Item8AALDP2015MonitoringReportCommitteeReport

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 27/08/2021

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

FOR INFORM­A­TION

Title: LOC­AL DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN 2015 FINAL MON­IT­OR­ING REPORT

Pre­pared by: Nina Caudrey, Plan­ning Officer (Devel­op­ment Planning)

Pur­pose of Report

This paper provides an over­view of how the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 was used by both the Nation­al Park Author­ity and the Loc­al Author­it­ies whose area it cov­ers dur­ing the full peri­od of its imple­ment­a­tion. The inform­a­tion shows how the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 policies were used in determ­in­ing plan­ning applic­a­tions and appeals dur­ing 2015 — 2021.

Back­ground

1. The 2015 Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (LDP) was adop­ted on 27 March 2015. The LDP was the first devel­op­ment plan that cov­ers the whole of the Nation­al Park, repla­cing the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Plan 2010 and the Perth & Kinross Coun­cil High­land Area Loc­al Plan 2000, which covered the part of Perth and Kinross that was added to the Nation­al Park in 2010.

2. This report rep­res­ents the fifth and final mon­it­or­ing report / state­ment on the imple­ment­a­tion of the 2015 LDP, the last one hav­ing been seen by Com­mit­tee in Novem­ber 2020.

3. The mon­it­or­ing peri­od cov­ers the peri­od from I April 2015 to 31 March 2021.

High­lights

1. Appendix I has a com­plete mon­it­or­ing report for the 2015 LDP cov­er­ing the use of each policy with­in it. The bul­lets below provide a sum­mary of key points to draw from the policy ana­lys­is: a) Over 2000 plan­ning applic­a­tions were determ­ined with­in the Nation­al Park dur­ing the life­time of the 2015 LDP. b) Of those applic­a­tions, 138 (around 7%) were determ­ined by the Nation­al Park Author­ity and 1902 by the Loc­al Author­it­ies. c) Of those applic­a­tions, 1951 were approved and 89 refused, giv­ing an aver­age approv­al rate of around 91% over life­time of the 2015 LDP.

d) Reflect­ing the vari­ety of applic­a­tions sub­mit­ted each year, there were annu­al fluc­tu­ations in the approv­al rates, vary­ing between around 90% in ²⁰¹⁷⁄₁₈ and around 99% in ²⁰²⁰⁄₂₁. e) The most fre­quently referred to policy by both CNPA and Loc­al Author­it­ies was Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design, indic­at­ing that sus­tain­able design is an import­ant factor for devel­op­ment with­in the Nation­al Park. f) Policies 1: New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment and 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth were the second and third most com­monly referred to policies, indic­at­ing their import­ance for con­sid­er­a­tion of devel­op­ment pro­pos­als in the Nation­al Park. g) Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 5: Land­scape were referred to more by CNPA when determ­in­ing called in applic­a­tions than they were referred to by Loc­al Author­it­ies determ­in­ing oth­er applic­a­tions. This indic­ates that poten­tial effects on nat­ur­al her­it­age and land­scape interests are import­ant reas­ons why applic­a­tions are called in.

h) Sub-policy inform­a­tion was not sys­tem­at­ic­ally recor­ded by plan­ning author­it­ies res­ult­ing in gaps in our under­stand­ing of how policies were used. It is hoped that the way sub-policies have been numbered in the 2021 Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan will help address this issue for future mon­it­or­ing. i) Of the 34 appeals made dur­ing the life­time of the 2015 LDP, 21 were against refus­al of plan­ning per­mis­sion, with the remainder being against applic­a­tion of con­di­tions. Of the 21 appeals against refus­al of plan­ning per­mis­sion, 7 were against Nation­al Park decisions and 23 against Loc­al Author­ity decisions. Elev­en of the appeals against plan­ning refus­al were allowed (plan­ning per­mis­sion gran­ted fol­low­ing appeal).

1. Inform­a­tion on alloc­ated sites has not been included in the Mon­it­or­ing Report as this inform­a­tion is provided in detail in the Action Pro­gramme for the LDP, which is reviewed annually.

Next Steps

1. This is the final Mon­it­or­ing Report for the 2015 Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. How­ever inform­a­tion on policy use will con­tin­ue to be mon­itored annu­ally for the 2021 LDP and used to inform the devel­op­ment of future policies and procedures.

Nina Caudrey August 2021 ninacaudrey@​cairngorms.​co.​uk