Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 28 August 2026 Page 1 of 54

Com­mit­tee report

Devel­op­ment proposed: Form­a­tion of 3m wide 9km long segreg­ated non-motor­ised user route/​path; Land between Aviemore and Carrbridge.

Ref­er­ence: 2025/0109/DET Applic­ant: Trans­port Scot­land Date called-in: 12 May 2025 Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to recom­men­ded con­di­tions Case officer: Heath­er Boswell, Seni­or Plan­ning Officer

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 28 August 2026 Page 2 of 54

(Image: Map show­ing the route between Aviemore and Carrbridge.)

(Data source: CNPA Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2026. 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.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 28 August 2026 Page 3 of 54

Site descrip­tion, pro­pos­al and history

Site descrip­tion

1. The applic­a­tion site runs in a north south ori­ent­a­tion from Car­rbridge to Aviemore. At the south­ern end of the pro­pos­al site the route starts at Dou­gal Drive, Aviemore and at its north­ern end the route ter­min­ates at the south­ern extents of Car­rbridge. Out­with Aviemore and Car­rbridge the applic­a­tion site is pre­dom­in­antly rur­al in char­ac­ter with scattered set­tle­ments and built form present.

2. The applic­a­tion site inter­acts with a vari­ety of exist­ing land uses includ­ing, but not lim­ited to, exist­ing pub­lic foot­paths, trunk road(s) and verges, farm­land, wood­land includ­ing ancient wood­land and vet­er­an trees, sport­ing estates, the High­land Main Line rail­way, private res­id­ences, com­mer­cial prop­er­ties, access routes and utilities.

3. The applic­a­tion site is with­in close prox­im­ity (2km) of the fol­low­ing envir­on­ment­ally des­ig­nated sites: a) Loch Vaa Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area (SPA) b) Kin­veachy Forest SPA c) River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC) d) Kin­veachy Forest SAC e) Craigel­lach­ie Nation­al Nature Reserve (NNR) f) Craigel­lach­ie Site of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest (SSSI) g) Loch Vaa SSSI h) River Spey SSSI i) Kin­veachy Forest SSSI

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: https://​www​.eplan​ningcnpa​.co​.uk/​o​n​l​i​n​e​-​a​p​p​l​i​c​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​c​a​s​e​D​e​t​a​i​l​s​.​d​o​?​k​e​y​V​a​l​=​S​V​M​L​L​G​S​I​0​C​P​0​0​&​c​a​s​e​T​y​p​e​=​A​p​p​l​i​c​ation https://​www​.eplan​ningcnpa​.co​.uk/​o​n​l​i​n​e​-​a​p​p​l​i​c​a​t​ions/

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 28 August 2026 Page 4 of 54

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan — Sheet 1 of 3	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_ZZZZZ_ZZ — DR — RD — 0001 P03	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan — Sheet 2 of 3	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_ZZZZZ_ZZ — DR — RD — 0002 P03	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan — Sheet 3 of 3	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_ZZZZZ_ZZ — DR — RD — 0003 P03	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — ACN­MU Loc­a­tion Plan	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_ZZZZZ_ZZ — DR — RD — 0002 P05	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — Site Sec­tion Plan — Avie­lochan Farm Rein­forced Earth­works Slope Gen­er­al Arrange­ment & Typ­ic­al Details	ACN­MU — AMJ — SGT — A_MLZZZ_XX — DR — GE — 0001 P03	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — Gen­er­al Plan — Elev­a­tion & Sec­tions — Birch View L Shaped Retain­ing Wall	ACN­MU — AMJ — SRW — X_SRBRV_ST — DR — ST — 0001 P03	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — Gen­er­al Plan — Elev­a­tion & Sec­tions — The Knoll L Shaped Retain­ing Wall	ACN­MU — AMJ — SRW — X_SRKNO_ST — 0001 P03	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — Drain­age Lay­out Plan — Water­course Realign­ment Sheet 1 of 11	ACN­MU — AMJ — HDG — A_MLZZZ_WV — DR — DE — 0001 P03	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — Drain­age Lay­out Plan — Water­course Realign­ment Sheet 2 of 11	ACN­MU — AMJ — HDG — A_MLZZZ_WV — DR — DE — 0002 P03	14/03/25	02/05/25

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Plan — Drain­age Lay­out Plan — Water­course Realign­ment Sheet 3 of 11	ACN­MU — AMJ — HDG — A_MLZZZ_WV — DR — DE — 0003 P03	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — Drain­age Lay­out Plan — Water­course Realign­ment Sheet 4 of 11	ACN­MU — AMJ — HDG — A_MLZZZ_WV — DR — DE — 0004 P03	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — Drain­age Lay­out Plan — Water­course Realign­ment Sheet 5 of 11	ACN­MU — AMJ — HDG — A_MLZZZ_WV — DR — DE — 0005 P03	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — Drain­age Lay­out Plan — Water­course Realign­ment Sheet 6 of 11	ACN­MU — AMJ — HDG — A_MLZZZ_WV — DR — DE — 0006 P03	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — Drain­age Lay­out Plan — Water­course Realign­ment Sheet 7 of 11	ACN­MU — AMJ — HDG — A_MLZZZ_WV — DR — DE — 0007 P03	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — Drain­age Lay­out Plan — Water­course Realign­ment Sheet 8 of 11	ACN­MU — AMJ — HDG — A_MLZZZ_WV — DR — DE — 0008 P03	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — Drain­age Lay­out Plan — Water­course Realign­ment Sheet 9 of 11	ACN­MU — AMJ — HDG — A_MLZZZ_WV — DR — DE — 0009 P03	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — Drain­age Lay­out Plan — Water­course Realign­ment Sheet 10 of 11	ACN­MU — AMJ — HDG — A_MLZZZ_WV — DR — DE — 0010 P03	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — Drain­age Lay­out Plan — Water­course Realign­ment Sheet 11 of 11	ACN­MU — AMJ — HDG — A_MLZZZ_WV — DR — DE — 0011 P03	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — Drain­age Strategy — Typ­ic­al Details	ACN­MU — AMJ — HDG — A_ZZXXX_ZZ — DR — DE — 0001 P02	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — Drain­age Strategy — Typ­ic­al Cross Sec­tions (1 of 2)	ACN­MU — AMJ — HDG — A_ZZXSE_ZZ — DR — DE — 0521 P02	14/03/25	02/05/25

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Plan — Drain­age Strategy — Typ­ic­al Cross Sec­tions (2 of 2)	ACN­MU — AMJ — HDG — A_ZZXSE_ZZ — DR — DE — 0522 P02	14/03/25	02/05/25
Plan — Sec­tion Plan — Feith Mhor Cul­vert Extension	ACN­MU — AMJ — SMN — X_CVFMH_CV — DR — ST — 0001 P02	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Sec­tion Plan — Net­work Rail Embank­ment Rein­forced Earth­works Slope Gen­er­al Arrange­ment & Typ­ic­al Details	ACN­MU — AMJ — SGT — A_MLZZZ_XX — DR — GE — 0002 P03	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Sec­tion Plan — Stand­ard Kerb Detail	ACN­MU — AMJ — HKF — X_ZZZZZ_ZZ — DE — CI — 0001	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan — Plan­ning Bound­ary — 1 of 15	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_MLZZZ_ZZ — DR — ZZ — 0001 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan — Plan­ning Bound­ary — 2 of 15	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_MLZZZ_ZZ — DR — ZZ — 0002 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan — Plan­ning Bound­ary — 3 of 15	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_MLZZZ_ZZ — DR — ZZ — 0003 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan — Plan­ning Bound­ary — 4 of 15	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_MLZZZ_ZZ — DR — ZZ — 0004 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan — Plan­ning Bound­ary — 5 of 15	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_MLZZZ_ZZ — DR — ZZ — 0005 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan — Plan­ning Bound­ary — 6 of 15	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_MLZZZ_ZZ — DR — ZZ — 0006 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan — Plan­ning Bound­ary — 7 of 15	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_MLZZZ_ZZ — DR — ZZ — 0007 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25

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Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan — Plan­ning Bound­ary — 8 of 15	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_MLZZZ_ZZ — DR — ZZ — 0008 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan — Plan­ning Bound­ary — 9 of 15	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_MLZZZ_ZZ — DR — ZZ — 0009 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan — Plan­ning Bound­ary — 10 of 15	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_MLZZZ_ZZ — DR — ZZ — 0010 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan — Plan­ning Bound­ary — 11 of 15	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_MLZZZ_ZZ — DR — ZZ — 0011 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan — Plan­ning Bound­ary — 12 of 15	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_MLZZZ_ZZ — DR — ZZ — 0012 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan — Plan­ning Bound­ary — 13 of 15	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_MLZZZ_ZZ — DR — ZZ — 0013 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan — Plan­ning Bound­ary — 14 of 15	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_MLZZZ_ZZ — DR — ZZ — 0014 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan — Plan­ning Bound­ary — 15 of 15	ACN­MU — AMJ — HGN — A_MLZZZ_ZZ — DR — ZZ — 0015 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Site Level Plan — ACN­MU Main­line Plan and Pro­file Sheet 1 of 14	ACN­MU — AMJ — HML — A_ML000_ZZ — DR — RD — 0001 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Site Level Plan — ACN­MU Main­line Plan and Pro­file Sheet 2 of 14	ACN­MU — AMJ — HML — A_ML000_ZZ — DR — RD — 0002 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Site Level Plan — ACN­MU Main­line Plan and Pro­file Sheet 3 of 14	ACN­MU — AMJ — HML — A_ML000_ZZ — DR — RD — 0003 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Site Level Plan — ACN­MU Main­line Plan and Pro­file Sheet 4 of 14	ACN­MU — AMJ — HML — A_ML000_ZZ — DR — RD — 0004 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Plan — Site Level Plan — ACN­MU Main­line Plan and Pro­file Sheet 5 of 14	ACN­MU — AMJ — HML — A_ML000_ZZ — DR — RD — 0005 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Site Level Plan — ACN­MU Main­line Plan and Pro­file Sheet 6 of 14	ACN­MU — AMJ — HML — A_ML000_ZZ — DR — RD — 0006 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Site Level Plan — ACN­MU Main­line Plan and Pro­file Sheet 7 of 14	ACN­MU — AMJ — HML — A_ML000_ZZ — DR — RD — 0007 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Site Level Plan — ACN­MU Main­line Plan and Pro­file Sheet 8 of 14	ACN­MU — AMJ — HML — A_ML000_ZZ — DR — RD — 0008 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Site Level Plan — ACN­MU Main­line Plan and Pro­file Sheet 9 of 14	ACN­MU — AMJ — HML — A_ML000_ZZ — DR — RD — 0009 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Site Level Plan — ACN­MU Main­line Plan and Pro­file Sheet 10 of 14	ACN­MU — AMJ — HML — A_ML000_ZZ — DR — RD — 0010 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Site Level Plan — ACN­MU Main­line Plan and Pro­file Sheet 11 of 14	ACN­MU — AMJ — HML — A_ML000_ZZ — DR — RD — 0011 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Site Level Plan — ACN­MU Main­line Plan and Pro­file Sheet 12 of 14	ACN­MU — AMJ — HML — A_ML000_ZZ — DR — RD — 0012 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Site Level Plan — ACN­MU Main­line Plan and Pro­file Sheet 13 of 14	ACN­MU — AMJ — HML — A_ML000_ZZ — DR — RD — 0013 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Plan — Site Level Plan — ACN­MU Main­line Plan and Pro­file Sheet 14 of 14	ACN­MU — AMJ — HML — A_ML000_ZZ — DR — RD — 0014 P04	14/03/25	05/05/25
Oth­er — Trans­port Statement			02/05/25
Oth­er — Traffic Man­age­ment Plan			02/05/25
Oth­er — Pre-Applic­a­tion Con­sulta­tion Report			02/05/25

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Oth­er — Plan­ning State­ment		02/05/25
Oth­er — Envir­on­ment­al Impact Assess­ment Report (EIAR)	(Includ­ing volumes 1 — 3 of the EIAR)	05/05/25
Oth­er — Envir­on­ment­al Impact Assess­ment Report — Non-Tech­nic­al Summary		02/05/25
Oth­er — Drain­age Impact Assessment		02/05/25
Oth­er — Design and Access Statement		02/05/25
Oth­er — Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal		05/05/25
Oth­er — Pub­lic Engage­ment Events Sum­mary Report		27/05/25
Oth­er — Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal		04/08/26
Oth­er — Caper­cail­lie Assessment		04/08/26
Oth­er — Arbor­i­cul­tur­al Impact Assess­ment — Tree Sched­ule — Annex B		18/12/25
Oth­er — ACN­MU — Plan­ning Con­sul­tee Response to Aviemore and Vicin­ity Com­munity Council		03/06/26
Oth­er — ACN­MU — Plan­ning Response — Com­pens­at­ory Plant­ing 2		03/06/26
Oth­er — ACN­MU — Plan­ning Response to Envir­on­ment­al Health		03/06/26
Oth­er — ACN­MU — Plan­ning Con­sul­tee Response — Environment		05/06/26

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Oth­er — ACN­MU — Plan­ning Con­sul­tee Response to Recre­ation and Out­door Access		05/06/26

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment con­sti­tutes a largely segreg­ated non-motor­ised user (NMU) act­ive travel route, approx­im­ately 9km long, run­ning between Aviemore in the south and Car­rbridge in the north, as shown on the loc­a­tion plans in Appendix 1a. The route broadly fol­lows the exist­ing road cor­ridors of the B9152, A95 and B9153 to provide a rel­at­ively dir­ect NMU link between the two settlements.

2. The route will be pre­dom­in­antly 3 metres wide and will include sec­tions of upgrades to exist­ing paths as well as newly built sec­tions. A sealed bitu­min­ous mater­i­al will be used for sur­fa­cing with an aggreg­ate sub-base. Four at grade junc­tions are pro­posed, includ­ing: a) A raised table zebra cross­ing at Dou­gal Drive; b) A sig­nal­ised cross­ing imme­di­ately north of Gran­ish Junc­tion at the pro­posed A9 Dualling Gran­ish round­about; c) An uncon­trolled cross­ing at Kin­veachy Junc­tion to tie into the exist­ing Nation­al Cycle Net­work Route 7 (NCN 7); and d) An uncon­trolled cross­ing south of Car­rbridge to access the exist­ing foot­way through the village.

3. In addi­tion, the pro­posed route will cross 11 private accesses which take the form of simple pri­or­ity junc­tions. These are gen­er­ally agri­cul­tur­al field, forestry or private prop­erty accesses, with sev­en of these cross­ings already serving as exist­ing NMU routes.

4. The pro­posed NMU route will pass under the exist­ing High­land Main Line rail­way via the under­pass at Kin­veachy. Addi­tion­al design details for the NMU route at this point will be provided at the final­ised design stage, sub­ject to the grant of plan­ning consent.

5. Ele­ments of biod­iversity enhance­ment and com­pens­at­ory wood­land plant­ing are pro­posed as part of the devel­op­ment. The loc­a­tion of exist­ing ancient wood­land along the extent of the pro­posed route is shown on Appendix 1b. With­in the site bound­ary, an area for pond hab­it­at com­pens­a­tion and sep­ar­ate area for com­pens­at­ory wood­land plant­ing have been pro­posed. In addi­tion, the Applic­ant intends to devel­op a spe­cies rich grass­land mix which would enhance flor­al spe­cies diversity along the pro­posed route and intro­duce a pol­lin­at­or cor­ridor. This corridor

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would provide import­ant hab­it­at for pol­lin­at­or spe­cies and improve con­nectiv­ity between exist­ing habitats.

1. Off-site com­pens­at­ory wood­land plant­ing is also pro­posed to mit­ig­ate against the loss of wood­land asso­ci­ated with the devel­op­ment. This off-site plant­ing would con­nect into the com­pens­at­ory wood­land plant­ing areas already agreed through the con­sent­ing pro­cess for the A9 Dualling Dalraddy to Slo­chd pro­ject and is expec­ted to enhance the eco­lo­gic­al con­nectiv­ity and func­tion­al­ity of the wood­land net­work. Fur­ther details of the off-site com­pens­at­ory wood­land plant­ing will be provided as part of the Dalraddy to Slo­chd Scheme Wood­land Cre­ation Meth­od State­ment and Hab­it­at Man­age­ment Plan (WCM­SH­MP) once agreed with stakeholders.

2. The pro­pos­al is a major applic­a­tion under the terms of the Scot­tish Government’s hier­archy of devel­op­ment and there­fore required pre-applic­a­tion con­sulta­tion pri­or to the sub­mis­sion of the plan­ning application.

3. The fol­low­ing sup­port­ing doc­u­ments accom­pany the applic­a­tion: a) Design and Access State­ment: explains the back­ground to the devel­op­ment and aspir­a­tions of the pro­posed scheme, the char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the pre­ferred route and the design response, as well as how the scheme addresses inclus­ive access for all non-motor­ised users. b) Drain­age Impact Assess­ment: demon­strates exist­ing drain­age con­di­tions and pro­pos­als to ensure that com­pli­ant drain­age design can be con­struc­ted to ensure no risk to prop­erty, the pub­lic or the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment. c) Plan­ning State­ment: provides an over­view of the devel­op­ment and out­lines rel­ev­ant plan­ning policies, indic­at­ing com­pli­ance with the devel­op­ment plan. d) Pre-applic­a­tion Con­sulta­tion Report: provides evid­ence that the project’s pub­lic engage­ment and con­sulta­tion were under­taken in line with stat­utory require­ments and out­lines how feed­back received helped to estab­lish a pre­ferred route design. e) Pub­lic Engage­ment Events Sum­mary Report: details the Applicant’s approach to engage­ment and feed­back received in rela­tion to the pro­pos­al. f) Envir­on­ment­al Impact Assess­ment (EIA): exam­ines the likely sig­ni­fic­ant envir­on­ment­al effects of the pro­posed devel­op­ment and includes mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures where adverse impacts are anti­cip­ated as a res­ult of the pro­posed scheme. g) EIA Non-Tech­nic­al Sum­mary: provides an access­ible sum­mary of the EIA’s findings.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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h) Trans­port State­ment: exam­ines impacts on the exist­ing road net­work, pri­or­ity accesses at junc­tions, and adja­cent NMU routes dur­ing con­struc­tion and oper­a­tion. i) Traffic Man­age­ment Plan: provides an over­view of the types of traffic man­age­ment that are likely to be used dur­ing con­struc­tion. j) Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA): A ​‘shad­ow’ HRA under­taken by the Applic­ant to help inform the form­al HRA under­taken by the Park Author­ity as the com­pet­ent author­ity (see more inform­a­tion on HRA below).

His­tory

1. The devel­op­ment site extends across a sub­stan­tial area between Aviemore and Car­rbridge and parts of the site have been sub­ject to vari­ous plan­ning applic­a­tions in the past. How­ever, these applic­a­tions relate to dif­fer­ent types of devel­op­ment and are not dir­ectly rel­ev­ant to the pro­posed NMU route or mater­i­al to the assess­ment of this application.

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) has been under­taken to con­sider the poten­tial effects of the devel­op­ment upon the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the European sites lis­ted with­in the HRA doc­u­ment, which is attached as Appendix 2. The European sites are: a) Loch Vaa SPA; b) River Spey SAC; c) Kin­veachy Forest SPA; d) Cairngorms SPA; e) Aber­nethy Forest SPA; f) Craigmore Wood SPA; and g) Anagach Woods SPA.

2. Addi­tion­ally, the HRA assesses the poten­tial impact upon pro­tec­ted spe­cies found with­in these SPAs and SACs, such as Slavo­ni­an grebe, fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sels, sea lamprey, Atlantic sal­mon, otter, caper­cail­lie, Scot­tish cross­bill, golden eagle, dot­ter­el, mer­lin, per­eg­rine, and osprey.

3. The HRA con­cludes that there will be no adverse effects to the integ­rity of the rel­ev­ant European sites, provid­ing that mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures out­lined in the plan­ning applic­a­tion, as well as amend­ments to these meas­ures recom­men­ded as part of the HRA, are secured by con­di­tions attached to any plan­ning permission.

4. NatureScot have con­firmed agree­ment with the HRA and its conclusions.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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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	X
Policy 14 Design, qual­ity and place	X
Policy 15 Loc­al liv­ing and 20 minute neighbourhoods	X
Policy 16 Qual­ity homes
Policy 17 Rur­al homes
Policy 18 Infra­struc­ture first
Policy 19 Heat­ing and cooling
Policy 20 Blue and green infrastructure	X
Policy 21 Play, recre­ation and sport	X
Policy 22 Flood risk and water management	X
Policy 23 Health and safety	X
Policy 24 Digit­al infrastructure
Policy 25 Com­munity wealth building
Policy 26 Busi­ness and industry
Policy 27 City, town, loc­al and com­mer­cial centres

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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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	X
Policy 2 Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth	X
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	X
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 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

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Plan­ning guidance

1. Sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance also sup­ports the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (LDP) and provides more details about how to