Cairngorms park planning committee members furious over unplanned tarmac road
A planning application recommended for approval came perilously close to being refused at the latest Cairngorm National Park planning committee.
In fact, but for one member of the board missing part of the discussion and being ineligible to vote, the issue might well have come down to a casting vote from the convener. As it turned out, eight voted in favour - most of them ‘very reluctantly’ - while six voted to reject it altogether and one chose to abstain
The members heard that Austen Durant’s application to extend Grantown on Spey Caravan Site and Motorhome Club with 16 static holiday caravans had only been submitted after ground preparations had been made for the development.
“What we have is yet another application where the development has almost entirely been completed beforehand,” protested Bill Lobban. “And this site has a long history - I’m old enough to remember the trials and tribulations of previous non-applications and development going ahead without control.
“So I think it’s something we need to take really seriously going forward from here, these continual retrospective applications by various applicants I think is absolutely disgraceful and we as an organisation need to do something serious about this - there’s a tarmac road driven right through the middle of it!
“Lets do something about this now.”
A chorus of agreement followed, Fiona McLean suggesting “The convener should write to the owner of the campsite and outline the concerns we have about these retrospective applications and we should give our officers the power to enforce where they need to. I think we need to take a tough line on this one.”
Derek Ross complained: “This can’t go on. It’s disrespectful in the extreme. We need to put down a marker that this committee is not going to put up with that.”
Peter Cosgrove asked: “It’s a very simple question. If we do not accept this retrospective planning permission do they have to dig it all up and reinstate that land?”
Strategic planning chief Gavin Miles advised: “I imagine they would appeal a refusal and my own opinion is that it would be very likely that they would get consent for this application because it is not on the most sensitive part of the site and is relatively modest.
“There is a question of whether it will be possible for the applicant to get planning permission for other future developments given the works they have undertaken but I think at this stage if the committee wants to refuse it then it needs to have good reasons for that.
“I have a feeling it might well not work on appeal because it’s an allocated site and this was the most practical part of the site where an extension could be made - but I think it’s good that the committee are expressing their frustration and anger at the situation in front of you.
Eleanor Mackintosh suggested the committee should at least make the application as good as they could by attaching appropriate, monitored conditions.
Convener Sandy Bremner assumed the conditions and whatever powers the park’s officers might need would make it “very, very clear that we are speaking unanimously as a committee and are conveying the extremely strong feelings of this committee.”
Mr Miles agreed that he and the officers would be very keen to monitor the situation: “I’ll be honest, it took us by surprise that these works started and then when we were assured they were stopping, in order to put in a planning application, they progressed further, so I am personally frustrated and angry, as are the team, that we were misled.
“So we would be very keen to monitor this very carefully. This is, I would guess, the biggest breach we have seen, so we want all the power we can have to monitor it very carefully.”
The developers will have to meet various added conditions including the creation of a detailed register of exactly who occupies the new chalets - as the planned units were described during the meeting - and a set timetable for the numbers of days anyone can stay there on their holiday.
Planning convener Chris Beattie confirmed he would be contacting the developers to raise the the very grave concerns over how they had behaved.
