Planning Guidance in the National Park – what’s your view?

The Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) wants to hear the public’s views on Carbon Emissions, Developer Contributions and Wildness in a bid to help shape Supplementary Planning Guidance for the Park.

Draft policy documents covering these three areas have been produced and the consultation on them begins on Monday 21 March and runs until Friday 29 April. The CNPA is asking people to consider the approach being taken and whether or not they agree, disagree or if they have other comments to make.

• Carbon Emissions: Targets to reduce carbon emissions have been set by the Scottish Government. Anyone considering development which may directly or indirectly produce carbon emissions from general development within the National Park must demonstrate how it will seek to minimise greenhouse gas emissions. The type of development this may affect includes: that located within carbon sinks (woodlands, wetlands, moorlands), hill tracks, mineral and peat extractions, carbon capture and storage schemes.
• Developer Contributions: Developers will be required to make a contribution in cash or kind when a development gives rise to a need to increase or improve public services, facilities or infrastructure or to mitigate adverse effects. These will be consistent with the scale and nature of the development and fair and reasonable.
• Wildness: The experience of Wildness is considered a Special quality of the Cairngorms National Park and all developments must pay due regard to the protection and enhancement of  this.

Supplementary Planning Guidance has been produced to expand on the detail of some of the policies in the recently adopted Cairngorms National Park Local Plan.

CNPA Planning Committee Chairman Duncan Bryden said: “This guidance and the rest of the Local Plan will help developers bringing forward applications to better understand National Park expectations. With information provided up front developers can expect timely decisions on the right applications in the right places. It’s therefore really important that people who care about where they live and the future of the Park read and, if they wish, give their thoughts on this guidance.”

Details of the Supplementary Planning Guidance and comment forms will be available on our website from 21 March 2011 or by contacting the CNPA offices in Grantown-on-Spey or Ballater. Further information is available from the Cairngorms National Park Authority, 14 The Square, Grantown-on-Spey. PH26 3HG. Tel: 01479 873535 or email