Highland Council lodges plans for new homes on former Aviemore school site
Plans have been lodged by Highland Council for 14 houses on the site of the former Aviemore Primary School.
The submission was made earlier this week to the local authority’s planning service based in Kingussie.
The school at Milton Park has now been closed for nearly a decade.
The fabric of the old primary school had suffered for many years because it was built on what is essentially a bog.
A new primary school was eventually built at Muirton after engineering solutions failed to solve the on-going problems with the former school building which suffered from cracks, and flooding of the playing field.
The application for the housing states: “The proposals aim to provide a mix of cottage flats and semi-detached affordable homes.
“The mix is driven by a combination of local needs, as well as a requirement to maximise the part of the site that can be developed.”
Some residents on local social media have pointed out the short-comings of the site which is mostly bog and caused huge structural problems for the previous school at great cost to the local authority.
But the council's planning agents Colin Armstrong Architects state in their submission that they are confident that the site's short-comings can be overcome.
They state on the location's constraints: "The site is designated as ‘brownfield’ and previously occupied by the now demolished Aviemore Primary School.
"A flood risk assessment was carried out in 2013 showing the majority of the site to be developable.
"This has now been updated to account for a 200 year flood event plus climate change.
"As a result it will be necessary to raise the housing by approximately one metre and provide compensatory storage to mitigate the fluvial flood risk from the Aviemore burn on the western boundary.
"This has fundamentally changed the design approach, limiting development to the eastern portion of the site.
"Peat is present on the site, although this has up to 1.5m cover in places.
"There are some mature trees on the eastern boundary that will need to be removed."
The site is one of the few remaining in Aviemore which is under Highland Council control and available to building badly needed affordable homes on.
More details on the plans can be seen by visiting here
