Will Badenoch capital see its 'living walls'?
A Kingussie couple are celebrating the go-ahead for their plans to breathe new life into the High Street – and specifically its former police station, which has sat empty for years.
Afterward the Cairngorms National Park Authority's planning committee voted narrowly in favour of their application, Gordon and Maria Thomson of Gordonhall Farmhouse, welcomed their long-awaited chance to transform the building by turning it into eight short-let holiday flats.
“My love affair with the strath started when I was a kid in Elgin,” said Mr Thomson. “Curling and karting at Aviemore , jumping off Feshiebridge was heaven on earth for me and I finally settled here in Kingussie with Maria, who still has dreams of creating living walls along the High Street.
“You have to attract people, not force them away, and when you attract everyone benefits.
“We have so much to offer in this fabulous town and we want to do our small bit
for it.”
Mrs Thomson has talked of creating 'living walls' with plants down the outside of the building and harbours dreams of seeing the whole town adopt the idea. But the 'greening' concept was not an integral part of the planning application, which prompted discussion mainly along amenity and parking aspects.
After a lengthy “virtual” discussion on Friday, May 22 the committee were very in much two minds over the amount of information which the developers had offered up for their deliberations.
All the strath members on the board were agreed that, like the neighbours at the site, they simply couldn’t picture how the revamp and extension would look, so they couldn’t gauge the amount of daylight which would be lost to those who had lived alongside the building for years.
Invited by convenor Eleanor Mackintosh to discuss neighbour concerns, Kingussie’s Pippa Hadley bemoaned the lack of “visuals” with the application: “We have a lot of unrelated images. We don’t have the ability to make an assessment because of that lack of detail. We need pretendy pictures.”
Backed by fellow Badenoch member Deidre Falconer, Ms Hadley wanted to delay the decision until more relevant information had been supplied, fearing that to reach a conclusion without it could lay the committee open to charges of neglecting its duties.
“I want to fully endorse what Pippa has said,” added Mrs Falconer, who also raised noise and parking concerns.
“We could ask for a traffic management plan,” offered planning chief Gavin Miles, “but it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to enforce.”
Upper Deeside member Peter Argyle pointed out the roads planning team had not raised any issues with the parking provision: “I don’t really think that parking is the issue that’s been suggested.”
On the question of asking for more visuals Mr Miles said: “I don’t think it’s fair to ask the applicants to do more plans. They are what they are.”
After the pros and cons of the application had been weighed up Mr Miles pointed out the “processing agreement” that existed, informing the members that a deferral of the decision could be deemed a refusal, which might well result in the applicants lodging an appeal.
The Stathspey and Badenoch members, though – joined by Inverness’ Carolyn Caddick, a former Kingussie High School pupil who knew the area well – moved an amendment to Peter Argyle’s motion to approve. A deferral would allow for a daylight study and more relevant information.
Only three votes separated the two sides, with the motion carried 11-8.
