Item 5 AA Utis Bridge 20190051DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 16/08/2019

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PRO­POSED: Replace­ment of bridge slightly down­stream of the cur­rent bridge. at Land 1300M NW Of Ranger Base Office, Cairngorm Moun­tain, Glen­more, Aviemore REF­ER­ENCE: 2019/0051/DET APPLIC­ANT: Mrs Kelly McK­el­lar DATE CALLED-IN: 13 Feb­ru­ary 2019 RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve sub­ject to Con­di­tions CASE OFFICER: Stephanie Wade, Plan­ning Officer

CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 16/08/2019

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The site is loc­ated on the Allt Mor River, which is approx­im­ately 0.28km south-west of the Sug­ar­bowl Car Park (as the crow flies), which is loc­ated on the road between Glen­more and Cairngorm Mountain.

2. The site is accessed via a net­work of pub­lic foot­paths includ­ing the Forestry and Land Scotland’s Allt Mor trail from the Sug­ar­bowl car park and from the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Core Path GR12, which fol­lows the river along the glen.

3. At present, the Allt Mor pub­lic foot­path trail crosses the river with­in the applic­a­tion site via a ped­es­tri­an bridge which is under­stood to have been erec­ted across the river in 1979. The bridge takes form from a steel beam and tim­ber decked con­struc­tion over stone abut­ments with a cent­ral pier loc­ated on the islet.

4. The applic­a­tion site is loc­ated with­in an area of envir­on­ment­al des­ig­na­tions includ­ing: the Cairngorms Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area (SPA), the Cairngorms Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC), the River Spey SAC and the Glen­more Forest Site of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest (SSSI) and the Allt Mor SSSI.

Pro­pos­al

1. The draw­ings and doc­u­ments asso­ci­ated with this applic­a­tion are lis­ted below and are avail­able on the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity web­site unless noted otherwise:

http://​www​.eplan​ningcnpa​.co​.uk/​o​n​line- applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=PMWVGCSI0CH00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Plan — Over­all Plan		04/02/2019	18/02/2019
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan		04/02/2019	18/02/2019
Plan — Site Plan	CETS/1621/03	10/03/2019	26/03/2019
Plan — Pro­posed Bridge Gen­er­al Lay­out Plans (Amended)	CETS/1621/01 Rev.C	13/06/2019	17/06/2019
Plan — Pro­posed Bridge Ramp Details Plan (Amended)	CETS/1621/02 Rev.A	11/02/2019	17/06/2019
Oth­er- Eco­logy Survey		04/03/2019	26/03/2019
Oth­er — Sup­port­ing Statement		04/02/2019	18/02/2019
Oth­er- Exist­ing Bridge Details		20/03/2000	26/03/2019

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 16/08/2019

| Oth­er- Utsi Bridge Water­way Revised Cal­cu­la­tions | | 13/06/2019 | 17/06/2019 | | Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment | | 22/05/2019 | 23/05/2019 | | CMS Details- Agent Cov­er­ing Email | | 22/05/2019 | 23/05/2019 | *Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the Ist of the month.

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is the replace­ment of a ped­es­tri­an foot­bridge with­in the applic­a­tion site. The pro­posed bridge is to be sited between I and 2 metres north of the exist­ing bridge loc­a­tion. The exist­ing struc­ture is pro­posed to be removed upon com­ple­tion of the replace­ment bridge install­a­tion. The exist­ing bridge is a tim­ber and steel struc­ture span­ning an over­all length of approx­im­ately 21.5 metres with a deck width of approx­im­ately I metre. The exist­ing bridge has a deck to bed height of approx­im­ately 1.5 metres in the deep­est part of the chan­nel. The exist­ing bridge is sup­por­ted by stone abut­ments and a cent­ral pier. It is under­stood from the applic­a­tion details that the exist­ing struc­ture is in a state of dis­repair with the exist­ing water­course under­min­ing the cent­ral pier through scour.

2. The replace­ment struc­ture is pro­posed to be formed from two aer­i­al mast type steel bridges, which are to be clad with tim­ber. It will be sup­por­ted by gabi­on bas­ket abut­ments and a cent­ral stone faced, con­crete pier loc­ated on the islet. The deck and bal­us­trades are pro­posed in tim­ber. The struc­ture is pro­posed to span an over­all length of approx­im­ately 28.2 metres with a deck width of approx­im­ately 1.8 metres. The deck to bed height is pro­posed at approx­im­ately 3.3 metres in the deep­est part of the chan­nel. The exist­ing pub­lic foot­path is pro­posed to be realigned with the access points of the new bridge struc­ture. One row­an tree loc­ated on the islet is pro­posed to be removed as part of the works.

3. The applic­a­tion descrip­tion has been amended fol­low­ing its ori­gin­al sub­mis­sion to remove the word ​‘tem­por­ary’ from the pro­pos­al to reflect the per­man­ent nature of the works.

4. Dur­ing the con­sid­er­a­tion of the applic­a­tion, addi­tion­al inform­a­tion was sought by CNPA Officers and con­sul­tees to allow for a more informed assess­ment of the pro­pos­al. Addi­tion­al water­way cal­cu­la­tions, togeth­er with a con­struc­tion meth­od state­ment and a revised Gen­er­al Lay­out plan, have been sub­mit­ted. The addi­tion­al inform­a­tion also con­firms that the pro­posed mater­i­als for the works will be delivered to the site by heli­copter dur­ing Septem­ber to Octo­ber to avoid heli­copter move­ments with­in the bird breed­ing sea­son. It is under­stood from the sub­mit­ted details that the heli­copter use would equate to approx­im­ately 6 – 8 fly­ing hours spread over a 2 – 3 week con­struc­tion period.

5. Plans of the pro­pos­als are included with­in Appendix 1.

His­tory

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 16/08/2019

1. There is no recent plan­ning his­tory asso­ci­ated with the applic­a­tion site.

DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN CONTEXT

Policies

Nation­al Policy	Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy 2014
Stra­tegic Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 — 2022
Loc­al Plan Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2015) Those policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross
POLICY I	NEW HOUS­ING DEVELOPMENT
POLICY 2	SUP­PORT­ING ECO­NOM­IC GROWTH
POLICY 3	SUS­TAIN­ABLE DESIGN X
POLICY 4	NAT­UR­AL HER­IT­AGE X
POLICY 5	LAND­SCAPE X
POLICY 6	THE SIT­ING AND DESIGN OF DIGIT­AL COM­MU­NIC­A­TIONS EQUIPMENT
POLICY 7	RENEW­ABLE ENERGY
POLICY 8	SPORT AND RECRE­ATION X
POLICY 9	CUL­TUR­AL HERITAGE
POLICY 10	RESOURCES X
POLICY 11	DEVELOPER CON­TRI­BU­TIONS

1. All new devel­op­ment pro­pos­als require to be assessed in rela­tion to policies con­tained in the adop­ted Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. The full word­ing of policies can be found at:

http://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​d​o​c​u​m​e​n​t​s​/Park Authority/Planning/LDP15.pdf

Plan­ning Guidance

1. Sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance also forms part of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan and provides more details about how to com­ply with the policies. Guid­ance that is rel­ev­ant to this applic­a­tion is marked with a cross.

Policy I	New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 3	Sus­tain­able Design Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance X
Policy 5	Land­scape Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X
Policy 7	Renew­able Energy Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance
Policy 8	Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X
Policy 11	Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Assess­ment (HRA)

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 16/08/2019

1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Assess­ment has been under­taken to con­sider the effects of the pro­pos­al upon the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the Natura Sites of the Cairngorms Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC), Cairngorms Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area (SPA) and the River Spey SAC. A copy of the HRA is included in Appendix 2.

2. The Assess­ment high­lighted the need to assess the pro­pos­al against its likely sig­ni­fic­ant effect on caper­cail­lie and Scot­tish Cross­bill, otter, sal­mon, Cale­do­ni­an Forest and green shield moss if present at the loc­a­tion. The HRA con­cludes that there would be no impact from the pro­pos­al on the integ­rity of any of the Natura sites, sub­ject to a post determ­in­a­tion con­di­tion requir­ing pre-con­struc­tion sur­veys to be under­taken for green shield moss and otter.

3. In sup­ple­ment to the Apprais­al, the doc­u­ment includes con­sid­er­a­tion of the proposal’s impact on the Allt Mor SSSI and Glen­more Forest SSSI des­ig­nated areas. The doc­u­ment con­cludes that there would be no impact on the Allt Mor SSSI, how­ever it recom­mends the addi­tion of a con­di­tion to sur­vey for wood ants pri­or to the con­struc­tion of the bridge in rela­tion to the Glen­more Forest SSSI.

CON­SULTA­TIONS

1. A sum­mary of the main issues raised by con­sul­tees now follows:

2. Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Her­it­age (SNH) was con­sul­ted in rela­tion to the impacts upon the des­ig­nated SSSI and Natura sites and the pro­tec­ted spe­cies. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al has been under­taken and SNH advise that the pro­pos­al is likely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on some of the qual­i­fy­ing interests of the sites but they con­clude that the pro­pos­al will not adversely affect the integ­rity of any of the sites. SNH there­fore recom­mend that pre-con­struc­tion sur­vey work is under­taken to check for signs of otter holts and rest­ing places, Green shield-moss and wood ant nests. These areas should be avoided if found. SNH also advise that they con­sider the pro­pos­al would not impact on the Allt Mor SSSI nor the Glen­more Forest SSSI sub­ject to the wood ant pre-con­struc­tion checks.

3. Fol­low­ing the sub­mis­sion of the addi­tion­al inform­a­tion, which includes the use of heli­copters, SNH con­clude no impact on site integ­rity for any of the des­ig­nated sites due to the works being under­taken out­side of the bird breed­ing season.

4. A copy of the revised Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Assess­ment can be found at Appendix 2.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 16/08/2019

1. Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency (SEPA) ini­tially raised an objec­tion to the applic­a­tion and reques­ted the sub­mis­sion of addi­tion­al inform­a­tion in sup­port of the applic­a­tion. Fol­low­ing this sub­mis­sion, SEPA has removed their objec­tion on flood risk grounds not­ing that the new bridge would be con­sid­er­ably elev­ated above the I in 200 year floor level and it would be unlikely that this struc­ture would be at medi­um to high risk of floor­ing or cause an obstruc­tion to flow. Regard­ing hydro­mor­pho­logy, SEPA request the inclu­sion of a post determ­in­a­tion con­di­tion to ensure the river bank is rein­stated appro­pri­ately fol­low­ing any remov­al of the exist­ing abut­ments. SEPA also con­firm that they require a regis­tra­tion of the struc­ture instead of a licence under The Water Envir­on­ment (Con­trolled Activ­it­ies) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2011 (CAR).

2. High­land Coun­cil Flood Team has no spe­cif­ic com­ments regard­ing this application.

3. CNPA Out­door Access Officer has examined the applic­a­tion details and has no spe­cif­ic com­ments to make regard­ing the pro­pos­al. The Officer notes the inten­tion towards avoid­ing path clos­ure through the reten­tion of the exist­ing bridge whilst the replace­ment bridge is being installed and they acknow­ledge and sup­port the pro­pos­al on the basis that the path in ques­tion facil­it­ates access to a num­ber of key locations.

4. CNPA Land­scape Officer notes that Utsi Bridge is loc­ated in a water chan­nel, sur­roun­ded by a ripari­an veget­a­tion and open moor­land bey­ond. The Officer has no objec­tion to the replace­ment bridge and con­siders that the pro­pos­al will have a min­im­al and loc­al­ised impact upon the land­scape char­ac­ter of this part of the Glen More LCA and any rel­ev­ant SLQs. The Officer has reques­ted the inclu­sion of a post determ­in­a­tion con­di­tion for the sub­mis­sion and approv­al of a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment and reques­ted fur­ther details on wheth­er any oth­er trees would be affected by the devel­op­ment oth­er than the one iden­ti­fied with­in the sub­mis­sion details.

5. CNPA Eco­lo­gist ini­tially provided com­ments which con­firmed that they agree with the con­clu­sions of the HRA car­ried out by SNH which con­clude that there will be no likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects on the Cairngorms SAC/SPA or River Spey SAC arising from the pro­pos­al if the appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion is included with­in a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment. The Eco­lo­gist also reques­ted the inclu­sion of sus­pens­ive plan­ning con­di­tions on any sub­sequent decision to ensure no adverse impacts to biod­iversity. The con­di­tions request the sub­mis­sion of a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment and pro­gramme of works togeth­er with a pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion plan and details of spe­cies pro­tec­tion measures.

6. Fol­low­ing the applicant’s sub­mis­sion of fur­ther inform­a­tion, includ­ing a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment, the CNPA Eco­lo­gist wel­comes the details included with­in this doc­u­ment how­ever requests that the Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment is updated pri­or to the com­mence­ment of works to reflect any HRA mit­ig­a­tion revi­sions and to provide fur­ther inform­a­tion on pre-start checks and spe­cies pro­tec­tion meas­ures, pol­lu­tion and the water­course, work­ing areas and con­firm­a­tion that the heli­copter use is restric­ted between Septem­ber – Octo­ber to min­im­ise the change that bird spe­cies nest­ing out­side the main peri­ods will be affected.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 16/08/2019

1. Aviemore Com­munity Coun­cil ini­tially con­firmed that they have no spe­cif­ic com­ments relat­ing to the pro­pos­al and they provided no fur­ther com­ments on the amended scheme. A copy of their response can be found at Appendix 3.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. The applic­a­tion has been advert­ised and no let­ters of pub­lic rep­res­ent­a­tion have been received in respect of the proposal.

APPRAIS­AL

1. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions in rela­tion to this applic­a­tion com­prise: the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment; the impact on the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment in respect of des­ig­nated areas, pro­tec­ted spe­cies and land­scape impacts; togeth­er with the impact on flood­ing and the design, scale and mater­i­als of the proposal.

Prin­ciple

1. Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park adop­ted Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 (the adop­ted Loc­al Plan) states that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als should main­tain and max­im­ise all oppor­tun­it­ies for out­door access, includ­ing links into the exist­ing path net­work; accord with the Core Paths Plan and min­im­ise the effect of the devel­op­ment on cli­mate change in terms of sit­ing and con­struc­tion. Policy 8: Sport and Recre­ation of the adop­ted Loc­al Plan also places emphas­is on new devel­op­ment main­tain­ing and max­im­ising oppor­tun­it­ies for respons­ible out­door access.

2. The prin­ciple of this devel­op­ment is to con­struct a new river cross­ing close to and in place of the exist­ing bridge, with asso­ci­ated works to realign the access tracks on either side of the bridge. It is under­stood that the exist­ing bridge’s integ­rity is being under­mined by the water course and there­fore, the pro­pos­al looks to main­tain out­door access oppor­tun­it­ies with­in the imme­di­ate area whilst being erec­ted in a loc­a­tion which is con­sidered to be less at risk of flood dam­age than that at present. The CNPA Out­door Access Officer has no objec­tions to the scheme and sup­ports the pro­pos­al on the basis that the path in ques­tion facil­it­ates access to a num­ber of key loc­a­tions. The prin­ciple is con­sidered to be accept­able in accord­ance with Policies 3: Sus­tain­able Design and Policy 8: Sport and Recre­ation of the Loc­al Plan sub­ject to the con­sid­er­a­tion of the oth­er mater­i­al plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions out­lined below.

Envir­on­ment­al Issues

1. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the adop­ted Loc­al Plan seeks to ensure that there is no adverse impact on the integ­rity of des­ig­nated sites, nor upon pro­tec­ted spe­cies or biod­iversity from devel­op­ment proposals.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 16/08/2019

1. The main likely envir­on­ment­al impacts from this devel­op­ment relate to the poten­tial impact the pro­pos­al would have on the qual­i­fy­ing interests of the des­ig­nated areas of the Natura sites, the Sites of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest and also the poten­tial impact on the pro­tec­ted spe­cies with­in the imme­di­ate area. The eco­lo­gic­al inform­a­tion sub­mit­ted in sup­port of the applic­a­tion has been reviewed by the CNPA Eco­lo­gist and Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Heritage.

2. A hab­it­ats reg­u­la­tions assess­ment (Appendix 2) has been under­taken which con­cludes that there will be no likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects on the Natura Sites arising from the pro­pos­al, if the appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion of pre-con­struc­tion sur­veys are under­taken as stip­u­lated in the assess­ment. The same doc­u­ment also con­cludes that sub­ject to a pre-con­struc­tion sur­vey being under­taken for wood ants, the pro­pos­al is not con­sidered to have any likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects on the des­ig­nated SSSIs of the area.

3. SNH has reviewed the applic­a­tion details and con­clude that the pro­pos­al would have no impact on site integ­rity for any of the des­ig­nated areas, with ref­er­ence being made to the use of heli­copters between Septem­ber – Octo­ber which avoids the bird breed­ing sea­son and removes any poten­tial impacts on breed­ing birds. A num­ber of pre-con­struc­tion sur­veys are recom­men­ded to be attached to any sub­sequent decision by way of con­di­tion to avoid any poten­tial impact on the qual­i­fy­ing interests of des­ig­nated sites if found with­in the con­struc­tion area of the applic­a­tion site.

4. The Nation­al Park’s Eco­lo­gist agrees with the con­clu­sions reached in the HRA and it is con­sidered that suf­fi­cient inform­a­tion has been provided to demon­strate that any impacts on the eco­lo­gic­al interests of the site can be sat­is­fact­or­ily mit­ig­ated by both work­ing prac­tices and by the meas­ures out­lined in the HRA. Sub­ject to the inclu­sion of the recom­men­ded post determ­in­a­tion con­di­tions by the CNPA Eco­lo­gist in the interests of biod­iversity mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to have a neg­li­gible effect on the eco­lo­gic­al interests of the area in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Impact on Flooding

1. Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 seeks to ensure that all devel­op­ments do not increase flood risk nor adversely impact on the water qual­ity of the area.

2. As the site lies with­in a flood risk area as iden­ti­fied on SEPA’s map, it is there­fore essen­tial to con­sider the poten­tial risks from flood­ing to both the site and oth­er recept­ors in the area as required by policy. The pro­pos­al removes an exist­ing struc­ture across the river and intro­duces a new struc­ture with­in the site. It is under­stood from the applic­a­tion details that the replace­ment bridge’s design and sit­ing have been influ­enced by the incor­por­a­tion of flood resi­li­ent meas­ures includ­ing hav­ing a deck level above the I in 200 year return peri­od storm water levels. High­land Coun­cil Flood Team raises no objec­tion to the pro­pos­al. SEPA con­clude that they have no objec­tion to the scheme fol­low­ing the sub­mis­sion of the addi­tion­al inform­a­tion by the applic­ant to demon­strate the impact on flood risk from the pro­pos­al. Regard­ing hydro­mor­pho­logy, a con­di­tion is recom­men­ded to ensure the river bank is rein­stated appro­pri­ately fol­low­ing the remov­al of the exist­ing bridge abutments.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 16/08/2019

1. The pro­posed replace­ment struc­ture is not con­sidered to intro­duce any addi­tion­al flood­ing impact from the exist­ing impact pre­vi­ously estab­lished on site. Whilst there is an exist­ing risk of flood­ing at the site itself, the vul­ner­ab­il­ity of the pro­posed use is classed as low and the pro­pos­al reduces the flood risk through the use of more flood resi­li­ent mater­i­als and design. The pro­posed change in dimen­sions from the replace­ment struc­ture to the ori­gin­al is not con­sidered to increase upstream or down­stream flood risk. On this basis, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with the require­ments of Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Design, Scale and Materials

1. Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 requires devel­op­ment to use mater­i­als and land­scap­ing that will com­ple­ment the set­ting of the devel­op­ment and for devel­op­ment to be designed to min­im­ise the effect of the devel­op­ment on cli­mate change in terms of sit­ing and construction.

2. It is under­stood that the site topo­graphy, lim­ited access­ib­il­ity and the site flood risk have been taken into account and dic­tated the design of the pro­posed struc­ture. The applic­a­tion sup­port­ing inform­a­tion explains that the type of bridge struc­ture has been spe­cific­ally chosen due to its light­weight com­pon­ents and due to its abil­ity to be con­struc­ted by hand with the use of simple winches. The pro­pos­al incor­por­ates the use of tra­di­tion­al and sus­tain­able mater­i­als with the incor­por­a­tion of tim­ber clad­ding of the steel ele­ments to aid the visu­al appear­ance of the structure.

3. The scale of the replace­ment struc­ture is pro­posed to be lar­ger than the exist­ing bridge. This includes hav­ing a lar­ger deck to bed dis­tance to improve the flood resi­li­ence of the struc­ture and an over­all longer span to main­tain bank hab­it­at by set­ting back the abut­ments. Tak­ing this into account, the pro­posed scale is con­sidered to be acceptable.

4. The design, scale and mater­i­als of the pro­pos­al are there­fore con­sidered to be accept­able in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Land­scape Impacts

1. Policy 5: Land­scape of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan pre­sumes against devel­op­ment which does not con­serve and enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park and in par­tic­u­lar the set­ting of the pro­posed devel­op­ment. Where devel­op­ment does not con­serve, nor enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter, devel­op­ment will only be per­mit­ted where adverse effects have been min­im­ised and mit­ig­ated through appro­pri­ate sit­ing, lay­out, scale, design and construction.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 16/08/2019

1. The site lies with­in the Glen­more Land­scape Char­ac­ter Area and is char­ac­ter­ised by the upper part of a bowl-shape land­form, extend­ing east from the Rothiemurchus char­ac­ter areas. Utsi Bridge is loc­ated with­in a water chan­nel sur­roun­ded by ripari­an veget­a­tion and open moor­land bey­ond. The CNPA Land­scape Officer con­siders that the pro­posed replace­ment bridge togeth­er with the exist­ing bridge remov­al will have min­im­al and loc­al­ised impact upon the land­scape char­ac­ter of this part of the Glen­more LCA and any rel­ev­ant Spe­cial Land­scape Qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park. The Officer reques­ted fur­ther details includ­ing the sub­mis­sion of a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment and details of any oth­er trees to be impacted by the pro­posed devel­op­ment. It is con­firmed that only the one row­an tree iden­ti­fied on the accom­pa­ny­ing plans is to be impacted by the pro­pos­al. Regard­ing the con­struc­tion meth­od state­ment, a plan­ning con­di­tion is sub­sequently recom­men­ded request­ing the sub­mis­sion of this doc­u­ment. In these cir­cum­stances, the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 5: Landscape.

CON­CLU­SION

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment involves the replace­ment of an exist­ing bridge across the River Allt Mor to main­tain access to the per­mit­ted rights of way net­work with­in the area whilst provid­ing a more flood resi­li­ent struc­ture than that at present. The prin­ciple of devel­op­ment there­fore accords with Policies 3: Sus­tain­able Design and Policy 8: Sport and Recre­ation of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park adop­ted Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

2. Suf­fi­cient inform­a­tion has now been sub­mit­ted by the applic­ant to demon­strate that the devel­op­ment can pro­ceed without harm to the envir­on­ment or land­scape sub­ject to final details/​refine­ment being agreed which will require a num­ber of sus­pens­ive plan­ning con­di­tions to be attached to any sub­sequent decision notice. There are no adverse envir­on­ment­al impacts sub­ject to appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures being implemented.

3. In these over­all cir­cum­stances the devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with all rel­ev­ant policies of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 and the col­lect­ive aims of the Nation­al Park. There are no oth­er mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions which would war­rant the refus­al of plan­ning per­mis­sion. Approv­al is there­fore recom­men­ded sub­ject to appro­pri­ate plan­ning conditions.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to grant FULL PLAN­NING PER­MIS­SION for the replace­ment of bridge slightly down­stream of the cur­rent bridge. at Land 1300M NW Of Ranger Base Office Cairngorm Moun­tain Glen­more Aviemore sub­ject to the fol­low­ing con­di­tions: Those con­di­tions lis­ted below in bold text are sus­pens­ive con­di­tions, which require to be dis­charged pri­or to imple­ment­a­tion of the development.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 16/08/2019

Con­di­tions

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence, (unless oth­er­wise agreed in writ­ing), until pre-con­struc­tion sur­veys for otter, wood ant and Green Shield Moss, have been under­taken and the res­ults, togeth­er with any asso­ci­ated spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity — details of any mit­ig­a­tion required to be iden­ti­fied and agreed and there­after imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the approved details before con­struc­tion works commence.

Reas­on: The site lies with­in des­ig­nated areas includ­ing Natura sites of which the qual­i­fy­ing interests of the sites include: otter and green shield moss. The site also lies with­in SSSI areas where wood ant is rel­ev­ant. In order to ensure there is no adverse impact upon the envir­on­ment, Natura Sites and European Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies, pre-con­struc­tion sur­vey work and sub­sequent mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures are required in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design, Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a revised site spe­cif­ic Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. This plan is to include the following: a) Detail on pre-con­struc­tion envir­on­ment­al checks for Otter, Green Shield Moss and Wood Ant and any mit­ig­a­tion measures; b) Details of the meas­ures to pre­vent otter entrapment; c) Details of how rep­tiles will be safe­guarded dur­ing the dis­mant­ling of gabi­ons and boulder remov­al and how amphi­bi­ans on the banks will be safe­guarded dur­ing the works; d) Veget­a­tion and soil man­age­ment includ­ing mater­i­als hand­ling, stor­age, ongo­ing care and reuse; e) Plant and machinery to be used in the con­struc­tion works; f) Pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion meas­ures and tem­por­ary drain­age or river diver­sion meas­ures (if needed), includ­ing con­firm­a­tion that machinery is excluded from the watercourse; g) Con­struc­tion pro­gramme includ­ing tim­ings, heli­copter use and weath­er related risks; h) Arrange­ments for pre-start/ pre-con­struc­tion meeting i) Details of mater­i­al and tool stor­age areas on site.

The con­struc­tion of the devel­op­ment shall there­after be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the approved plan.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 16/08/2019

Reas­on: The works are to be under­taken in an envir­on­ment­ally sens­it­ive area. It is there­fore neces­sary for a revised Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment to be agreed pri­or to the com­mence­ment of any works to ensure that work on site pro­ceeds without dam­age to the envir­on­ment in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. Pri­or to the remov­al of the exist­ing bridge abut­ments, of the devel­op­ment hereby per­mit­ted, details of the riverb­ank rein­state­ment, includ­ing but not lim­ited to, details of veget­a­tion plant­ing, shall be sub­mit­ted to and agreed in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity in asso­ci­ation with SEPA. The works shall be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the approved details thereafter.

Reas­on: The devel­op­ment includes works which affect the river bank. Details of how the hab­it­at is pro­posed to be restored on the river bank are required to ensure the sym­path­et­ic rein­state­ment of this envir­on­ment­ally sens­it­ive area in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. All heli­copter move­ments asso­ci­ated with the devel­op­ment, hereby per­mit­ted, shall be under­taken between the months of Septem­ber and Feb­ru­ary (inclus­ive).

Reas­on: The devel­op­ment includes the use of heli­copters to trans­port mater­i­als to and from the site. The use of heli­copters is there­fore required to be restric­ted to ensure the devel­op­ment does not impact on breed­ing birds with­in the area, to mit­ig­ate the development’s envir­on­ment­al impacts in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. Any lay­down areas will be cleared of all plant, machinery and mater­i­als with­in 2 months of the com­ple­tion of devel­op­ment, includ­ing the remov­al of the old bridge, as detailed on the approved site plan to be removed.

Reas­on: To ensure there are no last­ing impacts of the devel­op­ment bey­ond the con­struc­tion phase of the pro­pos­al in accord­ance with Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. The devel­op­ment, hereby per­mit­ted, shall not be extern­ally lit unless the spe­cific­a­tion of the light­ing has been sub­mit­ted to and agreed in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. The light­ing shall accord with the approved details thereafter.

Reas­on: To pro­tect the eco­lo­gic­al interests of the imme­di­ate area in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 16/08/2019

Inform­at­ives

1. The devel­op­ment hereby approved, must com­mence with­in three years of the date of this decision notice. If this has not com­menced with­in this peri­od, then this plan­ning per­mis­sion con­sent shall lapse.

2. The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment is required to give the Plan­ning Author­ity pri­or writ­ten noti­fic­a­tion of the date on which it is inten­ded to com­mence the devel­op­ment. Attached to this decision notice is a Notice of Ini­ti­ation of Devel­op­ment for com­ple­tion and sub­mis­sion. Sub­mis­sion of this inform­a­tion assists the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer in mon­it­or­ing act­ive work with­in the area to ensure com­pli­ance with the approved details and to identi­fy and cor­rect any poten­tial prob­lems, as they arise, rather than later when it may be more dif­fi­cult and more costly to rec­ti­fy. Fail­ure to give notice would con­sti­tute a breach of plan­ning con­trol which may res­ult in enforce­ment action being taken.

3. It is import­ant to note that the grant­ing of plan­ning per­mis­sion does not imply there is an uncon­di­tion­al absence of floor risk relat­ing to (or eman­at­ing from) the applic­a­tion site. As per Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy (para­graph 259), plan­ning per­mis­sion does not remove the liab­il­ity pos­i­tion of developers or own­ers in rela­tion to flood risk.

4. You are advised that work on site must stop imme­di­ately, and Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Her­it­age must be con­tac­ted, if evid­ence of any pro­tec­ted spe­cies or nesting/​breed­ing sites, not pre­vi­ously detec­ted dur­ing the course of the applic­a­tion and provided for in this per­mis­sion, are found on site. For the avoid­ance of doubt, it is an offence to delib­er­ately or reck­lessly kill, injure or dis­turb pro­tec­ted spe­cies or to dam­age or des­troy the breed­ing site of a pro­tec­ted spe­cies. These site are pro­tec­ted even if the anim­al is not there are the time of dis­cov­ery. Fur­ther inform­a­tion regard­ing pro­tec­ted spe­cies and developer respons­ib­il­it­ies is avail­able from SNH: www​.snh​.gov​.uk/​p​r​o​t​e​c​t​i​n​g​-​s​c​o​t​l​a​n​d​s​-​n​a​t​u​r​e​/​p​r​o​t​e​c​t​e​d​-​s​p​ecies

5. SEPA Reg­u­lat­ory Advice- The ini­tial bridge with cent­ral pier requires a regis­tra­tion rather than a simple licence under CAR. The remov­al of the exist­ing bridge could be included in this regis­tra­tion. Fur­ther details of reg­u­lat­ory require­ments and good prac­tice advice for the applic­ant can be found on the Reg­u­la­tions Sec­tion of the SEPA web­site www​.sepa​.org​.uk . If you are unable to find the advice you need for a spe­cif­ic reg­u­lat­ory mat­ter, please con­tact a mem­ber of the reg­u­lat­ory ser­vices team in your loc­al SEPA office at: 28 Peri­met­er Road, Pine­field, ELGIN, IV30 6AF Tel: 01343 547663.

6. Fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, a noti­fic­a­tion of the com­ple­tion shall, as soon as prac­tic­able, be giv­en to the Plan­ning Author­ity. Attached to this decision notice is a Notice of Com­ple­tion of Devel­op­ment for com­ple­tion and sub­mis­sion. Sub­mis­sion of this form will assist the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer in mak­ing a final inspec­tion and check­ing com­pli­ance with the approved draw­ings and con­di­tions. If the devel­op­ment hereby approved is to be car­ried out in phases, then a notice of com­ple­tion should be sub­mit­ted at the com­ple­tion of each phase.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 16/08/2019

The map on the first page of this report has been pro­duced to aid in the stat­utory pro­cess of deal­ing with plan­ning applic­a­tions. The map is to help identi­fy the site and its sur­round­ings and to aid Plan­ning Officers, Com­mit­tee Mem­bers and the Pub­lic in the determ­in­a­tion of the pro­pos­al. Maps shown in the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Report can only be used for the pur­poses of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee. Any oth­er use risks infringing Crown Copy­right and may lead to pro­sec­u­tion or civil pro­ceed­ings. Maps pro­duced with­in this Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Report can only be repro­duced with the express per­mis­sion of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and oth­er Copy­right hold­ers. This per­mis­sion must be gran­ted in advance.