CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 21/02/2020

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED: Erec­tion of three houses (Phase 3) at Land To South West Of Tigh Mhuileann Boat Of Garten

REF­ER­ENCE: 2019/0245/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Mr Dav­id Greer

DATE CALLED-IN: 5 August 2019

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: APPROVE SUB­JECT TO CONDITIONS

CASE OFFICER: Rob­bie Cal­vert, Gradu­ate Planner

CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 21/02/2020

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 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 of asso­ci­ated applic­a­tion (2019/0215/DET) 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 meas­ures approx­im­ately 0.58 Ha. 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 demoli­tion of an exist­ing house and gar­age and erec­tion of nine houses (2019/0215/DET) on land to the east.

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=PVI464SI0CH00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Site Lay­out Plan	BSW 3 005	June, 2019	12/11/19
	Revi­sion A
Site Sec­tion Plan	BSW 3 003	June, 2019	12/11/19
	Revi­sion A
Loc­a­tion Plan Phase 3	BSW 3 004	June, 2019	12/11/19
	Revi­sion A
Land­scape Plan	Land­scape	05/02/20	06/02/20
	Mas­ter­plan Final
	Revi­sion 4

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 21/02/2020

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Gen­er­al Arrangement	AA6178/EW/02	23/01/19	30/01/20
	Revi­sion C
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	29/10/19	12/11/19
	Pro­tec­tion
	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
Croft House Elevations	BSW 3 015	June, 2019	15/07/19
Croft House Roof and Floor	BSW 3 01	June, 2019	15/07/19
Plans
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	BSW_3_010	June, 2019	15/07/19
Floor Plans
Fair and Square Sections	BSW 3 011	June, 2019	15/07/19
2 Bay Gar­age Plans and	BSW_3_023	June, 2018	15/07/19
Elev­a­tions
Sup­port­ing Design Statement		17/06/19	15/07/19
Exten­ded Phase I Survey		Feb­ru­ary	15/07/19
Report		2019
Land­scape Char­ac­ter Area			12/11/19
Drain­age Impact Assessment	AA6178/8.4/DIA	30/10/19	12/11/19
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
Con­struc­tion Method	AA6178	Octo­ber,	12/11/19
State­ment		2019
Hous­ing Need and Demand			12/11/19
Assess­ment
Traffic State­ment	AA6178	25/10/19	31/10/19
Geo-envir­on­ment­al	MM11842.RI.CT.S	Feb­ru­ary,	22/08/19
Invest­ig­a­tion Part I	DM​.SG	2019
Geo-envir­on­ment­al	1926594361	31/01/2019	22/08/19
Invest­ig­a­tion Part 2
Geo-envir­on­ment­al	MM11842	13/09/18	22/08/19
Invest­ig­a­tion 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.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 21/02/2020

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 demoli­tion of an exist­ing house and gar­age and erec­tion of nine houses (2019/0215/DET) on land to the east. The applic­a­tion seeks full plan­ning per­mis­sion for the erec­tion of three res­id­en­tial units includ­ing plot lay­out, path links, infra­struc­ture and land­scap­ing. The pro­posed res­id­en­tial units are 3 detached houses with 3 asso­ci­ated detached park­ing gar­ages, private drive­way, SUDS sys­tem and path links. The loc­a­tion of the main access road, sep­tic tank and soakaway are covered in the asso­ci­ated applic­a­tion 2019/0215/DET to the east. 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. The private tracks will be drained using fil­ter drains.

6. Sur­face water from the prop­er­ties will be col­lec­ted and trans­ferred to 5 raingar­dens, provid­ing a min­im­um of 1.5 m² 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 slate roof materials.

8. A total of 10 car park­ing spaces have been provided, 3 of which have been indic­ated as vis­it­or parking.

9. 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.

10. 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

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 21/02/2020

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.

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).

3. 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.

4. An applic­a­tion for the demoli­tion of an exist­ing house and gar­age and erec­tion of nine houses (2019/0215/DET) on land to the east of the site 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

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 21/02/2020

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

2. The site lies out­with the set­tle­ment bound­ary of Boat of Garten as des­ig­nated by the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015. How­ever, Policy 3: Oth­er Hous­ing in the Coun­tryside sup­ports pro­pos­als where they rein­force the exist­ing pat­tern of devel­op­ment and are neces­sary for, or improves the oper­a­tion­al and eco­nom­ic viab­il­ity of an act­ive busi­ness which has a loc­a­tion­al require­ment dir­ectly linked to the coun­tryside. Policy 1: Afford­able Hous­ing Devel­op­ments sup­ports devel­op­ment of 100% afford­able units where it meets a demon­strable loc­al need through com­munity needs assess­ments, hous­ing needs and demand assess­ments or oth­er inform­a­tion avail­able at the time of application.

3. The Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 Set­tle­ment state­ment for Boat of Garten states as an object­ive that new hous­ing can pro­gress in a way that helps the com­munity remain sus­tain­able and is com­pat­ible with neigh­bour­ing des­ig­nated sites.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 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 1	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. In addi­tion, pro­pos­als and policies which received heavy objec­tion fol­low­ing the pub­lic con­sulta­tion pro­cess are afforded even less 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:

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 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.

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

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 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 did not com­ment on this applic­a­tion but com­men­ted on the asso­ci­ated applic­a­tion 2019/2015/DET. The issues addressed are dir­ectly applic­able to this applic­a­tion and should be read in par­al­lel with this application.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. No rep­res­ent­a­tions were made for this applic­a­tion how­ever rep­res­ent­a­tion made for the asso­ci­ated applic­a­tion 2019/2015/DET. The issues addressed are dir­ectly applic­able to this applic­a­tion and should be read in par­al­lel with this application.

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

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 21/02/2020

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.

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

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 21/02/2020

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.

1. 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 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 21/02/2020

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 to Milton Loch. That path is not part of this plan­ning applic­a­tion and fur­ther detail plan­ning applic­a­tion will be required to be determ­ined before any con­sent for it is issued and before devel­op­ment of this pro­pos­al could start.

CON­CLU­SION

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is for 100% afford­able hous­ing in a loc­a­tion where it will help meet loc­al need. The site is con­sidered to be cap­able of being developed and ser­viced in this way without sig­ni­fic­ant land­scape or envir­on­ment­al effects. There are a num­ber of points of detail that have not been suf­fi­ciently addressed through the applic­a­tion, but con­di­tions can be applied to ensure they are fully resolved at appro­pri­ate stages either pri­or to devel­op­ment, pri­or to occu­pa­tion or dur­ing the con­struc­tion and main­ten­ance of the devel­op­ment. Sub­ject to those con­di­tions, the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to fully com­ply with Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies and we recom­mend approv­al of the application.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to APPROVE the Demoli­tion of house, erec­tion of 9 houses, form­a­tion of access track and path at Tigh Mhuileann Boat Of Garten High­land PH24 3BG sub­ject to the fol­low­ing conditions:

• Those con­di­tions lis­ted below in bold text are sus­pens­ive con­di­tions, which require to be dis­charged pri­or to imple­ment­a­tion of the development.

Con­di­tions

1. **No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until the full details of foul water treat­ment and dis­charge that demon­strates no sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the River Spey SAC have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the CNPA act­ing as plan­ning author­ity in con­sulta­tion with SEPA. The details must include a full ground­wa­ter invest­ig­a­tion under­taken in accord­ance with SEPA guid­ance (WAT-RM-04 Indir­ect Sewage Dis­charges to

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 21/02/2020

1. Ground­wa­ter sec­tion 1.1) and the out­come of the invest­ig­a­tions must sat­is­fy require­ments under the Water Envir­on­ment (Con­trolled Activ­it­ies) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2011 (CAR) for any dis­charges to land or the water envir­on­ment from private foul drain­age systems.

Reas­on: To ensure that foul water drain­age pro­pos­als are sat­is­fact­or­ily designed, imple­men­ted and man­aged in order to min­im­ise any risk of pol­lu­tion which may affect nat­ur­al her­it­age interests includ­ing the River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion in accord­ance with Policy 3 Sus­tain­able Design and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age, of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until detailed plan­ning per­mis­sion has been gran­ted for foot­paths at least 1.5 metres wide con­nect­ing to Boat of Garten and to the saw­mill off the C1128.

Reas­on: To ensure that sat­is­fact­ory arrange­ments for the act­ive travel are provided in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until full details of the final drain­age scheme have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the CNΡΑ act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with the High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning and Flood Man­age­ment teams.

The approved drain­age scheme shall be imple­men­ted and main­tained in accord­ance with the approved details in full pri­or to the occu­pa­tion of any dwell­ings with­in the devel­op­ment. Reas­on: To ensure that sat­is­fact­ory arrange­ments for the dis­pos­al of sur­face water are provided in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design, Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a revised Road Lay­out Plan has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with the High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team. The approved road lay­out plan shall there­after be imple­men­ted in full.

Reas­on: To