Item 5 Appendix 3 - Comments 20250010DET River Dee

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pairc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Item 5 Appendix 3 27 June 2025 Page 1 of 2

Agenda item 5

Appendix 3

2025/0010/DET

Com­munity coun­cil comments

Com­ments for Plan­ning Applic­a­tion 2025/0010/DET Applic­a­tion Sum­mary Applic­a­tion Num­ber: 2025/0010/DET Address: Site At The River Dee From No 1446 9203 Up To The Con­flu­ence With Quoi­ch Water At No 1226 9068 Aber­deen­shire Pro­pos­al: Upper Dee River and flood­plain res­tor­a­tion Case Officer: Colin Bryans

Cus­tom­er Details Name: Mr Richard Frim­ston Address: 44 Golf Road Bal­later AB355RS

Com­ment Details Com­menter Type: Com­munity Coun­cil Stance: Cus­tom­er made com­ments in sup­port of the Plan­ning Applic­a­tion Com­ment Reas­ons: Comment:On behalf of Bal­later & Crath­ie, Brae­mar and Mid-Deeside Com­munity Councils

In ref­er­ence to this plan­ning applic­a­tion our under­stand­ing is that the ori­gin­al driver behind this work was to restore the river bank to its ori­gin­al level in order to allow the River Dee to con­nect more nat­ur­ally to its flood plain. We fully sup­port works of this nature in appro­pri­ate loc­a­tions such as this.

We would how­ever wish to high­light the dis­cus­sions that have been tak­ing place with­in the CNPA Dee Resi­li­ence Group rel­at­ive to catch­ment level water man­age­ment. The Dee Resi­li­ence Group has agreed an object­ive of ​“smooth­ing the flow”; of redu­cing the peaks and rais­ing the troughs of water flow in the River Dee catch­ment area. Res­tor­a­tion is an admir­able object­ive but ulti­mately the new cli­mate real­it­ies of the increased fre­quency and intens­ity of flood­ing and drought, mean that we must all find ways to adapt to the ever-increas­ing effects of cli­mate change.

We are very reas­sured that this pro­ject has already been reviewed in the light of the Dee Resi­li­ence Group’s object­ives and some increased ele­ment of water reten­tion included, so as to pro­duce some bene­fits for the water table.

How­ever, we would ask the plan­ning author­ity to review this and all such future pro­ject spe­cific­a­tions to ensure that any ​“smooth­ing the flow” oppor­tun­it­ies are not missed.”