A 60 bedroom hotel for Aviemore and eight new houses for Newtonmore have been approved by members of the Cairngorms National Park Authority Planning Committee.

Whitbread PLC has been granted permission to build a Premier Inn on the site of a former filling station on Aviemore’s Grampian Road, with the principle of a hotel in this location having already been established with existing consents in place. The development was unanimously welcomed by Planning Committee members with the site having been regarded as an eyesore at the entrance to Aviemore for some years.

Meeting in Ballater this morning (Friday 28 April), the Planning Committee also gave permission in principle for a small housing development at Newtonmore on a site to the west of the village. Of the eight properties to be built, two will be affordable housing units.

Planning Committee Convener Eleanor Mackintosh said: “I welcome this development at Newtonmore, with small-scale residential projects fitting well with our policies. I particularly welcome the inclusion of affordable homes and look forward to considering the detail when a further application is submitted.

“I am also pleased that the vacant filling station – a very unattractive entrance to Aviemore – will soon become a thing of the past. The new design for the hotel is also an improvement on the previous consent and I am sure that it will prove good for the economy of the village.”

To read the planning papers in full please click here.