ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners have abandoned court action against a development in the Cairngorms National Park, paving the way for a new village to be built.
The park authority first approved plans for up to 1,500 houses at An Camas Mòr on a bank of the River Spey in June 2010, and consent was renewed in principle last year. It would be the first new community to be built in a UK national park.
But the Badenoch & Strathspey Conservation Group, the Cairngorms Campaign and the Scottish Campaign for National Parks opposed the development along with the hundreds more houses proposed for the villages of Carrbridge, Kingussie and Nethy Bridge.
They aruged that such large-scale housing do not conform with the principles of a national park and lodged an appeal with the UK Supreme Court after losing their earlier Court of Session appearances.
However they have now withdrawn their appeal and have paid the Cairngorms National Park Authority £38,000 towards costs.
Park authority chief executive Grant Moir said: “The first local plan for the Cairngorms National Park had been through a thorough consultation process as well as a public local inquiry before being adopted in October 2010.
"Two court judgements already resulted in the appellant’s arguments being rejected so we were understandably extremely disappointed by them appealing to the UK Supreme Court.
“I am obviously delighted that this is now the end of the matter but disappointed that it was not brought to an end sooner. The significant legal fees are not the only issue; we’ve invested a considerable amount of staff time and energy defending the appeal over the last few years.
"It’s frustrating to think that this is time and money that would have been better targeted towards conservation projects in the Cairngorms National Park.”
The Cairngorms National Park local plan, which was the subject of the legal challenge, has now been replaced by the new local development plan which was adopted earlier this year and includes An Camas Mòr.
Gus Jones, convener of the Badenoch & Strathspey Conservation Group said: “The reason for our challenge terminating at this stage is because the Supreme Court refused to limit our liability to the CNPA’s legal costs. No charity could proceed on the basis of unknown costs.
"The incredible level of public support we have received demonstrates the deep and far-reaching public concern that exists about the Park Authority’s unsustainable and developer-driven approach to planning taken in their local plan.”
Roy Turnbull, director of the Cairngorms Campaign, added: "History will judge our efforts. If, in years to come, people look back and see the reality and the scale of development that we tried to prevent, I suspect many will regret the failure of the courts to uphold our complaint."
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