CNPA Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2018 Ord­nance Sur­vey 100040965 2

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 25/02/2022

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. This applic­a­tion relates to land which lies with­in a site alloc­ated for hous­ing under H2 with­in the adop­ted Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. The over­all area of the site extends to 11.2 hec­tares and lies to the north east of Aviemore, 350m west of the River Spey. The site is with­in the Cairngorm Moun­tain Nation­al Scen­ic Area.

2. The over­all area of land is bounded to the north-west, west and south-west by exist­ing res­id­en­tial devel­op­ments in Dal­faber. The char­ac­ter of these res­id­en­tial areas var­ies from detached prop­er­ties set with­in indi­vidu­al plots to the north with high­er dens­ity semi-detached prop­er­ties, hol­i­day lodges and ​‘four-plex’ units to the south. The sites are bounded by the golf course and open land to the east and south, which includes wood­land and grass­land habitats.

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=R0518ZSI0BY00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
PLANS
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan	3920/K2/00 ‑0/H	05/09/21	11/10/21
Plan — Site Lay­out Plan	3920/K2/00 _03C	05/09/21	11/10/21
Plan — Floor Elev­a­tion Plan	3920/K2-07	28/11/17	11/10/21
Plan — Gar­age Plan	3920÷03÷10 0	Sept 2021	11/10/21
Plan — Gen­er­al Plan	3920/K2/02 ‑06A	28/11/17	11/10/21
Plan — Gen­er­al Plan	3920/K2/02 ‑08A	28/11/17	11/10/21
Plan — Gen­er­al Plan	3920/K2/02 ‑10A	28/11/17	11/10/21
Plan — Gen­er­al Plan	3920/K2/02 ‑13A	28/11/17	11/10/21
Plan — Gen­er­al Plan	3920/K2/02 ‑15A	28/11/17	11/10/21

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 25/02/2022

Plan — Gen­er­al Plan | 3920/K2/02 ‑16A | 28/11/17 | 11/10/21 Plan — Tree Pro­tec­tion Plan | DRA — 2166 ‑TP — 01 | 29/07/21 | 11/10/21 Plan — Land­scap­ing Plan | POI | July 2021 | 11/10/21 Plan — Gen­er­al Plant­ing Plan | PO2 | July 2021 | 11/10/21 Plan- Land­scape Strategy Plan | 334-POI‑B | | 28/01/2022 Plan — Detailed Plant­ing Pro­pos­als | 334-PO2‑B | | 28/01/2022 SUP­PORT­ING INFORM­A­TION | | | Archae­olo­gic­al Report | | | 11/10/21 Design State­ment | | | 11/10/21 Flood Risk Assess­ment Part I | | | 11/10/21 Flood Risk Assess­ment Part 2 | | | 11/10/21 Pre­lim­in­ary Eco­lo­gic­al Apprais­al | DRAV- 2107- PEA | | 11/10/21 Site Invest­ig­a­tion Report Part | | | 03/11/21 Site Invest­ig­a­tion Report Part 2 | | | 03/11/21 Site Invest­ig­a­tion Report Part 3 | | | 03/11/21 *Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the Ist of the month.

1. This applic­a­tion pro­poses the realign­ment of the primary access road into the site. This will now lie fur­ther to the south, provid­ing more space and pri­vacy to an exist­ing prop­erty (Paw­prints). The pro­pos­als also include the re-con­fig­ur­a­tion of sev­en new dwell­ings to the south site and a change in house type of six of these. Changes to the rear garden depths at plots 38 and 39 (adja­cent to the exist­ing farm­house) are also proposed.

2. Plans of the pro­pos­als are included in Appendix 1.

His­tory

1. There has been an extens­ive his­tory relat­ing to hous­ing devel­op­ment on this site, as follows:

Applic­a­tion ref­er­ence	Details	Out­come
05/101/CP	Devel­op­ment of 101 ser­viced house plots with asso­ci­ated roads, access points, ser­vices and land­scap­ing (out­line) at Dal­faber North, Aviemore	Refused on 16 Novem­ber 2006. Approv­al was gran­ted on appeal (ref­er­ence P/PPA/01/8) for up to 104 houses in total.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 25/02/2022

07/144/CP | Devel­op­ment of 20 ser­viced plots at Land North West of Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore. | Approved by Plan­ning Com­mit­tee sub­ject to a leg­al agree­ment; this was nev­er signed. Applic­ant appealed against non- determ­in­a­tion. Appeal allowed on 11 March 2010 (ref­er­ence PPA-001‑2000) 07/145/CP | Devel­op­ment of 104 houses at Land North West and South of Former Stead­ings, Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber, Aviemore | Approved by Plan­ning Com­mit­tee sub­ject to a leg­al agree­ment; this was nev­er signed. Applic­ant appealed against non- determ­in­a­tion. Appeal allowed on 11 March 2010 (ref­er­ence PPA-001‑2001). 10/028/CP | Sec­tion 42 applic­a­tion to extend time lim­it for approv­al of mat­ters spe­cified in con­di­tion per­mis­sion P/PPA/01/8 (05/101/CP) at Land North West of Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore | Applic­a­tion with­drawn 25 March 2010 10/063/CP | Reserved mat­ters applic­a­tion for 85 ser­viced plots P/PPA/01/8 (05/101/CP) at Land North West of Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore | Applic­a­tion with­drawn 25 March 2010. 2013/0073/MSC | Approv­al of Mat­ters Spe­cified in Con­di­tions of Plan­ning Per­mis­sion in Prin­ciple 07/144/CP at Land to the North West of Dal­faber Farm House, Aviemore | Applic­a­tion refused on leg­al grounds at Plan­ning Com­mit­tee on 19 Feb­ru­ary 2015. Appeal allowed on 21 March 2016 (ref­er­ence PPA-001‑2016) 2013/0074/MSC | Approv­al of Mat­ters Spe­cified in Con­di­tions of Plan­ning Per­mis­sion in Prin­ciple — 07/0145/CP at Land North West and South of Former Stead­ings Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore. | Applic­a­tion refused on leg­al grounds at Plan­ning Com­mit­tee on 19 Feb­ru­ary 2015. Appeal allowed on 21 March 2016 (ref­er­ence PPA-001‑2017) 2014/0397/DET | Applic­a­tion under Sec­tion 42 to vary to con­di­tions I, 11, 12 and 21 on per­mis­sion ref PPA/001/200(07/93/OUTBS (07/144/CP)) at Land North West of Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore. | Not called in by CNPA. Applic­ant appealed against non-determ­in­a­tion by High­land Coun­cil. Appeal allowed on 21 March 2016 (ref­er­ence PPA-270- 2127). 2014/0399/DET | Applic­a­tion under Sec­tion 42 to vary con­di­tions I, 12, 13 and 22 of con­sent PPA/001/2001 (07/94/OUTBS (07/0145/CP)) at Land North West and South of Former Stead­ings, Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore | Not called in by CNPA. Applic­ant appealed against non-determ­in­a­tion by High­land Coun­cil. Appeal allowed on 21 March 2016 (ref­er­ence PPA-270‑2126).

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 25/02/2022

2017/0463/DET | Applic­a­tion to sat­is­fy Con­di­tion 2b of plan­ning per­mis­sions PPA-001‑2016 and PPA-001‑2017 for 75 res­id­en­tial units at Land North West of Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore. | Applic­a­tion with­drawn 9 May 2018. 2018/0183/MSC | Applic­a­tion to sat­is­fy the con­di­tions of Plan­ning Per­mis­sion PPA-270‑2127 for res­id­en­tial units at land to the South of Dal­faber Farm at Land South Of Dal­faber Farm Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore | Applic­a­tion approved. 2018/0184/MSC | Applic­a­tion to sat­is­fy the con­di­tions of Plan­ning Per­mis­sion PPA-270 – 2126 for res­id­en­tial units loc­ated at Land North West of Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore. | Applic­a­tion approved. 2019/0040/MSC | Applic­a­tion to install half bar­ri­ers to Dal­faber level cross­ing, in accord­ance with Con­di­tion 20© of 07/0093/OUTBS | Applic­a­tion approved. 2019/0041/MSC | Applic­a­tion to install half bar­ri­ers at Dal­faber level cross­ing, in accord­ance with Con­di­tion 21© of 07/00094/OUTBS | Applic­a­tion approved. 2019/0011/MSC | Applic­a­tion for alloc­a­tion of afford­able hous­ing units, in accord­ance with Con­di­tion 21 of 07/00093/OUTBS, in con­junc­tion with applic­a­tion ref­er­ence 18/06859/MSC. | Applic­a­tion approved. 2019/0042/MSC | Applic­a­tion for alloc­a­tion of afford­able hous­ing units, in accord­ance with Con­di­tion 22 of 07/00094/OUTBS, in con­junc­tion with applic­a­tion ref­er­ence 18/05857/MSC. | Applic­a­tion approved. 2019/0012/MSC | Applic­a­tion for the res­tor­a­tion of a dwell­ing house in accord­ance with Con­di­tion 23 of 07/00094/OUTBS (as amended by 14/03675/S420 | Applic­a­tion approved.

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al [HRA] has been under­taken (5÷08÷21) to con­sider the effects of the pro­pos­al upon the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the European Sites of the Cairngorms Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area. The full apprais­al is attached at Appendix 2.

2. The Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al con­cluded that the pro­posed devel­op­ment at Dal­faber is unlikely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the pro­tec­ted sites at the River Spey SAC and Kin­veachy Forest SPA. In this instance, the qual­i­fy­ing interests are fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel, sea lamprey, Atlantic sal­mon, Caper­cail­lie and Scot­tish cross­bill. The River Spey SAC is loc­ated across the well – used Spey Val­ley Golf Course, with no

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 25/02/2022

dir­ect water course con­nectiv­ity. Due to the inter­ven­ing golf course, and topo­graphy, there are no indir­ect effects likely from the pro­posed devel­op­ment, and asso­ci­ated infra­struc­ture. There, there are no effects on hab­it­ats and sup­port­ing pro­cesses of the qual­i­fy­ing interests.

DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN CONTEXT

Policies

Nation­al Policy	Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy 2014
Stra­tegic Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 — 2022
Loc­al Plan Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2021)
Those policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross
POLICY I	NEW HOUS­ING DEVELOPMENT	X
POLICY 2	SUP­PORT­ING ECO­NOM­IC GROWTH
POLICY 3	DESIGN AND PLACEMAKING	X
POLICY 4	NAT­UR­AL HERITAGE	X
POLICY 5	LAND­SCAPE	X
POLICY 6	THE SIT­ING AND DESIGN OF DIGIT­AL COM­MU­NIC­A­TIONS EQUIPMENT
POLICY 7	RENEW­ABLE ENERGY
POLICY 8	SPORT AND RECREATION
POLICY 9	CUL­TUR­AL HERITAGE
POLICY 10	RESOURCES	X
POLICY 11	DEVELOPER CON­TRI­BU­TIONS	X

1. All new devel­op­ment pro­pos­als require to be assessed in rela­tion to policies con­tained in the adop­ted Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. The full word­ing of policies can be found at:

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

Plan­ning Guidance

1. Sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance also forms part of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan and provides more details about how to com­ply with the policies. Guid­ance that is rel­ev­ant to this applic­a­tion is marked with a cross.

Policy		X
Policy I	New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance (2015)	X
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 3	Sus­tain­able Design Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance (2015)	X
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance	X
Policy 5	Land­scape Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 7	Renew­able Energy Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance
Policy 8	Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 25/02/2022

Policy 11 | Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance (2015) | X CONSULTATIONS

Sum­mary of the main issues raised by consultees

1. Trans­port Scot­land has stated that it does not advise against the grant­ing of plan­ning permission.

2. Scot­tish Water has stated that there are no objec­tions to this plan­ning applic­a­tion. How­ever, the applic­ant should be aware that this does not con­firm that the pro­posed devel­op­ment can cur­rently be ser­viced. Scot­tish Water has car­ried out a Capa­city Review and can con­firm the following:

a) This pro­posed devel­op­ment will be fed from Aviemore Water Treat­ment Works. Unfor­tu­nately, Scot­tish Water is unable to con­firm capa­city cur­rently, so to allow a full apprais­al of the pro­pos­als, it is sug­ges­ted that the applic­ant com­pletes a Pre- devel­op­ment Enquiry (PDE) Form and sub­mits it dir­ectly to Scot­tish Water via the Cus­tom­er Portal or con­tact Devel­op­ment Ser­vices. In terms of waste water capa­city, there is cur­rently suf­fi­cient capa­city for a foul only con­nec­tion in the Aviemore Waste Water Treat­ment works, to ser­vice the devel­op­ment. How­ever, it should be noted that fur­ther invest­ig­a­tions may be required to be car­ried out once a form­al applic­a­tion has been sub­mit­ted to Scot­tish Water.

b) Accord­ing to exist­ing records, the devel­op­ment pro­pos­als impact on exist­ing Scot­tish Water assets. The applic­ant must identi­fy any poten­tial con­flicts with Scot­tish Water assets and con­tact the Asset Impact Team via the Cus­tom­er Portal to apply for a diver­sion. The applic­ant should be aware that any con­flict with assets iden­ti­fied may be sub­ject to restric­tions on prox­im­ity of con­struc­tion Sur­face water.

c) For reas­ons of sus­tain­ab­il­ity and to pro­tect its cus­tom­ers from poten­tial future sew­er flood­ing, Scot­tish Water will not accept any sur­face water con­nec­tions into its com­bined sew­er sys­tem. There may be lim­ited excep­tion­al cir­cum­stances where Scot­tish Water would allow such a con­nec­tion for brown­field sites only. How­ever, this will require sig­ni­fic­ant jus­ti­fic­a­tion from the cus­tom­er tak­ing account of vari­ous factors includ­ing leg­al, phys­ic­al, and tech­nic­al chal­lenges. In order to avoid costs and delays where a sur­face water dis­charge to a com­bined sew­er sys­tem is anti­cip­ated, the developer should con­tact Scot­tish Water at the earli­est oppor­tun­ity with strong evid­ence to sup­port the inten­ded drain­age plan pri­or to mak­ing a con­nec­tion request.

1. NatureScot has stated that they agree with the con­clu­sions of the Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tions Assess­ment, and have no fur­ther com­ments to make

2. High­land Coun­cil Con­tam­in­ated Land Officer has noted that records indic­ate that a former farm refuse tip is present on the site and is loc­ated with­in the site bound­ary of the above devel­op­ment. Land con­tam­in­a­tion issues may be present as a res­ult and there­fore appro­pri­ate con­di­tions are recom­men­ded to address this issue.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 25/02/2022

1. High­land Coun­cil Floods Team ini­tially objec­ted to the pro­pos­als on the grounds of a lack of flood risk and drain­age inform­a­tion. Fol­low­ing the sub­mis­sion of an amended Drain­age Impact Assess­ment and Flood Risk Assess­ment, the Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team removed their objec­tion to the pro­pos­als. The updated Flood Risk Assess­ment includes the latest inform­a­tion on the flu­vi­al flood risk to the site, and is con­sidered to be accept­able. The mod­elled levels for the River Spey remain unchanged, and no oth­er sources of flood­ing are shown to pose a sig­ni­fic­ant threat. How­ever, in order to ensure that no devel­op­ment con­nec­ted to flood plain of the River Spey is below 208.34m, and that no house is con­struc­ted with a fin­ished floor level of lower than 209.94m, a suit­able worded con­di­tion should be included that all levels should be as per the Flood Risk Assessment

2. In terms of the pro­posed re-align­ment of the access road, the Flood Risk Man­age­ment team is sat­is­fied with the revised Flood Risk Assess­ment, and has no objec­tion. How­ever, give the latest pro­pos­als, and site lay­out changes, a suit­ably worded con­di­tion should be included that a revised and final­ised Drain­age Impact Assess­ment is sub­mit­ted for the approv­al of the Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team.

3. High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team stated that there are no objec­tions to the prin­ciple of realign­ing the main access road into the site, or the new house types and their pro­posed points of access, and that they are work­ing dir­ectly with the developer to final­ise design details based on those changes. This includes the access arrange­ments to the exist­ing prop­erty named Paw­prints and the types of traffic calm­ing fea­tures pro­posed for the new access roads. Such design details are being reviewed and agreed through the cor­res­pond­ing Road Con­struc­tion Con­sents (RCC’s) for the new roads being built. They should not impact on the road align­ment or the prop­erty changes pro­posed in this application.

4. The drive­way designs for Plots 02 & 36 need to be at least 5.5m wide to safely accom­mod­ate 2 cars. In this instance, the single integ­rated gar­age pro­posed would not count towards the 2 spaces required for each plot. Sub­ject to con­firm­a­tion of the above high­lighted point, there are no objec­tions to the pro­pos­als with­in this applic­a­tion. How­ever, the applic­ant must recog­nise that final design details for the roads will be agreed through the RCC process.

5. Cor­por­ate Address Gaz­etteer has stated that the applic­ant should be aware of the street nam­ing and num­ber­ing pro­cess (SNN) which can be found on the High­land Council’s web­site. When an SNN request is received the details are passed onto the Ward Manger who will con­sult the Loc­al Mem­bers and Com­munity Coun­cil. There­fore, it is encour­aged that the applicant/​agent sub­mits a request for the nam­ing of a new street in the event that plan­ning per­mis­sion and/​or Con­struc­tion Con­sent has been granted.

6. CNPA Land­scape Officer has acknow­ledged that pro­pos­al lies with­in a site alloc­ated for hous­ing with­in the LDP for which it has been estab­lished that there is land­scape capa­city for devel­op­ment. There­fore, the key issues are the sit­ing and design of the scheme. In this regard, it is assessed that the pro­pos­al would res­ult in some

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 25/02/2022

adverse loc­al land­scape and visu­al effects, primar­ily due to the remov­al of some exist­ing mature trees that con­trib­ute to the loc­al land­scape char­ac­ter and SLQs.

1. The re-loc­a­tion of plots 1, 2 and 33 – 37 will res­ult in some increased effects from addi­tion­al tree remov­al but this may be lim­ited and com­pensated with care­ful sit­ing, design and new plant­ing. In the south of the site, the pro­pos­als for new tree and hedge plant­ing are wel­comed, and the pro­pos­als relate pos­it­ively to the dis­tinct char­ac­ter­ist­ics and qual­it­ies of the landscape.

2. The land­scape and visu­al effects of the pro­pos­al will also depend on the meth­od of con­struc­tion and how the site is man­aged and main­tained over time. There­fore, land­scape man­age­ment and main­ten­ance pro­pos­als for up to at least 5 years fol­low­ing con­struc­tion, includ­ing care of exist­ing and pro­posed trees, hedges, shrubs and grass­land, should be sub­mit­ted. Fur­ther­more, a man­age­ment and main­ten­ance plan (or Hab­it­at Man­age­ment Plan) is required to accom­pany the land­scape plan. A Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment, includ­ing the approach to site pre­par­a­tion, is also required.

3. The pro­posed devel­op­ment would be viewed mainly by loc­al res­id­ents along Cor­rour Road and vis­it­ors to Dal­faber vil­lage, in addi­tion to people play­ing golf, and by people car­ry­ing out loc­al recre­ation, includ­ing walk­ing through the adja­cent wood­land, and along the track between the golf club and Dal­faber Park.

4. Based on the mater­i­al sub­mit­ted, it is pre­dicted that the pro­pos­als will res­ult in some loc­al land­scape and visu­al effects. The pro­posed realigned access road would make the access road fur­ther from the res­id­ence of Paw­prints but, in doing this, and not redu­cing the total num­ber of house plots, would involve the remov­al of eight exist­ing trees, south of the road, and nine on or north of the road.

5. The pro­posed tree plant­ing is wel­come, par­tic­u­larly the stand­ard trees which will have sig­ni­fic­ant amen­ity value with­in a rel­at­ively short times­cale. The plant­ing pro­pos­als will take into full con­sid­er­a­tion the RPA’s of exist­ing trees, and the plant­ing dens­it­ies of the pro­posed hedges around the house plots are appro­pri­ate for the size of wood­land and spe­cies involved. The details of the pro­posed shrub beds are in – keep­ing with the land­scape char­ac­ter of the site, and loc­al land­scape fea­tures. Fur­ther­more, the pro­posed hedge plant­ing is wel­comed, but it should com­prise mainly of hazel, holly, eld­er and/​or rose, or beech, and not field maple, hawthorn and spindle tree. The pro­posed spe­cies are not com­monly found in the Cairngorms, and are unlikely to thrive.

6. The plans show sev­er­al ​‘pro­posed 2m wide ​‘swale’ but no details are provided on how these would fit with the SuDS or plant­ing scheme. It is advised that plant­ing pro­pos­als are developed for the swales which incor­por­ate wet­land plants which would con­trib­ute pos­it­ively to the loc­al land­scape, fol­low­ing good prac­tice guid­ance such as pro­duced by CIRIA .

7. CNPA Eco­logy Officer has stated that with some minor changes to the land­scap­ing scheme, over­all, the pro­pos­al will not have any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse eco­lo­gic­al impacts over and above the ori­gin­al con­sen­ted scheme. Some fur­ther sur­vey work is required i.e. for rep­tiles. Cla­ri­fic­a­tion and fur­ther work is required to the

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 25/02/2022

land­scap­ing scheme. Over­all, there are not con­sidered to be any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse impacts on spe­cies of con­ser­va­tion con­cern in rela­tion to the cur­rent proposals.

1. There is scope for the scheme to provide mit­ig­a­tion and com­pens­a­tion for lost hab­it­at, and scope to provide some eco­lo­gic­al bene­fit through enhanced wood­land plant­ing, spe­cies rich grass­land, bee nest­ing sites, bird and bat boxes if man­aged appropriately.

2. All trees were assessed for pres­ence of any poten­tial roost fea­tures for bats. This sur­vey work gave a com­pre­hens­ive over­view of the hab­it­ats on the site and poten­tial for pro­tec­ted spe­cies. The sur­vey work was out-with the optim­al sea­son to con­firm pres­ence of spe­cies such as rep­tiles and key inver­teb­rates spe­cies, but the report is suf­fi­cient to determ­ine hab­it­at qual­ity for spe­cies of con­ser­va­tion con­cern, and what mit­ig­a­tion and com­pens­a­tion is required.

3. The shrubs and wood­land edge ele­ments of the pro­pos­als have been removed, which is wel­come. How­ever, it is noted that the Detailed Plant­ing Pro­pos­als include areas of amen­ity grass (shaded green) loc­ated in the under­car­riages of the trees on site. This type of plant­ing is not appro­pri­ate as the under­car­riages of trees should not be re- seeded. There­fore, it is recom­men­ded that a suit­ably worded con­di­tion is included that a revised plant­ing scheme is sub­mit­ted show­ing the omis­sion of the areas of amen­ity grass. Fur­ther­more, any shrub/​s seeded areas must com­ple­ment the exist­ing ground flora.

4. In light of the sub­mit­ted eco­lo­gic­al inform­a­tion, it is con­sidered that:

a) There is no evid­ence of otter, pine marten, red squir­rel, water vole, wild­cat or sched­ule I birds using the site. Impact on these spe­cies will be negligible.

b) Hab­it­ats with­in the pro­pos­al area may sup­port com­mon garden bird species.

c) There are 10 pre­vi­ously used badger setts across the whole site. There are no signs of recent use (there is likely to be too much dis­turb­ance from loc­al res­id­ents and dog walk­ers for the wood­land to be optim­al for badgers). 5 of these sites are with­in the pro­posed bound­ary of the cur­rent applic­a­tion or with­in 30m of the bound­ary (and would require a licence to dis­turb if badgers returned to use them). 2 of these dis­used setts would require destruc­tion due to over­lap with the cur­rent pro­pos­al. Lack of badger pres­ence with­in the site means that impact of the pro­pos­al will be negligible.

d) There is suit­able hab­it­at for rep­tiles with­in the cur­rent pro­pos­al area. The pro­pos­al could res­ult in dir­ect mor­tal­ity of rep­tiles and also loss of hab­it­at. Addi­tion­al sur­vey work is required pri­or to con­struc­tion com­men­cing, and if rep­tiles are found to be present, addi­tion­al mit­ig­a­tion will be required.

e) Small Sca­bi­ous Min­ing Bee has been recor­ded on the site, includ­ing the pro­pos­al area, in the past. Fur­ther sur­vey work is required to determ­ine if there is suit­able hab­it­at with­in the pro­pos­al area.

f) A Hab­it­at Man­age­ment Plan is required to imple­ment and man­age hab­it­ats with­in the pro­pos­al i.e. to provide hab­it­at for Small Sca­bi­ous Min­ing Bee ||

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 25/02/2022

g) A plan detail­ing the pro­vi­sion of bird nest boxes is required.

h) A Hab­it­at Man­age­ment Plan is required which ties togeth­er the man­age­ment of the land­scape scheme and the key spe­cies hab­it­ats (grass­land and woodland)

i) There are no SUDS shown on any of the plans, and it is, there­fore, not clear how sur­face water will be treated and stored pri­or to out­flow from the site. 2m swales are shown on the land­scape plan, but it is not clear if / how these will be vegetated.

1. CNPA Out­door Access Team has stated that hav­ing con­sidered this applic­a­tion for plan­ning per­mis­sion (which it is noted is a lim­ited revi­sion to a pre­vi­ously approved devel­op­ment, being sub­ject to out input on 11/07/18), there are no com­ments to make in respect of mat­ters per­tain­ing to stat­utory access rights.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. There have been no rep­res­ent­a­tions received for this application.

APPRAIS­AL

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

Prin­ciple of Development

1. Policy 1: New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sup­ports new hous­ing devel­op­ment only where it is loc­ated with­in an iden­ti­fied set­tle­ment bound­ary sub­ject to that devel­op­ment meet­ing the require­ments for the set­tle­ment and rein­for­cing and enhan­cing the char­ac­ter of the settlement

2. Plan­ning per­mis­sion in prin­ciple was gran­ted on appeal for the two sites at Dal­faber Farm in March 2016 — see Appendix 1(b) I Loc­a­tion Plan. Fur­ther­more, all sub­sequent applic­a­tions for mat­ters spe­cified in con­di­tions have now been approved, includ­ing the pro­vi­sion of afford­able hous­ing in in com­pli­ance with policies rel­ev­ant at the time. Giv­en that applic­a­tion is for a small revi­sion to the lay­out that has detailed plan­ning per­mis­sion and has been imple­men­ted and does not increase the num­ber of units on the site, it is not con­sidered appro­pri­ate to seek and addi­tion­al afford­able hous­ing con­tri­bu­tion. The prin­ciple of the devel­op­ment is con­sidered to be accept­able in terms of Policy 1: New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment, sub­ject to com­pli­ance with oth­er rel­ev­ant Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 25/02/2022

Land­scape Impacts

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. It is noted that the pro­pos­als will res­ult in some land­scape effects, primar­ily due to the remov­al of mature trees that con­trib­ute pos­it­ively to the land­scape char­ac­ter of the loc­al area. It is pro­posed to remove a total of eight trees to facil­it­ate the re- align­ment of the access road. How­ever, any res­ult­ing impact on the loc­al land­scape char­ac­ter will be mit­ig­ated by the pro­posed plant­ing, and retain­ing oth­er trees on the site.

3. The recon­fig­ur­a­tion of the lay­out of five of the pro­posed new dwell­ings in the south site will also require the remov­al of trees. How­ever, any land­scape impacts will be com­pensated with the detailed plant­ing pro­pos­als that have been sub­mit­ted. The amended plant­ing scheme has been designed to relate pos­it­ively to the dis­tinct char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the area. The pro­posed plant­ing is con­sidered appro­pri­ate in terms of dens­ity, spe­cies type, and num­bers. In par­tic­u­lar, the design of the pro­posed hedges around the house plots is in – keep­ing with the land­scape char­ac­ter of the site. Fur­ther­more, the pro­posed hedge plant­ing is wel­comed, but it should com­prise mainly of hazel, holly, eld­er and /​or rose, or beech, and not field maple, hawthorn and spindle tree, as per the sub­mit­ted plant­ing pro­pos­als. The pro­posed spe­cies are not com­monly found in the Cairngorms, and are unlikely to thrive. A suit­ably worded con­di­tion will be included that a revised plant­ing scheme is sub­mit­ted which will show a more appro­pri­ate spe­cies mix for the pro­posed hedging. There­fore, any poten­tial land­scape impacts will be fully, and appro­pri­ately addressed.

4. The pro­posed devel­op­ment will not intro­duce any not­able det­ri­ment­al changes to the land­scape char­ac­ter of the site and imme­di­ate area, and is there­fore con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 5: Land­scape, of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Sit­ing and Design

1. Policy 3: Design and Sus­tain­able Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that all devel­op­ments must be designed to be sym­path­et­ic to the tra­di­tion­al pat­tern and char­ac­ter of the sur­round­ing area, loc­al ver­nacu­lar and loc­al dis­tinct­ive­ness, whilst encour­aging innov­a­tion in design and use of mater­i­als. All mater­i­als and land­scap­ing should com­ple­ment the set­ting of the development.

2. In this instance, the recon­fig­ur­a­tion of the lay­out of the sev­en units in the south site will res­ult in safer drive­way access and an enhanced out­look. Fur­ther­more, the amended lay­out will not res­ult in any loss of amen­ity for the any of the prop­er­ties involved, includ­ing loss of light and pri­vacy. The re-con­fig­ur­a­tion will res­ult in a more tra­di­tion­al res­id­en­tial lay­out. The pro­posed houses are of a stand­ard design and use a palette of mater­i­als that has already been approved. Fur­ther­more, the pro­posed changes to the garden depths of the two houses in the north site is accept­able and will

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 25/02/2022

not have an adverse impact on the design of the over­all scheme. The pro­pos­als are con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 3: Design and Sus­tain­able Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Envir­on­ment­al Impacts

1. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to ensure that there is no adverse impact upon des­ig­nated areas, pro­tec­ted spe­cies or biodiversity.

2. The sub­mit­ted plant spe­cies list includes a diverse mix of wet lov­ing plants that will provide a valu­able cor­ridor of hab­it­at for insects, and will add to the visu­al amen­ity of the site. The Detailed Plant­ing Pro­pos­als shows that the under­car­riage of the exist­ing trees has been shaded in green to denote area of amen­ity grass­land. How­ever, this is not appro­pri­ate and all under­car­riages of trees must be left as exist­ing and not re- seeded. Fur­ther­more, in order to pre­vent any dis­turb­ance to the roots of the trees, all adjoin­ing seeded areas should com­ple­ment the exist­ing ground flora and not replace it. A suit­ably worded con­di­tion will be included that an amended plant­ing scheme is sub­mit­ted, show­ing that the under­car­riages of all trees are left as exist­ing and not re- seeded.

3. Giv­en the pro­posed loss of trees, there will be a loss of hab­it­at for rep­tiles, birds, bees and bats. There­fore, a suit­ably worded con­di­tion is recom­men­ded requir­ing a Hab­it­at Man­age­ment Plan is sub­mit­ted for the key hab­it­ats of wood­land and grass­land. Fur­ther­more, suit­ably worded, sus­pens­ive con­di­tion will be required that a rep­tile sur­vey is sub­mit­ted to determ­ine the pop­u­la­tion of rep­tiles on site and to include mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures where required.

4. Giv­en the pres­ence and poten­tial loss of suit­able hab­it­at for min­ing bees, a suit­ably worded, sus­pens­ive con­di­tion is also recom­men­ded that a Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan for the small sca­bi­ous bee is sub­mit­ted. Fur­ther­more, there is suit­able hab­it­at for badgers on-site which could be affected by the pro­pos­als. There­fore, a suit­ably worded con­di­tion will be included that a Mam­mal Pro­tec­tion Plan (includ­ing pre- com­mence­ment sur­veys) is submitted.

5. Although there will be some envir­on­ment­al impact as a res­ult of the pro­posed devel­op­ment, the improved wood­land plant­ing scheme and pro­posed bird and bat boxes will provide scope for eco­lo­gic­al gain, and off- set any loss of habitat.

6. The pro­posed devel­op­ment will not intro­duce any not­able det­ri­ment­al changes to the eco­logy of the site and imme­di­ate area. On this basis, and sub­ject to sus­pens­ive con­di­tions being included, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to accord with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Ser­vi­cing and Access

1. Policy 10: Resources, of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sets out the need to fully con­sider impacts on flood­ing and water resources.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 25/02/2022

1. In terms of sur­face water drain­age, the pro­pos­als will result