Item8AALDPMonitoringReport

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 13/11/2020

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

FOR INFORM­A­TION

Title: LOC­AL DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN 2015 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 over the five years of its imple­ment­a­tion. The inform­a­tion shows how the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 policies have been used dur­ing 2015 — 2020.

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 fourth mon­it­or­ing report / state­ment on the 2015 LDP’s imple­ment­a­tion, the last one hav­ing been seen by Com­mit­tee in Octo­ber 2019.

3. The mon­it­or­ing peri­od cov­ers a five year peri­od from I April 2015 to 31 March 2020.

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) A total of 1,790 applic­a­tions were determ­ined with­in the Nation­al Park dur­ing the mon­it­or­ing period.

   b) Of those applic­a­tions, 116 (around 6.5%) were determ­ined by the Nation­al Park Author­ity and 1,674 by the Loc­al Authorities.

   c) Of those applic­a­tions, 1,703 were approved and 87 refused, giv­ing an approv­al rate of around 95% over the mon­it­or­ing period.

   d) A fur­ther 198 applic­a­tions were registered but were not determ­ined due to either being with­drawn, found not to require plan­ning per­mis­sion (eg they

2. 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) 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.

   g) There are some pos­it­ive pat­terns to the use of policies for devel­op­ments with poten­tial socio-eco­nom­ic bene­fits for the Nation­al Park. The approv­al rate for applic­a­tions where Policy 1: New Hous­ing or Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth were referred to was around 94% for both policies.

   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 Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2020 will help address this issue for future monitoring.

   i) There were 29 appeals against refus­al of plan­ning per­mis­sion. Sev­en were against Nation­al Park decisions and 22 against Loc­al Author­ity decisions. One appeal was sub­sequently with­drawn. Around 61% (17) of appeals were allowed.

3. Inform­a­tion on alloc­ated sites has not been included in the Mon­it­or­ing Report as this inform­a­tion is provided in detail in the 2015 LDP’s Action Pro­gramme, 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 2020 LDP and used to inform the devel­op­ment of future policies and procedures.

Nina Caudrey Novem­ber 2020 ninacaudrey@​cairngorms.​co.​uk