Item 5 appendix 2

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 Appendix 2 25/04/2025

Agenda Item 5

Appendix 2

2023/0406/DET

Hab­it­ats reg­u­la­tions appraisal

HAB­IT­ATS REG­U­LA­TIONS APPRAISAL

Plan­ning ref­er­ence and pro­pos­al inform­a­tion	2023/0406/DET
Appraised by	Kar­en Ald­ridge, Plan­ning Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer
Date	2 Septem­ber 2024
Checked by	NatureScot
Date	23/09/2024

INFORM­A­TION European site details Name of European site(s) poten­tially affected 1) River Tay SAC Qual­i­fy­ing interest(s) 1) River Tay SAC Atlantic sal­mon Brook lamprey Clear-water lakes or lochs with aquat­ic veget­a­tion and poor to mod­er­ate nutri­ent levels Otter River lamprey Sea lamprey Con­ser­va­tion object­ives for qual­i­fy­ing interests 1) River Tay SAC Con­ser­va­tion Object­ive 2. To ensure that the integ­rity of the River Tay SAC is main­tained by meet­ing object­ives 2a, 2b and 2c for the qual­i­fy­ing fea­ture Con­ser­va­tion object­ives for clear water lakes or lochs:

2b. Main­tain the struc­ture, func­tion and sup­port­ing pro­cesses of clear-water lakes or lochs with aquat­ic veget­a­tion and poor to mod­er­ate nutri­ent levels 2c. Main­tain the dis­tri­bu­tion and viab­il­ity of typ­ic­al spe­cies of clear-water lakes or lochs with aquat­ic veget­a­tion and poor to mod­er­ate nutri­ent levels 2a. Main­tain the extent and dis­tri­bu­tion of clear-water lakes or lochs with aquat­ic veget­a­tion and poor to mod­er­ate nutri­ent levels with­in the site Con­ser­va­tion Object­ives: sea lamprey, brook lamprey & river lamprey 2b. Main­tain the dis­tri­bu­tion of the lamprey spe­cies’ through­out the site 2c. Main­tain the hab­it­ats sup­port­ing the lamprey spe­cies’ with­in the site, and avail­ab­il­ity of food 2a. Main­tain the pop­u­la­tion of the lamprey spe­cies’ as viable com­pon­ents of the site Con­ser­va­tion object­ives: Atlantic sal­mon 2b. Main­tain the dis­tri­bu­tion of Atlantic sal­mon through­out the site 2c. Main­tain the hab­it­ats sup­port­ing Atlantic sal­mon with­in the site and avail­ab­il­ity of food

2a. Main­tain the pop­u­la­tion of Atlantic sal­mon, includ­ing range of genet­ic types, as a viable com­pon­ent of the site Con­ser­va­tion Object­ives: Otter 2b. Main­tain the dis­tri­bu­tion of otter through­out the site. 2c. Main­tain the hab­it­ats sup­port­ing otter with­in the site and avail­ab­il­ity of food 2a. Main­tain the pop­u­la­tion of otter as a viable com­pon­ent of the site

Con­ser­va­tion Object­ive I. To ensure that the qual­i­fy­ing fea­tures of River Tay SAC are in favour­able con­di­tion and make an appro­pri­ate con­tri­bu­tion to achiev­ing favour­able con­ser­va­tion status.

APPRAIS­AL STAGE 1: What is the plan or pro­ject? Rel­ev­ant sum­mary details of pro­pos­al (includ­ing loc­a­tion, tim­ing, meth­ods, etc) The pro­posed devel­op­ment includes the erec­tion of a ware­house build­ing, form­a­tion of an access track, park­ing are and asso­ci­ated works, includ­ing an out­fall into the River Garry. STAGE 2: Is the plan or pro­ject dir­ectly con­nec­ted with or neces­sary for the man­age­ment of the European site for nature con­ser­va­tion? No STAGE 3: Is the plan or pro­ject (either alone or in-com­bin­a­tion with oth­er plans or pro­jects) likely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect (LSE) on the site(s)? 1) River Tay SAC Clear-water lakes or lochs with aquat­ic veget­a­tion and poor to mod­er­ate nutri­ent levels: NO LSE — the nearest loch is approx­im­ately 8km down­stream out­side the zone of influ­ence. It is con­sidered unlikely that the pro­posed devel­op­ment will have any impact on this des­ig­nated fea­ture, there­fore this is not con­sidered fur­ther. Lamprey spe­cies: Yes LSE. Although there will be no dir­ect loss of any suit­able lamprey hab­it­ats, there is poten­tial for silt or pol­lu­tion to enter the River Garry or Bru­ar Water dur­ing the con­struc­tion pro­cess. Atlantic sal­mon: Yes LSE. Although there will be no dir­ect loss of any suit­able sal­mon hab­it­ats, there is poten­tial for silt or pol­lu­tion to enter the River Garry or Bru­ar Water dur­ing the con­struc­tion pro­cess. Otter: Yes LSE — Although there will be no dir­ect loss of any suit­able otter hab­it­ats, otter have been recor­ded on the River Garry and Bru­ar Water, there­fore there is the poten­tial for tem­por­ary dis­turb­ance dur­ing con­struc­tion. STAGE 4: Under­take an Appro­pri­ate Assess­ment of the implic­a­tions for the site(s) in view of the(ir) con­ser­va­tion objectives

1) River Tay SAC Con­ser­va­tion Object­ive 2. To ensure that the integ­rity of the River Tay SAC is main­tained by meet­ing object­ives 2a, 2b and 2c for the qual­i­fy­ing fea­ture Con­ser­va­tion Object­ives: sea lamprey, brook lamprey & river lamprey 2b. Main­tain the dis­tri­bu­tion of the lamprey spe­cies through­out the site The cur­rent dis­tri­bu­tion of the lamprey spe­cies would not be dir­ectly affected as the river works are lim­ited to the out­flow and will not involve the loss of any suit­able lamprey hab­it­ats. How­ever, any pol­lu­tion events, such as a sed­i­ment release or chem­ic­als enter­ing the water­course could indir­ectly cause the dis­tri­bu­tion to change due to changes in water qual­ity and if sig­ni­fic­ant volumes of sed­i­ment enter the water­course, through the smoth­er­ing of suit­able spawn­ing hab­it­ats. Mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures, such as, a site-spe­cif­ic pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion plan (to be secured via con­di­tion) and a Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan (CEMP) would reduce the risk of pol­lu­tion so that the con­ser­va­tion object­ive would be met. 2c. Main­tain the hab­it­ats sup­port­ing the lamprey spe­cies with­in the site, and avail­ab­il­ity of food The cur­rent dis­tri­bu­tion of hab­it­ats sup­port­ing the lamprey spe­cies and avail­ab­il­ity of food with­in the site would not be dir­ectly affected as there will be no dir­ect loss of suit­able hab­it­at. How­ever, as dis­cussed above, pol­lu­tion events dur­ing con­struc­tion have the poten­tial to impact on hab­it­ats and food sources through the changes in water qual­ity or smoth­er­ing of suit­able hab­it­ats. How­ever, mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures iden­ti­fied for 2b above would reduce the risk of pol­lu­tion reach­ing the water­course to a min­im­al level and so this con­ser­va­tion object­ive would be met. 2a. Main­tain the pop­u­la­tion of the lamprey spe­cies’ as viable com­pon­ents of the site As the oth­er con­ser­va­tion object­ives can be met for the lamprey spe­cies with the mit­ig­a­tion (to be secured) the pro­posed devel­op­ment would not under­mine this con­ser­va­tion object. Con­ser­va­tion object­ives: Atlantic sal­mon 2b. Main­tain the dis­tri­bu­tion of Atlantic sal­mon through­out the site As with the lamprey spe­cies, the dis­tri­bu­tion of Atlantic sal­mon through­out the site may be impacted upon indir­ectly through pol­lu­tion events affected water qual­ity or the smoth­er­ing of hab­it­ats suit­able for spawn­ing or sup­port­ing juven­iles. As dis­cussed above, site spe­cif­ic mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures should be con­di­tioned to reduce the risk of such pol­lu­tion events dur­ing the con­struc­tion pro­cess e.g. Pol­lu­tion Pre­vent Plan & CEMP. With the imple­ment­a­tion of mit­ig­a­tion, this con­ser­va­tion object­ive would be met. 2c. Main­tain the hab­it­ats sup­port­ing Atlantic sal­mon with­in the site and avail­ab­il­ity of Food As above, there will be no dir­ect loss of suit­able hab­it­ats. There is a risk of sed­i­ments enter­ing the water­courses and smoth­er­ing suit­able spawn­ing hab­it­ats down­stream of the pro­posed site. With the required mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures, this con­ser­va­tion object­ive would be met. 2a. Main­tain the pop­u­la­tion of Atlantic sal­mon, includ­ing range of genet­ic types, as a

viable com­pon­ent of the site As the oth­er object­ives would be met, this con­ser­va­tion object­ive would not be under­mined by the pro­posed devel­op­ment. Con­ser­va­tion Object­ives: Otter 2b. Main­tain the dis­tri­bu­tion of otter through­out the site. Otter are known to use both the Bru­ar Water and the River Garry, with rest­ing sites noted on the River Garry dur­ing the baseline sur­vey­ing. It is not thought that the pro­posed devel­op­ment will impact upon the dis­tri­bu­tion of otter through­out the River Tay SAC, as the pro­posed devel­op­ment site is close to the exist­ing devel­op­ments at House of Bru­ar and is very close to the A9 cross­ing of the River Garry, there­fore the otters which use this area are likely resi­li­ent to some level of dis­turb­ance. With the imple­ment­a­tion of mit­ig­a­tion for dur­ing con­struc­tion and oper­a­tion; Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan (Otter Sur­vey Report for the Pro­posed Ware­house Devel­op­ment at House of Bru­ar, dated 12 March 2024) it is con­sidered that any dis­turb­ance will be min­im­ised. there­fore, this con­ser­va­tion object­ive will be met. 2c. Main­tain the hab­it­ats sup­port­ing otter with­in the site and avail­ab­il­ity of food There will be some loss of marshy grass­land hab­it­at which may have offered suit­able rest­ing up sites, but not holts. Addi­tion­ally, these hab­it­ats may offer some suit­able for­aging for amphi­bi­ans how­ever the loss of this area is not con­sidered to have a sig­ni­fic­ant adverse impact on the otter pop­u­la­tion. There­fore, this con­ser­va­tion would be met. 2a. Main­tain the pop­u­la­tion of otter as a viable com­pon­ent of the site As the oth­er con­ser­va­tion object­ives would not be under­mined. STAGE 5: Can it be ascer­tained that there will not be an adverse effect on site integ­rity? With the imple­ment­a­tion of mit­ig­a­tion to be secured by con­di­tion, it can be ascer­tained that there will not be an adverse effect on the site integ­rity of the River Tay SAC. 1) Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Meth­od State­ment (CEMP) & Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan The pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion plan must be site spe­cif­ic and include spe­cif­ic ref­er­ence to pre­vent­ing any silts, fuels, or oth­er chem­ic­als from enter­ing the nearby water­courses. Ideally the plan will include a plan detail­ing loc­a­tions for stor­ing fuel, refuel­ling machinery, con­crete wash out area etc. Oth­er details to be included in the CEMP should include a meth­od state­ment for con­struc­tion of the out­flow and the spe­cies pro­tec­tion plan for otter.

Reas­on to pro­tect the water envir­on­ment & River Tay SAC from poten­tial pol­lu­tion events caused by the con­struc­tion of the ware­house and asso­ci­ated infrastructure.