Item 6 AA Scalan 2019/0005/DET and 0018LBC

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/04/2019

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED:

Res­tor­a­tion and repair of mill build­ings includ­ing form­a­tion of access paths and one car park­ing space at Scalan North And South Mill Chapeltown, Ballindal­loch, Moray, AB37 9JS

REF­ER­ENCE: 2019/0005/DET and 2019/0018/LBC

APPLIC­ANT: Crown Estate Scot­land ( Inter­im Management)

DATE CALLED-IN: 8 Janu­ary 2019

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve Sub­ject to Conditions

CASE OFFICER: Stephanie Wade, Plan­ning Officer

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/04/2019

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The site is loc­ated with­in the Braes of Glen­liv­et to the south of Chapeltown, and is accessed via an exist­ing agri­cul­tur­al track approx­im­ately Ikm from the car park at the Carrachs.

2. Scalan takes the form of a farm­house and stead­ing com­plex loc­ated with­in the Glen­liv­et Estate. The site com­prises a former Roman Cath­ol­ic Sem­in­ary ori­gin­ally built in 1767, the guise of a farm­house (Cat­egory A lis­ted build­ing); North Mill, a later 19^th Cen­tury L‑plan mill which con­tains a thresh­ing machine that is con­sidered extremely rare as one of the old­est sur­viv­ing in situ thresh­ing machines in Scot­land (Cat­egory A lis­ted build­ing) a South Mill, an early 20^th cen­tury, rect­an­gu­lar plan mill and byre (Cat­egory B lis­ted build­ing) and a former bothy adja­cent to the Sem­in­ary build­ing. Col­lect­ively they are con­sidered to have group value in that they evid­ence the his­tor­ic­al and social devel­op­ment of Scalan from the 18^th Cen­tury to the early 20^th Century.

3. The build­ing com­plex is bound by post and wire fen­cing, sep­ar­at­ing it from the adja­cent, enclosed grass­land, with the Lad­der Hills bey­ond to the east. There are no res­id­en­tial neigh­bour­ing prop­er­ties with­in the imme­di­ate area of the site, with the nearest res­id­en­tial prop­erty being over 500 metres (as the crow flies) from the applic­a­tion site. With­in the site there are a num­ber of dis­persed trees with the main band of trees loc­ated with­in the north-east­ern site corner, adja­cent to the Sem­in­ary build­ing. The Crom­bie Burn runs through the site enter­ing near the south-east­ern site corner and exit­ing the site on the north-west­ern site bound­ary. Two lades from the Burn serve the south and north mills.

4. The Crom­bie Burn forms part of the River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC) des­ig­nated for otter, Atlantic sal­mon, sea lamprey and fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel interests. SNH has advised that fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel and sea lamprey are not present in this part of the catch­ment. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Assess­ment has been under­taken by CNPA. The site also lies with­in close prox­im­ity to the Lad­der Hills SAC des­ig­nated for its Alpine and sub­alpine heaths, Blanket bog and Dry heaths.

Pro­pos­al

1. The draw­ings and doc­u­ments asso­ci­ated with these applic­a­tions are lis­ted below and are avail­able on the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity web­site unless noted oth­er­wise: http://​www​.eplan​ningcnpa​.co​.uk/​o​n​line- applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=PL28FKSI0CH00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Site Loc­a­tion Plan	18020 001 Rev.B	14/11/2018	15/01/2019
Exist­ing Site Plan	18020 100 Rev.C	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
North Mill Straw Barn Plans and	18020 106 Rev.C	05/09/2019	15/01/2019

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/04/2019

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Intern­al Elevations
North Mill Corn Store Plans and	18020 108 Rev.C	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
Intern­al Elevations
North Mill Stables Plans and	18020 109 Rev.C	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
Intern­al Elevations
North Mill, Mill Wheel and Wheel	108020 110 Rev.C	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
Pit Plans and Intern­al Elevations
North Mill Exist­ing and Proposed	18020 111 Rev.B	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
North Elev­a­tions
North Mill Exist­ing and Proposed	18020 112 Rev.B	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
South Elev­a­tions
North Mill Exist­ing and Proposed	18020 113 Rev.B	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
East and West Elevations
North Mill Ground Floor Plan	18020 102 Rev.D	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
North Mill First Floor Plan	18020 103 Rev.D	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
Exist­ing North Mill Roof Plan	18020 104 Re.C	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
North Mill Cart Shed and Hay	18020 105 Rev.C	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
Loft Plans and Intern­al Elevations
South Mill Floor and Roof Plans	18020 151 Rev.C	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
South Mill Load­ing Area Plans and	18020 152 Rev.C	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
Elev­a­tions
South Mill Thresh­ing Machine	18020 153 Rev.C	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
Plans and Elevations
South Mill Stables Plan and	18020 154 Rev.C	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
Elev­a­tions
South Mill Stables Plans and	18020 155 Rev.C	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
Elev­a­tions
South Mill Exist­ing and Proposed	18020 156 Rev.C	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
West Elev­a­tions
South Mill Exist­ing and Proposed	18020 157 Rev.C	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
East Elev­a­tions
South Mill Exist­ing and Proposed	18020 158 Rev.C	05/09/2018	15/01/2019
North and South Elevations
South Mill Win­dow Schedule	18020.901 Rev.B	05/12/2018	15/01/2019
North Mill Win­dow Schedule	18020.902 Rev.B	05/12/2018	15/01/2019
South Mill Door Schedule	18020.903 Rev.B	05/12/2018	15/01/2019
North Mill Door Schedule	18020.904 Rev.B	05/12/2018	15/01/2019
C41 Repair­ing and Conserving	18020.905 Rev.A	05/12/2018	15/01/2019
Masonry Report
Z21 Mor­tars Report	18020.906 Rev.A	05/12/2018	15/01/2019
H62 Nat­ur­al Slat­ing Report	18020.907 Rev.A	05/12/2018	15/01/2019
M60 Paint­ing Report	18020.908 Rev.A	03/12/2018	15/01/2019
H71 Lead Sheet Cov­er­ings and	18020.909 Rev.A	03/12/2018	15/01/2019
Flash­ings Report
L10 Exist­ing Win­dows, Doors and	18020.910 Rev.A	05/12/2018	15/01/2019
Roof Lights Report
R10 Rain­wa­ter Pipework	18020.911	05/12/2018	15/01/2019

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/04/2019

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Mor­tar Ana­lys­is Report	3312		15/01/2019
Light­ing Design Report	Ver­sion 1.0	04/12/2018	15/01/2019
Sup­port­ing Statement	18020 2.1 V.I	05/12/2018	15/01/2019
Site Plan Archae­ology Photo	18020 190 Rev.A		04/04/2019
Loc­a­tions
North Mill Archae­ology Photo	18020 191 Rev.A		04/04/2019
Loc­a­tions
South Mill Archae­ology Photo	18020 192 Rev.A		04/04/2019
Loc­a­tions
Scalan North Archaeology				04/04/2019
Pho­to­graphs
North Mill Archaeology				04/04/2019
Pho­to­graphs
South Mill Archaeology				04/04/2019
Pho­to­graphs
Land­scape Archaeology				04/04/2019
Pho­to­graphs
Map Regres­sion				04/04/2019
Scalan South Archaeology				05/04/2019
Pho­to­graphs

*Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the 1^st of the month.

1. Two applic­a­tions have been sub­mit­ted for full plan­ning per­mis­sion and lis­ted build­ing con­sent for the res­tor­a­tion and repair of the North and South Mill build­ings togeth­er with the form­a­tion of access paths and a car park­ing space with­in the site grounds. This report cov­ers both applic­a­tions with indi­vidu­al recom­mend­a­tions at the end of the report for the two decision notices.

2. The site at present is open to mem­bers of the gen­er­al pub­lic to vis­it on a pub­lic walk­ing route and manned by volun­teer guides on an occa­sion­al basis. It is under­stood that these two applic­a­tions have been sub­mit­ted to improve access­ib­il­ity around the site and the build­ings to mem­bers of the gen­er­al pub­lic and to improve pub­lic under­stand­ing and engage­ment whilst vis­it­ing the site.

3. The works com­prises a num­ber of ele­ments as fol­lows: a) North Mill- pro­posed renov­a­tion of extern­al fab­ric of the build­ing includ­ing repair work to exist­ing win­dows, roof lights, doors, roof cov­er­ing and stone­work. Repair work to the walls is pro­posed in lime mor­tar and any replace­ment mater­i­als will be replaced on a like for like basis to the exist­ing. A sec­tion of the north­ern roof­slope cov­er­ing is pro­posed to be removed and re- slated. Intern­ally, the clay, tim­ber boarded and cobbled floors are pro­posed to be repaired and refur­bished togeth­er with minor repair work to the intern­al par­ti­tions of the build­ing. A barn owl box is pro­posed to be installed with­in the roof void of the build­ing with access from the east­ern elev­a­tion gable end. The water­wheel is pro­posed to be brought back into work­ing order for manned demon­stra­tion use with refur­bish­ment work pro­posed for the tim­ber wheel paddles, the install­a­tion of a new sluice and the repair of the met­al chute.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/04/2019

A glass safety pan­el is pro­posed to be installed with­in the gear room of the water­wheel in the interests of pub­lic safety. Intern­al light­ing is pro­posed to be installed with­in the water­wheel and wheel­pit area, the gear cup­board and the corn barn on the ground floor and with­in the hay loft, void over stables and straw barn and with­in the thresh­ing machinery room. The light­ing units are pro­posed to be run by elec­tri­city gen­er­ated from the water wheel. b) South Mill- pro­posed renov­a­tion of extern­al fab­ric of the build­ing includ­ing repair work to exist­ing win­dows, roof lights, roof vent­il­at­ors, doors and stone­work. Cast iron rain­wa­ter goods are pro­posed to be restored and the exist­ing cor­rug­ated roof sheet­ing is pro­posed to be retained. Intern­ally, the exist­ing tim­ber and cobble floors are pro­posed to be refur­bished togeth­er with minor repair work to the intern­al build­ing ele­ments includ­ing par­ti­tions, joists and doors. The exist­ing iron water wheel on the west­ern elev­a­tion is pro­posed to be cleaned for dis­play pur­poses and fit­ted with an intern­al pin to pre­vent its use. c) Access- pro­posed cre­ation of a single 6m x 3.6m car park­ing space on the east­ern side of the exist­ing access track with­in the site and adja­cent to the north­ern elev­a­tion of the build­ing ruins. The pro­posed park­ing space will be cre­ated by installing a grasscrete grid on lev­elled ground and infilling and seed­ing it. A 1.5m wide ped­es­tri­an foot­path is also pro­posed to be cre­ated with­in the site provid­ing an access path around the north mill build­ing and adjoin­ing the north elev­a­tion of the South Mill with the exist­ing site foot­path. The pro­posed foot­path is to be formed in grasscrete grid with infilling and seed­ing. The stone slabs over the north lade on the exist­ing access path are pro­posed to be re-bed­ded. d) North Lade- the exist­ing north lade is pro­posed to be rein­stated by remov­ing the excess veget­a­tion, silt and mater­i­al with­in the lade to rein­state its ori­gin­al 600mm width and 750mm depth. The silt removed dur­ing the works will be stored on the side of the lade to form bank­ing. The lade is pro­posed to be brought back into work­ing order to power the North Mill Water wheel. No works are pro­posed to the south lade.

1. Dur­ing the con­sid­er­a­tion of the applic­a­tion, addi­tion­al inform­a­tion was sought by CNPA officers and con­sul­tees to allow for a more informed assess­ment of the pro­pos­al. The applicant’s agent provided fur­ther writ­ten jus­ti­fic­a­tion to quer­ies raised by the con­sul­tees. This explains that the site will con­tin­ue to be man­aged and main­tained by the Crown Estate Scot­land in asso­ci­ation with the Scalan Asso­ci­ation and the site will be open to vis­it­ors as it cur­rently is but the barns will only be open for group book­ings and when volun­teers are avail­able. The barns will there­fore not be open daily. Inter­pret­a­tion mater­i­al is pro­posed to form a sep­ar­ate applic­a­tion for con­sent. Regard­ing the exist­ing track from Carrach’s car park to the site, the agent con­firms that there will be minor repair work to this includ­ing the infilling of pot holes. In addi­tion to this the agent has provided pro­posed extern­al paint col­ours of red and black for the extern­al tim­ber work and con­firmed that the thresh­ing machine is not pro­posed to be restored as part of the application.

2. The agent has also reques­ted that a Pol­lu­tion Con­trol Meas­ures state­ment doc­u­ment is included as a post determ­in­a­tion con­di­tion. This doc­u­ment sets out how the envir­on­ment­al interests on the area will be pro­tec­ted, includ­ing the Crom­bie Burn as part of the River Spey SAC.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/04/2019

1. Plans of the pro­pos­als are included with­in Appendix 1.

His­tory

1. The most recent plan­ning his­tory for the site relates to applic­a­tion ref­er­ence 10/178/CP for the repair and alter­a­tion of Scalan Cot­tage which gained con­di­tion­al con­sent on 7^th Janu­ary 2011.

DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN CONTEXT

Policies

Nation­al Policy	Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy 2014
Stra­tegic Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 — 2022
Loc­al Plan Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2015)
	Those policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross
POLICY I	NEW HOUS­ING DEVELOPMENT
POLICY 2	SUP­PORT­ING ECO­NOM­IC GROWTH
POLICY 3	SUS­TAIN­ABLE DESIGN	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	SPORT AND RECREATION
POLICY 9	CUL­TUR­AL HERITAGE	X
POLICY 10	RESOURCES	X
POLICY 11	DEVELOPER CON­TRI­BU­TIONS

1. All new devel­op­ment pro­pos­als require to be assessed in rela­tion to policies con­tained in the adop­ted Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. The full word­ing of policies can be found at: http://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​d​o​c​u​m​e​n​t​s​/Park Authority/Planning/LDP15.pdf

Plan­ning Guidance

1. Sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance also forms part of 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.

Policy I	New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 3	Sus­tain­able Design Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance	X
Policy 5	Land­scape Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 7	Renew­able Energy Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance
Policy 8	Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/04/2019

Policy 9	Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance	X
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 11	Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance

CON­SULTA­TIONS

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

2. Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Her­it­age (SNH) was con­sul­ted in rela­tion to the impacts upon the des­ig­nated sites and pro­tec­ted spe­cies and ini­tially provided an inter­im response sum­mar­ising that there are nat­ur­al interests of nation­al and inter­na­tion­al import­ance on the site, how­ever they con­sider that the pro­tec­ted spe­cies will not be adversely affected by the pro­posed works sub­ject to the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures out­lined in the eco­lo­gic­al sur­vey being under­taken. Con­sid­er­a­tion of the implic­a­tions for the River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC) by SNH is to be provided in a fol­low up response.

3. SNH sub­sequently provided a full response fol­low­ing a site vis­it to Scalan. The ori­gin­al eco­lo­gic­al com­ments remained unchanged with addi­tion­al mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures reques­ted by way of fur­ther Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plans. Regard­ing the River Spey Area of Con­ser­va­tion, SNH con­sider that the pro­pos­al is likely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on Atlantic sal­mon and otter and con­sequently note that CNPA is required to carry out an appro­pri­ate assess­ment. SNH con­clude that the pro­posed work is very low key and by fol­low­ing good prac­tices and lim­it­ing instream work to between June – Septem­ber, the plans will not adversely affect site integ­rity of the SAC. SEPA have also con­firmed to SNH that this activ­ity would be covered by Gen­er­al Bind­ing Rules and does not require SEPA authorisation.

4. His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land (HES) com­men­ted to advise that they wel­come the repair and reuse of these inter­est­ing and import­ant build­ings; how­ever they recom­men­ded that the extern­al paint col­ours were agreed dur­ing the pro­gres­sion of the applic­a­tion rather than as part of a post determ­in­a­tion con­di­tion. They also recom­men­ded that high­er pro­file is giv­en to the North Mill thresh­ing machine and that a scheme of its con­ser­va­tion is outlined.

5. Fol­low­ing the sub­mis­sion of addi­tion­al details from the agent regard­ing paint col­ours and the thresh­ing machine works, HES con­firmed they are con­tent with the pro­posed col­ours and the con­firm­a­tion from the agent that the thresh­ing machine is not to be restored as part of the project.

6. Moray Coun­cil Trans­port Team has no objec­tions to the proposal.

7. Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Archae­ology Ser­vice ini­tially com­men­ted on the applic­a­tion to request the inclu­sion of a Level I Stand­ing Build­ings Sur­vey as a post determ­in­a­tion con­di­tion and inform­at­ive. Fol­low­ing the sub­mis­sion of this inform­a­tion dur­ing the applic­a­tion pro­gres­sion, the Archae­ology Ser­vice has provided a fur­ther response to con­firm that the addi­tion­al inform­a­tion sat­is­fies this require­ment and con­firms that a post determ­in­a­tion con­di­tion is there­fore no longer required.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/04/2019

1. Moray Coun­cil Con­tam­in­ated Land Sec­tion has no objec­tions to the proposal.

2. Moray Coun­cil Envir­on­ment­al Health Sec­tion has no objec­tion to the proposal.

3. CNPA Eco­lo­gist wel­comes the mit­ig­a­tion pro­posed to retain pro­tec­ted spe­cies on site in the longer term and requires the devel­op­ment to be under­taken in accord­ance with the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures and recom­mend­a­tions of the sup­port­ing Eco­lo­gic­al Report sub­mit­ted with the applic­a­tion. These meas­ures include provid­ing CNPA with a copy of the neces­sary SNH License for bat dis­turb­ance and the sub­mis­sion of an updated spe­cies pro­tec­tion plan for bats fol­low­ing the res­ults of the fur­ther sur­vey work. In addi­tion to this, the Officer requires the sub­mis­sion of an ECoW Scope of Works, pre-con­struc­tion pro­tec­ted spe­cies sur­veys and spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans for otter and water vole.

4. A Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al has been car­ried out in the view of the poten­tial for the devel­op­ment to impact upon Natura sites with regard to the River Spey SAC. This is attached at Appendix 2. The HRA con­cludes that there will be no adverse effect on the site integ­rity of the Spey SAC res­ult­ing from this pro­pos­al sub­ject to mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures includ­ing Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plans and a Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan.

5. CNPA Land­scape Advisor noted that the site is with­in the Braes of Glen Liv­et land­scape char­ac­ter and is part of a strong land­scape char­ac­ter sur­roun­ded by hills includ­ing the Lad­der Hills which provide a strong sense of con­tain­ment and a pro­nounced sense of seclu­sion. The Officer noted the out­stand­ing level of his­tor­ic­al sig­ni­fic­ance the sub­ject build­ing group has regard­ing pre­serving the Cath­ol­ic faith in 19^th Cen­tury Scot­land and its agri­cul­tur­al interest. The Officer wel­comed the aspir­a­tions of the pro­pos­al to repair and con­serve the Mill build­ings how­ever reques­ted fur­ther clar­ity to be provided with­in the sub­mis­sion of a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment and a more detailed Land­scape Plan.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. The applic­a­tions have been advert­ised and one let­ter of rep­res­ent­a­tion has been received from the Archi­tec­tur­al Her­it­age Soci­ety of Scot­land (AHSS). The full response can be found at Appendix 3 and a sum­mary of their com­ments is provided below:

2. The Archi­tec­tur­al Her­it­age Soci­ety of Scot­land (AHSS) com­men­ted in rela­tion to the Lis­ted Build­ing applic­a­tion not­ing the Society’s gen­er­al sup­port of any ini­ti­at­ive aimed at retain­ing his­tor­ic build­ings in use in an appro­pri­ate and com­ple­ment­ary man­ner and stat­ing that they com­mend the sub­mit­ted pro­pos­als as an exem­plary pro­ject to con­serve an import­ant group of his­tor­ic agri­cul­tur­al build­ings and improve pub­lic access. They pos­it­ively con­sider the proposal’s con­ser­va­tion of a large amount of the ori­gin­al mill machinery and water­wheel, togeth­er with the rein­state­ment of the lade and work­ing water­mill and the level of sig­ni­fic­ance giv­en to the pre­ser­va­tion and inter­pret­a­tion of the his­tor­ic graf­fiti. The Soci­ety con­cludes their sup­port for the proposal.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/04/2019

APPRAIS­AL

1. The fol­low­ing is a joint report for Plan­ning Applic­a­tion (2019/0005/DET) and Lis­ted Build­ing Con­sent applic­a­tion (2019/0018/LBC).

Prin­ciple

1. Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 (adop­ted Loc­al Plan) makes pro­vi­sion for the prin­ciple of refur­bish­ing and reusing the exist­ing build­ing stock with policy cri­terion 3.3 sup­port­ing the reuse of redund­ant build­ings where the works main­tain the style and char­ac­ter of the ori­gin­al build­ing in terms of form, scale, mater­i­als and detailing.

2. Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the adop­ted Loc­al Plan aims to con­serve and enhance the rich cul­tur­al her­it­age of the Nation­al Park by mak­ing sure that devel­op­ment makes appro­pri­ate con­tri­bu­tions to the his­tor­ic envir­on­ment and its sig­ni­fic­ance. Cri­terion 9.1 of the policy requires the lay­out, design, mater­i­als, scale, sit­ing and use of the devel­op­ment to be appro­pri­ate to the char­ac­ter and appear­ance of the her­it­age asset and its setting.

3. The pro­pos­al looks to help con­serve the his­tor­ic fab­ric and sig­ni­fic­ance of the her­it­age assets by re-using and refur­bish­ing the two mill build­ings. As such, the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment is con­sidered to be acceptable.

Design and Cul­tur­al Heritage

1. The pro­pos­al must be con­sidered under the Plan­ning (Lis­ted Build­ings and Con­ser­va­tion Areas) (Scot­land) Act 1997 due to the works affect­ing two lis­ted build­ings. In par­tic­u­lar, under sec­tion 59 the Loc­al Plan­ning Author­ity has a stat­utory duty to have spe­cial regard to the desirab­il­ity of pre­serving the lis­ted build­ings or their set­tings or any fea­tures or spe­cial archi­tec­tur­al interest which they possess.

2. The Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy Frame­work (SPP) offers guid­ance regard­ing the determ­in­a­tion of devel­op­ment pro­pos­als affect­ing her­it­age assets with­in Para­graph 141 whereby changes to lis­ted build­ings should be man­aged to pro­tect their spe­cial interest whilst enabling them to remain in act­ive use and emphas­is is also placed on the stat­utory duty iden­ti­fied with­in Sec­tion 14(2) of the Lis­ted Build­ing Act. Para­graph 141 of the SPP also iden­ti­fies that the lay­out, design, mater­i­als, scale, sit­ing and use of any devel­op­ment which will affect a lis­ted build­ing or its set­ting should be appro­pri­ate to the char­ac­ter and appear­ance of the build­ing and setting.

3. The His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land Policy State­ment (June 2016) is also a mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tion with para­graph 3.45 being of par­tic­u­lar rel­ev­ance stat­ing ​“where a pro­pos­al pro­tects or enhances the spe­cial interest of the build­ing, for example through the like-for-like replace­ment of a win­dow or door which is bey­ond repair or the rein­state­ment of import­ant detail­ing, con­sent should nor­mally be gran­ted.” These nation­al recom­mend­a­tions are also reflec­ted with­in Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the Nation­al Park’s own Loc­al Plan.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/04/2019

1. Scalan North Mill is a Cat­egory A lis­ted, late 19^th Cen­tury build­ing which has sig­ni­fic­ant his­tor­ic­al import­ance in regard to: the thresh­ing machine with­in the build­ing which is iden­ti­fied as being extremely rare as one of the old­est sur­viv­ing in situ thresh­ing machines in Scot­land; and in regard to the extens­ive graf­fiti dat­ing from 1874 on all of the intern­al tim­ber­work. The South Mill is a Cat­egory B lis­ted, early 20^th Cen­tury mill and byre and the sur­viv­ing fab­ric and fea­tures, includ­ing a wheel with lade and tim­ber stalls, clearly indic­ate how the build­ing his­tor­ic­ally func­tioned. Both build­ings remain largely unaltered and are import­ant sur­viv­ing examples of the indus­tri­al­isa­tion of farm­ing prac­tices in Scot­land. The build­ings also played a crit­ic­al role as part of the Scalan build­ing group and the 18^th Cen­tury Cath­ol­ic faith pre­ser­va­tion in Scot­land. The set­ting of the build­ings as a small group of isol­ated farm build­ings, inform­ally arranged in a remote high­land, upper moor­land val­ley in the Braes of Glen­liv­et, has not been sub­ject to change since the early 20^th Cen­tury. The build­ing group evid­ence the his­tor­ic­al, social and agri­cul­tur­al devel­op­ment of Scalan from the 18^th Cen­tury to the early 20^th Cen­tury and it is there­fore import­ant that any devel­op­ment pro­pos­al pre­serves the site’s significance.

2. The pro­posed works look to help pre­serve the his­tor­ic fab­ric and integ­rity of the mill build­ings whilst increas­ing pub­lic engage­ment and inter­pret­a­tion of the Scalan site through provid­ing bet­ter site access­ib­il­ity. The mater­i­als pro­posed to be used in the works are con­sidered to be appro­pri­ate, tra­di­tion­al and in keep­ing with the mater­i­als, fin­ishes and designs of the exist­ing build­ings. His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land (HES) and The Archae­olo­gic­al Her­it­age Soci­ety of Scot­land both wel­come this devel­op­ment to repair and reuse these build­ings. HES sug­ges­ted the agree­ment of the pro­posed extern­al paint col­ours pri­or to determ­in­a­tion. Fol­low­ing the agent’s sub­sequent sub­mis­sion of this inform­a­tion, HES has con­firmed the accept­ab­il­ity of the pro­posed col­ours. The Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Archae­olo­gic­al Ser­vice reques­ted the inclu­sion of a Level I Build­ing Sur­vey as a post determ­in­a­tion con­di­tion. The agent provided fur­ther inform­a­tion to demon­strate that this level of sur­vey record­ing has already been cap­tured with­in the applic­a­tion sup­port­ing inform­a­tion. The archae­olo­gist has sub­sequently with­drawn her request.

3. Tak­ing the above into account, the works are not con­sidered to cause ser­i­ous det­ri­ment to the char­ac­ter of the build­ings and their des­ig­na­tion qual­it­ies. The works pro­posed are in the interest of the pub­lic bene­fit help­ing to pre­serve the build­ings in the longer term and improv­ing pub­lic engage­ment with the des­ig­nated site. The his­tor­ic char­ac­ter and archi­tec­tur­al interest of the lis­ted build­ings are con­sidered to be safe­guarded and the pro­posed works are con­sidered to com­ply with the stat­utory duty set out under Sec­tion 59 of the Plan­ning (Lis­ted Build­ings and Con­ser­va­tions Areas) (Scot­land) Act 1997 (as amended) togeth­er with the con­sid­er­a­tions of para­graph 141 of the SPP and policies 3: Sus­tain­able Design and 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the adop­ted Loc­al Plan.

Envir­on­ment­al Impacts

1. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the adop­ted Loc­al Plan seeks to ensure that there is no adverse impact on the integ­rity of des­ig­nated sites, nor upon pro­tec­ted spe­cies or biod­iversity from devel­op­ment proposals.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/04/2019

1. The main likely envir­on­ment­al impacts from this devel­op­ment relate to the poten­tial dis­charges (for example silt) to the Crom­bie Burn which forms part of the River Spey SAC and also the poten­tial impact on the pro­tec­ted spe­cies which occupy or use the site. In addi­tion there is a need to ensure that any new land­scape scheme ensures that biod­iversity is pro­moted and sup­por­ted with­in the site.

2. An eco­lo­gic­al sur­vey with mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures has been sub­mit­ted in sup­port of the applic­a­tion and has been reviewed by the Nation­al Park’s Eco­lo­gist and SNH. Regard­ing the impact on pro­tec­ted spe­cies, it is con­sidered that suf­fi­cient inform­a­tion has been provided to demon­strate that any impacts on the eco­lo­gic­al interests of the site can be sat­is­fact­or­ily mit­ig­ated by both work­ing prac­tices and by meas­ures out­lined in the sur­vey report, which includes the obtain­ment of a licence from SNH, a copy of which is recom­men­ded by the CNPA Eco­lo­gist to be sub­mit­ted to the Author­ity as part of a post determ­in­a­tion con­di­tion pri­or to the com­mence­ment of any works. A post determ­in­a­tion con­di­tion is also recom­men­ded requir­ing the works to be under­taken in accord­ance with the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures out­lined in the applicant’s eco­lo­gic­al sur­vey and mit­ig­a­tion report togeth­er with the sub­mis­sion of an Eco­lo­gic­al Clerk of Works Scope of Works report. Fol­low­ing the site vis­it, addi­tion­al signs of fur­ther pro­tec­ted spe­cies were iden­ti­fied on site and fur­ther spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans are sub­sequently reques­ted by the CNPA Eco­lo­gist and by SNH as post determ­in­a­tion conditions.

3. It is acknow­ledged that the pro­pos­al to rein­state the lade and water wheel may have an impact on the adja­cent burns which form part of the River Spey SAC. These burns are import­ant for Atlantic Sal­mon. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Assess­ment has been under­taken by CNPA and the Assess­ment con­firms that there will be no adverse effect on the site integ­rity of the Spey SAC res­ult­ing from this pro­pos­al sub­ject to mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures. SNH have reviewed the applic­a­tion details and con­clude that the pro­posed work is very low key and by fol­low­ing good prac­tices and lim­it­ing instream work to between June – Septem­ber, the plans will not adversely affect site integ­rity of the SAC.

4. Giv­en the pre­vi­ous agri­cul­tur­al use of the site and the works pro­posed to the lade, Policy 10: Resources of the adop­ted Loc­al Plan is also rel­ev­ant in respect of envir­on­ment­al impacts. The Nation­al Park’s Eco­lo­gist reques­ted the sub­mis­sion of a Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan to be sub­mit­ted to safe­guard the water qual­ity of the Crom­bie Burn as part of a Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan. The agent has sub­sequently con­firmed that the works will be under­taken in accord­ance with the Work­ing by Water Guidelines best prac­tice doc­u­ment. Moray Coun­cil Con­tam­in­ated Land Sec­tion and Envir­on­ment­al Health Sec­tion both have no objec­tions to the proposal.

5. The pro­pos­al will have an envir­on­ment­al impact, how­ever, meas­ures will be under­taken to ensure these impacts are appro­pri­ately mit­ig­ated against or com­pensated for and in the longer term these impacts are con­sidered to have a neg­li­gible effect in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/04/2019

Land­scape and Amen­ity Impacts

1. Policy 5: Land­scape of the adop­ted Loc­al Plan pre­sumes against devel­op­ment which does not con­serve and enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park and in par­tic­u­lar the set­ting of the pro­posed devel­op­ment. Fur­ther­more, although Scalan is not included in His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scotland’s invent­ory of des­ig­nated land­scapes and gar­dens, it does form part of a land­scape of his­tor­ic sig­ni­fic­ance. The Nation­al Park’s Land­scape Officer notes that the group of build­ings at Scalan are an integ­ral part of the sur­round­ing land­scape char­ac­ter and add sig­ni­fic­antly to the visu­al and exper­i­en­tial qual­it­ies of this rel­at­ively remote area.

2. In this case, the pro­posed works are con­sidered to enhance the land­scape by sym­path­et­ic­ally renov­at­ing the build­ings which are import­ant in the land­scape. Fur­ther­more, the pro­pos­als offer the oppor­tun­ity to enhance both the set­ting of the build­ings and the wider land­scape if a good qual­ity land­scape set­ting is achieved and main­tained. This is read­ily achiev­able through reten­tion of trees with­in the site and care­ful atten­tion to the form­a­tion of a new park­ing space and the ped­es­tri­an footpath.

3. Land­scape inform­a­tion sub­mit­ted to date indic­ates that this can be achieved, although fur­ther details/​refine­ment is required to ensure all points of detail raised by con­sul­tees is reflec­ted in the final detailed scheme. The ped­es­tri­an path and park­ing bay are pro­posed to be con­struc­ted of Grasscrete. Grasscrete is con­sidered to be a suit­able sur­face in this loc­a­tion. How­ever, cla­ri­fic­a­tion is required on the type of grasscrete pro­posed as a plastic grid sys­tem would be visu­ally least intrus­ive com­pared to its con­crete equi­val­ent. Plan­ning con­di­tions are there­fore recom­men­ded to be attached to any sub­sequent decision notice request­ing the sub­mis­sion of a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment and a more detailed Land­scape Plan.

4. In these cir­cum­stances, the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 5: Landscape.

5. Finally in respect of impact on res­id­en­tial amen­ity with­in the imme­di­ate vicin­ity, it is con­sidered that the devel­op­ment is suf­fi­ciently dis­tant from any oth­er prop­er­ties so as to ensure ready com­pli­ance with the require­ments of Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the adop­ted Loc­al Plan. This policy seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment pro­tects the amen­ity cur­rently enjoyed by neighbours.

Access

1. Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the adop­ted Loc­al Plan sets out that new devel­op­ment should be designed to main­tain and max­im­ise all oppor­tun­it­ies for respons­ible out­door access, includ­ing links into the exist­ing path net­work and include an appro­pri­ate means of access, egress and space for off-street park­ing. All devel­op­ment is required to be con­sist­ent with the Core Paths Plan.

2. As noted earli­er, the site is loc­ated with­in the Braes of Glen­liv­et to the south of Chapeltown, and is accessed via an exist­ing agri­cul­tur­al track approx­im­ately Ikm from the car park at the Car­rachs. The site is accessed on foot by the adja­cent pub­lic right of way Core Path ref­er­ence num­ber GT2: the Braes Her­it­age Trail. The pro­pos­al is

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 26/04/2019

con­sidered to accord with the object­ives of the Core Paths Plan as it helps to con­serve the Park’s cul­tur­al her­it­age and encour­ages people to enjoy it in a respons­ible way. The inclu­sion of a ​‘reduced access’ park­ing bay with­in the scheme is pro­posed to make the site more accessible