Item10Appendix2CNPAresponsepremajPRE20210015

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 10 Appendix 2 25/06/2021

AGENDA ITEM 10

APPENDIX 2

PRE/2021/0015

CNPA RESPONSE TO MAJOR PRE-APP PRE/2021/0013

The High­land Coun­cil Com­hairle na Gàidhealtachd

Pre Applic­a­tion Advice Ser­vice: Response

Plan­ning Ref: 20/03131/PREMAJ CNPA Ref. PRE/2020/0016 (CNPA) Land 380M West Of East Croft­more Boat Of Garten Pro­pos­al Name Pro­pos­al: Erec­tion of an energy stor­age facil­ity with an installed capa­city of up to 49.9 MHh con­sist­ing of up to fifty energy stor­age units and asso­ci­ated equip­ment. Also includ­ing access and peri­pher­al land­scap­ing. Date of Meet­ing 5 May 2021 Date of Response 19 May 2021

Response

Gen­er­al and Policy Background

This pro­pos­al is for the erec­tion of an energy stor­age facil­ity with an installed capa­city of up to 49.9 MHh con­sist­ing of up to fifty energy stor­age units and asso­ci­ated equip­ment will be con­sidered in rela­tion to the policies of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (LDP) 2021 and asso­ci­ated sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance as well as any oth­er mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions that may apply includ­ing the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy.

The LDP and asso­ci­ated guid­ance are avail­able on this web link:

http://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​p​a​r​k​-​a​u​t​h​o​r​i​t​y​/​p​l​a​n​ning/

Prin­ciple of development

The prin­ciple of devel­op­ment must be con­sidered against the rel­ev­ant policies and guid­ance as con­tained with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (LDP) 2021, the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 – 2022 and Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy (SPP, 2020).

Part 7.1 of Policy 7: Renew­able Energy of the LDP sets out the cri­ter­ia that all renew­able energy devel­op­ments must meet. Of spe­cif­ic rel­ev­ance to this pro­ject, is that pro­pos­als will be sup­por­ted where they con­trib­ute pos­it­ively to min­im­ising cli­mate change and sup­port sus­tain­ab­il­ity; con­serve and enhance the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park; include appro­pri­ate means of access and traffic man­age­ment, includ­ing appro­pri­ate arrange­ments for con­struc­tion areas and com­pounds and adequately min­im­ise all cumu­lat­ive effects.

SPP is also a key con­sid­er­a­tion in this pro­pos­al, spe­cific­ally the ​‘Deliv­er­ing Heat and Elec­tri­city’ policy. SPP recog­nises that ​‘Energy stor­age schemes help to sup­port devel­op­ment of renew­able energy and main­tain sta­bil­ity of the elec­tri­city net­work in areas where rein­force­ment is needed to man­age con­ges­tion’ (Para. 168, SPP).

The prin­ciple for elec­tri­city stor­age may be accept­able sub­ject to oth­er rel­ev­ant policies set out below. How­ever, the plan­ning applic­a­tion must demon­strate the role of this pro­pos­al in the wider net­work, par­tic­u­larly how it will sup­port the renew­able energy sources and help to main­tain the sta­bil­ity of the elec­tri­city network.

Land­scape Impacts

Policy 5: Land­scape states that there shall be a pre­sump­tion against devel­op­ment that does not con­serve and enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park and states that any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse effects on the land­scape char­ac­ter of the Park must clearly be out­weighed by social or eco­nom­ic bene­fits of nation­al import­ance. Any adverse effects should be min­im­ised and mit­ig­ated through appro­pri­ate sit­ing, lay­out, scale and construction.

The CNPA’s Land­scape Advisor notes that the pro­pos­al will be vis­ible from: • The A95, the Strath­spey Rail­way and some res­id­ences of Dru­muil­lie in the north west. • The prop­erty of Aldon Lodge, approx­im­ately 180m to the west.

The Nation­al Parks Spe­cial Land­scape Qual­it­ies (SLQ) most likely to be affected by the pro­pos­al include Broad, farmed straths; Renowned rivers; Pine forest and birch woods; Strong jux­ta­pos­i­tion of con­trast­ing land­scapes; and The sur­round­ing hills.

Whilst over­all ​‘it is pre­dicted that the land­scape pos­sesses capa­city for the type of devel­op­ment being pro­posed, strongly influ­enced by the exist­ing elec­tri­city dis­tri­bu­tion site’ (CNPA Land­scape Advisor), the pro­pos­al is likely to be vis­ible from the north and west in a way that the exist­ing elec­tri­city dis­tri­bu­tion site is not. There­fore fur­ther inform­a­tion relat­ing to the fol­low­ing key land­scape issues will be required:

• Topo­graphy: The topo­graphy of the site is steeply slop­ing and a topo­graph­ic­al study will be needed to inform the detailed lay­out of the site to min­im­ise land­scape and visu­al effects. • Tree belt: The pro­posed ​‘nat­ive tree belt’ needs to be exten­ded to provide adequate mit­ig­a­tion of the land­scape and visu­al effects. • Access track: In con­sid­er­ing the final route for the access track (dif­fer­ent options were pro­posed in the ini­tial plans), a key issue is the need to avoid impact on the exist­ing pine trees. Explor­ing the option to take an access from East Croft­more is encour­aged as a track from the east may offer scope to be less prom­in­ent from loc­al view­points due to the undu­lat­ing land­form on this side, and this may lim­it the cumu­lat­ive effects of numer­ous tracks with­in the vicinity.

Please refer to the Land­scape Advisor’s detailed response which is attached 

Envir­on­ment­al Impacts

Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan states that devel­op­ment shall only be per­mit­ted where the integ­rity of the area or the qual­it­ies for which it has been des­ig­nated will not be adversely affected, unless any such adverse effects are clearly out­weighed by social, eco­nom­ic or envir­on­ment­al bene­fits of nation­al importance.

The CNPA’s Eco­logy Advisor noted that there is a high risk of run off from the pro­posed devel­op­ment into the water body which runs dir­ectly into the River Spey and will require water man­age­ment plan/​construction meth­od state­ment etc. In addi­tion, due to the pro­tec­tions on the River Spey (SAC) an HRA is likely to be needed once final site plan is developed.

Based on the draw­ing provided there is high risk of caus­ing dam­age to the exist­ing trees and their roots sys­tems and these would need to be retained without dam­age. These trees which provide exist­ing screen­ing could be improved by under plant­ing with nat­ive scrub and tree spe­cies which would pos­it­ively impact land­scape and eco­lo­gic­al interest. As noted in the Land­scape Advisors response, the ​‘nat­ive tree belt’ would need to be widened con­sid­er­ably to provide adequate mit­ig­a­tion of land­scape and visu­al effects from the north and west.

Detail on where cable con­nec­tions, ser­vices etc are to be situ­ated is required and exist­ing gaps in veget­a­tion should be util­ised for this, avoid­ing trees before exist­ing plant­ing becomes estab­lished. Detail on any pos­sible secur­ity light­ing is also required to assess any poten­tial impact on biod­iversity and land­scape impact.

Pro­cess

It is under­stood that this pro­pos­al will con­sti­tute a major applic­a­tion under the Scot­tish Government’s hier­archy of devel­op­ment so appro­pri­ate pre applic­a­tion con­sulta­tion with the com­munity will require to be undertaken.

In addi­tion the pro­pos­al will require to be screened to estab­lish if Envir­on­ment­al Impact Assess­ment is required – the applic­ant will require to make such a request to the High­land Coun­cil who will con­sult with the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA).

Any applic­a­tion would be sub­mit­ted to the High­land Coun­cil for val­id­a­tion. There­after once val­id, an applic­a­tion for this type and scale of devel­op­ment would be called in by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA) for determ­in­a­tion as it con­sti­tutes a Type 1 devel­op­ment under our cri­ter­ia for call in http://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/wp- more detail on this link: content/uploads/2016/02/151218PANApplyingForPlanningPermissionV22.pdf

The CNPA would then offer a pro­cessing agree­ment set­ting out a timetable towards determ­in­a­tion and identi­fy­ing which Plan­ning Com­mit­tee it would be con­sidered at. All applic­a­tions determ­ined by the CNPA are decided at Com­mit­tee. The CNPA would wel­come ongo­ing dis­cus­sion on the pro­pos­als pri­or to sub­mis­sion of an application.

Con­clu­sion

In order to fully con­sider any applic­a­tion detailed sup­port­ing inform­a­tion as set out below will be required. Sub­mis­sion of a com­plete pack­age of inform­a­tion will help to facil­it­ate pro­cessing, avoid­ing the need for re con­sulta­tion with oth­er parties and import­antly enable the pub­lic to com­ment fully. It will also avoid, in the event of the applic­a­tion being sup­por­ted, the need for extens­ive use of ​“sus­pens­ive” plan­ning con­di­tions. Inform­a­tion set out below rep­res­ents our ini­tial assess­ment and we will of course be guided by the responses of oth­er stat­utory con­sul­tees who it is expec­ted will be seek­ing addi­tion­al information.

Key Points Assess­ments to be car­ried out and/​or sub­mit­ted with applic­a­tion Detailed Plans All stand­ard plans to be provided.

Land­scape Impacts A pro­posed site lay­out plan, sec­tions and elev­a­tions show­ing both exist­ing and pro­posed ground levels in addi­tion to pro­posed struc­tures such as the bat­tery stor­age con­tain­ers, con­trol build­ing and trans­formers. In addi­tion, it should include where cable con­nec­tions, ser­vices etc are to be situ­ated. Land­scape reports: Topo­graph­ic­al sur­vey A detailed topo­graph­ic­al sur­vey of the site which should be set in con­text with the levels of the sur­round­ing land­scape. This topo­graph­ic­al inform­a­tion needs to inform the pro­posed lay­out and design of the site. Key issues include: the height and extent of earth­works; how the earth­works would need to avoid effects on the RPAs of exist­ing trees; how the levels of the site in com­bin­a­tion with plant­ing would affect vis­ib­il­ity of the site from key recept­ors to the west and north; wheth­er it is pos­sible to have split levels across the site to fit bet­ter with the land­form. Land­scape design details for all aspects of the pro­pos­al includ­ing pro­posed build­ings, bat­tery stor­age con­tain­ers, trans­formers, con­trol build­ing, store, site office, access routes, bound­ary treat­ments (includ­ing fences, hedges or walls), lights and drain­age works. A land­scape plan (upon a base with site con­tours) and spe­cific­a­tion, includ­ing plant details, sizes, num­bers and loc­a­tions. This inform­a­tion should be pre­pared to meet BS11091. Land­scape main­ten­ance and man­age­ment pro­pos­als for the site. A Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment includ­ing the approach to site pre­par­a­tion, soils man­age­ment, res­tor­a­tion and rein­state­ment. A pro­gramme of works, includ­ing inform­a­tion on phas­ing if rel­ev­ant. A Land­scape and Visu­al Impact Assess­ment (LVIA) of the pro­posed devel­op­ment, includ­ing some com­puter gen­er­ated visu­al­isa­tions from the north and west. It is advised that the LVIA would not

Envir­on­ment­al Impacts need to be an oner­ous assess­ment or pro­duce a lengthy report and, giv­en the sens­it­iv­it­ies already iden­ti­fied, it could be scoped to be a focused study. We would be happy to advise fur­ther on this scope. Full Tree Sur­vey and Pro­tec­tion Plan As set out below in Envir­on­ment­al Impacts.

Nat­ur­al Her­it­age / Eco­logy Reports: Exten­ded Phase 1 Sur­vey Require­ments include: • Phase 1 hab­it­at sur­vey • Walk over sur­vey for European pro­tec­ted spe­cies includ­ing otter (as a SAC qual­i­fy­ing fea­ture and will form part of the HRA) badger, pine marten, wild­cat, red squir­rel and water­vole. • Birds of con­ser­va­tion con­cern (e.g. waders, S1 rap­tors, cres­ted tit, cross­bill) will be required to inform any more detailed sur­veys. • Suit­ab­il­ity sur­veys for bat roosts and breed­ing sites as exist­ing trees could con­tain suit­able fea­tures. This sur­vey work must be done by a prop­erly qual­i­fied eco­lo­gist and in accord­ance with cur­rent best prac­tice. Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plans If pro­tec­ted spe­cies are found then a SPP is required, this might also include rep­tiles. A Tree Sur­vey and Tree Pro­tec­tion Plans A tree sur­vey and tree pro­tec­tion plan for the exist­ing pine trees adja­cent to the pro­posed devel­op­ment site (in accord­ance with BS5837). This should identi­fy the Root Pro­tec­tion Areas of exist­ing trees which will need to be pro­tec­ted. This needs to con­sider how the exist­ing trees will be retained/​replaced over time. Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al — There is a high risk of run off from the pro­posed devel­op­ment into the water body which runs dir­ectly into the River Spey. Due to the pro­tec­tions on the River Spey (SAC) an HRA is likely to be needed once final site plan is developed. Walk over sur­vey for

Drain­age European Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies will also be required to com­plete the HRA. Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment — this will include: • Man­age­ment of run off from pro­pos­al into the water body which runs dir­ectly into the River Spey. • Tree pro­tec­tion meas­ures • Spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans Light­ing Details of any pro­posed secur­ity light­ing are required to con­sider any impacts on biod­iversity such as bats. Drain­age Impact Assess­ment, includ­ing inform­a­tion on foul and sur­face water drain­age arrange­ments. Res­id­en­tial Amen­ity Noise Impact Assess­ment — Con­struc­tion and oper­a­tion­al noise assess­ments will be required. Pre Applic­a­tion Con­sulta­tion with the Pre Applic­a­tion Con­sulta­tion Report as com­munity (PAC required by Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment legis­la­tion explain­ing how the pub­lic con­sulta­tion pro­cess has informed devel­op­ment of the pro­pos­al and the meas­ures taken to inform the pub­lic. It is also recom­men­ded that, (aside from the neigh­bour noti­fic­a­tion pro­cess which will be car­ried out by the High­land Coun­cil), the developer advise res­id­ents in the area of the sub­mis­sion of the applic­a­tion in the interests of good prac­tise and pub­lic rela­tions as it is our exper­i­ence that this type of pro­act­ive work is usu­ally bene­fi­cial. Fin­an­cial guar­an­tee bond A Fin­an­cial guar­an­tee bond will be required to rein­state the site at the end of con­sen­ted peri­od and will be a con­di­tion of the plan­ning con­sent. It will be required to be in place pri­or to the com­mence­ment of devel­op­ment to ensure that it is able to secure the full res­tor­a­tion, after­care and decom­mis­sion­ing of the site and is in force for the lifespan of the development.

Organ­isa­tion Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA) Name Katie Crerar Pos­i­tion Plan­ning Officer

Email planning@​cairngorms.​co.​uk Phone 01479 873507 Please attach any addi­tion­al inform­a­tion as a sep­ar­ate file and send to majorpreapps@​highland.​gov.​uk