Objectors to a major housing estate planned for the outskirts of Grantown were last night raising a glass to a rare bee that helped them get the 193-house application turned down yesterday.
The site earmarked by national building firm Muir Homes was at The Mossie, an area of open wild space that was known to be a rich haunt for wading birds, invertebrates that the birds feed on, and the rare mining bee, andrena marginata.
The planning committee of the Cairngorms National Park Authority refused the application at its meeting at Boat of Garten.
The recommendation put forward by planning officers to refuse the application to develop The Mossie was approved by members without any contrary views, much to the delight of objectors who turned out for the meeting.
The rejection was on the grounds of the potential for flooding, the area’s high nature conservation value, especially for breeding waders and invertebrates, and the unsuitability of the design of the proposed houses.
Jimmy Mitchell, of Seafield Crescent, a member of a group of local objectors, said: “There are frequent severe floods on The Mossie, and there is a lot of peat there that soaks up the water and prevents it causing harm elsewhere.
“It is a significant ecological area. The other major factor was that the local caravan park, which employs 50 people and brings in £2million to the local economy, would have been threatened because campers at present enjoy a countryside ambience and would not have liked to holiday beside a building site or a housing estate.
“I personally don’t know much about the bees, but I have seen the many wading birds that make The Mossie so special, and the second most important site in Badenoch and Strathspey for breeding waders.”
Muir Homes did not want to comment yesterday.