Item 9: Clackbain Track Mukrach Report 20250077DET

Cairngorms Item 9 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 29 August 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 1 of 16

Com­mit­tee report Devel­op­ment pro­posed: Upgrade of track for forestry (in ret­ro­spect) at Land NW Of Clach­bain, Dul­nain Bridge, Grant­own-On-Spey Ref­er­ence: 2025/0077/DET Applic­ant: Muck­rach Estate Date called-in: 7 April 2025 Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to con­di­tions Case officer: Katie Crerar, Plan­ning Officer Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Track

Ford Item 9 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 29 August 2025 Page 2 of 16 (Data source: CNPA Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2025. Ord­nance Sur­vey AC0000821810 OS licensed col­our ras­ter MM (NG): Built envir­on­ment CNP: CNPA @Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2023 OS 160040965 OS licensed col­our MM (NG): The rep­res­ent­a­tion of fea­tures or bound­ar­ies in which CNPA or oth­ers have an interest does not neces­sar­ily imply their true pos­i­tions. For fur­ther inform­a­tion please con­tact the appro­pri­ate author­ity. This map has been pro­duced to aid in the stat­utory pro­cess of deal­ing with plan­ning applic­a­tions. The map is to help identi­fy the site and its sur­round­ings and to aid Plan­ning Officers, Com­mit­tee Mem­bers and the Pub­lic in the determ­in­a­tion of the pro­pos­al. Maps shown in the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Report can only be used for the pur­poses of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee. Any oth­er use risks infringing Crown Copy­right and may lead to pro­sec­u­tion or civil pro­ceed­ings. Maps pro­duced with­in this Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Report can only be repro­duced with the express per­mis­sion of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and oth­er Copy­right hold­ers. This per­mis­sion must be gran­ted in advance.

Cairngorms Item 9 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 29 August 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 3 of 16

Site descrip­tion, pro­pos­al and his­tory Site description

1. This applic­a­tion relates to an exist­ing track loc­ated in an area of moor­land approx­im­ately 4.5km north­east of Dul­nain Bridge, with­in Muck­rach Estate.
2. The applic­a­tion site com­prises a sec­tion of track extend­ing to approx­im­ately 323 metres which is loc­ated to the north-east of Clach­bain, on the lower slopes of Cam Sgri­ob. The track lies on a rel­at­ively steep slope with a deep pro­file in parts. The land sur­round­ing the track has been planted with young trees which form part of Muck­rach Forest — a land­scape-scale pro­ject com­pris­ing 619 hec­tares of nat­ive wood­land planting.
3. Some upgrad­ing works have already been under­taken on the track but paused pending the need for plan­ning per­mis­sion. The works already under­taken on the track have cre­ated excess sub­soil mater­i­al which has been depos­ited in prom­in­ent lin­ear mounds along both sides of the track. There has been little reve­get­a­tion of the slopes or sur­face of the track itself, although some heath­er has estab­lished on the depos­ited sub­soil along the edges. The pre­vi­ously used met­al cross drains remain on the side of the track, un-used.
4. Whilst upgrad­ing works have already com­menced on the track, they have not been completed.
5. The draw­ings and doc­u­ments asso­ci­ated with this applic­a­tion 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=S2H06USI0 CP00 Cairngorms Item 9 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 29 August 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 4 of 16

Title Draw­ing Date on plan* Date received num­ber Loc­a­tion Plan 707373 PL07 01/02/2025 04/04/2025 Site Plan & Details 707373 PL08 02/02/2025 16/07/2025 Rev C Track Sec­tions 707373 PL11 01/07/2025 16/07/2025 Wood­land Cre­ation Plan 09/12/2022 16/07/2025 Sup­port­ing doc­u­ment in rela­tion to n/​a 01/07/2025 16/07/2025 rein­state­ment of 323m of exist­ing hill track

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

1. This pro­pos­al seeks par­tial ret­ro­spect­ive plan­ning per­mis­sion to author­ise and improve upgrad­ing works already under­taken along a 323-metre sec­tion of track and for fur­ther remedi­ation works to re-pro­file, sta­bil­ise and fin­ish the track.
2. The sec­tion of track was used, pri­or to the upgrad­ing works, by machinery and all- ter­rain vehicles for the con­struc­tion of fen­cing, ground pre­par­a­tion and tree plant­ing for part of the Muck­rach Forest — a nat­ive wood­land plant­ing project.
3. Fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of the wood­land plant­ing, main­ten­ance works were under­taken on the track to improve sur­face water man­age­ment and avoid dif­fuse pol­lu­tion from the move­ment of silt. How­ever, the extent and man­ner of works under­taken were more extens­ive than had been instruc­ted, res­ult­ing in the cur­rent sub­stand­ard con­di­tion of the track.
4. There­fore, this applic­a­tion seeks to remedi­ate the works under­taken and com­plete the upgrad­ing of the track. This will be done by strip­ping the very vis­ible excav­ated soils cur­rently piled along both sides of the track and infilling it back into the track itself to repro­file the track­side banks, mak­ing them shal­low­er in some sec­tions and encour­age regen­er­a­tion of the verges. The excav­ated mater­i­al will be riddled to sift the stone from the soil and allow lar­ger harder mater­i­al to be laid on the cur­rent track sur­face to rein­force the exist­ing sur­face and mix with the finer mater­i­al Cairngorms Item 9 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 29 August 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 5 of 16

already on the track. Any addi­tion­al mater­i­al required will be taken from an exist­ing bor­row pit on the Estate.

1. Any well-estab­lished heather/​grass veget­a­tion on stable track­side bank­ing will be pre­served and re-seed­ing of bare track sides and verges will be undertaken.
2. At the base of the track there will be two 300mm twin wall cul­vert pipes to accom­mod­ate the water­course at this loc­a­tion with appro­pri­ate sumps. In addi­tion, eight chan­nel drains will be installed at inter­vals along the track to man­age sur­face water. The track will then be com­pacted to cre­ate a bound run­ning sur­face which com­bined with improved track drain­age to man­age water erosion. History
3. There is no recent his­tory on the applic­a­tion site itself. Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal
4. It is not con­sidered that the pro­posed devel­op­ment is likely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect upon a des­ig­nated European site. As such a Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tion Apprais­al is not required in this case. Devel­op­ment plan con­text Policies Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045 Nation­al policy Policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross (x) Policy 1 Tack­ling the cli­mate and nature crises X Policy 2 Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion Policy 3 Biod­iversity Policy 4 Nat­ur­al places X X Policy 6 Forestry, wood­land and trees Policy 12 Zero waste Policy 13 Sus­tain­able trans­port Policy 14 Design, qual­ity and place X Policy 20 Blue and green infra­struc­ture Cairngorms Item 9 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 29 August 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 6 of 16

Policy 22 Flood risk and water man­age­ment Policy 23 Health and safety Policy 26 Busi­ness and industry Policy 29 Rur­al devel­op­ment 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 Policy 4 Nat­ur­al her­it­age Policy 5 Land­scape X X X The sit­ing and design of digit­al com­mu­nic­a­tions Policy 6 equip­ment Policy 7 Renew­able energy Policy 8 Open space, sport and recre­ation Policy 9 Cul­tur­al her­it­age Policy 10 Resources Policy 11 Developer obligations

1. All new devel­op­ment pro­pos­als require to be assessed in rela­tion to policies con­tained in the adop­ted Devel­op­ment Plan which com­prises Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 (LDP). The full word­ing of policies can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-planning-framework‑4/documents/ and at: https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​w​p​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​2​0​2​1​/​0​3​/​C​N​P​A​-​L​D​P​-​2​0​2​1​-​w​e​b.pdf Cairngorms Item 9 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 29 August 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 7 of 16

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). Hous­ing sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance Policy 1 Policy 2 Policy 3 Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth non-stat­utory guid­ance Design and place­mak­ing non-stat­utory guid­ance X Policy 4 Policy 5 Nat­ur­al her­it­age non-stat­utory guid­ance Land­scape non-stat­utory guid­ance X X Policy 7 Policy 8 Policy 9 Policy 10 Policy 11 Con­sulta­tions Renew­able energy non-stat­utory guid­ance Open space, sport and recre­ation non-stat­utory guid­ance Cul­tur­al her­it­age non-stat­utory guid­ance Resources non-stat­utory guid­ance Developer oblig­a­tions sup­ple­ment­ary guidance
2. A sum­mary of the main issues raised by con­sul­tees now follows:
3. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Out­door Access Officer states that the new track joins a Right of Way, how­ever there is no expec­ted impact of this. They note that pub­lic access along the Right of Way should be main­tained at all times. They also request that chan­nel drains are used across the track to ensure there is no imped­i­ment to cyc­lists, horses or walkers.
4. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer raises no objec­tions to the pro­pos­al and acknow­ledges that it sup­ports the expan­sion of nat­ive wood­land hab­it­at which would improve hab­it­at con­nectiv­ity between exist­ing blocks of wood­land deliv­er­ing sig­ni­fic­ant biod­iversity benefits.
5. They high­light the excav­ated sub­soil mater­i­al from the path has been piled high in lin­ear strips over the moor­land veget­a­tion next to the track and is show­ing little sign of reve­get­a­tion in some sec­tions due to the steep gradi­ent of the mounds. There­fore, repro­fil­ing of the steep slope is advised to reduce the gradi­ent and Cairngorms Item 9 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 29 August 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 8 of 16

facil­it­ate veget­a­tion recol­on­isa­tion. In addi­tion, the bare soil on the track verge and repro­filed slopes should be sown with a heath­land-spe­cif­ic wild­flower seed mix­ture such as Sco­tia Seeds’ High­land Grass­land Mix (High­land Grass­land Mix – Sco­tia Seeds), which includes dwarf ericaceous shrubs (heath­er and bell heath­er), and a range of upland wild­flowers and grasses of Scot­tish proven­ance. This will help facil­it­ate faster reve­get­a­tion and enhance flor­al diversity along the track for pollinators.

1. In addi­tion, it is advised that under­tak­ing works dur­ing the main breed­ing bird sea­son (March to mid-August) could have a large effect on a vari­ety of upland spe­cies. There­fore, as a mit­ig­a­tion meas­ure the tim­ing of works should avoid the breed­ing bird sea­son to reduce the effects of the devel­op­ment to slight. If this can­not be avoided, works should pro­ceed under super­vi­sion of an exper­i­enced eco­lo­gist, who will con­duct sur­veys to identi­fy all act­ive nests and pro­duce a spe­cies pro­tec­tion plan (SPP) for nest­ing spe­cies. The SPP should be sub­mit­ted to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity for approv­al pri­or to works commencing.
2. In addi­tion, a pre-con­struc­tion check for rep­tiles pri­or to ground pre­par­a­tion or con­struc­tion works com­men­cing, car­ried out by an appro­pri­ately exper­i­enced eco­lo­gist and, if neces­sary, imple­ment­a­tion of a spe­cies pro­tec­tion plan fol­low­ing NatureScot guid­ance is required.
3. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Land­scape Advisor high­lights that ​‘the exist­ing track would res­ult in a series of land­scape and visu­al effects. The pro­file of the track is steep sided and much deep­er than the nat­ur­al hill pro­file in places. The areas of dis­turbed ground are prom­in­ent due to the pale tone and col­our rel­at­ive to the sur­round­ing heath­er moor­land and, in con­junc­tion with the deep pro­file of the track and its pos­i­tion on a slope, the sec­tion is incon­gru­ous.’ They add that ​‘It is recog­nised that the sur­round­ing recently planted young trees will even­tu­ally screen most views to the track, but this will take some time. In addi­tion, the sur­face and pro­file of the track are such that they will be prone to water run off erosion (there is already evid­ence of this)’.
4. They state, how­ever, that the remedi­ation works will mit­ig­ate a num­ber of adverse effects although some will remain, par­tic­u­larly in Sec­tion C where the pro­file of the Cairngorms Item 9 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 29 August 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 9 of 16

track will remain sub­stan­tially deep­er than the nat­ur­al hill pro­file. It will, how­ever, be lessened by the rais­ing of the track sur­face by 200mm and the remov­al of the depos­ited mater­i­al along the sides, and re-pro­fil­ing will reduce slope steep­ness else­where. Where the track side slopes are too steep and sur­faced in a too-freely drain­ing mater­i­al to hold mois­ture, this will hinder nat­ur­al reve­get­a­tion. There­fore, the fol­low­ing have been reques­ted: a) A sur­face treat­ment of the steep­est slopes in order to coun­ter­act future erosion and pro­mote veget­at­ive regen­er­a­tion e.g. use of bio­de­grad­able mat­ting and seed­ing. b) A com­mit­ted land­scape man­age­ment and main­ten­ance pro­gramme to include reve­get­at­ing areas the track sur­face, in order to rec­ti­fy any future erosion or fail­ure in plant growth.

1. Dul­nain Bridge Com­munity Coun­cil was con­sul­ted but did not sub­mit a response. Representations
2. There were no rep­res­ent­a­tions to this applic­a­tion. Appraisal
3. Sec­tion 25 of the 1997 Act as amended requires applic­a­tions to be determ­ined in accord­ance with the Devel­op­ment Plan. This com­prises the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 (LDP), and the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4). Where there is con­flict between policies, NPF4 policies will be used.
4. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions in this case are the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment, design, eco­lo­gic­al impacts, impact upon land­scape, and access. These are con­sidered in detail below. Prin­ciple of development
5. Not­with­stand­ing the fact that the works were com­menced without the requis­ite grant of plan­ning per­mis­sion, the pro­pos­al is to upgrade a sec­tion of pre-exist­ing track fol­low­ing a route used by estate vehicles to access remoter parts of the estate and recently planted wood­land. All the works will be seen with­in the con­text of a large nat­ive wood­land plant­ing scheme, and sub­ject to detailed con­sid­er­a­tion Cairngorms Item 9 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 29 August 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 10 of 16

of design and pro­posed mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures, the prin­ciple of a track is con­sidered accept­able. Design

1. NPF4 Policy 14: Design, qual­ity and place, seeks to sup­port devel­op­ments that improve the qual­ity of an area regard­less of scale and that are con­sist­ent with the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places, namely: healthy; pleas­ant; con­nec­ted; dis­tinct­ive; sus­tain­able; and adaptable.
2. LDP Policy 3: Design and place­mak­ing sim­il­arly seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment meets the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places.
3. This partly ret­ro­spect­ive plan­ning applic­a­tion seeks to author­ise main­ten­ance oper­a­tions already under­taken on this sec­tion of track and for remedi­ation works to re-pro­file, sta­bil­ise and fin­ish the sec­tion of track. The pro­pos­al will com­prise remov­ing the very vis­ible piles of soil along the edges of the track and infilling it back into the track itself to repro­file the track­side banks, mak­ing them shal­low­er in some of the sec­tions and sup­port­ing re-veget­a­tion of the verges. These meas­ures will con­sid­er­ably improve the visu­al impact of the cur­rent track. All well- estab­lished heath­er / grass veget­a­tion on stable track­side bank­ing will be pre­served, and re-seed­ing of the re-pro­filed verges will improve and min­im­ise the over­all prom­in­ence of the track over time.
4. At the base of the track there will be two 300mm twin wall cul­vert pipes to accom­mod­ate the water­course at this loc­a­tion with appro­pri­ate sumps. In addi­tion, eight chan­nel drains will be installed along the track which will man­age sur­face water. The track will then be com­pacted to cre­ate a bound run­ning sur­face which com­bined with improved track drain­age will man­age water erosion and sta­bil­ise the track.
5. These upgrades are of a func­tion­al design and the mater­i­als used reflect this. The re-seeded verges will help ensure that over time the pro­pos­al will not appear incon­gru­ous with­in its setting.
6. The design of the pro­pos­al is of a scale and nature that is com­pat­ible with its set­ting and the mater­i­als pro­posed are appro­pri­ate and loc­ally sourced. This, in Cairngorms Item 9 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 29 August 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 11 of 16

com­bin­a­tion with the fact that it will sup­port a regen­er­at­ive nat­ive wood­land plant­ing pro­ject, ensures that in terms of design the pro­pos­al com­plies with the above policies. Ecology

1. NPF4 Policy1: Tack­ling the cli­mate and nature crises requires all devel­op­ment pro­pos­als to give sig­ni­fic­ant weight to the cli­mate and nature crises.
2. NPF4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als pro­tect biod­iversity, reverse biod­iversity loss, deliv­er pos­it­ive effects from devel­op­ment and strengthen nature net­works. Devel­op­ment pro­pos­als must include appro­pri­ate meas­ures to con­serve, restore and enhance biod­iversity, in accord­ance with nation­al and loc­al guidance.
3. NPF4 Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als pro­tect, restore and enhance nat­ur­al assets mak­ing best use of nature-based solu­tions. Devel­op­ment that has sig­ni­fic­ant adverse impacts on des­ig­nated sites, after mit­ig­a­tion, will not be supported.
4. LDP Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age seeks to ensure that there are no adverse effects on European Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies and oth­er biod­iversity interests.
5. The Park Authority’s Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer raises no objec­tions to the pro­pos­al, with the effects of the pro­pos­al con­sidered slight. They high­light that the cur­rent steep gradi­ent of excav­ated mater­i­al along the track will inhib­it nat­ur­al reve­get­a­tion and repro­fil­ing of the steep slope is required to reduce the gradi­ent and facil­it­ate veget­a­tion recol­on­isa­tion. The pro­posed mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures include the re-pro­fil­ing of the steep­er sec­tions of the track and, as advised, will require to be sown with a heath­land-spe­cif­ic wild­flower seed mix­ture such as Sco­tia Seeds’ High­land Grass­land mix which will be secured via a con­di­tion. This will facil­it­ate re- veget­a­tion of the bare mater­i­al and reduce effects from the loss of pri­or­ity habitats.
6. Over­all, the envir­on­ment­al impacts of the pro­pos­al are of a scale and nature that is con­sidered accept­able and in com­pli­ance with the above devel­op­ment plan policies. The pro­pos­al does not include any spe­cif­ic meas­ures con­cern­ing Cairngorms Item 9 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 29 August 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 12 of 16

biod­iversity enhance­ment. How­ever, the pro­posed devel­op­ment con­sti­tutes part of a wider pro­ject to plant nat­ive wood­land, which the Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer recog­nises ​‘would deliv­er improved hab­it­at con­nectiv­ity between exist­ing blocks of wood­land and should deliv­er sig­ni­fic­ant biod­iversity bene­fits’. There­fore, the pro­pos­al com­plies with NPF4 Policy 1: Tack­ling the cli­mate and nature crises, NPF4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity, NPF4 Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places, and LDP Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age. Land­scape and design

1. LDP Policy 5: Land­scape pre­sumes against devel­op­ment which does not con­serve and enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park, and par­tic­u­larly the set­ting of the pro­posed development.
2. LDP Policy 5.2: Private roads and ways pre­sumes against private roads and ways in open moor­land unless it can be demon­strated that they are essen­tial for land man­age­ment pur­poses and they are designed to min­im­ise land­scape and envir­on­ment­al impacts, con­serving and enhan­cing spe­cial qualities.
3. The Park Authority’s Land­scape Advisor recog­nises that the exist­ing track has a series of land­scape and visu­al effects. The excav­ated soil along the edges of the track and dis­turbed ground are prom­in­ent and, in con­junc­tion with the deep pro­file of the track and its pos­i­tion on a slope, appear incongruous.
4. In addi­tion, they high­light that the sur­face and pro­file of the track are such that they will be prone to water run off erosion which is already evid­ent. This would be likely to con­tin­ue if no remedi­ation is under­taken, to the extent that very deep chan­nels will form and the banks on out­er slopes will be under­cut and are likely to col­lapse, fur­ther widen­ing the track and pre­vent­ing reve­get­a­tion and ulti­mately exacer­bat­ing the land­scape impact.
5. The pro­posed remedi­ation will mit­ig­ate a num­ber of these adverse effects, although some will remain – par­tic­u­larly in the steep­est sec­tion © where the pro­file of the track will remain deep­er than the nat­ur­al hill pro­file, albeit impacts here will be lessened by the rais­ing of the track sur­face by 200mm. The remov­al of Cairngorms Item 9 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 29 August 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 13 of 16

the depos­ited mater­i­al along the edges of the track and re-pro­fil­ing will reduce the slope steep­ness elsewhere.

1. The shal­low­er, regraded verges may reve­get­ate over time, and a cent­ral strip may also reve­get­ate in places. The verges includ­ing repro­filed slopes should be sown with an appro­pri­ate seed mix and this will be secured via a con­di­tion. In addi­tion, a land­scape man­age­ment and main­ten­ance pro­gramme will be con­di­tioned, which will include requir­ing a sur­face treat­ment of the steep­est slopes to coun­ter­act future erosion and pro­mote veget­at­ive regen­er­a­tion in order to rec­ti­fy any future erosion or fail­ure in plant growth.
2. Whilst the pro­posed upgraded track will con­tin­ue to have a visu­al impact, the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures pro­posed will sub­stan­tially reduce the land­scape impact of the track rel­at­ive to what is there cur­rently. In addi­tion, the track is asso­ci­ated with and will be seen in the con­text of an enclosed wood­land plant­ing scheme. Over time, it will there­fore become less prom­in­ent in the land­scape and its visu­al impacts will reduce. As such, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered accept­able in terms of its impacts on land­scape and accords with LDP Policy 5: Land­scape. Access
3. LDP Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing requires devel­op­ment to main­tain and max­im­ise all oppor­tun­it­ies for respons­ible out­door access, includ­ing links into the exist­ing path network.
4. The Park Authority’s Out­door Access Officer high­lights that the track joins a Right of Way but that there is no expec­ted impact of this. The pub­lic access along the Right of Way will be main­tained at all times and, over­all, the remedi­ation works will improve the useab­il­ity of the track for all. The pro­pos­als there­fore com­ply with LDP Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing in this respect. Conclusion
5. The pro­posed devel­op­ment con­sists of the upgrad­ing, pre-pro­fil­ing, sta­bil­ising and fin­ish­ing of a pre-exist­ing track for which some works have been under­taken. As such, this applic­a­tion is partly ret­ro­spect­ive. Not­with­stand­ing, this pro­pos­al seeks to address the cur­rent sub­stand­ard con­di­tion of the track by remedi­at­ing Cairngorms Item 9 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 29 August 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 14 of 16

unsat­is­fact­ory work that has already been under­taken and improv­ing the over­all func­tion and visu­al impact of the sec­tion of track. Over­all, whilst the track will con­tin­ue to have some visu­al impacts which will reduce over time, it is of a func­tion­al design, and the impacts are con­sidered accept­able sub­ject to the recom­men­ded conditions.

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment com­plies with the rel­ev­ant policies of NPF4 and the LDP, and there are no mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions which out­weigh this con­clu­sion. Recom­mend­a­tion That mem­bers of the com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to APPROVE the applic­a­tion for the Upgrade of track for forestry (in ret­ro­spect) at Land NW Of Clach­bain Dul­nain Bridge Grant­own-On-Spey, sub­ject to the fol­low­ing con­di­tions: Con­di­tions Those con­di­tions lis­ted below in bold text are sus­pens­ive con­di­tions, which require to be dis­charged pri­or to imple­ment­a­tion of the development.
2. The remedi­ation works and com­ple­tion of the track hereby approved should be com­pleted with­in six months from the date on which the per­mis­sion is gran­ted and shall be imple­men­ted in full accord­ance with the spe­cific­a­tion of the approved plans and Sup­port­ing Doc­u­ment. Reas­on: The time lim­it con­di­tion is imposed in order to com­ply with the require­ments of sec­tion 58 of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997 as amended.

3. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a pre-con­struc­tion check for rep­tiles has been under­taken in accord­ance with cur­rent NatureScot guid­ance by a suit­ably exper­i­enced and licensed eco­lo­gic­al sur­vey­or. This must be provided with­in three months from the date the per­mis­sion is gran­ted and the sur­vey res­ults shall inform a Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan detail­ing appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures for any rep­tiles found. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence Cairngorms Item 9 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 29 August 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 15 of 16

4. until the plan has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity. There­after the plan will be imple­men­ted in full and over­seen by a suit­ably qual­i­fied Eco­lo­gic­al Clerk of Works. Reas­on: To ensure the pro­tec­tion of pro­tec­ted spe­cies in accord­ance with Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity, and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. No works in con­nec­tion with the devel­op­ment hereby approved shall com­mence unless a verge treat­ment and main­ten­ance plan has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the plan­ning author­ity. This must be provided with­in three months from the date the per­mis­sion is gran­ted. The Plan should include: a) Details of re-seed­ing to be under­taken. The track verge and repro­filed slopes should be sown with a heath­land-spe­cif­ic wild­flower seed mix­ture such as Sco­tia Seeds’ High­land Grass­land’ mix High­land Grass­land Mix – Sco­tia Seeds, which includes dwarf ericaceous shrubs (heath­er and bell heath­er), and a range of upland wild­flowers and grasses of Scot­tish proven­ance. b) Any oth­er sur­face treat­ment of the steep­est slopes in order to coun­ter­act future erosion and pro­mote veget­at­ive regen­er­a­tion e.g. use of bio­de­grad­able mat­ting and seed­ing. c) Details of any oppor­tun­it­ies to estab­lish green strips on the track sur­face which are encour­aged to lessen visu­al impact and pro­mote biod­iversity. The devel­op­ment shall be com­pleted in accord­ance with the approved verge treat­ment and main­ten­ance plan before the end of the first full plant­ing sea­son fol­low­ing sub­stan­tial com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment. Any plant­ing which, with­in a peri­od of 18 months from the com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, is not reve­get­at­ing shall be re-seeded or replaced by plants of sim­il­ar size and spe­cies to those ori­gin­ally required. Reas­on: To ensure the imple­ment­a­tion and man­age­ment of a sat­is­fact­ory plan for the land­scap­ing and verge treat­ment of the track in accord­ance with