Plans unveiled for new town of up to 1,500 homes near Aviemore

Detailed plans have been unveiled for the first time for a new town next to Aviemore although concerns persist over the scale of the development which could eventually be home to up to 5,000 people.

There was a generally postive response to the design for the first phase of 200 homes which will be built by Springfield Properties at An Camus Mor on Rothiemurchus Estate.

However, opponents attending a public exhibition in Aviemore described the new town as a "classic planning blunder" and claimed it would be the ruin of the Cairngorms National Park’s reputation.

The park authority has given the go-ahead in principle for up to 1,500 homes but that decision is part of a legal challenge against several sites allocated for housing in the CNPA’s Local Plan which will be heard in the Court of Session in Edinburgh next month.

The developers hope to apply for full planning consent for the 200 homes on the site over the River Spey from Aviemore in April, next year, and start work in August or September, later the same year.

They gave an indication that "rough" guide prices would range from £99,000 to £350,000 for the 95 private homes comprising two bedroom terraced housing to five-bedroom detached properties.

There are also plans for 25 self-build plots and 80 affordable homes although no housing association is on board yet.

The entire An Camus Mor development is not scheduled to be finished until 2035.

Dr Neil Macdonald, who has lived in Aviemore since 1965, was one of those attending the exhibition at the Macdonald Aviemore Resort.

He said: "The plans are what we expected and they are following what the thoughts of the community have always been for An Camus Mor. I think they’re great and the sooner we get on with it the better.

"I was chairman of the village council – which pre-dated the community council – when it was mooted that this is where Aviemore should be developing into and I’m delighted that is it coming to fruition now."

Commenting on the bid by the trio of conseravtion groups to derail the plans in Scotland’s highest civil court, he said: "It’s all pie in the sky. Most of their research in fact is flawed."

Mr John Forbes-Leith, owner of Dunachton Estate by Kincraig, was impressed with the designs but had some concerns.

He said: "I don’t know what everyone is going to do who comes to live here."

He believes that the mainstay of the new town will be retired people. "Of course they bring money to the area but do they create new jobs? Probably not very many."

He added he had worries that the value of properties for sale and rent would be hit elsewhere in the strath.

However, Mr James Dunbar, who lives near the proposed site, beileves people want to live in real communities rather than artifically created ones. He said he had his doubts that the development would ever be fully completed.

Mr Colin Smillie, who lives at Coylum Road, said: "The problem with Aviemore already is that there are too many holiday homes. How do the businesses survive – the corner shop, a pub in the hotel – if half the population don’t stay there?"

His wife, Fiona, said: "I don’t think there is the requirement for the amount of homes being proposed."

Both agreed the proposals on the table were "far too big" and half the number of houses over the same period would be better. Mr Smillie said: "Currently it’s like putting a city in a rural area."

The couple also have concerns about access to the first new homes from the B970 Colylumbridge-Nethy road.

The couple also criticised the absence of the lack of a footbridge over the River Spey to Aviemore from the first stage of the house-building. Springfield Properties said that this was not in their remit.

Mr Roy Turnbull, spokesman for the Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group, said the group remained totally opposed to the development.

He said: "We regard it as a classic planning blunder to build a new settlement in the heart of a national park close to the Cairngorms summit and in the Glenmore corridor which is a very sensitive area."

He continued: "This is a national park – not a local park – and is suppose to be for the nation. When we talk to people about what is proposed for here, they are absolutely astonished . . .

"I think this will be the ruin of the Cairngorms National Park as far as its reputation is concerned and have very severe impacts on the landscape and the ecology."

Karen Cadell, an urban designer with Area, said the feedback to the first phase of the plans had been "very positive".

"People like the idea of how we are designing the streets," she said, "our interest includes focussing on the spaces between buildings as well as the architecture."

She said there was huge demand throughout the UK for new houses.

After the exhibition, Mr Kenny Shand, spokesman for Springfield Properties, said: "The emerging designs were well received on the day which is very encouraging.

"We have started to work those designs up to the actual street plans and house styles which will form the planning submission, incorporating feedback from the exhibition where we can.

"Over the coming months local people will be able to find out more about living at An Camas Mòr at our website, springfield.co.uk, which will be updated with the progress of designs and of the planning submission."

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