Delay to badly need new affordable homes in Aviemore is 'unavoidable'
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Planning chiefs have said the delivery of two housing projects in Aviemore has been hit by unavoidable delay but remain confident they will come to fruition.
Decision notices have yet to be issued for 14 affordable homes planned as phase two of the Spey House development near to the new Badenoch and Strathspey Community Hospital at Dalfaber, and for 27 private properties in three blocks of flats at the south end of Grampian Road.
Gavin Miles, the Cairngorms National Park Authority’s (CNPA) head of planning, provided an update on progress of the two projects approved in January and February respectively at the CNPA’s latest planning committee meeting.
The Spey House phase two development by Upland Developments comprises six terraced houses, four bungalows and four cottage flats on land opposite the former TSC call centre off Dalfaber Drive.
The 0.4-hectares site is undeveloped land, bound to the east by the Strathspey steam railway line and to the south by the
£15 million hospital.
Mr Miles said: “This one has been unfortunately caught up in contractual issues between housing associations and changes in direction of housing associations.
“It has now gone back to Highland Council and the Highland Housing Alliance who are looking at how they can work out the finance on it which will then trigger the actual deal with the applicant and allow everything to move from there.
“There are absolutely legitimate reasons for these delays. Everyone is trying to make this work as it is a really good site for affordable housing. We are hopeful that Highland Council in particular will be able to move this on.”
The dwellings proposed are a combination of 10 social rent properties, two mid-market rents and two for low-cost home ownership.
Four of the 10 homes will be “flexible”, one-bed properties which could form part of a FIT Homes portfolio for people with greater health needs and mobility issues.
Mr Miles said the other application by Cairngorm Residential Ltd for the private flats with associated parking at the site of a former filling station on Grampian Road had been caught up in the council legal team’s backlog of work caused by the lockdown.
He added: “We are now at the point where we are chasing them hard, and this should be concluded pretty soon.”
The site of the two and three-bedroomed flats is between the Happy Haggis restaurant and village’s youth hostel. The affordable housing element has already been delivered through 14 homes on the village’s Sluggan Drive.
CNPA planning committee chairwoman Eleanor Mackintosh welcomed the update and added: “We have to bear in mind that Covid has caused knock-on effects throughout the system.”
The planning committee makes a decision on an application subject to any necessary conditions and the conclusion of any outstanding matters. Planners do not issue a decision notice until these matters are concluded. If it appears matters are unlikely to be concluded, they can ask committee members to refuse the planning application.
They have not been asked to date to do so, but planners said the threat of such action has helped move some cases on where there were unnecessary delays.
