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

Item 5 Committee Report 20260135DET CairngormMountain

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 1 of 33

Com­mit­tee report Devel­op­ment pro­posed: Pro­posed moun­tain tobog­gan track and asso­ci­ated struc­tures, build­ings, plat­forms, land­scap­ing and infra­struc­ture works at Land 284M East of Cairngorm Moun­tain, Glen­more, Aviemore.

Ref­er­ence: 2026/0135/DET Applic­ant: Cairngorm Moun­tain (Scot­land) LLP Date called-in: 27 April 2026 Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to con­di­tions Case officer: Heath­er Boswell, Seni­or Plan­ning Officer

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 2 of 33

This map 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.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 3 of 33

Site descrip­tion, pro­pos­al and his­tory Site description

  1. The applic­a­tion site is loc­ated with­in the Cairngorm Moun­tain resort, approx­im­ately 284m east of Cairngorm Moun­tain. The site is accessed by the exist­ing B970 road from Glen­more which ter­min­ates at a large park­ing area beside Day Lodge and the Funicu­lar Rail­way Base Sta­tion. The site extends to approx­im­ately 1.35 hec­tares. Exist­ing moun­tain recre­ation and ski infra­struc­ture, includ­ing ski tows, access tracks, the funicu­lar rail­way, and asso­ci­ated build­ings are loc­ated in the imme­di­ate vicinity.

  2. The applic­a­tion site con­tains areas of wet heath, moun­tain heath, upland flushes, inland rock and exist­ing tracks, provid­ing hab­it­at for a range of upland spe­cies includ­ing moun­tain hare and breed­ing birds. Both the Day Lodge Poma and Windy Ridge path cross the devel­op­ment site boundary.

  3. Whilst the site does not fall with­in any envir­on­ment­al des­ig­na­tions, the applic­a­tion site is with­in close prox­im­ity (2km) of the fol­low­ing: a) Cairngorms Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC); b) North­ern Cor­ries Site of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest (SSSI); c) Cairngorms Wild Land Area (WLA 15); d) Cairngorms Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area (SPA); and e) River Spey SAC.

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: https://​www​.eplan​ningcnpa​.co​.uk/​o​n​l​i​n​e​-​a​p​p​l​i​c​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​a​p​p​l​i​c​a​t​i​o​n​D​e​t​a​i​l​s​.​d​o​?​a​c​t​i​v​e​T​a​b​=​s​u​m​m​a​r​y​&​k​e​y​V​a​l​=​T​D​W​7​6​O​S​I​0CP00

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 4 of 33

Title Plans Draw­ing num­ber Date on plan* Date received

Plan — Found­a­tion Plan M21-80 – 301_​r04 14/07/21 27/04/26

Plan — Gen­er­al Plan – Drive Sta­tion M25-82 – 501 16/07/25 27/04/26

Plan — Gen­er­al Plan – Exit Area M25-80 – 504_​r00 17/02/25 27/04/26

Plan — Gen­er­al Plan – Exit Con­vey­er M25-81 – 201_​r00 03/02/25 27/04/26

Plan — Gen­er­al Plan – Return Sta­tion M25-82 – 502 16/07/25 27/04/26

Plan – Gen­er­al Plan – Steel Bridge M24-80 – 303 16/12/24 27/04/26

Plan – Gen­er­al Plan – Tobog­gan Stor­age M25-80 – 504_​r00 17/02/25 27/04/26

Plan — Gen­er­al Plan – Track End Brake M24-81 – 101_​r00 20/11/24 27/04/26

Plan — Gen­er­al Plan – Track Waves M19-80 – 309_​r01 22/04/21 27/04/26

Plan – Sec­tion Plan – Lon­git­ud­in­al pr24-80 – 012_​level‑2 – 2_​r06 23/02/26 27/04/26

Plan – Sec­tion Plan – Lon­git­ud­in­al pr24-80 – 012_​level‑2 – 2_​r06 23/02/26 27/04/26

Plan – Site Lay­out Plan – Ortho pr24-80 – 012_​level‑2 – 2_​r06 23/02/26 27/04/26

Plan – Site Lay­out Plan – Top View pr24-80 – 012_​level‑2 – 2_​r06 23/02/26 27/04/26

Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan 400858-PC-0000 01/02/26 27/04/26

Plan — Tick­et & Main­ten­ance Shed – Ground Floor Lay­out & Elev­a­tions 400858-PC-0001 03/02/26 27/04/26

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 5 of 33

Plan – Elev­a­tion Plan – Top Pro­tec­tion Hut 400858-PC-0002 03/02/26 27/04/26

Plan — Elev­a­tion Plan – Bot­tom Pro­tec­tion Hut 400858-PC-0003 03/02/26 27/04/26

Plan — Gen­er­al Plan – Con­struc­tion Details 400858-PC-0010 24/03/26 27/04/26

Plan – Pro­posed Site Lay­out Plan 400858-PC-1000 04/02/26 27/04/26

Plan – Site Lay­out Plan – Bot­tom Area Sheet 1 of 4 400858-PC-1001 04/02/26 27/04/26

Plan – Site Lay­out Plan – Top Area – Sheet 2 of 4 400858-PC-3001 18/02/26 27/04/26

Plan – Site Lay­out Plan – Bridge 1 – Sheet 3 of 4 400858-PC-1003 04/02/26 27/04/26

Plan – Site Lay­out Plan – Bridge 2 – Sheet 4 of 4 400858-PC-1004 04/02/26 27/04/26

Plan — Drain­age Lay­out 400858-PC-2000 04/02/26 27/04/26

Plan — Gen­er­al Plan – Bot­tom Area – Sheet 1 of 4 400858-PC-3000 18/02/26 27/04/26

Plan – Gen­er­al Plan – Top Area – Sheet 2 of 4 400858-PC-3001 18/02/26 27/04/26

Plan – Gen­er­al Plan – Bridge 1 – Sheet 3 of 4 400858-PC-3002 18/02/26 27/04/26

Plan – Gen­er­al Plan – Bridge 2 – Sheet 4 of 4 400858-PC-3003 18/02/26 27/04/26

Plan – Exist­ing Site Lay­out 400858-PC-8000 11/02/26 27/04/26

Plan – LVA Graph­ics Part 2 01/04/26 27/04/26

Plan – LVA Graph­ics Part 3 01/04/26 27/04/26

Plan – LVA Graph­ics Part 4 01/04/26 27/04/26

Plan – LVA Graph­ics Part 5 01/04/26 27/04/26

Plan – LVA Graph­ics Part 6 01/04/26 27/04/26

Plan – LVA Graph­ics Part 7 01/04/26 27/04/26

Plan – LVA Graph­ics Part 8 01/04/26 27/04/26

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 6 of 33

Plan – LVA Graph­ics Part 9 01/04/26 27/04/26

Plan – LVA Graph­ics Part 10 01/04/26 27/04/26

Plan – Peat Sur­vey Plan 19/06/26 04/08/26

Plan – Peat Sur­vey Res­ults 27/06/26 04/08/26

Plan – Plant­ing Plan – Intern­al 2536⁄01 Rev A 15/07/26 04/08/26

Plan — Plant­ing Plan – Wider 2536⁄02 Rev A 13/07/26 04/08/26

Plan – Heli­copter Overnight Stor­age & Refuel­ling Area Loc­a­tion Plan 400858-PC-0004 13/02/26 04/08/26

Plan – Pro­posed Site Plan 400858-PC-1000 04/02/26 04/08/26

Plan – Bridge 1 Lay­out Sheet 3 of 4 400858-PC-1003 04/02/26 04/08/26

Plan – Bridge 2 Lay­out Sheet 4 of 4 400858-PC-1004 04/02/26 04/08/26

Plan – Bridge Elev­a­tions 400858-PC-5000 01/07/26 04/08/26

Sup­port­ing Information

Oth­er – Eco­nom­ic Impact Assess­ment (sens­it­ive) 01/03/26 27/04/26

Oth­er — Land­scape and Visu­al Apprais­al – Visu­al­isa­tion Pack­age 01/04/26 27/04/26

Oth­er — Land­scape and Visu­al Apprais­al 01/04/26 27/04/26

Oth­er – Drain­age State­ment 400858-FRH-ZZ-XX-RP-C-01 – 03 25/03/26 27/04/26

Oth­er – Plan­ning and Design State­ment 01/04/26 27/04/26

Oth­er — Eco­lo­gic­al Assess­ment 01/12/25 27/04/26

Oth­er — High­lands and Islands Enter­prise State­ment 01/02/18 27/04/26

Oth­er – Part 1 of 8 Appendix Fig­ures Pack­age – Baseline Graph­ics 01/07/26 04/08/26

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 7 of 33

Oth­er – Part 2 of 8 Appendix Fig­ures Pack­age – View­point 01 30/07/26 04/08/26

Oth­er – Part 3 of 8 Appendix Fig­ures Pack­age – View­point 02 30/07/26 04/08/26

Oth­er – Part 4 of 8 Appendix Fig­ures Pack­age – View­point 03 30/07/26 04/08/26

Oth­er – Part 5 of 8 Appendix Fig­ures Pack­age – View­point 04 30/07/26 04/08/26

Oth­er – Part 56 of 8 Appendix Fig­ures Pack­age – View­point 05 30/07/26 04/08/26

Oth­er – Part 7 of 8 Appendix Fig­ures Pack­age – View­point 06 30/07/26 04/08/26

Oth­er – Part 8 of 8 Appendix Fig­ures Pack­age – View­point 09A and 09B Bridge Visu­al­isa­tion 10/08/26 12/08/26

Oth­er — Peat Depth Sur­vey – Appendix 1 Peat Cores 05/07/26 04/08/26

Oth­er – Peat Depth Sur­vey – Appendix 2 Peat Depths 05/07/26 04/08/26

Oth­er – Peat Sur­vey and GWDTE Report 05/07/26 04/08/26

Oth­er — Rail Mater­i­al and Sur­face Coat­ing Options 30/06/26 04/08/26

Oth­er – Nation­al Veget­a­tion Clas­si­fic­a­tion Sur­vey 03/07/26 04/08/26

Oth­er — Draft Hab­it­at Man­age­ment Plan 03/07/26 04/08/26

Oth­er — Draft Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan 01/07/26 11/09/26

Oth­er – Draft Mit­ig­a­tion Sched­ule 16506 10/09/26 11/09/26

*Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the first of the month.

  1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment com­prises the con­struc­tion and install­a­tion of a 1.3km grav­ity-pro­pelled moun­tain tobog­gan run includ­ing engin­eer­ing works and

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 8 of 33

asso­ci­ated infra­struc­ture. The ​‘dual-rider’ tobog­gan would route adja­cent to the Windy Ridge path, with the highest point loc­ated 766m above sea level. The tobog­gans would be trans­por­ted uphill via a drag-lift sys­tem before des­cend­ing under grav­ity with riders con­trolling their speed through an on-board brak­ing sys­tem sup­por­ted by elec­tron­ic safety mon­it­or­ing and auto­mat­ic brak­ing technology.

  1. As shown on the applic­a­tion plans in Appendix 1, the pro­posed devel­op­ment com­prises a tobog­gan lift­er sys­tem, down­hill tobog­gan track, two tobog­gan bridges, all-ter­rain vehicle (ATV) track, top and bot­tom pro­tec­tion huts, tobog­gan stor­age tun­nel, tick­et shed/​entry plat­form and exit platform/​tunnel.

  2. The tobog­gan track would con­sist of a round alu­mini­um tube with a wel­ded-on guide pro­file, which is moun­ted just above ground level. The tube would be allowed to weath­er, provid­ing a pro­tect­ive coat­ing from the ele­ments as well as aid­ing in redu­cing the glare from the devel­op­ment. The tobog­gan track would be sup­por­ted by gal­van­ised steel brack­ets and struts anchored using ground nails. This tech­nique avoids the need for extens­ive con­crete found­a­tions, except where dir­ect fix­ings to exposed bed­rock is required. The tobog­gan track would be lower than 0.75m above ground level for around 75% of its length. The highest points above ground level will occur at the bridge loc­a­tions where the tobog­gan rail would be 3.5m high to provide suf­fi­cient clear­ance under the tobog­gan rail for users on the Windy Ridge path.

  3. Whilst the track’s mono­rail design enables it to be fully dis­mantled and removed with­in a two-week peri­od, the tobog­gan run is inten­ded as a per­man­ent, year-round attrac­tion which would oper­ate dur­ing both the winter sports sea­son and the sum­mer tour­ist months.

  4. The 1.35ha devel­op­ment site com­prises a lin­ear route with a 10m buf­fer around the pro­posed tobog­gan run, incor­por­at­ing an appro­pri­ate micro-sit­ing tol­er­ance to allow scope for the devel­op­ment to avoid hard rock out­crops and any estab­lished trees and veget­a­tion. The works sur­round­ing the tobog­gan track itself will com­prise minor path diver­sions, con­struc­tion of hard­core bases for the tobog­gan run and con­crete bases for bridges, and install­a­tion of both the tobog­gan run and bridges. All excav­a­tion is pro­posed to be car­ried out by hand to have the min­im­um impact on the hill­side as possible.

  5. The ATV track, required for con­struc­tion and main­ten­ance of the tobog­gan run, would com­prise two 0.4m wide tracks of com­pacted dust or suit­able as-dug fines with a 1.2m cent­ral veget­ated strip, as shown in the approved Gen­er­al Plan-Con­struc­tion Details (dated 27/04/26). The pro­posed track design is inten­ded to

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 9 of 33

min­im­ise the poten­tial adverse envir­on­ment­al impact by retain­ing the pre-exist­ing veget­a­tion where possible.

  1. Two bridges would be required where the tobog­gan route inter­sects with the Windy Ridge path. To ensure the safety of all users, the path would be realigned and repro­filed at two sec­tions, with­in a micro-sit­ing tol­er­ance of 10m, to provide suf­fi­cient clear­ance under the bridges for hikers and cyc­lists. Diver­sions would be imple­men­ted dur­ing con­struc­tion to ensure that safe access for act­ive travel users is main­tained. Dur­ing oper­a­tion, in the interest of safety, the tobog­gan track would be fenced off at the bridge loc­a­tions to ensure walk­ers are not in dir­ect prox­im­ity to the tobog­gan run. The tim­ber post and rail fen­cing pro­posed will be sim­il­ar to that across oth­er areas of the mountain.

  2. The pro­posed build­ing and plat­forms at the bot­tom sta­tion will be of a sim­il­ar design and col­our to oth­ers already with­in the resort’s core area of activ­ity. The bot­tom pro­tec­tion hut would have a max­im­um height of 3.16m and a slop­ing roof that falls to 2.66m at its low­est side. The pro­posed top pro­tec­tion hut would be sim­il­ar to the sheds/​huts found across the moun­tain for enclos­ing switchgear and would com­prise a small tim­ber hut to enclose the wind­ing gear. The top pro­tec­tion hut would have a max­im­um height of 3.16m and slop­ing roof that falls to 2.1m at its low­est side. The extern­al fin­ishes of both pro­tec­tion huts would con­sist of ver­tic­al tim­ber clad­ding with a met­al sheet roof moun­ted on tim­ber rafters.

  3. Works at the top and bot­tom sta­tions will involve earth­works to re-pro­file the sites to design levels, in-situ con­crete works and install­a­tion of the tobog­gan track and wind­ing gear. Upon com­ple­tion of works, the sur­round­ing ground will be rein­stated using the pre-excav­ated turfed mater­i­al with the new path net­work being hard­core surfaced.

His­tory

  1. There are no recent plan­ning applic­a­tions relat­ing to the imme­di­ate red line bound­ary area of this applic­a­tion, how­ever, there have been numer­ous plan­ning applic­a­tions with­in the wider Cairngorm Moun­tain area in recent years, including:

a) 2018/0112/DET – install­a­tion of begin­ner and inter­me­di­ate arti­fi­cial ski slopes with asso­ci­ated ser­vices. Refused by the Park Author­ity in Octo­ber 2018. b) 19/01765/FUL – install­a­tion of tube slide, zip line and play area. Gran­ted by the High­land Coun­cil in June 2019.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 10 of 33

c) 19/03944/S42 – sec­tion 42 applic­a­tion to vary Con­di­tion 1 of plan­ning per­mis­sion 19/01765/FUL (to delete require­ment to remove equip­ment dur­ing winder peri­od). Gran­ted by the High­land Coun­cil in Novem­ber 2019. d) 2019/0247/DET – engin­eer­ing works to smooth and re-grade land. Gran­ted by the Park Author­ity in Decem­ber 2019. e) 2020/0076/DET – engin­eer­ing works to strengthen the exist­ing Cairngorm Moun­tain funicu­lar via­duct. Gran­ted by the Park Author­ity in May 2020. f) 2020/0097/DET – install­a­tion of two per­man­ent sol­ar-powered bar­ri­ers at the entrance and exit of the car park. Gran­ted by the Park Author­ity in June 2020. g) 2020/0105/DET – install­a­tion of two tube slides as well as an exten­sion and realign­ment of an exist­ing tube slide, already present on site, to bol­ster the resort’s winter sports offer. Gran­ted by the Park Author­ity in June 2020. h) 2021/0281/DET – vari­ation of a con­di­tion attached to the pre­vi­ously approved tube slides and zip wire devel­op­ment. The pro­pos­al sought to extend the tem­por­ary con­sent peri­od by a fur­ther five years, allow­ing the facil­it­ies to remain in oper­a­tion until 01 Novem­ber 2026. Gran­ted by the Park Author­ity in Novem­ber 2021. i) 21/03808/S42 – vari­ation of a con­di­tion attached to the exist­ing snow-mak­ing facil­ity at Cairngorm Moun­tain, allow­ing the tem­por­ary reten­tion of the snow-mak­ing machine and its con­tain­er­ised hous­ing until 19 Novem­ber 2022. Gran­ted by the High­land Coun­cil in Octo­ber 2021. j) 22/03647/ADV – install­a­tion of 14 non-illu­min­ated dir­ec­tion­al and inform­a­tion signs through­out the Coire Cas car park area. Gran­ted by the High­land Coun­cil in Octo­ber 2022. k) 2024/0155/DET – install­a­tion of play equip­ment and related infra­struc­ture. Gran­ted by the Park Author­ity in August 2024.

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

  1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) has been under­taken to con­sider the poten­tial effects of the devel­op­ment upon the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the European sites lis­ted with­in the HRA doc­u­ment, which is attached as Appendix 2.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 11 of 33

The European sites, along­side their respect­ive dis­tance from the site bound­ary, are as follows;

a) River Spey SAC, 800m; b) Cairngorms SAC, 350m; c) Cairngorms SPA, 350m; and d) Cairngorms Mas­sif SPA, 2.6km.

  1. Addi­tion­ally, the HRA assesses the poten­tial impact upon the pro­tec­ted spe­cies found with­in these SPAs and SACs, such as Caper­cail­lie, Dot­ter­el, Golden eagle, Mer­lin, Osprey, Per­eg­rine, Scot­tish Cross­bill, Otter, Fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel, Sea lamprey, Atlantic salmon.

  2. The HRA found that there would be no likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects to the pro­tec­ted fea­tures of the Cairngorms SPA and Cairngorms Mas­sif SPA. The pro­pos­al is unlikely to res­ult in any sig­ni­fic­ant impacts to sup­port­ing hab­it­ats for SPA qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies and will not res­ult in an increase in recre­ation­al access into the SPA which could cause dis­turb­ance to qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies. The pro­pos­al site is also not with­in dis­turb­ance dis­tance of known Golden eagle nest sites. Addi­tion­ally, with the excep­tion of the Cairngorms SAC’s Otter fea­ture, no likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects are anti­cip­ated upon the qual­i­fy­ing fea­tures of this des­ig­nated site.

  3. A likely sig­ni­fic­ant effect to Otter, Fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sels, Sea lamprey and Atlantic sal­mon fea­tures of the River Spey SAC and Otter fea­ture of the Cairngorms SAC are expec­ted due to the poten­tial for short term and indir­ect impacts from con­struc­tion activ­ity affect­ing nearby water­courses. The prin­cip­al risk iden­ti­fied relates to con­struc­tion phase pol­lu­tion and sed­i­ment enter­ing the Allt a’ Choire Chais, which ulti­mately con­nects to the River Spey catch­ment. Such impacts have the poten­tial to adversely affect water qual­ity and hab­it­ats sup­port­ing Atlantic sal­mon, Fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel and Sea lamprey, as well as poten­tially impact­ing prey avail­ab­il­ity for Otters.

  4. The assess­ment con­cludes that these risks can be effect­ively mit­ig­ated through the imple­ment­a­tion of pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion and sed­i­ment man­age­ment meas­ures through­out the con­struc­tion phase. The draft Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment Man­age­ment Plan (CEMP), sub­mit­ted as part of the applic­a­tion pack­age, incor­por­ates pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion and sed­i­ment con­trol meas­ures con­sidered appro­pri­ate to man­age this risk and pre­vent adverse effects upon the site integ­rity. The pro­vi­sion of a final­ised CEMP, includ­ing site-spe­cif­ic pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion and sed­i­ment con­trol meas­ures, will be secured via a con­di­tion attached to any con­sent granted.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 12 of 33

  1. NatureScot have con­firmed agree­ment with the HRA and its conclusions.

Devel­op­ment plan con­text Policies Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045 Nation­al policy (Policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross (x)) Policy 1: Tack­ling the cli­mate and nature crises X Policy 2: Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion X Policy 3: Biod­iversity X Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places X Policy 5: Soils X Policy 6: Forestry, wood­land and trees Policy 7: His­tor­ic assets and places Policy 8: Green belts Policy 9: Brown­field, vacant and derel­ict land, and empty build­ings Policy 11: Energy Policy 12: Zero waste Policy 13: Sus­tain­able trans­port X Policy 14: Design, qual­ity and place X Policy 15: Loc­al liv­ing and 20 minute neigh­bour­hoods Policy 16: Qual­ity homes Policy 17: Rur­al homes Policy 18: Infra­struc­ture first Policy 19: Heat­ing and cool­ing Policy 20: Blue and green infra­struc­ture Policy 21: Play, recre­ation and sport X Policy 22: Flood risk and water man­age­ment X Policy 23: Health and safety X Policy 24: Digit­al infra­struc­ture Policy 25: Com­munity wealth build­ing Policy 26: Busi­ness and industry

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 13 of 33

Policy 27: City, town, loc­al and com­mer­cial centres Policy 28: Retail Policy 29: Rur­al devel­op­ment X Policy 30: Tour­ism X Policy 31: Cul­ture and cre­ativ­ity Policy 32: Aquacul­ture Policy 33: Minerals

Stra­tegic policy: Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027 Loc­al plan policy: Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2021) (Policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross (x)) Policy 1: New hous­ing devel­op­ment Policy 2: Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth X Policy 3: Design and place­mak­ing 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: Open space, sport and recre­ation X Policy 9: Cul­tur­al her­it­age Policy 10: Resources X Policy 11: Developer obligations

  1. All new devel­op­ment pro­pos­als require to be assessed in rela­tion to policies con­tained in the adop­ted Devel­op­ment Plan which com­prises Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 (LDP). The full word­ing of policies can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-planning-framework‑4/documents/ and at: https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​w​p​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​2​0​2​1​/​0​3​/​C​N​P​A​-​L​D​P​-​2​0​2​1​-​w​e​b.pdf

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 14 of 33

Plan­ning guidance

  1. Sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance also sup­ports 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 (x).

Policy 1: Hous­ing sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance Policy 2: Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth non-stat­utory guid­ance X Policy 3: Design and place­mak­ing non-stat­utory guid­ance X Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age non-stat­utory guid­ance X Policy 5: Land­scape non-stat­utory guid­ance X Policy 7: Renew­able energy non-stat­utory guid­ance Policy 8: Open space, sport and recre­ation non-stat­utory guid­ance X Policy 9: Cul­tur­al her­it­age non-stat­utory guid­ance Policy 10: Resources non-stat­utory guid­ance X Policy 11: Developer oblig­a­tions sup­ple­ment­ary guidance

Con­sulta­tions

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

  2. NatureScot agree with the con­clu­sions of the HRA pre­pared by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer.

  3. High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team has no objec­tion to the pro­pos­al, not­ing they are sat­is­fied that the pro­posed drain­age strategy is designed to rep­lic­ate the pre-devel­op­ment sur­face water flow paths with fil­ter drains dir­ect­ing water back into the sur­round­ing land­scape. Whilst SEPA’s indic­at­ive future flood maps show poten­tial risk from ​‘sur­face water and small water­courses’ with­in the site bound­ary, this appears to be from sur­face water over­land flow and the team are con­tent this can be man­aged through appro­pri­ate site drainage.

  4. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Land­scape Adviser ini­tially raised con­cerns over the pro­posed development’s poten­tial to adversely impact upon the dis­tinct land­scape char­ac­ter and Spe­cial Land­scape Qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park, as well as the Cairngorms Nation­al Scen­ic Area and Wild Land Area 15 Cairngorm, giv­en its loc­a­tion with­in an upland part of the Nation­al Park. The Adviser acknow­ledged that the devel­op­ment would intro­duce new struc­tures into an envir­on­ment which is

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 15 of 33

already degraded by sim­il­ar struc­tures, and that wider views would not gen­er­ally be affected by the rail as the struc­ture would be too recess­ive to be eas­ily per­ceived. Des­pite this, the Adviser raised con­cerns that wider land­scape and visu­al impacts from the asso­ci­ated infra­struc­ture, such as the ATV track, bridge cross­ings and top pro­tec­tion hut, would be expected.

  1. To fully assess the devel­op­ment, the Adviser reques­ted addi­tion­al inform­a­tion show­ing the detailed design of key sec­tions of the devel­op­ment where changes in ground levels are pro­posed, such as the bridge areas, as well as a Land­scape Plan, Land­scape Man­age­ment and Main­ten­ance Pro­pos­als and a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment. Fol­low­ing the Applicant’s pro­vi­sion of addi­tion­al inform­a­tion, includ­ing the Rail Mater­i­al and Sur­face Coat­ing Options (dated 04/08/26), Bridge Lay­outs and Elev­a­tions (dated 04/08/26), Plant­ing Plans (dated 04/08/26), Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan (dated 11/08/26), Land­scape Rebut­tal (dated 12/08/26) and a pack­age of view­point visu­al­isa­tions (dated 04/08/26 and 12/08/26), and a fur­ther site vis­it under­taken by the Land­scape Adviser in Septem­ber 2026, the con­sul­tee provided an updated response.

  2. Upon review of the addi­tion­al inform­a­tion, the Land­scape Adviser accepts that the rail will weath­er to a dull pat­ina over time, there­fore lim­it­ing its prom­in­ence when viewed against the heath­er and snow and pre­vent­ing glint issues at great dis­tances. The Adviser notes that sit­ing the pro­posed devel­op­ment east of the Day Lodge Poma, in an envir­on­ment where sim­il­ar built devel­op­ment is already present, min­im­ises the extent of impacts com­pared to a loc­a­tion fur­ther west on open moor­land. The Adviser reit­er­ates that the envir­on­ment is already degraded by some sim­il­ar struc­tures which min­im­ises the adverse visu­al effects in views of the devel­op­ment from the car park, sec­tions of the Windy Ridge path, tobog­gan run and rest of the ski resort. Whilst it is recog­nised that the devel­op­ment would con­trib­ute to the exist­ing cluttered char­ac­ter of the moun­tain envir­on­ment, the key land­scape and visu­al issues are focused on the ATV track and bridge struc­tures when viewed from dis­tance. The Adviser indic­ates that the ATV track’s route across con­tours, gravel sur­face and poten­tial to erode would increase its prom­in­ence in views from the Windy Ridge path and the foot­path loc­ated close to the west and base of the White Lady ski tow.

  3. The Adviser con­cludes that over­all, land­scape and visu­al effects will be mod­er­ate but include some sig­ni­fic­ant effects, and requests addi­tion­al inform­a­tion, includ­ing detailed bridge designs as well as con­firm­a­tion of the sur­face of the track and wheth­er a veget­ated ATV route would suf­fice. A recom­men­ded approach for com­batting erosion of the ATV track is also requested.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 16 of 33

  1. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer notes that the pro­pos­al has the poten­tial to sig­ni­fic­antly affect a range of eco­lo­gic­al interests, includ­ing pro­tec­ted spe­cies such as Caper­cail­lie, Osprey and Scot­tish Cross­bill (breed­ing birds), pri­or­ity upland hab­it­ats, peat­land and the water envir­on­ment. The Officer raises con­cerns regard­ing the dis­turb­ance of breed­ing birds, rep­tiles and moun­tain hare dur­ing con­struc­tion, impacts on sens­it­ive wet heath, flushes and poten­tial ground­wa­ter-depend­ent ter­restri­al eco­sys­tems (GWDTE), and pol­lu­tion risks to the Allt a’ Choire Chais and River Spey SAC. Giv­en the site lies close to the Cairngorms SPA, SAC and North­ern Cor­ries SSSI, a Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al was under­taken by the Officer, as detailed in para­graphs 15 — 20, with recom­men­ded mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures included.

  2. Before a final assess­ment could be made, the Officer reques­ted fur­ther eco­lo­gic­al inform­a­tion, includ­ing a Nation­al Veget­a­tion Clas­si­fic­a­tion (NVC) sur­vey and peat depth sur­veys to inform the tobog­gan route design and demon­strate avoid­ance of pri­or­ity peat­land hab­it­ats, deep peat and flushes. The pro­vi­sion of a Hab­it­at Man­age­ment Plan, which includes details of the pro­posed peat man­age­ment approach, was also requested.

  3. Fol­low­ing the Applicant’s pro­vi­sion of a NVC sur­vey (dated 04/08/26), Peat Sur­vey and GWDTE Report (dated 04/08/26), Hab­it­at Man­age­ment Plan (dated 04/08/26), and CEMP includ­ing Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan (dated 11/09/26), the Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer con­firmed that the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures con­tained with­in these doc­u­ments would be appro­pri­ate to pro­tect inter­na­tion­ally import­ant peat­land and wet­land hab­it­ats on site. The Officer notes that if the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures out­lined in the Mit­ig­a­tion Sched­ule (dated 11/09/26) were to be con­di­tioned and fully imple­men­ted, they would help to reduce the sig­ni­fic­ance of poten­tial impacts on pri­or­ity hab­it­ats, peat­land hab­it­ats as well as the water envir­on­ment and oth­er receptors.

  4. In addi­tion, the Officer recom­mends con­di­tions requir­ing the pro­vi­sion of a final­ised CEMP includ­ing an updated Peat Man­age­ment Plan, Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan and Hab­it­at Man­age­ment Plan be attached to any con­sent gran­ted. Con­di­tions to avoid works dur­ing ground nest­ing breed­ing bird sea­son, moun­tain hare breed­ing sea­son and rep­tiles’ hiberna­tion peri­od are also recom­men­ded, as well as the pro­vi­sion of Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plans to pre­vent dis­turb­ance and injury to pro­tec­ted species.

  5. The Officer notes that approx­im­ately 1.95ha of com­pens­at­ory peat­land res­tor­a­tion would be required to com­pensate for the loss of deep peat and pri­or­ity peat­land hab­it­at in Area B, Area D and a sig­ni­fic­ant pro­por­tion of the bridge cross­ing area as iden­ti­fied in the peat sur­vey and NVC sur­vey report. The pro­vi­sion of

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 17 of 33

com­pens­at­ory peat­land res­tor­a­tion is recom­men­ded by the Officer to be con­di­tioned as part of any con­sent granted.

  1. Finally, the Officer notes the pro­posed imple­ment­a­tion of biod­iversity enhance­ment meas­ures, as noted with­in the Eco­lo­gic­al Assess­ment Report (dated Decem­ber 2025) and Hab­it­at Man­age­ment Plan (dated 04/08/26).

  2. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Recre­ation and Out­door Access Team has no objec­tion to the pro­pos­al sub­ject to access being main­tained on the two OS marked foot­paths which fall with­in the pro­posed devel­op­ment site. They note that there are no core paths or rights of way with­in the site bound­ary but high­light that the Windy Ridge path is a well-known and pop­u­lar foot­path which should remain open and access­ible both dur­ing and after con­struc­tion. The Team also reques­ted addi­tion­al detail on the clear­ance height of the pro­posed bridges to ensure suf­fi­cient head­room is provided, allow­ing safe pas­sage for all users.

  3. Fol­low­ing the Applicant’s pro­vi­sion of fur­ther inform­a­tion regard­ing the pro­posed bridges, the Team con­firmed they were sat­is­fied that the clear­ance heights should allow for safe pas­sage by all users, includ­ing walk­ers and cyc­lists, without restric­tion or conflict.

  4. Aviemore & Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil sup­ports this applic­a­tion, recog­nising the bene­fit in devel­op­ing Cairngorm Moun­tain as a year-round des­tin­a­tion. With­in their ini­tial response the Com­munity Coun­cil quer­ied the oper­a­tion and man­age­ment of the pro­posed devel­op­ment, in par­tic­u­lar regard­ing the poten­tial col­li­sion risk between the tobog­gan run, wild­life and oth­er hill users. Fol­low­ing the Applicant’s pro­vi­sion of addi­tion­al inform­a­tion with­in the State­ment in Response to Pub­lic Rep­res­ent­a­tions doc­u­ment (dated 04/08/26), the Com­munity Coun­cil con­firmed that the issues they raised pre­vi­ously had been sat­is­fact­or­ily addressed. Detail of the Com­munity Council’s response is set out in Appendix 3.

Rep­res­ent­a­tions

  1. Eight let­ters of rep­res­ent­a­tion have been received con­sist­ing of one let­ter of sup­port and sev­en objec­tions, includ­ing one sup­ple­ment­ary objec­tion from the same indi­vidu­al. Objec­tions received include rep­res­ent­a­tions on behalf of the North East Moun­tain Trust, Badenoch & Strath­spey Con­ser­va­tion Group, and The Cairngorms Cam­paign. The rep­res­ent­a­tions are con­tained with­in Appendix 4a and 4b.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 18 of 33

  1. The let­ter of sup­port sug­gests the pro­posed tobog­gan run would be a valu­able addi­tion to the moun­tain ski area, recog­nising the devel­op­ment site to fall with­in a land­scape already altered by exist­ing ski infrastructure.

  2. Key con­cerns raised in the sev­en objec­tion let­ters include:

a) Land­scape and visu­al impacts; b) Inap­pro­pri­ate struc­ture and loc­a­tion of tobog­gan run; c) Lack of financial/​busi­ness jus­ti­fic­a­tion; d) Access track design, visu­al­isa­tions, erosion and policy con­cerns; e) Eco­lo­gic­al and hab­it­at impacts includ­ing mit­ig­a­tion tree plant­ing; f) Incom­plete applic­a­tion inform­a­tion; g) Con­flict between the tobog­gan and Day Lodge Poma; and h) Pref­er­ence for invest­ment in ski infra­struc­ture over vis­it­or attractions.

Apprais­al

  1. Sec­tion 25 of the 1997 Act as amended requires applic­a­tions to be determ­ined in accord­ance with the Devel­op­ment Plan. This com­prises Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 (LDP). Where there is con­flict between policies, NPF4 policies take precedence.

  2. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions in rela­tion to this applic­a­tion com­prise: the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment; biod­iversity and the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment; land­scape and visu­al impacts; recre­ation and out­door access; amen­ity; and flood risk and the water envir­on­ment. These are con­sidered in detail below.

Prin­ciple of Development

  1. NPF4 Policy 1: Tack­ling the cli­mate and nature crises seeks to ensure that sig­ni­fic­ant weight will be giv­en to the glob­al cli­mate and nature crises when con­sid­er­ing all devel­op­ment pro­pos­als. NPF4 Policy 2: Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion also seeks to encour­age devel­op­ment that adapts to the cur­rent and future impacts of cli­mate change.

NPF4 Policy 29: Rur­al devel­op­ment sup­ports devel­op­ment pro­pos­als that con­trib­ute to the viab­il­ity, sus­tain­ab­il­ity and diversity of rur­al com­munit­ies and the loc­al rur­al eco­nomy, includ­ing the diver­si­fic­a­tion of exist­ing busi­nesses. NPF4 Policy 30: Tour­ism seeks to ensure pro­pos­als for tour­ism-related development

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 19 of 33

con­sider the con­tri­bu­tion made to the loc­al eco­nomy and com­pat­ib­il­ity with the sur­round­ing area in terms of the nature and scale of the activ­ity and impacts of increased visitors.

  1. LDP Policy 2: Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth sup­ports devel­op­ment which enhances form­al and inform­al recre­ation and leis­ure facil­it­ies provid­ing: there are no adverse envir­on­ment­al impacts; it makes a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the exper­i­ence of vis­it­ors; and it con­trib­utes to a year-round economy.

  2. This applic­a­tion com­plies with these policy require­ments. The pro­pos­al seeks to diver­si­fy the recre­ation­al offer at Cairngorm Moun­tain by intro­du­cing a year-round tobog­gan run which will boost vis­it­or num­bers and provide a more con­sist­ent source of income, redu­cing fin­an­cial depend­ence upon the increas­ingly incon­sist­ent snow sports sea­son. As noted in the applicant’s Eco­nom­ic Impact Assess­ment (dated 27/04/26), the eco­nom­ic bene­fits asso­ci­ated with the devel­op­ment are expec­ted to extend bey­ond the resort and have a pos­it­ive impact across the wider area, with a pro­jec­ted increase in both vis­it­or num­bers and total spend per unique vis­it­or anticipated.

  3. The High­lands and Islands Enter­prise (HIE) Cairngorm Moun­tain Mas­ter­plan (2021)¹ out­lines a vis­ion and strategy for growth at Cairngorm Moun­tain over the next 25 years. The mas­ter­plan aims to devel­op an all-year sus­tain­able oper­at­ing mod­el, bene­fit the wider eco­nomy and provide an excel­lent vis­it­or exper­i­ence for all. The pro­pos­al aligns with these prin­ciples and, in this respect, would also sup­port Policy C9 (High qual­ity vis­it­or exper­i­ence) of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan, which aims to ​‘sup­port the imple­ment­a­tion of the Cairngorm Moun­tain masterplan’.

  4. Over­all, the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment there­fore accords with rel­ev­ant policies of the Devel­op­ment Plan and oth­er key strategies.

Biod­iversity and the nat­ur­al environment

  1. NPF4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als pro­tect biod­iversity, reverse biod­iversity loss, deliv­er pos­it­ive effects from devel­op­ment and strengthen nature net­works. Devel­op­ment pro­pos­als must include appro­pri­ate meas­ures to con­serve, restore and enhance biod­iversity, in accord­ance with nation­al and loc­al guidance.

¹ High­lands and Islands Enter­prise (2021). Cairngorm Moun­tain Mas­ter­plan. Avail­able at: https://​www​.hie​.co​.uk/​m​e​d​i​a​/​1​0​7​4​4​/​c​a​i​r​n​g​o​r​m​-​m​o​u​n​t​a​i​n​-​m​a​s​t​e​r​p​l​a​n​_​2​0​2​1.pdf

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 20 of 33

  1. NPF4 Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als pro­tect, restore and enhance nat­ur­al assets mak­ing best use of nature-based solu­tions. Devel­op­ment that has sig­ni­fic­ant adverse impacts on des­ig­nated sites, after mit­ig­a­tion, will not be sup­por­ted. Sim­il­arly, LDP Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age seeks to ensure that there are no adverse effects on European Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies and oth­er biod­iversity interests.

  2. NPF4 Policy 5: Soils seeks to pro­tect car­bon-rich soils, restore peat­lands and min­im­ise dis­turb­ance to soils from devel­op­ment. Devel­op­ment on peat­land or car­bon-rich soils require baseline depths, hab­it­at con­di­tions, qual­ity and sta­bil­ity of the soils to be iden­ti­fied. Sim­il­arly, LDP Policy 10: Resources seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment affect­ing car­bon sinks and stores min­im­ises dis­turb­ance of soils and peat and any asso­ci­ated vegetation.

  3. Whilst the pro­posed devel­op­ment has the poten­tial to impact upon a vari­ety of pro­tec­ted spe­cies and hab­it­ats, the Applic­ant has sub­mit­ted a Mit­ig­a­tion Sched­ule which incor­por­ates meas­ures to address these poten­tial effects. The Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer is sat­is­fied that the meas­ures incor­por­ated will help pro­tect, con­serve and enhance biod­iversity in line with policy. The Mit­ig­a­tion Sched­ule is there­fore con­sidered appro­pri­ate and accept­able as an approach to man­age poten­tial eco­lo­gic­al impacts, and the rel­ev­ant mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures can be secured through a plan­ning condition.

  4. In addi­tion to the Mit­ig­a­tion Sched­ule, con­di­tions recom­men­ded by the Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer would be imposed to require a vari­ety of plans and state­ments pri­or to the com­mence­ment of devel­op­ment includ­ing; site-spe­cif­ic Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment and Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan; Hab­it­at Man­age­ment Plan; and Main­ten­ance Sched­ule. Togeth­er these meas­ures would ensure the devel­op­ment does not have adverse impacts on pro­tec­ted species.

  5. Whilst no water­courses are present on site, the devel­op­ment is close to the Allt a’ Choire Chais which is a trib­u­tary of the River Spey SAC and there­fore imple­ment­a­tion of an appro­pri­ate Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan (PPP) is required. The Park Authority’s Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer con­firmed that the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures con­tained with­in the PPP, as set out with the draft CEMP (dated 11/09/26), would reduce the risk of mobil­ised sed­i­ment and pol­lu­tion enter­ing the water envir­on­ment. A con­di­tion would there­fore be attached to any con­sent gran­ted requir­ing the pro­vi­sion of a final­ised CEMP includ­ing PPP and imple­ment­a­tion of all recom­men­ded mit­ig­a­tion measures.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 21 of 33

  1. Regard­ing peat­land, as a primary inter­ven­tion, the pro­posed devel­op­ment is expec­ted to micro-site devel­op­ment away from areas iden­ti­fied as deep peat with­in the sub­mit­ted Peat Depth Sur­veys (dated 04/08/26). Where it is not pos­sible to reroute the tobog­gan run and asso­ci­ated works to avoid these hab­it­ats, spe­cif­ic plans detail­ing the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures and com­pens­at­ory peat­land res­tor­a­tion pro­posed for each area shall be provided as part of a Com­pens­at­ory Peat­land Res­tor­a­tion Scheme and a Peat Man­age­ment Plan, which will be secured through a plan­ning con­di­tion. The extent of peat­land res­tor­a­tion should equal an area 10 times the extent of peat­land hab­it­at that will be impacted by the devel­op­ment. Find­ings from the Peat Sur­vey and GWDTE Report, Peat Depth Sur­veys, Peat Sur­vey Plan, and Peat Sur­vey Res­ults (dated 04/08/26) sug­gest an area of approx­im­ately 1.95ha is expec­ted to be required for the com­pens­at­ory peat­land restoration.

  2. In addi­tion to the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures pro­posed as part of the applic­a­tion, the pro­pos­al includes meas­ures to enhance biod­iversity. These include the cre­ation of pools with­in the site or loc­ale to offer breed­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for amphi­bi­ans and inver­teb­rates; nat­ive shrub plant­ing in the drier areas, away from wet heaths and wet flushes, to increase hab­it­at diversity and provide poten­tial shel­ter­ing and nest­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for spe­cies such as birds and inver­teb­rates; and the install­a­tion of bird boxes on exist­ing structures/​buildings asso­ci­ated with the ski centre to enhance nest­ing pro­vi­sions with­in the site. These meas­ures, along­side their ongo­ing mon­it­or­ing and main­ten­ance arrange­ments, shall be set out with­in a Hab­it­at Man­age­ment Plan (HMP) which will also be secured through a plan­ning con­di­tion. Where any com­pens­at­ory peat­land res­tor­a­tion is delivered at a rate great­er than 1:10 (degraded/​impacted peat­land: restored peat­land), this will be con­sidered an addi­tion­al biod­iversity enhance­ment of the development.

  3. Sub­ject to the imple­ment­a­tion of the Mit­ig­a­tion Sched­ule and the oth­er spe­cif­ic plan­ning con­di­tions noted above, the pro­pos­al is deemed com­pli­ant with biod­iversity enhance­ment and nat­ur­al places policies of the Devel­op­ment Plan.

Land­scape and visu­al impacts

  1. NPF4 Policy 14: Design, qual­ity and place sup­ports the deliv­ery of pro­pos­als where they are con­sist­ent with the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places, namely: healthy; pleas­ant; con­nec­ted; dis­tinct­ive; sus­tain­able; and adaptable.

  2. LDP Policy 3: Design and place­mak­ing sim­il­arly seeks to ensure that pro­pos­als improve the qual­ity of the area and are con­sist­ent with the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places. A minor dis­crep­ancy between NPF4’s defin­i­tion of the six qual­it­ies and that of the LDP exists, although their over­all effect is con­sist­ent. The

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 22 of 33

policy out­lines that all devel­op­ments must be designed to main­tain and max­im­ise all oppor­tun­it­ies for respons­ible out­door access, includ­ing links into the exist­ing path network.

  1. LDP Policy 5: Land­scape seeks to con­serve and/​or enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park. The policy states that pro­pos­als that do not com­ple­ment or enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter will only be per­mit­ted where any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse effects on spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies are clearly out­weighed by social or eco­nom­ic bene­fits of nation­al import­ance. All adverse effects on the set­ting of the pro­pos­al should also have been min­im­ised and mit­ig­ated through appro­pri­ate sit­ing, lay­out, scale, design and construction.

  2. The pro­posed devel­op­ment would be loc­ated with­in a sens­it­ive land­scape, giv­en its sit­ing with­in an upland part of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Inap­pro­pri­ately loc­ated and poorly designed devel­op­ment in this loc­a­tion has the poten­tial to adversely impact upon the spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park, how­ever through care­ful design and sit­ing, the Applic­ant has sought to min­im­ise these impacts as far as reas­on­ably prac­tic­able. Moreover, the pro­posed devel­op­ment would be loc­ated with­in the core developed area of Cairngorm Moun­tain, with­in the HIE masterplan’s iden­ti­fied ​‘primary activ­ity zone’. The Land­scape Adviser notes that sit­ing the tobog­gan run and asso­ci­ated infra­struc­ture on the east­ern side of the Day Lodge Poma helps to con­tain the devel­op­ment with­in the resort’s exist­ing built set­ting amongst sim­il­ar infra­struc­ture. Whilst it is recog­nised that the pro­pos­al may con­trib­ute to the exist­ing cluttered char­ac­ter of Cairngorm Moun­tain, the tobog­gan run would be with­in an estab­lished area of recre­ation and would avoid extend­ing devel­op­ment on more sens­it­ive land­scape else­where. The pro­pos­al would there­fore bene­fit from the resort’s estab­lished built con­text and would appear com­pat­ible with the gen­er­al setting.

  3. The pro­pos­al would be sited in an envir­on­ment already degraded by sim­il­ar struc­tures. This min­im­ises the adverse visu­al effects in views of the devel­op­ment from the car park, sec­tions of the Windy Ridge path, tobog­gan run and rest of the ski resort. The most prom­in­ent view of the devel­op­ment would there­fore be on the Windy Ridge path, when approach­ing the pro­posed bridges, and when view­ing the devel­op­ment from the foot­path loc­ated close to the west and base of the White Lady ski tow. Whilst the tobog­gan rail man­u­fac­turer has con­firmed with­in the sub­mit­ted Rail Mater­i­al and Sur­face Coat­ing Options doc­u­ment (dated 04/08/26), that neither an altern­at­ive rail mater­i­al nor any sur­face coat­ings can be applied to the rail sys­tem for tech­nic­al reas­ons, the alu­mini­um rail mater­i­al is under­stood to weath­er to a dull pat­ina over time. This weath­er­ing will pre­vent glint issues at

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 23 of 33

dis­tance and lim­it the development’s prom­in­ence when viewed against heath­er and snow, thus redu­cing the visu­al impact of the tobog­gan rail. Moreover, where it is pos­sible for the development’s pro­posed biod­iversity enhance­ment offer to estab­lish plant­ing in prox­im­ity to the tobog­gan track, this would help screen parts of the devel­op­ment, fur­ther redu­cing impacts upon views from afar.

  1. The final­ised bridge designs will also be con­di­tioned to ensure the gradi­ents and appear­ance of the pro­posed embank­ments, retain­ing walls and repro­fil­ing of the Windy Ridge path are deemed accept­able pri­or to the com­mence­ment of works.

  2. The Applic­ant has con­firmed that the ATV track would be used for con­struc­tion of the devel­op­ment as well as daily morn­ing checks of the drive sta­tion and in the event of emer­gency assist­ance. Two all-ter­rain vehicles, includ­ing a Can-Am Trax­ter HD-08 and a Can-Am Trax­ter HD-10 will be employed, and there­fore a veget­ated ATV route would not be pos­sible to allow safe and reg­u­lar use for con­struc­tion and main­ten­ance. The pro­posed track would com­prise two 0.4m wide tracks of com­pacted dust or suit­able as-dug fines with a 1.2m cent­ral veget­ated strip as shown in the sub­mit­ted Gen­er­al Plan-Con­struc­tion Details (dated 27/04/26). This design is con­sidered pro­por­tion­ate and would reduce the visu­al prom­in­ence of the track com­pared to a full-width gravel track sur­face, thus min­im­ising poten­tial visu­al impacts when viewed at dis­tance. Moreover, the imple­ment­a­tion of an ATV track is expec­ted to lim­it envir­on­ment­al dam­age by redu­cing the risk of mul­tiple tracks devel­op­ing from ad hoc ATV routes taken uphill and caus­ing wide­spread dam­age to the sur­round­ing veget­a­tion and land­scape. Con­di­tions would be attached to any con­sent gran­ted to ensure the ATV track is con­struc­ted in line with the approved plans and included with­in the development’s Main­ten­ance Sched­ule. In addi­tion, a con­di­tion would be attached requir­ing the pro­vi­sion of a set of meas­ures to com­bat erosion of the ATV track.

  3. On bal­ance the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to be in accord­ance with the rel­ev­ant land­scape and nat­ur­al her­it­age policies of NPF4 and the LDP.

Recre­ation and out­door access

  1. LDP Policy 3: Design and place­mak­ing notes that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als must main­tain and max­im­ise all oppor­tun­it­ies for respons­ible out­door access, includ­ing links into the exist­ing path net­work and ensur­ing con­sist­ency with the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Core Paths Plan.

  2. LDP Policy 8: Open space, sport and recre­ation sup­ports devel­op­ments of sport and recre­ation facil­it­ies and diver­si­fic­a­tion of exist­ing sport and recre­ation related

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 24 of 33

busi­ness activ­it­ies where they demon­strate best prac­tice in terms of sus­tain­able design, oper­a­tion and future maintenance.

  1. The pro­pos­al is expec­ted to strengthen the Cairngorm Mountain’s recre­ation­al offer and sup­port the range of activ­it­ies cur­rently avail­able, includ­ing the funicu­lar rail­way, moun­tain bik­ing, tubing, play areas and karts. By oper­at­ing year-round, the tobog­gan run is expec­ted to provide a con­sist­ent, reli­able income thus bol­ster­ing the loc­al eco­nomy at Cairngorm Moun­tain and beyond.

  2. Whilst in the interest of pub­lic safety diver­sions to the Windy Ridge path would be required dur­ing con­struc­tion, the route will largely remain open and access­ible, ensur­ing the recre­ation­al value of the sur­round­ing area is not com­prom­ised. A con­di­tion would be attached to any con­sent gran­ted requir­ing an Access Man­age­ment Plan (AMP) to detail meas­ures to ensure the two OS-marked foot­paths on site remain open and access­ible both dur­ing and after con­struc­tion. Where, in the interest of pub­lic safety, this is not pos­sible, a reas­on­able tem­por­ary diver­sion shall be put in place and out­lined with­in the AMP.

  3. The addi­tion­al inform­a­tion provided by the Applic­ant to address con­cerns ini­tially raised by the Recre­ation and Out­door Access Team regard­ing clear­ance heights under the pro­posed bridges was deemed suf­fi­cient to allay their con­cerns. Sim­il­arly, the pro­vi­sion of addi­tion­al inform­a­tion addressed the Aviemore & Vicin­ity Com­munity Council’s con­cerns regard­ing poten­tial con­flict between the tobog­gan run and oth­er hill users. The con­di­tioned AMP shall also include final­ised bridge designs which show the required clear­ance heights and meas­ures to be imple­men­ted to avoid con­flict between the tobog­gan run and oth­er hill users.

  4. On this basis, the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with the rel­ev­ant policies of the Devel­op­ment Plan.

Flood risk and the water environment

  1. NPF4 Policy 22: Flood risk and water man­age­ment seeks to ensure that devel­op­ments are resi­li­ent to cur­rent and future flood risk.

  2. LDP Policy 10: Resources requires that all devel­op­ment should be free from flood risk and not increase the risk of flood­ing else­where. This policy also seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment does not res­ult in the deteri­or­a­tion of water resources and avoids unac­cept­able det­ri­ment­al impacts on the water environment.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 25 of 33

  1. SEPA’s indic­at­ive future flood maps show poten­tial risk from ​‘sur­face water and small water­courses’ with­in the site bound­ary, how­ever this would appear to be a risk from sur­face water over­land flow rather than from a watercourse.

  2. The High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team con­firm they are sat­is­fied with the pro­posed drain­age strategy, as set out with­in the Drain­age State­ment (dated 27/04/26), not­ing that it has been designed to rep­lic­ate the pre-devel­op­ment sur­face water flow paths and situation.

  3. Togeth­er, the above con­di­tions would ensure com­pli­ance with the rel­ev­ant policies of the Devel­op­ment Plan.

Oth­er issues raised in con­sulta­tions and representations

  1. The major­ity of issues raised by con­sul­tees and con­trib­ut­ors have been addressed through­out this report. The Applic­ant has respon­ded to inform­a­tion requests and sub­mit­ted a com­pre­hens­ive applic­a­tion pack­age which has enabled the mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions of the pro­posed devel­op­ment to be assessed. The applic­a­tion must be assessed on its own mer­its and there­fore any third party pref­er­ences for invest­ment in ski infra­struc­ture over vis­it­or attrac­tions is not con­sidered mater­i­al to this application.

  2. The financial/​business jus­ti­fic­a­tion for the devel­op­ment is set out with­in the sub­mit­ted Eco­nom­ic Impact Assess­ment (dated 27/04/26) and addressed in the apprais­al of the prin­ciple of development.

Con­clu­sion

  1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment of a moun­tain tobog­gan track and asso­ci­ated infra­struc­ture is accept­able in prin­ciple giv­en the diver­si­fic­a­tion and asso­ci­ated eco­nom­ic bene­fits of this new recre­ation­al activ­ity. The pro­pos­al aligns with the core object­ives and guid­ing prin­ciples of the HIE Cairngorm Moun­tain mas­ter­plan by strength­en­ing the exist­ing recre­ation­al offer at the resort, provid­ing infra­struc­ture which bol­sters the year-round vis­it­or appeal and con­trib­ut­ing pos­it­ively to the loc­al eco­nomy, and is pro­posed with­in the masterplan’s iden­ti­fied ​‘primary activ­ity zone’.

  2. The pro­pos­al is con­sidered com­pat­ible with the estab­lished recre­ation­al uses of the resort and whilst it may lead to mod­er­ate adverse impacts upon land­scape and visu­al amen­ity, this would be pre­dom­in­ately lim­ited to views of the devel­op­ment from sec­tions of the Windy Ridge path and the foot­path loc­ated close to the west and base of the White Lady ski tow, rather than across the wider land­scape. As set

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 26 of 33

out above, mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures have been pro­posed, includ­ing the pro­vi­sion of final­ised bridge design details and meas­ures to address the poten­tial erosion of the ATV track, which are con­sidered suf­fi­cient to avoid the poten­tial for land­scape and visu­al impacts. Whilst the devel­op­ment may impact upon peat­land and pro­tec­ted spe­cies and hab­it­ats, a vari­ety of mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures have been pro­posed which will avoid sig­ni­fic­ant adverse effects upon these eco­lo­gic­al fea­tures, and oppor­tun­it­ies for biod­iversity enhance­ment have also been identified.

  1. On bal­ance, it is con­sidered that the pro­posed devel­op­ment com­plies with the Devel­op­ment Plan and there are no oth­er mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions which out­weigh this conclusion.

Recom­mend­a­tion That mem­bers of the com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to APPROVE the con­struc­tion of a moun­tain tobog­gan track and asso­ci­ated struc­tures, build­ings, plat­forms, land­scap­ing and infra­struc­ture works at land 284m east of Cairngorm Moun­tain sub­ject to the fol­low­ing conditions:

Con­di­tions Those con­di­tions lis­ted below in bold text are sus­pens­ive con­di­tions, which require to be dis­charged pri­or to imple­ment­a­tion of the development.

  1. The devel­op­ment to which this per­mis­sion relates must be begun not later than the expir­a­tion of three years, begin­ning with the date on which the per­mis­sion is gran­ted. Reas­on: The time lim­it con­di­tion is imposed in order to com­ply with the require­ments of sec­tion 58(1)(b) of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997 as amended.

  2. The devel­op­ment shall be car­ried out in accord­ance with the sub­mit­ted Drain­age State­ment (ref. 400858-FRH-ZZ-XX-RP-C-01 – 03) includ­ing Drain­age Lay­out and Track Drain­age plans. Reas­on: To ensure the devel­op­ment is not sub­ject to over­land sur­face water flood­ing and remains as per the pre-devel­op­ment situ­ation. In the interests of flood risk man­age­ment and to ensure com­pli­ance with NPF4 Policy 22: Flood risk and water management.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 27 of 33

  1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until an Access Man­age­ment Plan has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, act­ing as plan­ning author­ity. Details with­in the Access Man­age­ment Plan shall include, but not be lim­ited to, the following:

    a) how pub­lic access will be main­tained along the two OS-marked foot­paths on site (or a suit­able agreed diver­sion put in place) through­out the dur­a­tion of the con­struc­tion works; b) any pro­posed diver­sions includ­ing along the Windy Ridge path or oth­er OS-mar­ket foot­paths on site where con­tinu­ing pub­lic access on these routes is not pos­sible dur­ing con­struc­tion; c) final­ised bridge designs which show the required clear­ance heights and meas­ures to be imple­men­ted to avoid con­flict between the tobog­gan run and oth­er hill users; and d) detail on the approach to be adop­ted to avoid con­flict between the tobog­gan uplift and users of the Day Lodge Poma.

    There­after, the devel­op­ment shall be con­struc­ted in accord­ance with the approved Access Man­age­ment Plan and bridge designs to the sat­is­fac­tion of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning authority.

    Reas­on: To ensure the pro­posed access arrange­ments are appro­pri­ate, main­tain pub­lic safety and are in accord­ance with Policy 13: Sus­tain­able trans­port and Policy 23: Health and safety of NPF4 and Policy 3: Design and place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

  2. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until final­ised Bridge Designs and Elev­a­tions have been sub­mit­ted to and agreed in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity. The designs shall include, but not be lim­ited to, the following:

    a) Detail of the embank­ments and retain­ing walls required to achieve neces­sary clear­ance under the pro­posed bridges, includ­ing Con­tour Plans of areas around the bridges show­ing gradi­ents, spot heights and how the area will be repro­filed; b) Detail of the con­struc­tion meth­od to be adop­ted for the embank­ments and retain­ing walls includ­ing quant­it­ies of mater­i­al to be removed; and c) Detail of the appear­ance of the bridge fea­tures, embank­ments, retain­ing walls and Windy Ridge path, not­ing a nat­ur­al­ist­ic effect is pre­ferred. Where it can be imple­men­ted safely, embank­ments shall be made up of loose rock, mir­ror­ing fea­tures found nat­ur­ally across the hill­side. Areas of exposed, vis­ible cement shall be avoided.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 28 of 33

There­after the devel­op­ment shall be con­struc­ted in accord­ance with the approved designs and elevations.

Reas­on: To min­im­ise poten­tial adverse land­scape and visu­al effects asso­ci­ated with the con­struc­tion of two bridges and repro­fil­ing of the Windy Ridge path in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places and Policy 14: Design, qual­ity and place of NPF4 and Policy 3: Design and place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

  1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until final­ised details of the ATV track have been sub­mit­ted to and agreed in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity. This shall include the following:

    a) Detail of the remov­al, stor­age and reuse of exist­ing on-site mater­i­als dur­ing con­struc­tion; b) Pro­posed meas­ures to be adop­ted to com­bat erosion of the ATV track; c) Pro­posed main­ten­ance sched­ule for the ATV track; and d) A cent­ral veget­ated strip as shown in the Gen­er­al Plan – Con­struc­tion Detail (dated 27/04/26).

    There­after, the ATV track shall be con­struc­ted and main­tained in accord­ance with the approved details and used solely for con­struc­tion of the devel­op­ment, daily morn­ing checks of the drive sta­tion and in the event of emer­gency assistance.

    Reas­on: To min­im­ise poten­tial adverse land­scape and visu­al effects asso­ci­ated with the pro­posed ATV track in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places and Policy 14: Design, qual­ity and place of NPF4 and Policy 3: Design and place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

  2. No works in con­nec­tion with the devel­op­ment hereby approved shall com­mence on site (includ­ing ground works and veget­a­tion clear­ance) until a final­ised site-spe­cif­ic Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan (CEMP) has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity. The final­ised CEMP shall be informed by the draft CEMP (dated 11/09/26) how­ever shall update all rel­ev­ant sec­tions refer­ring to the iden­ti­fied pres­ence of GWDTE hab­it­at on site and shall include, but not be lim­ited to, the following:

    a) Con­sid­er­a­tion of sens­it­ive GWDTE hab­it­ats on the site, as iden­ti­fied with­in the NVC sur­vey (dated 04/08/26), and present­a­tion of mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures to avoid dis­turb­ance or harm to these features;

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 29 of 33

  1. No works in con­nec­tion with the devel­op­ment hereby approved shall com­mence until a Hab­it­at Man­age­ment Plan (HMP) has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity. The HMP shall include, but not be lim­ited to, the fol­low­ing requirements:

    b) A care­fully con­sidered drain­age régime which aligns with the sub­mit­ted Drain­age State­ment and out­lines the meas­ures to be imple­men­ted to avoid drain­ing peat that is hydro­lo­gic­ally con­nec­ted to the M32 spring and M1 bog pool sys­tem and avoids adverse impacts upon peat and adverse hydro­lo­gic­al impacts upon Annex 1 hab­it­ats and GWDTEs; c) Key mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures for imple­ment­a­tion dur­ing con­struc­tion as noted with­in the final­ised Mit­ig­a­tion Sched­ule; d) A site-spe­cif­ic Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan (PPP) and Sed­i­ment Man­age­ment Plan, with meas­ures out­lined to pro­tect the River Spey and wider water envir­on­ment from all sources of pol­lu­tion (includ­ing sed­i­ment, oils, fuels etc.); and e) A sum­mary the final­ised Peat Man­age­ment Plan (PMP), includ­ing the key meas­ures to be con­sidered and imple­men­ted dur­ing construction.

    There­after all works car­ried out dur­ing con­struc­tion shall be under­taken strictly in accord­ance with the approved CEMP.

    Reas­on: To pro­tect the water envir­on­ment, des­ig­nated sites and all spe­cies and hab­it­ats present on site by ensur­ing best prac­tice meas­ures are adop­ted through­out the con­struc­tion phase in accord­ance with Policy 3: Biod­iversity, Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places and Policy 5: Soils of NPF4 and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

    a) Details of the biod­iversity enhance­ment meas­ures to be imple­men­ted, as informed by the Eco­lo­gic­al Assess­ment Report (dated Decem­ber 2025) and draft Hab­it­at Man­age­ment Plan (dated August 2026), and includ­ing anti­cip­ated time­frames; and b) Ongo­ing mon­it­or­ing and main­ten­ance plans.

    The Plan shall also set out how con­tin­gen­cies and remedi­al action will be iden­ti­fied, agreed and imple­men­ted so that the devel­op­ment still deliv­ers the fully func­tion­ing biod­iversity object­ives of the ori­gin­ally approved scheme.

    There­after the devel­op­ment shall be car­ried out in accord­ance with the approved HMP.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 30 of 33

  1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a final­ised Mit­ig­a­tion Sched­ule has been sub­mit­ted to and agreed in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as the plan­ning author­ity. The Mit­ig­a­tion Sched­ule shall be informed by the draft Mit­ig­a­tion Sched­ule (dated 11/09/26) and include all meas­ures set out in Chapter 5 of the sub­mit­ted Eco­lo­gic­al Assess­ment Report (dated ref: Enviro­centre, Decem­ber 2025).

    Reas­on: In the interest of pro­tect­ing biod­iversity and the envir­on­ment in accord­ance with Policy 3: Biod­iversity of NPF4 and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

    There­after all mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures shall be imple­men­ted and con­struc­tion of the pro­posed devel­op­ment car­ried out strictly in accord­ance with the approved Sched­ule, under the super­vi­sion of a suit­ably qual­i­fied Eco­lo­gic­al Clerk of Works.

    Reas­on: To off­set dis­turb­ance and offer pro­tec­tion to hab­it­ats and pri­or­ity spe­cies in accord­ance with Policy 3: Biod­iversity, Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places and Policy 5: Soils of NPF4 and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

  2. No works in con­nec­tion with the devel­op­ment hereby approved shall com­mence until a final­ised Peat Man­age­ment Plan (PMP) has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity. The final­ised PMP shall be informed by the draft PMP (con­tained with­in the draft CEMP dated 11/09/26) how­ever shall be updated to include details from the Peat Depth Sur­veys (dated 04/08/26).

    The final­ised PMP shall include, but not be lim­ited to, the fol­low­ing requirements:

    a) Details from the Peat Depth Sur­vey (dated 04/08/26); b) Meas­ures and volumes of pro­posed peat excav­a­tion, hand­ling, stor­age and reuse; c) A sum­mary of recom­men­ded peat mit­ig­a­tions from the Peat Sur­vey and GWDTE Report (dated 04/08/26), NVC sur­vey report (dated 04/08/26) and draft HMP (August 2026) and con­sider poten­tial require­ment for fur­ther loc­al­ised peat prob­ing to inform the drain­age régime, micro-sit­ing of the track and found­a­tions, and appro­pri­ate ​‘No Go’ buf­fer areas; d) A sum­mary of meas­ures to be imple­men­ted to avoid areas of deep peat, includ­ing micro-sit­ing and rerout­ing of the pro­posed tracks to ensure sit­ing of the tobog­gan track base plates, install­a­tion of the ATV track and other

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 31 of 33

e) Out­line details of the Com­pens­at­ory Peat­land Res­tor­a­tion Scheme, as defined by Con­di­tion 10; f) Spe­cif­ic plans detail­ing the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures and com­pens­at­ory peat­land res­tor­a­tion pro­posed at Areas B and C, as defined with­in the Peat Sur­vey and GWDTE Report (dated 04/08/26); and g) A spe­cif­ic peat reuse plan for the Exit tun­nel and plat­form: ​‘Area D’, as defined with­in the Peat Sur­vey and GWDTE Report (dated 04/08/26), which takes account of the pro­posed earth­works and land­scap­ing. The area dir­ectly and indir­ectly impacted should be used to cal­cu­late the extent of com­pens­at­ory peat­land res­tor­a­tion required here.

infra­struc­ture avoid impacts on pri­or­ity peat­land hab­it­ats, deep peat over 50cm, bog pools and flushes;

Reas­on: To avoid adverse impacts upon sens­it­ive peat­land hab­it­ats, car­bon-rich soils and nature net­works in prox­im­ity to the pro­posed works and to min­im­ise neg­at­ive impacts on hab­it­ats and to mit­ig­ate for any dam­age to pri­or­ity peat­land hab­it­ats in accord­ance with Policy 3: Biod­iversity and Policy 5: Soils of NPF4 and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age, Policy 5: Land­scape and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

  1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until a Com­pens­at­ory Peat­land Res­tor­a­tion Scheme informed by the Peat Depth Sur­veys and Res­ults (dated 04/08/26) and Peat Sur­vey and GWDTE Report (dated 04/08/26) has been sub­mit­ted to and approved by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity. The Scheme shall include details of the extent, loc­a­tion, timetable, meth­od­o­logy and ongo­ing man­age­ment arrange­ments of the pro­posed res­tor­a­tion and out­line the approach for deliv­er­ing the required level of com­pens­at­ory peat­land restoration.

There­after the con­struc­tion of the pro­posed devel­op­ment shall be under­taken in accord­ance with the approved the Scheme.

The extent of peat­land res­tor­a­tion should equal an area 10 times the extent of peat­land hab­it­at that will be impacted by the devel­op­ment. The area of peat­land hab­it­at impacted should be cal­cu­lated as the foot­print of the devel­op­ment, includ­ing ATV track, with­in areas of pri­or­ity peat­land hab­it­at plus a 30m buf­fer on either side of the track where pri­or­ity peat­land hab­it­ats are present. Where the route can­not avoid pri­or­ity peat­land hab­it­at areas of deep peat (>50cm), com­pens­at­ory peat­land res­tor­a­tion of degraded peat­land hab­it­at nearby will likely be required. Find­ings from the Peat Sur­vey and GWDTE Report, Peat Depth Sur­veys, Peat Sur­vey Plan, and Peat Sur­vey Res­ults (dated

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 32 of 33

04/08/26) sug­gest an area of approx­im­ately 1.95ha is expec­ted to be required for the com­pens­at­ory peat­land restoration.

Reas­on: To secure com­pens­a­tion for the unavoid­able loss of peat­land hab­it­ats and car­bon rich soils as a res­ult of the devel­op­ment in accord­ance with Policy 5: Soils of NPF4 and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

  1. In the event that the devel­op­ment ceases to be used for its inten­ded pur­pose for a con­tinu­ous peri­od of 12 months, unless oth­er­wise agreed with the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, act­ing as plan­ning author­ity, the devel­op­ment must with­in 12 months be removed in its entirety and the land rein­stated to its con­di­tion pri­or to the grant­ing of the per­mis­sion 2026/0135/DET, all to the sat­is­fac­tion of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, act­ing as plan­ning authority.

Reas­on: In recog­ni­tion of the nature of the facil­ity and to ensure that struc­tures are removed, and land restored to safe­guard long term impacts of the site should the pro­pos­al cease to oper­ate in accord­ance with Policy 14: Design, qual­ity and place of NPF4 and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Inform­at­ives

  1. The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment is required to give the Plan­ning Author­ity pri­or writ­ten noti­fic­a­tion of the date 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.

  2. Fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, a noti­fic­a­tion of 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

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Novem­ber 2026 Page 33 of 33

  1. 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.

  2. Where devel­op­ment can­not avoid pri­or­ity peat­land hab­it­ats (wet heath, blanket bog, flushes) or areas of deep peat >50cm, com­pens­at­ory peat­land res­tor­a­tion of degraded peat­land hab­it­ats nearby will likely be required. This should be detailed in a hab­it­at man­age­ment plan. The extent of peat­land res­tor­a­tion should equal an area 10 times the extent of peat­land hab­it­at that will be impacted by the devel­op­ment. The area of peat­land hab­it­at impacted should be cal­cu­lated as the foot­print of the ATV track/​development where it passes through pri­or­ity peat­land hab­it­ats plus a 30m buf­fer on either side of the track where pri­or­ity peat­land hab­it­ats are present.

It should be noted that the pro­posed ​‘wet heath enhance­ment area’ and ​‘alpine heath enhance­ment area’ iden­ti­fied with­in the draft HMP appear to con­sti­tute suit­able res­tor­a­tion areas and may also provide oppor­tun­ity to deliv­er biod­iversity enhance­ment. This will depend upon the area of peat­land impacted and the area avail­able at these sites to accom­mod­ate addi­tion­al peat. Com­pens­at­ory peat­land res­tor­a­tion can­not be con­sidered as biod­iversity enhance­ment unless the ratio of degraded/​impacted peat­land to restored peat­land is great­er than 1:10.