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CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK LOCAL PLAN INQUIRY 
NOTE OF SECOND BUSINESS MEETING: 18 MAY 2009 
CAIRNGORM HOTEL, AVIEMORE 


Attendance: 

Reporters: Mrs Jill Moody and Mr Hugh Begg 

Programme Officers: Sara Krawczynska and Julie Millman 

CNPA: Don McKee, Karen Major, Jane Hope and Murray Ferguson 

Ledingham Chalmers: David Scott and Rebecca Riddell 


1. The purposes of the meeting were: (a) to agree further matters of detail for the 
conduct of the Hearing Sessions of the Inquiry now scheduled to run over a 3 
week period and closing on Thursday 4 June 2009; (b) to discuss the broad 
format of the final report and the appendices to that; and (c) to indicate in 
general terms, and as far as possible at this stage in the proceedings, how 
long it might take to provide the final report to the Park Authority. 

2. As far as the first matter was concerned it was confirmed that: (1) all those 
objectors who elected initially to go by way of the formal inquiry route had now 
defaulted to written submissions and, as far as known on 18 May some who 
had elected initially might also have defaulted to written submissions; (2) the 
hearings relating to policy matters would have a principle, although not 
necessarily sole, focus on the amendments to the text of the policy itself; and 
(3) that the hearings on proposed land allocations within particular settlements 
would not re-run discussions covered in the “general “ sessions arranged to 
cover matters of relevance to the Park as a whole (including housing land 
supply) nor would they include discussion of the merits of sites other than that 
proposed. 

3. Turning to the broad format of the final report, it was agreed that in the 
interests of efficient working and expeditious submission the Reporters would 
make use of a standard template in the form attached to this note. That 
template identifies those pieces of information to be provided by the authority 
on which the Reporters will rely as the evidence base from which their 
findings on the merits of the objections will be drawn. It was confirmed that 
the Reporters would retain the right to review that evidence should that 
appear to be appropriate and also that they would provide any additional 
relevant material drawn from the discussions at the hearing sessions. For the 


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avoidance of any doubt, the conclusions and recommendations provided in 
the templates would be drafted by the Reporters alone. Moving on from 
there, the matters to be included in appendices to the report and prepared by 
the Programme Officer were agreed as: a list of all the objections properly 
submitted and not withdrawn (to be provided to her by the authority); a list of 
core documents together with a list of all other documents relied upon by the 
objectors and by the authority; a final timetable of hearing sessions; a list of all 
of the participants in each of the hearing sessions; and any legal submissions 
made by the authority and/or the objectors. 

4. Finally, in reviewing the amount of reporter time likely to be necessarily 
devoted to the preparation of the final report, it was confirmed by the 
Reporters that the matters agreed in sections 2 and 3 above would facilitate 
greatly its expeditious delivery. However, preparation for the Inquiry had 
revealed that numerous of the objectors in a considerable number of their 
objections had expressed concern about the detailed drafting of the text of the 
plan. Inspection had suggested to the Reporters that very many of the 
concerns were relatively minor and suggestions had been proposed with a 
view to providing a local plan accessible to all and written in plain English. It 
was agreed that it was for the authority to consider the merits of these 
concerns and any associated suggestions. With all this in mind, it was 
agreed that the conclusions drawn by the reporters and their consequent 
recommendations should be firmly focussed on the policies and proposals 
themselves. They should dealing with other matters only insofar as these 
were judged critical to the thrust of the policy, or its context, or its background 
and justification, or the discussion of implementation and monitoring. 

5. On review of the matters discussed and decisions reached, it was agreed that 
a final business meeting would be required following the close of the Inquiry. 
That would be held on 12 June 2009 at a suitable venue. At that meeting the 
Reporters would be in a better position to give a broad indication of the 
reporter time involved in the preparation of their report. 


Hugh M Begg 

Jill Moody 

Reporters 

22 May 2009 



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Issue:   /  Policy number and title 

Objector(s):   /  CNPA’s Objection reference number(s): 
name   /  number 

Reporter(s)   /  Name 

Procedure   /  Hearing/Written Submissions 


1. Introduction 

1.1 CNPA and reporters to summarise the provisions of the deposit plan, of the 
deposit plan as modified, and any further changes being proposed by CNPA 
as potential post inquiry modifications. 

1.2 Other material considerations (including Park Plan, Structure Plan Policies 
and Government Policies) 


2. CNPA’s summary of issues raised by the objectors 

2.1 One summary of each of the issues raised by the objectors from the CNPA 
statement of case. 


3 Summary of CNPA’s response 

3.1 CNPA to reply to all the issues raised by the objectors, including summary of 
statement of case 

Reporters to add a summary of the objectors’ statements of 
case/rebuttal/written expansion/discussion outcomes. 


4. Conclusions 

4.1 To be supplied by Reporters, and to address the main issues arising from the 
above summaries. 


5. Recommendation 

5.1 To be supplied by Reporters