Skip to content
Please be aware the content below has been generated by an AI model from a source PDF.

Formal Board Paper 1 Annex 1.8 - Land use, soil and resources

Form­al Board Paper 1 Annex 1.8 13 March 2026

Paper 1

Annex 1.8

Sus­tain­able places

Sched­ule 8: Land use, soil and resources

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan: Evid­ence Report March 2026

Page 1 of 73

Sched­ule 8: Land use, soil and resources

March 2026

Sched­ule contents

  • Require­ments addressed in this sched­ule: 2
  • Links to evid­ence: 4
  • Sum­mary of evid­ence: 6
    • Policy con­text: 6
      • Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4: 6
      • Legis­la­tion and nation­al doc­u­ments: 8
      • Nation­al Park Author­ity doc­u­ments: 14
      • Loc­al author­ity doc­u­ments: 16
      • Com­munity action plans: 17
  • Baseline: 17
    • This sec­tion provides baseline inform­a­tion on the fol­low­ing matters:
      • Land use, including:
        • The prin­ciple pur­poses for which land is used: 18
        • Pub­licly owned land: 24
        • Pro­tec­ted sites: 27
        • Land use for agri­cul­ture: 28
        • Crofts: 29
        • Empty build­ings: 31
        • Vacant and derel­ict land: 34
        • Brown­field land: 39
        • Con­tam­in­ated land: 41
      • Soil, includ­ing:
        • Car­bon rich soils: 42
        • Land cap­ab­il­ity for agri­cul­ture: 47
        • Land cap­ab­il­ity for forestry: 50
        • Soil seal­ing and com­pac­tion: 52
        • Soil erosion and land­slides: 53
        • Cul­tur­al and loc­ally import­ant soils: 56

Page 2 of 73

  • Resources, includ­ing:
    • Min­er­als and aggreg­ates: 57
    • Geo­con­ser­va­tion: 61
  • Evid­ence gaps: 68
  • Sum­mary of stake­hold­er engage­ment: 68
  • Sum­mary of implic­a­tions for Pro­posed Plan: 69
  • State­ments of agree­ment: 69
  • State­ments of dis­pute: 72

Require­ments addressed in this schedule

Table 1 Inform­a­tion required by the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997, as amended (CNPA003), regard­ing the issue addressed in this schedule.

Sec­tionRequire­ment
Sec­tion 15(3)where a loc­al devel­op­ment plan con­tains policies or pro­pos­als for, or views as to, the occur­rence of devel­op­ment on land owned by the plan­ning author­ity, there is to be appen­ded to the plan a sched­ule, in such form as may be pre­scribed, which iden­ti­fies the land, states that it is so owned and refers to the policies, pro­pos­als or views in question.
Sec­tion 15(5)(a)the prin­cip­al phys­ic­al, cul­tur­al, eco­nom­ic, social, built her­it­age and envir­on­ment­al char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the district.
Sec­tion 15(5)(b)the prin­cip­al pur­poses for which the land is used.
Sec­tion 15(5)(f)any change which the plan­ning author­ity think may occur in rela­tion to any of the mat­ters men­tioned in para­graphs (a) to (eb).
Sec­tion 16(2)(a)to take into account-
i. the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work and
ii. any loc­al out­comes improve­ment plan (with­in the mean­ing of sec­tion 6 of the Com­munity Empower­ment (Scot­land) Act 2015) for the part of their dis­trict to which the loc­al devel­op­ment plan relates,
iii. any registered loc­al place plan (see sched­ule 19) that is for the part of their dis­trict to which the loc­al devel­op­ment plan relates.
Sec­tion 16(2)(b)Are to have regard to such inform­a­tion and con­sid­er­a­tions as may be prescribed.

Page 3 of 73

Sec­tionRequire­ment
Sec­tion 16(2)©May have regard to such oth­er inform­a­tion and con­sid­er­a­tions as appear to them to be relevant.
Sec­tion 16B(3)(a)The evid­ence report is to set out the plan­ning authority’s view on the mat­ters lis­ted in sec­tion 15(5) for land in the part of the authority’s dis­trict to which the loc­al devel­op­ment plan will relate,
Sec­tion 16B(3)(e)Include such oth­er mat­ters as are prescribed.
Sec­tion 16B(4)©The evid­ence report is also to include a state­ment on the extent to which the views expressed under para­graphs (a) and (b) have been taken into account in the report.
Sec­tion 264AIn the exer­cise, with respect to any land in a Nation­al Park, of any power under the plan­ning Acts, spe­cial atten­tion shall be paid to the desirab­il­ity of exer­cising the power con­sist­ently with the Nation­al Park Plan as adop­ted under sec­tion 12(7)(a) of the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000 (asp 10).

Table 2 Inform­a­tion required by the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Devel­op­ment Plan­ning) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2023 (CNPA684), regard­ing the issue addressed in this schedule.

Reg­u­la­tionRequire­ment
Reg­u­la­tion 8(1)a loc­al devel­op­ment plan is to con­tain a map or maps (to be known as ​‘the Pro­pos­als Map’) describ­ing the policies and pro­pos­als set out in the loc­al devel­op­ment plan, so far as prac­tic­able to illus­trate such policies or pro­pos­als spatially.
Reg­u­la­tion 8(2)where a loc­al devel­op­ment plan is pre­pared by a Nation­al Park author­ity, the sched­ule of land own­er­ship is also to include land owned by a loc­al authority.
Reg­u­la­tion 9(2)©any loc­al devel­op­ment plan pre­pared for an area adjoin­ing the loc­al devel­op­ment plan area.

Page 4 of 73

Links to evidence

Legis­la­tion

  • CNPA003 — Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997
  • CNPA004 — Nation­al Park (Scot­land) Act 2000
  • CNPA059 — Crofters (Scot­land) Act 1993
  • CNPA634 — Nat­ur­al Envir­on­ment (Scot­land) Bill as passed
  • CNPA684 — Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Devel­op­ment Plan­ning) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2023

Nation­al documents

  • CNPA008 — Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4
  • CNPA060 — Secur­ing a green recov­ery on a path to net zero: cli­mate change plan 2018 – 2032 –update
  • CNPA061 — Scotland’s Third Land Use Strategy 2021 — 2026
  • CNPA062 — Nation­al Devel­op­ment Plan for Crofting
  • CNPA009 — Loc­al devel­op­ment plan­ning guidance
  • CNPA076 — Scot­tish Vacant and Derel­ict Land Sur­vey 2023
  • CNPA082 — The Scot­tish Soil Frame­work 2009
  • CNPA083 — The State of Scotland’s Soils 2011
  • CNPA084 — Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy to 2045: Tack­ling the Nature Emer­gency in Scotland
  • CNPA085 — Scot­tish Biod­iversity Deliv­ery Plan 2024 – 2030
  • CNPA099 — Aggreg­ate min­er­als sur­vey for Great Bri­tain, 2023

Key agency documents

  • CNPA075 — The Value of Croft­ing 2024
  • CNPA053 — Build­ings at Risk Register Review 2024
  • CNPA095 — Cli­mate change, land man­age­ment and erosion int the organ­ic and organo-min­er­al soils in Scot­land and North­ern Ireland
  • CNPA09