Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 9 Octo­ber 2026

Com­mit­tee report

Devel­op­ment proposed: Slu­gain Burn Res­tor­a­tion Pro­ject: River chan­nel realign­ment, hab­it­at res­tor­a­tion, road realign­ment, revised river cross­ing and install­a­tion of cul­vert at Land 1.4km SW of Inver­laid­nan Sta­tion Road – Dal­na­hait­nach, Car­rbridge, Highland

Ref­er­ence: 2026/0160/DET Applic­ant: Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Date called-in: 25 May 2026 Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to con­di­tions Case officer: Katie Crerar, Plan­ning Officer

---

Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 9 Octo­ber 2026

(Map image show­ing the site and sur­round­ing area)

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.

---

Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 9 Octo­ber 2026

Site descrip­tion, pro­pos­al and history

Site descrip­tion

1. The devel­op­ment site lies approx­im­ately 4 miles south­w­est of Car­rbridge at Dal­na­hait­nach. The west­ern side of the site com­prises approx­im­ately 240m of the lower reaches of Slu­gain Burn – approx­im­ately 75 metres upstream (to the south) of an exist­ing low clear­ance bridge and 165m of straightened embanked chan­nel (to the north) which then fol­lows a more nat­ur­al meander to its con­flu­ence with the River Dul­nain (out­with the site).
2. The applic­a­tion site also com­prises a 100m sec­tion of minor road U2239 between Car­rbridge and Dal­na­hait­nach. There is a low clear­ance bridge at the south­west­ern end of the applic­a­tion site which con­nects the road from the east to a small inform­al car park at Dalnahaitnach.
3. Sur­round­ing the Burn and road is largely rough grass­land and agri­cul­tur­al fields. The site sits at the trans­ition point between the River Dulnain’s flat, grassed flood­plain used for graz­ing, and the upland heath­er moor­land. There is a small group of mature Scots Pine trees around the upper part of Slu­gain Burn.
4. Slu­gain Burn and the River Dul­nain are both part of the River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC). The site also sits with­in Kin­veachy Forest Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area (SPA), SAC and Site of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest (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:

   2026/0160/DET | Slu­gain Burn Res­tor­a­tion Pro­ject: River chan­nel realign­ment, hab­it­at res­tor­a­tion, road realign­ment, revised river cross­ing and install­a­tion of cul­vert | Land 1.4km Sw Of Inver­laid­nan Sta­tion Road — Dal­na­hait­nach Car­rbridge Highland

Title	Draw­ing num­ber	Date on plan*	Date received
Plan — Site Loc­a­tion Plan	PQZ-JBA-00 – 00-DR-C-001-	29/04/2026	22/05/2026

---

Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 9 Octo­ber 2026

Title	Draw­ing num­ber	Date on plan*	Date received
Site_​Location_​Plan	PQZ-JBA-00 – 00-DR-C-001-	29/04/2026	22/05/2026
Plan – Pro­posed Site Lay­out: Gen­er­al Arrange­ment 1	PQZ-JBA-00 – 00-DR-C-003-General_Arrangement_1_of_2	29/04/2026	22/05/2026
Plan – Gen­er­al Arrange­ment 2	PQZ-JBA-00 – 00-DR-C-004-General_Arrangement_2_of_2	31/03/2026	22/05/2026
Plan – Pro­posed Gen­er­al Plan – Non-tech­nic­al overview	PQZ-JBA-00 – 00-DR-C-0012-Non-Technical_Overview_Plan	31/03/2026	22/05/2026
Plan — Gen­er­al Plan – Struc­tur­al Gen­er­al Arrangement	PQZ-JBA-00 – 00-DR-S-013-Structural_General_Arrangement	31/03/2026	22/05/2026
Plan – Step pool details	PQZ-JBA-00 – 00-DR-C-011-Step-Pool-Details	31/03/2026	22/05/2026
Plan — Site Clearance	PQZ-JBA-00 – 00-DR-C-002-Site-Clearance	29/04/2026	22/05/2026
Plan – Sec­tion Plan (Stand­ard Details)	PQZ-JBA-00 – 00-DR-C-010-Standard-Details	31/03/2026	22/05/2026
Plan — Sec­tions 1	PQZ-JBA-00 – 00-DR-S-014-Sections_1_of_2	31/03/2026	22/05/2026

---

Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 9 Octo­ber 2026

Title	Draw­ing num­ber	Date on plan*	Date received
Plan — Sec­tions 2	PQZ-JBA-XX-XX-M3-S-0001-Design PQZ-JBA-00 – 00-DR-S-015-Sections_2_of_2	31/03/2026	22/05/2026
Plan — Sec­tion Plan Chan­nel 1	PQZ-JBA-00 – 00-DR-C-005-Channel_Long_Section_1_of_2	31/03/2026	22/05/2026
Plan — Sec­tion Plan Chan­nel 2	PQZ-JBA-00 – 00-DR-C-006-Channel_Long_Section_2_of_2	31/03/2026	22/05/2026
Plan – Road Long Section	PQZ-JBA-00 – 00-DR-C-007-Road_Long_Section	31/03/2026	22/05/2026
Oth­er – Plan­ning Design and Access Statement	NBE-JBAU-XX-XX-RP-EN-0003-PDAS	01/04/2026	22/05/2026
Oth­er — Flood Risk Assessment	PQZ-JBA-XX-XX-HM-0001	01/04/2026	22/05/2026
Oth­er – Ground Invest­ig­a­tion Report	PQZ-JBA-XX-XX-RP-GT-0004	01/03/2026	22/05/2026
Oth­er – Pre­lim­in­ary Eco­lo­gic­al Appraisal	PQZ-JBA-XX-XX-RP-EN-0002-PEAR	04/02/2026	22/05/2026
Oth­er — Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan	n/​a		22/05/2026
Oth­er — Dal­nahit­nach Wader Survey	n/​a		22/05/2026
Oth­er – Sal­monid Sur­veys for Slu­gain Burn	n/​a		22/05/2026
Oth­er — Sup­port­ing Statement	n/​a		08/09/2026

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

1. This applic­a­tion seeks plan­ning per­mis­sion for the realign­ment of the lower sec­tion of the Slu­gain Burn river chan­nel along with the realign­ment of a sec­tion of minor road (U2239) and the cre­ation of a new river cross­ing near Dalnahaitnach.
2. Slu­gain Burn drains an upland catch­ment of 5.4km² and trans­ports a large sed­i­ment load down­stream. The Burn was his­tor­ic­ally straightened and repro­filed with embank­ments where it crosses the Dal­na­hait­nach flood­plain to its con­flu­ence with the River Dulnain.

---

Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 9 Octo­ber 2026

1. Upstream of the straightened chan­nel, the burn flows under a low clear­ance bridge which accord­ing to the applicant’s sup­port­ing inform­a­tion causes water to back up and sed­i­ment depos­its which have required reg­u­lar dredging. The burn has breached its east­ern bank upstream of the bridge more fre­quently in recent years caus­ing flood­ing and sed­i­ment depos­its on the road and in the fields to the east.
2. The Slu­gain Burn res­tor­a­tion pro­ject aims to restore nat­ur­al river and flood­plain pro­cesses, improve and cre­ate hab­it­ats and cre­ate a low-main­ten­ance and resi­li­ent watercourse.
3. The pro­pos­al will lengthen the lower sec­tion of Slu­gain Burn where it crosses the Dal­na­hait­nach flood­plain from approx­im­ately 165 metres of straightened, perched and embanked water­course to approx­im­ately 1.5km long chan­nel to the north­east where geo­morph­ic pro­cesses can evolve more nat­ur­ally to cre­ate diverse hab­it­ats with­in the chan­nel and deliv­er bet­ter flood­plain connectivity.
4. The realign­ment will be done by divert­ing the Slu­gain Burn into a new chan­nel which will con­nect with an exist­ing minor water­course to the north­w­est, that then links to the flood­plain and River Dul­nain approx­im­ately 1.5km fur­ther downstream.
5. The course of the new realigned burn is split into three reaches. The first is the upstream reach which com­prises of 80m of a step-pool sys­tem of vary­ing dimen­sions to cre­ate a more nat­ur­al form through this sec­tion. Step pools con­sist of altern­at­ing ver­tic­al drops over large rocks and boulders and pools of deep­er water. The steps will be between 20 and 30cm high and between 5 and 7 metres apart. The deep­est point of each step will be 0.6 metres. This sec­tion will be set with­in a two-stage chan­nel designed to con­tain a 200-year flood risk plus cli­mate change flow. The bed of the new chan­nel will be made from dredged mater­i­al from the site and the bed and the embank­ments of the exist­ing channel.

---

Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 9 Octo­ber 2026

1. The next stage or ​‘middle reach’ con­tin­ues along the newly excav­ated chan­nel and trans­itions into a pool and riffle form­a­tion which con­sists of a sequence of areas of deep­er water (pools) altern­at­ing with areas of shal­low­er water cre­ated by coarse gravel mater­i­al (riffles). The Plan­ning, Design and Access State­ment states that, this sys­tem will ​‘provide fish and insect hab­it­at and help to oxy­gen­ate the water’.
2. The chan­nel then joins the pre-exist­ing minor water­course in the final ​‘lower reach’ which it will fol­low to its con­flu­ence with the River Dul­nain. The down­stream chan­nel of the burn will be left to evolve nat­ur­ally over time across the flood­plain where the water will be able to then reshape the channel’s bed mater­i­als and form its own chan­nels down to the con­flu­ence with the River Dulnain.
3. A bund will be formed along the north­west­ern edge of the realigned burn at the step pools sec­tion and fur­ther earth­works will be under­taken to cre­ate the chan­nel and pool-riffle sec­tion bey­ond it.
4. In addi­tion to the realigned chan­nel, a 100-metre sec­tion of the exist­ing road (U2239) to Dal­na­hait­nach will be removed and realigned with a new cross­ing over the burn chan­nel that can with­stand future flood­ing (1 in 200 year) and cli­mate change impacts. The new cross­ing will be cre­ated using a long box con­crete cul­vert unit with sup­port­ing head­walls. The cul­vert will be 5.1 metres wide, 2.15 metres high and 4.5 metres long. The new 3.3m wide road will be edged by grassed slopes and fin­ished in asphalt in keep­ing with and con­nect­ing to the exist­ing road. Under the cross­ing, the chan­nel of the Burn will have a cast in situ base slab and walls. The area between the chan­nel and realigned road will be regraded into a slope.
5. The sec­tion of exist­ing road that has been realigned will be removed and infilled and the exist­ing bridge will be demol­ished. The redund­ant burn chan­nel will be infilled with loc­ally won mater­i­al, and the road will be rein­stated over where the bridge pre­vi­ously was. There will be post and wire fen­cing installed across the infilled straight chan­nel as well as along the left bank of the new con­nect­ing chan­nel to main­tain the exist­ing field boundary.
6. The inform­al car park will be retained. The bun­ded gravels with­in the car park will be re-dis­trib­uted to cre­ate a flat sur­face for parking.

His­tory

1. There is no recent plan­ning his­tory on or near the applic­a­tion site.

---

Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 9 Octo­ber 2026

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.
2. Slu­gain Burn is a des­ig­nated trib­u­tary of the River Spey SAC, which is des­ig­nated for its Atlantic sal­mon, fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel, sea lamprey, and otter interests. Realign­ment works along this his­tor­ic­ally straightened sec­tion of the Slu­gain Burn will dir­ectly impact the River Spey SAC. There is the poten­tial for short term effects from con­struc­tion activ­ity includ­ing dis­turb­ance, pol­lu­tion and from the loss of the exist­ing lower Slu­gain Burn which will require mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures to be con­di­tioned. How­ever, the pro­pos­al aims to rein­state nat­ur­al geo­morph­ic pro­cesses, enhance hab­it­at pro­vi­sion and diversity as well as con­trib­ut­ing to nat­ur­al flood risk man­age­ment and improv­ing cli­mate change resi­li­ence. There­fore, it is deemed that this river res­tor­a­tion work should improve suit­able hab­it­at diversity and poten­tially increase dis­tri­bu­tion of qual­i­fy­ing interests.
3. Con­struc­tion activ­ity will take place with­in the bound­ar­ies of Kin­veachy Forest SPA, des­ig­nated for caper­cail­lie and Scot­tish cross­bill. It is pos­sible that con­struc­tion activ­ity dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son could lead to dis­turb­ance. How­ever, due to exist­ing recre­ation­al use by walkers/​dog walk­ers, the pro­posed con­struc­tion activ­ity with­in the devel­op­ment site will not sig­ni­fic­antly increase the risk of dis­turb­ance to breed­ing caper­cail­lie that could res­ult in a change in the dis­tri­bu­tion of caper­cail­lie with­in the SPA or the wider caper­cail­lie metapopulation.
4. A num­ber of mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures are pro­posed which should be secured by con­di­tion. These include pre-con­struc­tion checks for pro­tec­ted spe­cies, a pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion plan with meas­ures to con­trol pol­lu­tion and mobil­ised sed­i­ment (which will be included with­in a Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan), tim­ing works to avoid the Atlantic sal­mon spawn­ing sea­son (Mid-Octo­ber to end of Feb­ru­ary), no intro­duc­tion of trees, seeds or turves (to avoid intro­du­cing non-nat­ive spe­cies), avoid­ing any pro­mo­tion of the inform­al car park­ing area adja­cent to the site to avoid any addi­tion­al dis­turb­ance of Kin­veachy SPA and mon­it­or­ing sed­i­ment erosion / depos­ition with­in the new chan­nel for 5 years post con­struc­tion to ensure there is suf­fi­cient flow depths for fish pas­sage. This will ensure that all the con­ser­va­tion object­ives can be met and that there will be no adverse effects on the integ­rity of the European Sites. NatureScot have con­firmed agree­ment with the con­tents of the HRA and its conclusions.

---

Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 9 Octo­ber 2026

Devel­op­ment plan context

Policies

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045

(Policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross (x))

Nation­al policy
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	X
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	X
Policy 21	Play, recre­ation and sport
Policy 22	Flood risk and water management	X
Policy 23	Health and safety
Policy 24	Digit­al infrastructure
Policy 25	Com­munity wealth building
Policy 26	Busi­ness and industry
Policy 27	City, town, loc­al and com­mer­cial centres
Policy 28	Retail

---

Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 9 Octo­ber 2026

Nation­al policy
Policy 29	Rur­al development
Policy 30	Tour­ism
Policy 31	Cul­ture and creativity
Policy 32	Aquacul­ture
Policy 33	Min­er­als

Stra­tegic policy Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027 Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2021)

Loc­al plan policy (Policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross (x))

Loc­al plan policy
Policy 1	New hous­ing development
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth
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
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al heritage	X
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

---

Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 9 Octo­ber 2026

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
Policy 1	Hous­ing sup­ple­ment­ary guidance
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth non-stat­utory guidance
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
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al her­it­age non-stat­utory guidance	X
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. Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency (SEPA) do not object to the pro­pos­al. They are sat­is­fied that the find­ings of the applicant’s Flood Risk Assess­ment (FRA) indic­ate that the pro­posed cross­ing will have suf­fi­cient capa­city to con­vey the 1 in 200 year design flows with an allow­ance for cli­mate change and also an addi­tion­al free­board allow­ance. This is a bet­ter­ment on the exist­ing cross­ing and will provide a reduc­tion in flood risk to the road at the loc­a­tion of the cross­ing, which is cur­rently impacted by exceedance events and block­age. They add that the exist­ing cross­ing should be removed as proposed.
3. Scot­tish Water has no objec­tions, not­ing that no new con­nec­tions will be per­mit­ted to their pub­lic com­bined sew­er system.
4. Spey Fish­ery Board was con­sul­ted and, at time of writ­ing, no response has been received.
5. The High­land Council’s Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team do not object to the applic­a­tion. They note that flood­ing at this loc­a­tion affects access along the road and reg­u­larly depos­its sig­ni­fic­ant amounts of sed­i­ment cre­at­ing a maintenance

---

Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 9 Octo­ber 2026

bur­den for the Coun­cil. The Team wel­come the pro­pos­al to alle­vi­ate a flood risk con­cern in com­bin­a­tion with the enhance­ment of a sens­it­ive water­course and valu­able hab­it­at asso­ci­ated with it. They sup­port the applic­a­tion on account of the over­all flood risk, pub­lic road and envir­on­ment­al bene­fits that it will provide.

1. The High­land Council’s Trans­port Plan­ning Team has no objec­tion to the applic­a­tion and expect the pro­posed works to improve the resi­li­ence of the U2239 at this loc­a­tion and rep­res­ent a pos­it­ive improve­ment to the exist­ing arrange­ment, repla­cing infra­struc­ture that has been affected by flood­ing and sed­i­ment depos­ition issues. They are sat­is­fied that whilst the pro­pos­al will replace and realign a short sec­tion of pub­lic road, it will not affect its route and will retain the inform­al park­ing at the end. The Trans­port Plan­ning Team is also con­tent that the road design includ­ing car­riage­way width, pave­ment con­struc­tion, embank­ment design and replace­ment cross­ing is appro­pri­ate for the route. Giv­en the remote loc­a­tion of the site and low levels of traffic on the road, the Trans­port Plan­ning Team do not con­sider that a Con­struc­tion Traffic Man­age­ment Plan is required. They have how­ever recom­men­ded two advisor­ies regard­ing any tem­por­ary restric­tions and Roads Con­struc­tion Consent.
2. The High­land Coun­cil His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment (Archae­ology) Team raised that the applic­a­tion impacts the ruin­ous remains of a group of build­ings that are of loc­al his­tor­ic import­ance. It was reques­ted that a con­di­tion should be applied requir­ing detailed pho­to­graph­ic record­ing of the build­ings to be under­taken pri­or to the com­mence­ment of the devel­op­ment. The inform­a­tion was sub­sequently provided by the applic­ant and the Archae­ology Officer con­firmed that no con­di­tion would now be required. How­ever, they have provided an inform­at­ive note that they request is added to any plan­ning permission.
3. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer notes that a Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan (SPP) has been provided as part of the applic­a­tion and sets out mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures which should be con­di­tioned and fully imple­men­ted, includ­ing pre-con­struc­tion checks for pro­tec­ted spe­cies, hav­ing an exper­i­enced aquat­ic Eco­lo­gic­al Clerk of Works present dur­ing any works in-river, and meas­ures to con­trol sed­i­ment mobil­isa­tion, pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion and the spread of dis­ease and invas­ive spe­cies. The SPP also sets out that works will be pro­grammed to avoid the bird breed­ing sea­son, the Atlantic Sal­mon spawn­ing sea­son and that a Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan (CEMP) with Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan (PPP) will be pre­pared to mit­ig­ate any impacts on the River Spey SAC.
4. The Officer also recom­mends that there should be no pro­mo­tion of the access and exist­ing park­ing area for recre­ation­al use to mit­ig­ate impacts on caper­cail­lie and oth­er spe­cies. In addi­tion, no seeds, plants or turves should be intro­duced from

---

Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 9 Octo­ber 2026

out­side the site to ensure that no non-nat­ive spe­cies will impact the pine wood­land of the SSSI. Mon­it­or­ing of sed­i­ment erosion/​deposition with­in the new chan­nel should also be under­taken for at least 5 years post-con­struc­tion to ensure that flow depths are suf­fi­cient for fish pas­sage through the realigned chan­nel. If mon­it­or­ing iden­ti­fies restric­ted fish-pas­sage or a decrease in aver­age flows for a peri­od last­ing more than 6 months, then adjust­ments should be under­taken in con­sulta­tion with a geo­mor­pho­lo­gist to restore fish passage.

1. Over­all, the Officer con­cludes that the devel­op­ment should res­ult in a great­er diversity of nat­ur­al­ised hab­it­ats with­in the chan­nel of the Slu­gain Burn and increase the extent and qual­ity of hab­it­at for Atlantic sal­mon. In addi­tion, the works should restore bet­ter con­nectiv­ity of the Slu­gain Burn with its flood­plain and improve hab­it­at for a wide range of spe­cies includ­ing waders and pri­or­ity invertebrates.
2. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Land­scape Advisor states that the pro­posed res­tor­a­tion works would, over the longer term, con­trib­ute to the enhance­ment of the land­scape in this part of the Nation­al Park. They have noted one sug­ges­tion to space the riffle and step pools more irreg­u­larly along the pro­posed new chan­nel to give a more nat­ur­al appearance.
3. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Agri­cul­tur­al Advisor is sat­is­fied that the pro­pos­al will build catch­ment resi­li­ence and cre­ates a net gain in an area that will be avail­able for graz­ing. They note that the area isn’t highly pro­duct­ive and will not be adversely impacted by the realignment.
4. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Out­door Access Officer does not object to the pro­pos­al. They note that there is a Right of Way close to and through a small part of the site but there is no estab­lished route on the ground. They do not con­sider that the pro­pos­al would have any adverse impact on the Right of Way or wider access in the area.
5. Car­rbridge Com­munity Coun­cil were con­sul­ted but no response has been received.

Rep­res­ent­a­tions

1. No rep­res­ent­a­tions have been received.

---

Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 9 Octo­ber 2026

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 this case are: the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment; land­scape; eco­logy; flood risk; roads and out­door access; and cul­tur­al her­it­age. 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 is giv­en to the glob­al cli­mate and nature crises when con­sid­er­ing all devel­op­ment pro­pos­als, whilst NPF4 Policy 2: Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adaptation