Item 8: River Tromie Committee Report 20250104DET

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 29 August 2025

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Com­mit­tee report

Devel­op­ment proposed: Realign­ment of 400m of River Tromie at Land 670M NW Of Dell of Kil­liehuntly Farm­house Kingussie

Ref­er­ence: 2025/0104/DET

Applic­ant: RSPB Scotland

Date called-in: 12 May 2025

Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to conditions

Case officer: Kath­er­ine Don­nach­ie, Plan­ning Officer

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 29 August 2025

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(Image of a map)

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.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 29 August 2025

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Site descrip­tion, pro­pos­al and history

Site descrip­tion

1. The pro­posed site is loc­ated at the lower reaches of the River Tromie to the south­east of Kin­gussie. It involves a stretch of this river from north of Inver­tromie Stead­ings to the con­flu­ence point with the River Spey. On the east bank of the river is the ripari­an riverb­ank with farm­land at Dell of Kil­liehuntly bey­ond. To the west of the river is Insh Marshes which com­prises highly des­ig­nated wet­land hab­it­at. The applic­a­tion site is loc­ated with­in this area.

2. Insch Marshes is owned by RSPB Scot­land and is des­ig­nated as a Nation­al Nature Reserve (NNR), Site of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest (SSSI), River Spey-Insh Marshes RAM­SAR site, Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC), and Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area (SPA). These nation­al and inter­na­tion­al des­ig­na­tions include a range of interests includ­ing: hen har­ri­er, osprey, spot­ted crake, whoop­er swan, wigeon and wood sand­piper; flood­plain mires; alder wood­land; clear water lakes / lochs; breed­ing and over­win­ter­ing bird assemblages; inver­teb­rate assemblages; and plant spe­cies / assemblages. The River Tromie is also a trib­u­tary of the River Spey and is part of the River Spey SAC des­ig­nated for its Atlantic sal­mon, otter, fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel and sea lamprey interests.

3. This lower part of the river is char­ac­ter­ised by a rather straight chan­nel with embank­ments enclos­ing the river, as a res­ult of his­tor­ic­al alter­a­tions to the river course.

4. There are no lis­ted build­ings of archae­olo­gic­al or his­tor­ic interest in the imme­di­ate vicin­ity. There are a num­ber of sites recor­ded in the His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Records in the wider area.

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:

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 29 August 2025

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http://​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​=​S​2​H​0​6​U​S​I​0CP00

Title	Draw­ing num­ber	Date on plan*	Date received
Plan — site map of south­ern section		26/03/25	08/05/25
Plan — site map of north­ern section		26/03/25	08/05/25
Plan — site plan with labels			02/06/25
Plan — cross and long sections			02/06/25
Plan — long sections			08/05/25
Plan — Over­view map of details and sec­tions sheets 1 – 10	DR-2024 – 0274	18/02/24	08/05/25
Plan — pho­to­graphs and aer­i­al images			08/05/25
Plan — plan of tree cutting		08/04/25	08/05/25
Plan — Archae­olo­gic­al Points of interest map		06/04/25	08/05/25
Plan — Aer­i­al imagery of River Tromie fish hab­it­at plans 1 – 6	673614-GIS037	24/02/25	08/05/25
Plan – loc­a­tion plan		26/03/25	08/05/25
Oth­er — Sum­mary of pro­ject site and proposal		01/01/25	08/05/25
Oth­er — Pro­tec­ted spe­cies survey	Alba Eco­logy	01/11/24	08/05/25
Oth­er — Fish and Geo­mor­pho­logy Sur­vey River and Flood Plain Res­tor­a­tion Mon­it­or­ing report	673614	01/02/25	08/05/25
Oth­er — Flood Risk Assessment		20/03/25	08/05/25
Oth­er — Meth­od Statement		20/03/25	08/05/25
Oth­er — RSPB Eco­logy report on effect of realign­ment on inver­teb­rate communities		01/04/25	08/05/25

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Title	Draw­ing num­ber	Date on plan*	Date received
Oth­er — Tech­nic­al report on pro­ject design ‑Tromie option­eer­ing and final design report		20/03/25	08/05/25

*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 full plan­ning per­mis­sion to realign 400 metres of the lower reaches of the River Tromie to cre­ate a more mean­der­ing river bed with a series of riffles, inset berms (a lower­ing of the bank edge), point bars and pools con­struc­ted in the new chan­nel to cre­ate vari­ety in the river bed and encour­age diversity of hab­it­ats and improve water flow, so imit­at­ing nat­ur­al river flows. Mater­i­al from the ori­gin­al river chan­nel will be used for the works. These works will res­ult in mov­ing the river fur­ther west away from the adja­cent agri­cul­tur­al land at Dell of Kil­liehuntly. The new chan­nel will cross wet­land west­wards to then link into an exist­ing drain­age chan­nel which flows into the Spey. This will then be the main con­flu­ence into the River Spey around 67 metres to the west of the exist­ing one. Plans of the pro­posed devel­op­ment are attached as Appendix 1.

2. Access will be taken across exist­ing fields south of Inver­tromie Stead­ing which is served by an exist­ing track off the B970 pub­lic road from Kin­gussie to Aviemore run­ning along the south side of the Spey. No con­struc­ted accesses are to be formed. It is under­stood that mater­i­al as required will be taken across the river using exist­ing ford pos­i­tions with a stor­age area at Dell of Kil­liehuntly. Two exist­ing bor­row pit loc­a­tions have been iden­ti­fied, one with­in an old agri­cul­tur­al quarry at Dell of Kil­liehuntly on the oth­er (east) side of the River Tromie and one fur­ther down­stream also on the oth­er side of the river which com­prises old river dredging mater­i­als. There will be some lim­ited prun­ing of tree branches to facil­it­ate these cross­ings. Embank­ments along the Inver­tromie drain will be removed to improve con­nectiv­ity between the new chan­nel and the flood­plain. The old chan­nel will become largely redund­ant as the new chan­nel becomes estab­lished. The new chan­nel will vary slightly in width and depth, but it is pro­posed that on aver­age it will be 0.5m deep and 6 – 7m wide and is designed to encour­age over­top­ping onto the marshes

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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1. The applicant’s sup­port­ing mater­i­al explains that although the marshes are often cited as one of the least mod­i­fied flood­plain mires in NW Europe, the flood­plain and rivers are far from nat­ur­al due to his­tor­ic human inter­ven­tion with modi­fic­a­tions (flood embank­ments, bank pro­tec­tion, drain­age, straight­en­ing of nat­ur­al water courses) made in the past to drain them. The pro­pos­al involves realign­ing the lower stretch back onto an allu­vi­al fan to cre­ate a more sus­tain­able sys­tem which will reduce the risk of avul­sion (aban­don­ment of chan­nel). This con­fig­ur­a­tion will be more like the his­tor­ic river chan­nel, with his­tor­ic­al maps show­ing a more wind­ing nature of river. The sub­mis­sion explains that the embank­ments intro­duced in pre­vi­ous years have reduced river and flood­plain con­nectiv­ity and that the pro­posed works will reduce flood risk to neigh­bour­ing land and help buf­fer increases in river flow so mak­ing the area more cli­mate resilient.

2. The pro­pos­als have been the sub­ject of con­sulta­tion with key stake­hold­ers includ­ing NatureScot, SEPA, the Spey Fish­ery Board, Spey Catch­ment Ini­ti­at­ive and the Park Author­ity. Neigh­bours and the loc­al com­munity were informed about the planned works, and an open day with details of the pro­pos­al was held in Feb­ru­ary 2025, atten­ded by 35 loc­al residents.

3. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is being delivered as part of the Cairngorms Con­nect Flood­plains and River Res­tor­a­tion pro­gramme and a range of sup­port­ing doc­u­ments have been sub­mit­ted including:

4. Meth­od State­ment which provides detail on pro­posed work­ing meth­ods for the key com­pon­ents of the devel­op­ment in order to min­im­ise envir­on­ment­al impacts.

5. Flood Risk Assess­ment which demon­strates that there will be no sig­ni­fic­ant change as a res­ult of the realignment.

6. Eco­lo­gic­al stud­ies includ­ing pro­tec­ted spe­cies sur­vey cov­er­ing wild­cat, otter, badger, water vole, pine marten and fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel with no evid­ence of the tar­get spe­cies found at the time of the sur­vey. A repeat sur­vey is to be under­taken in Sum­mer 2025. An assess­ment of the likely impact of the pro­pos­als on the exposed riv­er­ine sed­i­ment (import­ant hab­it­at for a range of invertebrates)

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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has also been provided. This work con­cludes that bird and inver­teb­rate com­munit­ies are likely to be unaf­fected, or enhanced, as a res­ult of the pro­pos­als, with an increase in the des­ig­nated trans­ition mire hab­it­ats likely to bene­fit breed­ing waders. It also explains that the under­sized chan­nel will encour­age more fre­quent over­top­ping of water onto the ground adja­cent to the new chan­nel, which will lead to the increased depos­ition of sands and gravels on the allu­vi­al fan which will provide new hab­it­at for asso­ci­ated spe­cial­ist inver­teb­rate spe­cies such as North­ern sil­ver stiletto fly and five-spot ladybird.

1. River and Flood­plain Res­tor­a­tion 2025 Mon­it­or­ing Report which includes tar­geted river con­di­tion mon­it­or­ing of the lower reaches of the Spey trib­u­tar­ies to assess changes in mor­pho­logy and fish hab­it­ats, with the Tromie being part of this monitoring.

2. Tromie Option­eer­ing and Final Design Report which con­siders the dynam­ics of the river sys­tem and inter­ven­tions, with extens­ive mod­el­ling under­taken look­ing at man­age­ment on both sides of the exist­ing chan­nel. It explains that the design and mod­el­ling for this pro­ject has been focussed on ensur­ing fish pas­sage for Atlantic salmon.

3. In terms of the actu­al con­struc­tion, the sup­port­ing inform­a­tion explains that work would start after 1 August fol­low­ing the bird breed­ing sea­son, with any in chan­nel works to be com­pleted by 30 Septem­ber, ahead of the fish spawn­ing sea­son. The major­ity of works to form the chan­nel and fea­tures will be car­ried out off­line to min­im­ise the mobil­isa­tion of silt, with silt man­age­ment meas­ures put in place on the chan­nels to catch any mater­i­al that is mobil­ised. Suit­able sed­i­ment from the exist­ing river chan­nel and new chan­nel excav­a­tion are pro­posed to be used to form the fish hab­it­at fea­tures in the new chan­nel. Any addi­tion­al sed­i­ment required to com­plete these fea­tures would be won from bor­row pits at the quarry and on the east bank. Excess mater­i­al excav­ated from the new chan­nel will be trans­por­ted by low ground pres­sure machinery to be spread on the reserve above the 200-year flood zone.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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His­tory

1. There is no spe­cif­ic rel­ev­ant plan­ning his­tory on the site. There is an applic­a­tion cur­rently pending with The High­land Coun­cil to the south­w­est of the applic­a­tion site as fol­lows – 25/02130/FUL: Excav­a­tion of three scrapes (0.54Ha) to provide spring feed­ing hab­it­at for breed­ing waders and related works at Land 570M north­w­est of Inver­tromie Farm­house Kingussie.

Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) has been under­taken to con­sider the poten­tial effects of the devel­op­ment upon the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of European sites. The HRA doc­u­ment is attached as Appendix 2. The European sites in this case are: Insh Marshes SAC des­ig­nated for its alder wood­land on flood­plain, clear water lakes or loch with aquat­ic veget­a­tion and poor to mod­er­ate nutri­ent levels, and very wet mires often iden­ti­fied by an unstable, ​“quak­ing” sur­face; River Spey- Insh Marshes SPA des­ig­nated for its hen har­ri­er, osprey, spot­ted crake, whoop­er swan, wigeon and wood sand­piper interests; and the River Spey SAC des­ig­nated for its Atlantic sal­mon, fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sels (FWPM), sea lamprey and otter interests. In addi­tion, the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment recently issued guid­ance to make it clear that that RAM­SAR sites should be treated as European sites for the pur­poses of the HRA pro­cess. In this case Insh Marshes is a RAM­SAR site of inter­na­tion­al import­ance des­ig­nated for its flood plain mire, meso­troph­ic loch, alder wood­land with wil­low, vas­cu­lar plant assemblage, inver­teb­rate assemblage, otter, osprey, spot­ted crake, wood sand­piper, wigeon, and whoop­er swan interests. Accord­ingly, the impacts on this RAM­SAR site have been con­sidered in the HRA process.

2. The HRA con­siders that there are likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects upon the interests of the River Spey SAC in terms of short term effects on otter from con­struc­tion activ­ity, although long term impacts through improved nat­ur­al­isa­tion of the riverb­anks and wet­land improve­ments could provide increased hab­it­at for otter and their prey, and short term effects on fresh water pearl mus­sel from release of fine sed­i­ments, poten­tial pol­lu­tion and bio­se­c­ur­ity dur­ing con­struc­tion, although post con­struc­tion effects could arise from expan­sion of suit­able hab­it­at for the mus­sels. Sim­il­ar effects are pre­dicted for sea lamprey. In terms of Atlantic sal­mon, there may be short term effects at con­struc­tion stage from dis­turb­ance of hab­it­ats through release of sed­i­ment, fuel spills and dis­turb­ance dur­ing spawn­ing peri­ods. Again,

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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there could be post con­struc­tion impacts from improved nat­ur­al dynam­ics of the River Tromie and improved habitats.

1. Likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects are also iden­ti­fied for the River Spey — Insh Marshes SPA in terms of short-term effects of dis­turb­ance to the birds arising dur­ing con­struc­tion activ­it­ies. Poten­tial for long term pos­it­ive effects for some spe­cies is iden­ti­fied in terms of wet­land enhance­ment and improve­ments to hab­it­at diversity and pos­it­ive impacts on prey species.

2. For the Insh Marshes SAC no likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects are iden­ti­fied in terms of effects on the alder wood­land or clear water lakes as these fea­tures will not be impacted. Likely sig­ni­fic­ant impacts are iden­ti­fied for the very wet mires as there will be a short-term loss of some of this hab­it­at where the realigned Tromie meets the Inver­tromie Burn. How­ever, the mod­el­ling indic­ates that there will be a long term sig­ni­fic­ant increase in the extent of these hab­it­ats as a res­ult of the realign­ment. In terms of impacts upon birds, there may be short term effects of dis­turb­ance to the birds arising dur­ing con­struc­tion activ­it­ies. Again, the poten­tial for long term pos­it­ive effects for some spe­cies is iden­ti­fied in terms of wet­land enhance­ment and improve­ments to hab­it­at diversity and pos­it­ive impacts on prey species.

3. Likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects are also iden­ti­fied for the River Spey — Insh Marshes RAM­SAR site in terms of loss of trans­ition mire hab­it­at where the pro­posed realigned River Tromie chan­nel meets the Inver­tromie Burn before empty­ing into the Spey. How­ever, mod­el­ling indic­ates that there will be a long term sig­ni­fic­ant increase in the extent of this hab­it­at as a res­ult of the realign­ment works. Short term effects of dis­turb­ance to the vari­ous bird spe­cies, otter and the inver­teb­rate assemblage are iden­ti­fied dur­ing con­struc­tion activ­it­ies with poten­tial for long term pos­it­ive effects for some of the spe­cies iden­ti­fied in terms of wet­land enhance­ment and improve­ments to hab­it­at diversity and pos­it­ive impacts on prey species.

4. The HRA has con­cluded that these likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects can be sat­is­fact­or­ily addressed by suit­able mit­ig­a­tion. This mit­ig­a­tion includes: pre con­struc­tion pro­tec­ted spe­cies sur­veys, with spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans pro­duced identi­fy­ing appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures if there is evid­ence of pro­tec­ted spe­cies; tim­ing of

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works to avoid Atlantic sal­mon spawn­ing sea­son and bird breed­ing sea­son; mon­it­or­ing of sed­i­ment erosion depos­ition post con­struc­tion with mit­ig­a­tion to be iden­ti­fied if restric­ted fish pas­sage is iden­ti­fied; mon­it­or­ing of hen har­ri­er roost dur­ing con­struc­tion and if act­ive use is iden­ti­fied then work­ing hours adjus­ted; and sub­mis­sion of con­struc­tion meth­od state­ment / con­struc­tion man­age­ment plan.

1. On this basis, it is con­cluded that the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the des­ig­nated sites will be met and there will not be an adverse effect on site integ­rity of the des­ig­nated sites. Nature Scot have con­firmed agree­ment with these conclusions.

Devel­op­ment plan context

Policies

Nation­al policy	Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045 (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 X
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
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 X
Policy 19	Heat­ing and cooling

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Nation­al policy	Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045 (Policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross (x))
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
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
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
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

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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

Plan­ning guidance

1. Sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance also sup­ports the LDP 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
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. SEPA has no objections.

3. Scot­tish Water has no objec­tions, not­ing that no new con­nec­tions will be per­mit­ted to pub­lic infrastructure.

4. Spey Fish­ery Board was con­sul­ted and at time of writ­ing no response has been received.

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1. Nature Scot was con­sul­ted as the devel­op­ment lies with­in an SSSI. They con­firmed that there are nat­ur­al her­it­age interests of inter­na­tion­al import­ance, but they con­sider these will not be adversely affected by the pro­pos­als. They con­sider that the pro­pos­als will have a likely sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the River Spey SAC, Insh Marshes SAC and River Spey-Insh Marshes Ram­sar site and note that the CNPA has car­ried out an appro­pri­ate assess­ment. Nature Scot have con­cluded that the pro­pos­als will not adversely affect the integ­rity of the sites and that their apprais­al took into account the fol­low­ing factors: avoid­ing dis­turb­ance to hen har­ri­er roost or breed­ing birds; avoid­ing dis­turb­ance to breed­ing Atlantic sal­mon; main­tain­ing access for Atlantic sal­mon mov­ing up and down stream and in-river works using clean and well main­tained machinery; and avoid­ing dis­turb­ance to breed­ing Atlantic salmon.

2. Nature Scot has also con­firmed that the Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al under­taken by the Park Author­ity is very com­pre­hens­ive and they have no com­ments on it.

3. The High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team has no objec­tion in rela­tion to flood risk. They note that the pro­pos­al is for res­tor­a­tion of an exist­ing reach of the River Tromie to provide a more nat­ur­al­ised chan­nel and help recon­nect the flood plain. They are gen­er­ally sup­port­ive of this type of work, not­ing that the works them­selves are water com­pat­ible and will by their nature be loc­ated in an area which is at risk of flood­ing. They fur­ther note that the applicant’s Flood Risk Assess­ment and asso­ci­ated doc­u­ments assess the pass for­ward flow at the down­stream end of the site, com­par­ing the pre and post res­tor­a­tion peak flows, along with the flood extents with­in the Spey / Tromie flood­plain. This work has been car­ried out for a range of return peri­ods includ­ing the 1 in 200 year plus cli­mate change event. Based on this inform­a­tion, the Team are con­tent that the works will not impact on flood risk to others.

4. The High­land Coun­cil His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment (Archae­ology) Team is pleased to see the inclu­sion of archae­olo­gic­al con­sid­er­a­tions and are happy with the sum­mary and assess­ment. They advise that should any­thing of archae­olo­gic­al poten­tial be found dur­ing the works, par­tic­u­larly of organ­ic nature giv­en the waterlogged

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 29 August 2025

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con­di­tions, then work should be hal­ted whilst these are repor­ted to the Team and any neces­sary mit­ig­a­tion works agreed.

1. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Out­door Access Team noted that the River Spey is des­ig­nated as a core path and has a Right of Nav­ig­a­tion, with the stretch of river between Kin­gussie and Loch Insh reg­u­larly used for recre­ation by kayaks, canoes and paddle­boarders. The Team ini­tially com­men­ted that the works to realign the end of the river Tromie would res­ult in a dif­fer­ent con­flu­ence point with the river Spey and so pre­sum­ably cre­ate a dif­fer­ent flow of water in the Spey at this point. They high­lighted that were was no inform­a­tion provided as to wheth­er the works were anti­cip­ated to cause any poten­tial impacts on the water flow or con­di­tions in the Spey, which may cre­ate chal­lenges for recre­ation­al users or impact on the abil­ity of pad­dlers to nav­ig­ate the river Spey.

2. In response, the applic­ant has advised that here should be no change over­all to the water flow into the Spey as a res­ult of the realign­ment. They note that the pro­posed works may poten­tially slow water flow into the Spey due to the mean­der­ing nature of the realign­ment and that that there will be no over­all change either to the flow from the Tromie or to in river con­di­tions at the con­flu­ence of the two rivers. The applic­ant also noted that mod­el­ling shows a very sim­il­ar rate of flow in the new chan­nel com­pared to the exist­ing chan­nel and by recon­nect­ing the Tromie with its flood plain this will reduce flash­i­ness in peak flows. Finally, they advised that they dis­cussed the pro­pos­als with Loch Insh Water­s­ports and no con­cerns were raised.

3. The Out­door Access Team has con­firmed that this response adequately addresses their concerns.

4. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Land­scape Officer has no com­ments in respect of land­scape and visu­al mat­ters. The officer notes that whilst some remov­al of veget­a­tion may be neces­sary dur­ing the con­struc­tion phase, in the longer term the pro­pos­al will cre­ate a more nat­ur­al river align­ment which will have bene­fi­cial effects on land­scape character.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 29 August 2025

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1. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Eco­logy Officer has con­sidered the impacts on pro­tec­ted spe­cies, trees, hab­it­ats and spe­cies, and nation­ally pro­tec­ted areas, con­clud­ing that any impacts can be mit­ig­ated by suit­able plan­ning con­di­tions. These include: pro­vi­sion of a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment / Con­struc­tion Man­age­ment Plan to include site-spe­cif­ic pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion meas­ures, sed­i­ment man­age­ment plan and bio­se­c­ur­ity meas­ures in order to pro­tect the river envir­on­ment and the interests of the River Spey SAC; updated pro­tec­ted spe­cies sur­vey pri­or to works com­men­cing with any mit­ig­a­tion required iden­ti­fied; tim­ing of works to avoid Atlantic sal­mon spawn­ing sea­son; tim­ing of works to avoid bird breed­ing sea­son or if not pos­sible then pre start walkover required along with sub­mis­sion of any bird pro­tec­tion plans required; and mon­it­or­ing of hen har­ri­er roosts.

2. The officer has high­lighted that oppor­tun­it­ies for biod­iversity enhance­ment have been included. The pro­posed devel­op­ment will allow more nat­ur­al geo­mor­pho­lo­gic­al pro­cesses to take place and improve con­nec­tions between the chan­nel and its flood­plain. The pro­pos­al includes fea­tures designed to enhance hab­it­at diversity with­in the river chan­nel which should increase the extent and qual­ity of hab­it­at suit­able for Atlantic sal­mon, sea lamprey, otter and fresh water pearl mus­sel which are the qual­i­fy­ing Interests of the River Spey SAC / SSSI. The works will also deliv­er improve­ments to the flood­plain hab­it­ats sur­round­ing the new river chan­nel, includ­ing expan­sion of trans­ition mire hab­it­at (a qual­i­fy­ing fea­ture of Insh Marshes SAC), that should bene­fit many wet­land spe­cies such as spot­ted crake and otter.

3. Kin­craig Com­munity Coun­cil was con­sul­ted and at time of writ­ing no response has been received.

Rep­res­ent­a­tions

1. The applic­a­tion was advert­ised in the loc­al press, and no rep­res­ent­a­tions have been received.

Apprais­al

1. Sec­tion 25 of the 1997 Act as amended requires applic­a­tions to be determ­ined in accord­ance with the Devel­op­ment Plan. This com­prises the Cairngorms National

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 29 August 2025

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Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 (LDP) and Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4). Where there is con­flict between policies, NPF4 policies take precedence.

1. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions in this case are the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment, land­scape, envir­on­ment­al and biod­iversity impacts, flood risk, trans­port and out­door access, amen­ity, and cul­tur­al her­it­age. These are con­sidered in detail below.

Prin­ciple — sus­tain­ab­il­ity and cli­mate change

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 seeks to encour­age devel­op­ment that adapts to the cur­rent and future impacts of cli­mate change. NPF4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity states that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als will con­trib­ute to the enhance­ment of biod­iversity, includ­ing where rel­ev­ant, restor­ing degraded hab­it­ats and build­ing and strength­en­ing nature net­works and the con­nec­tions between them. Pro­pos­als should also integ­rate nature-based solu­tions where pos­sible. NPF4 Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places seeks to pro­tect, restore and enhance nat­ur­al assets mak­ing best use of nature-based solu­tions, whilst NPF4 Policy 20: Blue and green infra­struc­ture seeks to pro­tect and enhance blue infra­struc­ture and its networks.

2. Sim­il­arly, LDP Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing also requires new devel­op­ment to min­im­ise the effects on cli­mate change in terms of sit­ing and con­struc­tion and to make sus­tain­able use of resources. LDP Policy 10: Resources also seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment does not res­ult in deteri­or­a­tion of water resources and avoids unac­cept­able det­ri­ment­al impacts on the water envir­on­ment, seek­ing to improve it where possible.

3. The pur­pose of the pro­posed devel­op­ment is to restore nat­ur­al river pro­cesses, bet­ter con­nect the river to its flood­plain, and improve the qual­ity of hab­it­ats in the river and on the flood­plain. It will also pro­tect neigh­bour­ing agri­cul­tur­al land at Dell of Kil­liehuntly from flood­ing, dir­ect­ing water to the Insh Marshes nature reserve and wet­lands which should improve cli­mate change resi­li­ence. As a res­ult, the principle

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 29 August 2025

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of the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to wholly sup­port the object­ives of NPF4 and LDP plan­ning policies.

Land­scape impacts

1. NPF4 Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places sets out that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als which affect a Nation­al Park will only be sup­por­ted where the object­ives of des­ig­na­tion and the over­all integ­rity of the area will not be com­prom­ised and any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse effects on the qual­it­ies for which the area has been des­ig­nated are clearly out­weighed by social, envir­on­ment­al or eco­nom­ic bene­fits of nation­al import­ance. LDP Policy 5: Land­scape sets out sim­il­ar object­ives with a pre­sump­tion against any devel­op­ment that does not con­serve or enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter or spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park. NPF4 Policy 14: Design, qual­ity and place also seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als improve the qual­ity of the area and are con­sist­ent with the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places: healthy; pleas­ant; con­nec­ted; dis­tinct­ive; sus­tain­able; and adapt­able. Sim­il­arly, LDP Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing also seeks to ensure that pro­pos­als improve the qual­ity of the area and are con­sist­ent with the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places.

2. The pro­posed alter­a­tions to the course of the river will res­ult in a more nat­ur­al river fea­ture in keep­ing with the sur­round­ing area with no loss of land­scape fea­tures, as only min­im­al trim­ming of trees will be required. It is there­fore con­sidered that the pro­pos­al will con­serve and enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park and is con­sist­ent with all the qual­it­ies of a suc­cess­ful place. As such, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with rel­ev­ant NPF4 and LDP plan­ning policies.

Envir­on­ment­al and biod­iversity impacts

1. NPF4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity requires that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als con­trib­ute to the enhance­ment of biod­iversity includ­ing, where rel­ev­ant, restor­ing degraded hab­it­ats and build­ing and strength­en­ing nature net­works and the con­nec­tions between them. They should also integ­rate nature-based solu­tions where pos­sible. NPF4 Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places does not sup­port devel­op­ment which will have an unac­cept­able impact on the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment, or which will have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on European Site des­ig­na­tions. NPF4 Policy 20: Blue and green infra­struc­ture sets out that devel­op­ment which res­ults in frag­ment­a­tion or net loss

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 29 August 2025

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of exist­ing blue and green infra­struc­ture will only be sup­por­ted where it is demon­strated that the pro­pos­al would not res­ult in or exacer­bate a defi­cit of blue or green infra­struc­ture pro­vi­sion, and the over­all integ­rity of the net­work will be main­tained. Devel­op­ments which incor­por­ate or enhance blue and / or green infra­struc­ture will be sup­por­ted, with effect­ive man­age­ment plans required.

1. Sim­il­arly,