Dear Sir,

I feel compelled to write to you about further potential development plans for the area of land in Grantown known as the Mossie.

Grantown residents will recall that the Mossie is a floodplain and a hot spot for a wealth of rare and interesting wildlife. The burns that run through it provide a foraging route for Otter.

Many residents and a local conservation group believe that the Mossie should be preserved as a nature reserve.

The furore surrounding the recent Muir Homes attempt to develop a large part of the Mossie with over 200 homes should still be fresh in the minds of the residents of Grantown.

With that in mind, you would think that the same application would still be reasonably fresh in the mind of Cairngorm National Park Planners, especially since they took a great deal of flack from local residents, conservationists and ultimately Scottish Government Reporters in connection with that matter.

SEPA sustained an objection to the development throughout that application on the basis that built development cannot take place on a functional flood plain. New development itself would not only be at risk, but it would add to the risk of flooding elsewhere.

As a direct consequence of Muir Homes’ failed application, National Park Planners zoned a large area of land to the south-west of Seafield Avenue for future housing development. This now forms part of the National Park adopted Local Plan.

It is worth pointing out that not one brick had been laid in this large virgin newly zoned area.

It may then come as some surprise that National Park Planners are quietly seeking opinion about zoning an area of land on the Mossie for future housing development. Park Planners are describing this as a ‘future opportunity’ and describing this process as an ‘informal consultation’.

The area of land in question is directly to the west of Mossie Road with the only conceivable access via the small cul-de-sac off Mossie Road.

Park Planners have officially sought the opinion of the Grantown and vicinity Community Council whose members did not feel that the Mossie should be developed for housing.

There was no such engagement for the residents of Grantown whose only hope of uncovering the information regarding this ‘informal consultation’ would have been to trawl through the Park’s website. It would seem that Park Planners have not felt the need to connect directly with the local communities which they serve.

Residents could be forgiven for thinking that there is sufficient land already zoned for future housing development in Grantown. It may be that some of your readership supports this ‘opportunity’, or perhaps your readers would prefer to see the Mossie safeguarded as a Nature Reserve. Whatever their opinion, they have a right to express it and should inform Park Planners before Friday 28th September 2012.

Comments can be emailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  or sent to Albert Memorial Hall, Station Square, Ballater, AB35 5QB.

More information, including maps, can be found on The National Park’s website: www.cairngorms.co.uk/park-authority/planning/local-plan/local-development-plan/

Name & address supplied.

Published in The Badenoch and Strathspey Herrald, 20 September 2012.