Item 6 A9 Killiecrankie

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 6 22/02/2019

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

FOR DECISION

Title: CNPA RESPONSE TO TRANS­PORT SCOT­LAND A9 DUALLING — KIL­LIECRANKIE TO GLEN GARRY SEC­TION PROPOSALS

Pre­pared by: Gav­in Miles, Head of Plan­ning and Communities

Recom­mend­a­tion

That the Committee:

i. With­draw the CNPA’s objec­tion to the A9 dualling pro­pos­als on the Kil­liecrankie to Glen Garry Section.

Back­ground

1. In Janu­ary 2018, the CNPA objec­ted to Trans­port Scotland’s pro­pos­als for dualling the A9 Kil­li­crankie to Glen Garry sec­tion on the basis that there was insuf­fi­cient inform­a­tion avail­able to assess poten­tial impacts on the nation­ally import­ant Kil­liecrankie Bat­tle­field site. It fol­lowed His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scotland’s (HES) objec­tion that there was insuf­fi­cient evid­ence to con­clude that impacts on the bat­tle­field of widen­ing on the north­bound side of the exist­ing road were less sig­ni­fic­ant or equal to widen­ing of the south­bound side of the exist­ing road. Oth­er­wise, the CNPA was sat­is­fied that the pro­pos­als had taken account of rel­ev­ant con­sid­er­a­tions, had accur­ately assessed impacts and provided suf­fi­cient mitigation.

2. Dur­ing 2018, Trans­port Scot­land com­mis­sioned fur­ther archae­olo­gic­al invest­ig­a­tions across the bat­tle­field. Trans­port Scot­land have taken account of the new sur­vey inform­a­tion and HES’ com­ments on alter­a­tions to the scheme to pro­duce revised pro­pos­als in the vicin­ity of the Kil­liecrankie Bat­tle­field site.

3. The revised pro­pos­als con­tin­ue to adopt widen­ing along the north­bound side of the exist­ing A9, often on ground that was pre­vi­ously dis­turbed dur­ing the con­struc­tion of the exist­ing route. The refine­ments to the scheme aim to reduce fur­ther dis­turb­ance to the bat­tle­field, with steep­er slopes cre­ated by the road­side and a reduc­tion in the over­all land used. The revised pro­pos­als are avail­able at: https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/exhibition-materials-public-information-events-octobernovember-2018-killiecrankie-to-glen-garry-a9-dualling/.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 6 22/02/2019

1. HES have con­sidered the revised pro­pos­als and are sat­is­fied that suf­fi­cient inform­a­tion is avail­able to assess the impacts of the scheme. HES have now with­drawn their objec­tion to a num­ber of sig­ni­fic­ant ele­ments of the scheme but have retained an objec­tion to a small area of pro­posed wood­land plant­ing that they con­sider will mask the land­form and obscure the rela­tion­ship between dif­fer­ent parts of the bat­tle­field. HES’ form­al response to the revised pro­pos­als is avail­able here: https://www.historicenvironment.scot/about-us/news/a9-dualling-proposals-our-response/.

Ana­lys­is

1. The revised pro­pos­als attempt to min­im­ise sig­ni­fic­ant impacts on the Kil­liecrankie Bat­tle­field site and take account of new archae­olo­gic­al inform­a­tion on the bat­tle­field. The amended scheme will be slightly more visu­ally intrus­ive from downslope than the pre­vi­ously pro­posed scheme due to steep­er slope pro­files. The amended scheme also has few­er impacts on the his­tor­ic land­scape of the bat­tle­field than the pre­vi­ous scheme because it will dis­turb less ground.

2. Officers are sat­is­fied, the revised pro­pos­als are a reas­on­able response to the con­straints of the bat­tle­field site. In this loc­a­tion, the nation­ally import­ant his­tor­ic bat­tle­field is one of the most sig­ni­fic­ant ele­ments of the land­scape and over­all, officers con­sider the amended pro­pos­als have a sim­il­ar impact on land­scape char­ac­ter and the spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park as the pre­vi­ous scheme. The exist­ing A9 cre­ated the most sig­ni­fic­ant impact on the bat­tle­field that the pro­posed scheme will add to.

3. The main EIA for the scheme con­sidered oth­er reas­on­able options for widen­ing the road in this loc­a­tion. Widen­ing on the south­bound side was con­sidered and not pre­ferred because of the more extens­ive earth­work cut­ting that would be required in some loc­a­tions, cre­at­ing very sig­ni­fic­ant land­scape impacts upslope of the exist­ing road. Widen­ing on the south­bound side would also be across more ground that appears not to have been sig­ni­fic­antly dis­turbed in the ori­gin­al A9 con­struc­tion, lead­ing to more sig­ni­fic­ant impacts on the bat­tle­field site. CNPA officers con­tin­ue to be of the opin­ion that widen­ing on the north­bound side min­im­ises impacts on the bat­tle­field, wider land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park.

4. HES’ remain­ing objec­tion is in rela­tion to a small area of pro­posed wood­land plant­ing that the CNPA does not con­sider essen­tial to the scheme. We do not con­sider it mer­its objec­tion by the CNPA but would encour­age Trans­port Scot­land to take account of HES’ objec­tion and remove or relo­cate the plant­ing out­side the bat­tle­field site.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 6 22/02/2019

Con­clu­sion

1. Any expan­sion of the A9 through the bat­tle­field would have impacts on it, but CNPA officers con­sider that in tak­ing account of addi­tion­al archae­olo­gic­al inform­a­tion, the revised scheme pro­pos­als min­im­ise impacts on the his­tor­ic Kil­liecrankie Bat­tle­field site, on the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park sufficiently.

Gav­in Miles Feb­ru­ary 2019 gavinmiles@​cairngorms.​co.​uk