Skip to content
Please be aware the content below has been generated by an AI model from a source PDF.

Policy Monitoring Topic Paper - Engagement version

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 1 of 72

Top­ic: Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 – policy monitoring

Engage­ment ver­sion – Septem­ber 2025

Require­ments addressed in this section

Table 1 Inform­a­tion required by the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997, as amended, regard­ing the issue addressed in this section.

Sec­tionRequire­ment
Sec­tion 16(1)A plan­ning author­ity are, as soon as prac­tic­able after the com­ing into force of sec­tion 2 of the Plan­ning Act and there­after (i) whenev­er required to do so by the Scot­tish Min­is­ters, or (ii) sub­ject to sub-para­graph (i), at inter­vals of no more than 10 years, to pre­pare loc­al devel­op­ment plans for all parts of their dis­trict, and to keep under review the plans so prepared.
Sec­tion 264AIn the exer­cise, with respect to any land in a Nation­al Park, of any power under the plan­ning Acts, spe­cial atten­tion shall be paid to the desirab­il­ity of exer­cising the power con­sist­ently with the adop­ted Nation­al Park Plan.

Links to evidence

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 2 of 72

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 3 of 72

Sum­mary of evidence

Policy con­text

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 came into force in Feb­ru­ary 2023 and is the long-term Nation­al Spa­tial Strategy for Scot­land. For the first time it con­tains a set of plan­ning policies that form part of the stat­utory devel­op­ment plan.

Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan­ning Guid­ance 2023

Para­graph 93 of the guid­ance advises that, as part of the pre­par­a­tion of the evid­ence report, the plan­ning author­ity should:

  • Eval­u­ate wheth­er the pre­vi­ous plan has delivered its out­comes and allocations.
  • Identi­fy any les­sons learnt for the pre­par­a­tion of the new plan.
  • Con­sider the appro­pri­ate­ness of the pre­vi­ous spa­tial strategy.

The pur­pose of this top­ic paper is to demon­strate how the evid­ence report meets these requirements.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (2017 – 2022 and 2022 – 2027)

The Part­ner­ship Plan is the man­age­ment plan for the Nation­al Park. It has been approved by Scot­tish Min­is­ters. It sets out the vis­ion and over-arch­ing strategy for man­aging the Park, as well as identi­fy­ing pri­or­it­ies for action and an over­all stra­tegic policy framework.

Guid­ance in Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy states that Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plans for Nation­al Parks should be con­sist­ent with the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. The Part­ner­ship Plan there­fore provides the stra­tegic con­text for the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan, and the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan helps to deliv­er a num­ber of the Part­ner­ship Plan’s policies and priorities.

Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 – 2022

The Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 – 2022 provided the stra­tegic con­text and spa­tial strategy for the adop­ted Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. It helps to deliv­er the long-term out­comes, pri­or­it­ies and policies of the Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 – 2022.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 4 of 72

It sets out three long-term out­comes for the Nation­al Park:

  • Con­ser­va­tion a spe­cial place for people and nature with nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age enhanced.
  • Vis­it­or exper­i­ence – people enjoy­ing the Nation­al Park through out­stand­ing vis­it­or and learn­ing experiences.
  • Rur­al devel­op­ment – a sus­tain­able eco­nomy sup­port­ing thriv­ing busi­nesses and communities.

To deliv­er these three out­comes, the part­ner­ship plan con­tains nine pri­or­it­ies and six­teen policies.

Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027

The Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – has super­seded the 2017 plan. The Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 2027 con­tains sets of object­ives and policies under three themes: Nature, People and Place.

The over­all out­come for nature is a car­bon neg­at­ive and biod­iversity rich Nation­al Park with bet­ter func­tion­ing, bet­ter con­nec­ted and more resi­li­ent eco­sys­tems. Policy A4 is to con­serve and enhance the spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park with a par­tic­u­lar focus on:
a) Wild­ness qualities.
b) Main­tain­ing and pro­mot­ing dark skies.
c) Sup­port­ing wood­land expan­sion that max­im­ises oppor­tun­it­ies for long-term enhance­ment of land­scape and wild­ness qualities.
d) Deliv­er­ing enhance­ments that also provide hab­it­at improvements.
e) Enhan­cing oppor­tun­it­ies to enjoy and exper­i­ence the land­scapes of the Nation­al Park.
f) Apply­ing a pre­sump­tion against new con­struc­ted tracks in open moor­land and, where agreed, ensur­ing new tracks are con­struc­ted to a high standard.

Policy A5(g) is to sup­port off-site mit­ig­a­tion from devel­op­ment that con­trib­utes to eco­lo­gic­al networks.

The over­all out­come for place is a place that people want to live in, work in and vis­it that works for all. Object­ive C2 New hous­ing is to deliv­er new hous­ing in the Nation­al Park and ensure as much as pos­sible is secured for key work­ers and / or to resolve afford­ab­il­ity issues. Its tar­get is that by 2030, 75% of new hous­ing is for social rent­al, mid-mar­ket rent­al or oth­er afford­able cat­egor­ies that provide afford­ab­il­ity in perpetuity.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 5 of 72

Actions include using the next Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan to identi­fy fur­ther loc­a­tions where more than 25% afford­able hous­ing is required and bring this up to 75% overall.

Policy C3 is to enhance the design and sense of place in new devel­op­ment and exist­ing set­tle­ments, in particular:
a) Enabling new devel­op­ment which con­trib­utes pos­it­ively to the sense of place
b) Pro­mot­ing a high stand­ard of sus­tain­able design, energy effi­ciency, sus­tain­ably- sourced mater­i­als and con­struc­tion in new development.
c) Sup­port­ing the reten­tion and enhance­ment of loc­al character.
d) Facil­it­at­ing the rehab­il­it­a­tion of redund­ant rur­al build­ings and recyc­ling of resources.
e) Ensur­ing road upgrades and improve­ments respond to loc­al land­scape character.
f) Pro­mot­ing act­ive travel and pub­lic trans­port pro­vi­sion and redu­cing the reli­ance on private motor vehicles.

Policy C4(a) is to ensure high-qual­ity facil­it­ies and infra­struc­ture are designed to man­age the effects of vis­it­or pres­sures on the nat­ur­al her­it­age and com­munit­ies and Policy C4(b) is to ensure that the upgrad­ing or refur­bish­ment of vis­it­or hubs improves access­ib­il­ity for all poten­tial users and incor­por­ates dis­abled access toi­lets and Chan­ging Places facil­it­ies where possible.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Annu­al Update 2024

This report, presen­ted to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park board on 27 Septem­ber 2024, sum­mar­ises what work has been done to achieve the out­comes set out in the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027. The plan con­tains many goals under the three out­comes, not all of which are related to the policies in the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. The fol­low­ing achieve­ments under the place out­come are relevant:

  • Short Term Let Licens­ing and Con­trol Area imple­men­ted by High­land Coun­cil in Badenoch and Strathspey.
  • Deliv­ery of afford­able and mid-mar­ket rent hous­ing in Car­rbridge, Dul­nain Bridge, Kin­craig and Kin­gussie via High­land Council’s afford­able hous­ing deliv­ery programme.
  • Act­ive travel and path improve­ment pro­jects pro­gressed on the Spey­side Way and Aviemore Orbit­al route with fur­ther pro­jects get­ting the go ahead.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 6 of 72

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021

Adop­ted in March 2021, this is the adop­ted loc­al devel­op­ment plan for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 shares its vis­ion with the Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 – 2022, which is:

‘An out­stand­ing Nation­al Park, enjoyed and val­ued by every­one, where nature and people thrive together.’

The Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 con­tains elev­en policies to help to deliv­er the part­ner­ship plan’s long-term out­comes by mak­ing sure that:

  • The spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park are pro­tec­ted from devel­op­ment that would sig­ni­fic­antly erode or harm them and are enhanced by new devel­op­ment where possible.
  • New devel­op­ment helps to rein­force the val­ued built her­it­age of the Nation­al Park and the com­munit­ies with­in it.
  • New or improved vis­it­or infra­struc­ture is sup­por­ted where appro­pri­ate and integ­rated with oth­er vis­it­or sites, ser­vices and communities.
  • New devel­op­ment is well con­nec­ted to core paths and oth­er off-road routes, as well as cre­at­ing attract­ive places to live and visit.
  • There is suf­fi­cient land for hous­ing to meet iden­ti­fied need and demand, includ­ing for inward migra­tion of workers.
  • More afford­able hous­ing is provided to sup­port growth in the work­ing age pop­u­la­tion and help address the hous­ing pres­sures faced by young people.
  • The neces­sary land and sup­port for busi­ness devel­op­ment and diver­si­fic­a­tion is provided.
  • There are sites for future devel­op­ment that sup­port attract­ive, vibrant com­munit­ies and that min­im­ise the need to use energy.
  • There is clear guid­ance on where, when and how the best devel­op­ment will be supported.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 7 of 72

Table 2 and Table 3, respect­ively, show the rela­tion­ship between the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021’s elev­en policies and the Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 – 2022’s nine pri­or­it­ies and six­teen policies.

Table 2 Rela­tion­ship between policies with­in in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 policies and pri­or­it­ies with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 – 2022.

Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 – policiesPart­ner­ship Plan — priorities
Con­ser­va­tion
1
Land­scape scale collaboration
2
Deer man­age­ment
3
Moor­land management
Vis­it­or experience
4
Vis­it­or infra­struc­ture and information
5
Act­ive Cairngorms
6
Learn­ing and inclusion
Rur­al development
7
Hous­ing
8
Com­munity capa­city and empowerment
9
Eco­nom­ic development
1 New hous­ing development
2 Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth
3 Design and placemaking
4 Nat­ur­al heritage✓
5 Land­scape✓
6 Digit­al communications
7 Renew­able energy
8 Open space and recreation
9 Cul­tur­al heritage

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 8 of 72

Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 – policiesPart­ner­ship Plan — priorities
Con­ser­va­tion
1
Land­scape scale collaboration
2
Deer man­age­ment
3
Moor­land management
Vis­it­or experience
4
Vis­it­or infra­struc­ture and information
5
Act­ive Cairngorms
6
Learn­ing and inclusion
Rur­al development
7
Hous­ing
8
Com­munity capa­city and empowerment
9
Eco­nom­ic development
10 Resources✓
11 Developer obligations

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 9 of 72

Table 3 Rela­tion­ship between policies with­in in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 and policies with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 – 2022.

Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 — policiesPart­ner­ship Plan 2017 – 2022 – policies
Con­ser­va­tion
1.1 Land management
1.2 Hab­it­at, spe­cies and land use resilience
1.3 Spe­cial land­scape qualities
1.4 Hab­it­at qual­ity and connectivity
1.5 Spe­cies conservation
1.6 Col­lab­or­a­tion across ownerships
1.7 Cul­tur­al heritage
Vis­it­or experience
2.1 High qual­ity experience
2.2 Sus­tain­able tour­ism management
2.3 Access and recreation
2.4 Inspir­a­tion, learn­ing and understanding
Rur­al development
3.1 Eco­nom­ic growth
3.2 Sus­tain­able set­tle­ments development
3.3 Low car­bon economy
3.4 Sup­port­ing communities
3.5 Design and sense of place
1 New hous­ing development
2 Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth
3 Design and placemaking
4 Nat­ur­al heritage✓

Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Nation­al Park Author­ity Cairngorms

Page 10 of 72

Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 — policiesPart­ner­ship Plan 2017 – 2022 – policies
Con­ser­va­tion
1.1 Land management
1.2 Hab­it­at, spe­cies and land use resilience
1.3 Spe­cial land­scape qualities
1.4 Hab­it­at qual­ity and connectivity
1.5 Spe­cies conservation
1.6 Col­lab­or­a­tion across ownerships
1.7 Cul­tur­al heritage
Vis­it­or experience
2.1 High qual­ity experience
2.2 Sus­tain­able tour­ism management
2.3 Access and recreation
2.4 Inspir­a­tion, learn­ing and understanding
Rur­al development
3.1 Eco­nom­ic growth
3.2 Sus­tain­able set­tle­ments development
3.3 Low car­bon economy
3.4 Sup­port­ing communities
3.5 Design and sense of place
5 Land­scape
6 Digit­al communications
7 Renew­able energy
8 Open space and recreation
9 Cul­tur­al heritage
10 Resources✓

Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Nation­al Park Author­ity Cairngorms

Page 11 of 72

Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 — policiesPart­ner­ship Plan 2017 – 2022 – policies
Con­ser­va­tion
1.1 Land management
1.2 Hab­it­at, spe­cies and land use resilience
1.3 Spe­cial land­scape qualities
1.4 Hab­it­at qual­ity and connectivity
1.5 Spe­cies conservation
1.6 Col­lab­or­a­tion across ownerships
1.7 Cul­tur­al heritage
Vis­it­or experience
2.1 High qual­ity experience
2.2 Sus­tain­able tour­ism management
2.3 Access and recreation
2.4 Inspir­a­tion, learn­ing and understanding
Rur­al development
3.1 Eco­nom­ic growth
3.2 Sus­tain­able set­tle­ments development
3.3 Low car­bon economy
3.4 Sup­port­ing communities
3.5 Design and sense of place
11 Developer obligations

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 12 of 72

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 – Deliv­ery Pro­gramme 2025

The aim of the Deliv­ery Pro­gramme is to achieve the inten­ded out­comes of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

As an update and replace­ment for the Action Pro­gramme 2022, it intro­duces a col­our- coded ​‘deliv­ery pipeline’ (sec­tion 2); provides details on afford­able hous­ing and fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tions secured through plan­ning per­mis­sions (sec­tion 3) and provides a great­er level of detail on the plan­ning his­tory of each alloc­ated site in each set­tle­ment (sec­tion 6). A draft ver­sion was the sub­ject of con­sulta­tion with intern­al officers and key stake­hold­ers (loc­al author­it­ies, landown­ers, developers and key agencies).

Baseline of policy mon­it­or­ing matters

This sec­tion eval­u­ates wheth­er the adop­ted Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 has delivered on its out­comes and alloc­a­tions; iden­ti­fies any les­sons learnt and con­siders the appro­pri­ate­ness of the pre­vi­ous spa­tial strategy, as required by Para­graph 93 of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan­ning Guid­ance (2023).

It also con­siders the rela­tion­ship between the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 policies, and the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 policies to identi­fy the effect of its pub­lic­a­tion on the use of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies.

It cov­ers the fol­low­ing issues:

  • Ana­lys­is of Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 policy usage in plan­ning decisions
  • Sum­mary of deliv­ery of allocations
  • Les­sons learnt
  • Spa­tial strategy
  • Rela­tion­ships between Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 and Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 policies.

There are links between this top­ic and all oth­er policy areas.

Ana­lys­is of Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 policy usage in plan­ning decisions

In the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, argu­ably more than in any oth­er part of Scot­land, there is a part­ner­ship approach to plan­ning. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and the five rel­ev­ant loc­al author­it­ies – Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil, Angus Coun­cil, Moray Council,

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 13 of 72

Perth and Kinross Coun­cil and The High­land Coun­cil – all play a key role in mak­ing the plan­ning sys­tem work effectively.

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park sets the plan­ning policy frame­work through the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan and all plan­ning applic­a­tions in the Nation­al Park are determ­ined in line with this policy framework.

How­ever, plan­ning applic­a­tions are sub­mit­ted in the first instance to the rel­ev­ant loc­al author­ity. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park then ​‘calls in’ and determ­ines the most sig­ni­fic­ant plan­ning applic­a­tions for the Nation­al Park (gen­er­ally around 10% of all applic­a­tions), leav­ing the remainder to be determ­ined by the loc­al authorities.

The type of applic­a­tions that the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity are highly likely to call-in are:

  • All ​‘major’ applic­a­tions as defined in plan­ning legislation.
  • Private ways, which require Envir­on­ment­al Impact Assess­ments and those which could have a poten­tial impact upon import­ant nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age interests and/​or sites of par­tic­u­lar land­scape sensitivities.
  • Wind tur­bines, hydro schemes or large sol­ar pan­el farms.
  • Min­er­als applications.
  • Hous­ing – five or more res­id­en­tial units with­in a settlement.
  • Hous­ing — three or more res­id­en­tial units out­side a settlement.
  • More than 250m² gross floor area, or 0.25ha, of employ­ment space out­side settlements.
  • Applic­a­tions which would require Envir­on­ment­al Impact Assessment.
  • Lis­ted build­ing con­sent applic­a­tions that involve major extern­al or intern­al changes or are oth­er­wise linked to an applic­a­tion type in this list.
  • Con­ser­va­tion area con­sent applic­a­tions linked to anoth­er applic­a­tion type in this list.

The types of applic­a­tions that are unlikely to be called in include house­hold­er devel­op­ment, small hous­ing schemes, small scale exten­sions, alter­a­tions and changes of use and oth­er applic­a­tions such as advert­ise­ment and her­it­age consents.

The officer reports of all plan­ning applic­a­tions determ­ined by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and the five loc­al plan­ning author­it­ies since the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan was adop­ted in March 2021¹ have been ana­lysed to help

1 All plan­ning applic­a­tions determ­ined between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2025.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 14 of 72

to assess wheth­er the out­comes of the Nation­al Park’s part­ner­ship plan and loc­al devel­op­ment plan have been delivered.

Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 – over­all policy use

1,266 plan­ning applic­a­tions have been determ­ined since the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 was adop­ted. 94% of those have been determ­ined by the con­stitu­ent loc­al plan­ning author­it­ies and only 6% determ­ined by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. 57% have been determ­ined by The High­land Coun­cil. Fig­ure 1 indic­ates the num­ber and pro­por­tions determ­ined by each authority.

Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil, 355

High­land Coun­cil, 814

Cairngorm Nation­al Park Author­ity, 83

Perth and Kinross Coun­cil, 72

Moray Coun­cil, 53

Angus, 7

Fig­ure 1 Num­ber of plan­ning applic­a­tions determ­ined by each loc­al plan­ning author­ity April 2021 – March 2025.

The 11 loc­al devel­op­ment plan policies are used to determ­ine applic­a­tions across the Cairngorms Nation­al Park (along­side the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4’s policies since its pub­lic­a­tion in Feb­ru­ary 2023). Fig­ure 2 Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies referred to in plan­ning applic­a­tions approved by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and by each con­stitu­ent plan­ning author­ity between April 2021 and March 2025. indic­ates the pro­por­tion of approved applic­a­tions decided using each policy by each loc­al author­ity. It high­lights that each

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 15 of 72

author­ity has quite a sim­il­ar pat­tern of policy usage. While the Nation­al Park some­times dif­fers, this is likely due to the dif­fer­ent types of applic­a­tions. In fur­ther graphs and ana­lys­is, we will look fur­ther into the policy use of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park vs all oth­er loc­al author­it­ies and on which they dif­fer sig­ni­fic­antly. This graph also starts to intro­duce which policies are most used and least used across the park.

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Policy 1 Policy 2 Policy 3 Policy 4 Policy 5 Policy 6 Policy 7 Policy 8 Policy 9 Policy 10 Policy 11

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Angus Perth and Kinross Moray Aber­deen Highland

Fig­ure 2 Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies referred to in plan­ning applic­a­tions approved by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and by each con­stitu­ent plan­ning author­ity between April 2021 and March 2025.

To help show the over­all pic­ture of main policy use, Fig­ure 3 shows the pro­por­tion of policy usage in all decisions made by all author­it­ies. This gives us a clear pic­ture of the most used policies which are:

  • Policy 3 (design and Place­mak­ing) used in 87% of all decisions.
  • Policy 1 (new hous­ing devel­op­ment) used in 42% of all decisions.
  • Policy 4 (nat­ur­al her­it­age) used in 42% of all decisions.

It also helps us to under­stand which policies were used the least:

  • Policy 6 (the sit­ing and design of digit­al com­mu­nic­a­tions equip­ment) used in 2% of all decisions.
  • Policy 7 (renew­able energy) used in 3% of all decisions.
  • Policy 8 (open space, sport and recre­ation) used in 5% of all decisions.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 16 of 72

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Policy 1 Policy 2 Policy 3 Policy 4 Policy 5 Policy 6 Policy 7 Policy 8 Policy 9 Policy 10 Policy 11 Fig­ure 3 Per­cent­age of all plan­ning decisions where each Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policy was referred to between April 2021 and March 2025.

Lead­ing on from the over­all pic­ture, Fig­ure 4 shows pro­por­tion­ate policy use by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity when approv­ing and refus­ing applic­a­tions. This can then be com­pared to Fig­ure 5 which shows policy use by the com­bined loc­al author­it­ies in decision-mak­ing. From this we can see that there are policies which have been used more by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park in their decision mak­ing, than by the oth­er loc­al author­it­ies. These are:

  • Policy 5 (land­scape) used in 90% of applic­a­tion decisions by the Nation­al Park com­pared to in 16% of applic­a­tion decisions by the loc­al authorities.
  • Policy 4 (nat­ur­al her­it­age) has been used 94% of applic­a­tion decisions com­pared to 39%.
  • Policy 10 (resources) has been used in 73% of applic­a­tion decisions com­pared to 29%.

Policies which are use more by all oth­er loc­al author­it­ies com­pared to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park are:

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 17 of 72

  • Policy 1 (new hous­ing devel­op­ment) which has been used in 43% of applic­a­tion decisions by the con­stitu­ent loc­al author­it­ies, com­pared to in 29% of applic­a­tion decisions by the Nation­al Park.
  • Policy 9 (cul­tur­al her­it­age) 32% of applic­a­tions com­pared to 18%.

Policy 1 Policy 2 Policy 3 Policy 4 Policy 5 Policy 6 Policy 7 Policy 8 Policy 9 Policy 10 Policy 11 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Approved Refused Fig­ure 4 Pro­por­tion of plan­ning applic­a­tions that each

×

We want your feedback

Thank you for visiting our new website. We'd appreciate any feedback using our quick feedback form. Your thoughts make a big difference.

Thank you!

Give feedback