Housing development at Carr-Bridge refused planning permission

Applications for new housing developments in the village of Carr-bridge in the Cairngorms National Park have been turned down by the organisation’s planning committee.

Meeting in Boat of Garten today (Friday 13th March) – and following a site visit this morning – members of the Cairngorms National Park Authority’s (CNPA) planning committee agreed with the planning officer’s recommendation to turn down the applications from Aviemore & Highland Developments Ltd, part of the Tulloch Homes Group.

Three applications were put forward for consideration, one application for 117 houses and associated infrastructure on land bounded by Carr Road, Rowan Park and Crannich Park, with another application for the same area of land but alerted to 96 houses. A third application was for a variation to a condition attached to the original outline consent. All three were refused.

Despite being earmarked for housing in the current Local Plan and emerging Local Development Plan the applications were not deemed to meet with a range of other planning policies.

Among the reasons for refusal were: environmental impacts not having been fully assessed; the development failing to reinforce and enhance the character of the village; insufficient information with regards to surface water drainage arrangements and the submissions not meeting the terms of the outline planning consent.

Issues with regards to the unsuitableness of the village’s Carr Road to access the majority of houses were also brought up by committee members.

Eleanor Mackintosh, Convener of the CNPA planning committee said: “The committee are totally in agreement with our planning officers with regards to this application. We think that the sites can accommodate development but we want something to come forward that is of a high quality and that complements and enhances the village of Carr-Bridge. The proposals before us today do not achieve this.

“Furthermore, the applications lack a significant amount of the necessary information that is required to properly consider proposals of this scale.”

You can read the planning papers in full on the CNPA website.