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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 23/09/2022

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED:

Con­struc­tion of bat­tery energy stor­age facil­ity (49.9 MW), con­trol build­ing, switch room, bat­tery stor­age con­tain­ers, invert­er con­tain­ers, land­scap­ing and asso­ci­ated works at Land 380M West Of East Croft­more Boat Of Garten

REF­ER­ENCE: 2022/0069/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Mr James Perkins

DATE CALLED-IN: 28 Feb­ru­ary 2022

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve sub­ject to Conditions

CASE OFFICER: Alan Atkins — Plan­ning Officer

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 23/09/2022

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment site cov­ers an area of 2.45 hec­tares and lies with­in an area of improved graz­ing land con­sist­ing of sev­er­al large open fields. The site is char­ac­ter­ised by an undu­lat­ing topo­graphy, with the ground rising in the south, and des­cend­ing to the north towards the River Spey. The site is loc­ated 300m to the east of East Croft­more Farm and imme­di­ately north of the exist­ing Boat of Garten Elec­tri­city Sub Sta­tion. The B970 road is loc­ated to the south of the site, with the vil­lage of Boat of Garten approx­im­ately Ikm away. The site is set on the edge of adja­cent con­ifer wood­land, with some semi-nat­ur­al wood­land on the south­ern bank of the River Spey. There is an exist­ing field drain, which bounds the site to the west, and joins oth­er agri­cul­tur­al drains to flow north for 225m, before meet­ing the River Spey.

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:

http://​www​.eplan​ningcnpa​.co​.uk/​o​n​line- applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=R7PFMNSI0C100

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Plans
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan.	EW/08/01C	01/09/21	22/07/22
Plan — Amended General	EW/08/03A	01/09/21	22/07/22
Arrange­ment Plan.
Plan — Amended Site Boundary	EW/08/02B		22/07/22
Fence and Contours
Plan — Floor Plan.	EW/08/04	01/09/21	28/02/22
Plan — Sec­tion Plan.	EW/08/05	01/09/21	28/02/22
Plan — Sec­tion Plan.	EW/08/06	01/09/21	28/02/22
Plan — Sec­tion Plan.	EW/08/07	01/09/21	28/02/22
Plan — Sec­tion Plan.	EW/08/08	01/09/21	28/02/22
Plan — Fence, CCTV Mast and	EW/08/09	01/09/21	28/02/22
Con­trol Room Details.
Plan — Bat­tery Stor­age Unit Details.	EW/08/10	01/09/21	28/02/22
Plan — Elevations.	EW/08/11	01/09/21	28/02/22
Plan — Cable Ser­vitude Plan.	LT000184	01/09/21	28/02/22
	WAY004
	JM_132KV
Plan — View­point I — Visualisations.		21/07/21	28/02/22
Plan — View­point 2 — Visualisations.		21/07/21	28/02/22

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 23/09/2022

Plan — View­point 3 — Visu­al­isa­tions.		21/07/21	28/02/22
Plan — View­point 4 — Visualisations.		21/07/21	28/02/22
Plan — View­point 5 — Visualisations.		21/07/21	28/02/22
Plan — View­point 6 — Visualisations.		21/07/21	28/02/22
Plan — View­point 7 — Visualisations.		21/07/21	28/02/22
Plan — Vis­ib­il­ity Splays	C4690 (2)	04/02/22	28/02/22
	100
Plan — Hydro­lo­gic­al Con­text Map,	C4690-	04/02/22	28/02/22
	1244/FIGU
	RE I
Plan — LVIA Appendix 2 — Fig­ure 1.	C4690-	04/02/22	28/02/22
	1244/FIGU
	RE I
Plan — Land­scap­ing Plan.	C4690-	04/02/22	28/02/22
	1244/FIGU
	RE 2
Plan — LVIA Appendix 3 — Fig­ure 3.	C4690-	04/02/22	28/02/22
	1244/FIGU
	RE 3
Plan- Soak Away	C4690 (3)		22/07/22
	100
Sup­port­ing Documentation
Oth­er — Appendix 3 — Landscape		01/02/22	28/02/22
and Visu­al Impact Assessment.
Oth­er — Appendix 4 — Noise Impact		01/02/22	28/02/22
Assess­ment.
Oth­er — Appendix 5 — Cultural		01/02/22	28/02/22
Her­it­age.
Oth­er — Appendix 5 Fig­ure 1.1 -		01/02/22	28/02/22
Impact to Cul­tur­al Heritage.
Oth­er — Appendix 5 — Fig­ure 1.2 -		01/02/22	28/02/22
Indir­ect Impact on Cultural
Her­it­age.
Oth­er — Appendix 6 — Hydrology		01/02/22	28/02/22
Assess­ment.
Oth­er — Appendix 6 — Fig­ure 2 -		01/02/22	28/02/22
Risk of River Flooding.
Oth­er — Appendix 6 — Fig­ure 3 -		01/02/22	28/02/22
Soil Map.
Oth­er — Trans­port and Access		01/02/22	28/02/22
Assess­ment.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 23/09/2022

Oth­er — Appendix 8 -		01/02/22	28/02/22
Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan.
Oth­er — Eco­logy Survey.		01/10/21	10/03/22
Oth­er — Sup­port­ing Statement.		01/01/22	10/03/22
Oth­er — Updated CEMP		13/08/22	16/08/22
Oth­er — Supplementary		01/08/22	04/08/22
Envir­on­ment­al Information
SEI Appendix I Tree Root		01/07/22	16/08/22
Pro­tec­tion Plan.
SEI Appendix 2.1 Site Work		28/06/22	16.08.22
SEI Appendix 2.2 Soak Away		19/07/22	16/08/22
SEAI Appendix 3.1 Updated			16/08/22
Plant­ing Plan.

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

1. It is pro­posed to con­struct a bat­tery energy stor­age facil­ity (49.9 MW), includ­ing a con­trol build­ing, switch room, bat­tery stor­age con­tain­ers, invert­er con­tain­ers, land­scap­ing and asso­ci­ated works. The pro­posed energy stor­age facil­ity will accom­mod­ate up to 50 bat­tery stor­age units which will be housed in steel con­tain­ers. The con­tain­ers will have a light grey fin­ish, and will be 12.2m in length, 2.9m in height and 2.4m wide. Some of the con­tain­ers will be posi­tioned on con­crete plinths and, as a res­ult, will require access steps.

2. The pro­posed devel­op­ment includes ancil­lary struc­tures such as asso­ci­ated trans­formers and a sub-sta­tion build­ing. The sub-sta­tion build­ing will have an over­all foot­print of approx­im­ately 100 square metres and will be 5m in height. The build­ing will be of a block­work con­struc­tion with a harl render fin­ish and a pitched roof of grey slate. The pro­posed land­scap­ing will include areas of bund­ing using top­soil from the site and a 3m high, inner wood faced, acous­tic fence, to be painted dark brown. There is hard­stand­ing pro­posed, includ­ing both tem­por­ary and per­man­ent access roads. The pro­posed new access will link the devel­op­ment to an exist­ing farm track to the north east, and the B970 to the south east. The new plant­ing will be loc­ated on the site bound­ar­ies, and open areas with­in the site are to be planted with a wild­flower mix.

3. Plans of the pro­pos­als are included in Appendix 1.

His­tory

1. There is no plan­ning his­tory for the site but the applic­ants under­took reques­ted pre- applic­a­tion advice via High­land Council’s major applic­a­tion pre-applic­a­tion advice ser­vice and sub­mit­ted the stat­utory Pro­pos­al of Applic­a­tion Notice (PAN) for the pro­posed bat­tery stor­age units. The PAN was pre­vi­ously repor­ted to the Plan­ning Committee.

Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

1. An Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) has been car­ried out (17÷08÷22) The Hab­it­at Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al con­cluded that the pro­posed devel­op­ment is unlikely to have any

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 23/09/2022

sig­ni­fic­ant effects on hab­it­ats sup­port­ing the qual­i­fy­ing interest of the Cairngorms SAC and Kin­veachy Forest SPA.

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment has poten­tial to pre­vent the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the River Spey SAC being met. This could occur through sed­i­ment release into the adja­cent water­course that flows into the River Spey, and pol­lu­tion from the pro­posed fire sup­press­ant sys­tem and soak away. How­ever, the sub­mit­ted Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment Man­age­ment State­ment (CEMP), dated 13 August 2022, should address the risk of sed­i­ment release through appro­pri­ate pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion and con­trol meas­ures, such that the pol­lu­tion risk could be min­im­ised. Fur­ther­more, it is recom­men­ded that a con­di­tion is included to ensure that a type of fire sup­press­ant that is not harm­ful to aquat­ic life is used, thus fur­ther avoid­ing the risk of pol­lu­tion. Tha HRA con­cludes that with the appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures the pro­posed devel­op­ment will not have sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the site integ­rity of the River Spey SAC. The full apprais­al is attached at Appendix 2.

DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN CONTEXT

Policies

Nation­al Policy	Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy 2014
Stra­tegic Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 — 2022
Loc­al Plan Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2021)
	Those policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this application
	are marked with a cross
POLICY I	NEW HOUS­ING DEVELOPMENT
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	X
POLICY 8	OPEN SPACE, SPORT AND RECREATION
POLICY 9	CUL­TUR­AL HERITAGE
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 Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. The full word­ing of policies can be found 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 forms part of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan and provides more details about how to com­ply with the policies. Guid­ance that is rel­ev­ant to this applic­a­tion is marked with a cross.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 23/09/2022

Policy I	New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment Non-Stat­utory Guidance
	(2015)
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 3	Sus­tain­able Design Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance (2015)	X
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance	X
Policy 5	Land­scape Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 7	Renew­able Energy Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance	X
Policy 8	Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 11	Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance (2015)

CON­SULTA­TIONS

Sum­mary of the main issues raised by consultees

1. SEPA has stated that the land rais­ing, as a res­ult of the pro­posed land­scap­ing works, is adja­cent to the 200-year func­tion­al flood plain of the River Spey. How­ever, it is fur­ther noted that the land rais­ing will start approx­im­ately 2m above the func­tion­al flood plain of the River Spey, and, there­fore, it is unlikely to have any impact on the flood plain. There are no objec­tions to the pro­posed devel­op­ment on flood risk grounds.

2. In terms of site res­tor­a­tion, and to ensure that decom­mis­sion­ing works are car­ried out in an envir­on­ment­ally sens­it­ive man­ner, a final­ised Decom­mis­sion­ing and Res­tor­a­tion Plan should be sub­mit­ted, includ­ing the details of the remov­al of all infrastructure.

3. Scot­tish Water has no objec­tions to the pro­pos­als, but sug­gest the applic­ant com­pletes a Pre-Devel­op­ment Enquiry form ensur­ing that the devel­op­ment can be ser­viced and con­tacts Scot­tish Water regard­ing the pro­posed drain­age plan. They con­firm that the devel­op­ment would be fed from Aviemore Water Treat­ment Works, although capa­city will have to be reviewed once per­mis­sion is gran­ted for the scheme.

4. NatureScot have reserved com­ments until such time as a draft HRA has been submitted

5. High­land Coun­cil Con­tam­in­ated Land Officer has stated that there are no known con­tam­in­ated land issues at this site and there­fore, there are no com­ments to make regard­ing this application.

6. High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team has no objec­tions to the pro­posed devel­op­ment, sub­ject to sug­ges­ted con­di­tions relat­ing to site access and traffic man­age­ment measures.

7. All works with­in, or along­side, Coun­cil main­tained roads will require pri­or approv­al of High­land Coun­cil, as roads author­ity. The detailed require­ments of all works affect­ing the pub­lic road shall be agreed through the per­mit applic­a­tion process.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 23/09/2022

1. High­land Coun­cil Archae­ology Officer has stated that the site lies with­in an area of archae­olo­gic­al poten­tial, and that it is con­sidered that there remains the poten­tial for bur­ied sites or finds that may be impacted by the development.

2. In light of this, it is neces­sary that the nature, and extent, of any fea­tures is iden­ti­fied and recor­ded pri­or to any risk of them being des­troyed. It is recom­men­ded that a suit­ably worded con­di­tion is included to ensure that that site clear­ance work should be done under archae­olo­gic­al super­vi­sion. Record­ing should be done without caus­ing any delay, or incon­veni­ence, to the devel­op­ment. This work is rel­ev­ant to any site clear­ance, ground­works, and ser­vices and access that may be required that may be required. A con­trolled top­soil strip should be used to ensure that any archae­olo­gic­al fea­tures uncovered will be adequately recor­ded. The applic­ant will require to engage the ser­vices of a pro­fes­sion­al archae­olo­gist, and the res­ult­ing report will be logged in the High­land His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Record (HER)

3. High­land Coun­cil Envir­on­ment­al Health Officer has no objec­tions to the pro­posed devel­op­ment and has acknow­ledged that the applic­ant has sub­mit­ted a Noise Impact Assess­ment, which demon­strates that noise levels will com­ply with the rel­ev­ant stand­ards. Fur­ther­more, it is expec­ted that the developer will employ the best prac­tic­able means to reduce the impact of noise from con­struc­tion works.

4. It is recom­men­ded that any con­sent issued should include con­di­tions that a detailed spe­cific­a­tion of the pro­posed noise bar­ri­er, and an updated noise impact assess­ment demon­strat­ing that cumu­lat­ive noise arising from the devel­op­ment, and adja­cent sub sta­tion, will not exceed 30Db at any noise sens­it­ive premises, and that the Rat­ing Level of cumu­lat­ive noise arising from the use of plant, machinery etc must not exceed 30Db, at the cur­til­age of any noise sens­it­ive premises.

5. High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team have stated that in terms of flood risk, the pro­posed devel­op­ment is at low risk of flood­ing. Fur­ther­more, in light of the res­ults of recent per­col­a­tion tests at the loc­a­tion of the pro­posed soak aways, it is evid­ent that infilt­ra­tion is viable. How­ever, any con­sent issued should include a con­di­tion that a final drain­age design is sub­mit­ted for review and approv­al. This should include cal­cu­la­tions to demon­strate that storms up to and includ­ing the I in 200 year plus cli­mate change event will be man­aged with­in the site boundary.

6. High­land Coun­cil Forestry Officer has not provided any com­ments in rela­tion to this application.

7. CNPA Land­scape Officer has stated that, giv­en the topo­graphy of the pro­posed devel­op­ment site and sur­round­ing area, and the pres­ence of an exist­ing saw­mill to the north, the bat­tery stor­age unit will not have any impact on loc­al viewpoints.

8. How­ever, it is pre­dicted that the pro­posed secur­ity fence could res­ult in some sig­ni­fic­ant visu­al effects. There­fore, the fence should be designed to min­im­ise these effects and incor­por­ate mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures, such as plant­ing on the out­side of the fence. This will dimin­ish any of the fence’s prom­in­ence in views as an incon­gru­ous line or edge. In addi­tion, the pro­posed cut slope on the south side of the side is to be up to

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 23/09/2022

10m in height. This could lead to sig­ni­fic­ant land­scape and visu­al effects but could be softened by the inclu­sion of the plant­ing of nat­ive trees and shrubs.

1. In terms of the pro­posed plant­ing, the new hedge should extend the whole way around the secur­ity fence, and should com­prise mainly of hazel, with some holly and dog rose. Indi­vidu­al trees and shrubs selec­ted for plant­ing should relate to the spe­cif­ic ground con­di­tions, with Scots pine and / or birch and row­an on the steep­er, drier slopes, and wil­low and alder on the lower, wet­ter ground. Fur­ther­more, the land­scape pro­pos­als should extend to the red – line bound­ary, to tie in with the exist­ing burn. Finally, inform­a­tion is required on how the site land­scape out with the bat­tery stor­age com­pound, but with­in the red line bound­ary, will be man­aged over time.

2. CNPA Eco­logy Officer has stated that the pro­posed applic­a­tion site is in close prox­im­ity to both the River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC) and the Aber­nethy Forest Spe­cial Pro­tec­ted Area (SPA). The sur­round­ing wood­land is pre­dom­in­antly Scots pine and some juni­per bushes. There is a wet­land area imme­di­ately to the north of the pro­posed devel­op­ment site which may be used by waders.

3. In terms of breed­ing birds, sand mar­tins have been recor­ded as nest­ing in the sand banks adjoin­ing the exist­ing farm track, close to where the pro­posed con­struc­tion access track will join the farm track. There­fore, con­struc­tion traffic will pass in close prox­im­ity to the nest­ing loc­a­tion which will lead to dis­turb­ance of breed­ing birds. How­ever, this can be mit­ig­ated against through the meas­ures set out in the revised Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment Man­age­ment Plan (CEMP) August 2021. Oth­er breed­ing birds may use the adjoin­ing pine trees but are likely to nest in the can­opy and are at less risk of dis­turb­ance from con­struc­tion traffic.

4. Evid­ence of red squir­rel was found with­in the vicin­ity of the exist­ing elec­tri­city sub sta­tion, and if breed­ing with­in this area would be found with­in 50m of the pro­posed devel­op­ment. There­fore, there could be a mod­er­ate impact on red- squir­rel if con­struc­tion works take place dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son, and with­in 50m of an occu­pied drey. How­ever, mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures set out in the revised CEMP will reduce the effects to neg­li­gible. Fur­ther­more, as there is no tree felling pro­posed, there will be no effects on bats or pine martin.

5. Whilst no evid­ence of badger or otter was found, they are both known to inhab­it the sur­round­ing area, and may pass through the site. There­fore, there is a minor risk of entrap­ment, should they enter grounds works, or exposed pipes. How­ever, mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures set out in the revised CEMP will address any risk.

6. Giv­en that only five trees are pro­posed to be felled, and that there are of low qual­ity, the pro­pos­als will not res­ult in a neg­at­ive envir­on­ment­al impact. Root pro­tec­tion meas­ures for the exist­ing trees on site have been set out in the revised CEMP, sub­mit­ted August 2022. There is tree plant­ing pro­posed, mainly on the two bunds sur­round­ing the bat­tery stor­age unit enclos­ure, using nat­ive spe­cies that are more suited to the ground con­di­tions. Fur­ther­more, the use of nat­ive spe­cies would provide great­er value for biodiversity.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 23/09/2022

1. There is some poten­tial for impact on the fresh­wa­ter envir­on­ment, includ­ing the River Spey. How­ever, mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures set out in the revised CEMP will any impact and ensure no pol­lu­tion will reach the River Spey and adja­cent drain­age ditches.

2. A con­di­tion is recom­men­ded that enhanced plant­ing on the open areas should use a nat­ive wild­flower mix appro­pri­ate to the ground and soil con­di­tions. This will provide food for insects, and in turn, bene­fit oth­er wildlife.

3. CNPA Out­door Access Team have stated that the River Spey Core Path (LB51) is, at its closest point, 360m from the pro­posed devel­op­ment site. There­fore, there may be poten­tial impacts affect­ing users of this route. How­ever, there are no issues in terms of stat­utory access mat­ters. Fur­ther­more, the visu­al impacts on the Spey­side Way (south east of the site) are assessed as low to moderate.

4. How­ever, giv­en the prox­im­ity of Nation­al Cycle Route 7, and The Spey­side Way (Core Path) at Boat of Garten, it is recom­men­ded that any Con­struc­tion Traffic Man­age­ment Plan takes account for the poten­tial impacts of the pro­posed devel­op­ment on ped­es­tri­ans and cyclists.

5. Boat of Garten Com­munity Coun­cil have not made any com­ments regard­ing the pro­posed development.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. There has been one let­ter of objec­tion sub­mit­ted as a res­ult of this applic­a­tion, and com­ments from Scot­tish and South­ern Elec­tri­city Net­works (SSEN). Cop­ies of the pub­lic responses can be viewed in Appendix 3. The main points of objec­tion are sum­mar­ised as follows:

a) The pro­posed devel­op­ment will res­ult in a loss of amen­ity for neigh­bour­ing prop­er­ties. b) The pro­posed devel­op­ment will res­ult in a loss of hab­it­at for sev­er­al spe­cies. c) In terms of its size and scale, the pro­posed devel­op­ment is out of keep­ing with the sur­round­ing area. d) The pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­trary to CNPA Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Policy 2.4: Oth­er Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment, and will not sup­port, or extend, the loc­al eco­nomy. e) The pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­trary to CNPA Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Policy 3.3: Sus­tain­able Design. f) The pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­trary to CNPA Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Policy 5: Land­scape. g) The pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­trary to CNPA Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Policy 7: Renew­able Energy. h) The pro­pos­als will have an adverse impact on sur­face water run-off and may res­ult in an increased risk of flood­ing. i) The noise mit­ig­a­tion pro­pos­als will not be effect­ive in redu­cing noise levels to an accept­able level. j) The pro­posed devel­op­ment is a fire haz­ard and is in the vicin­ity of res­id­en­tial properties

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 23/09/2022

k) The pro­pos­als will have an adverse impact on the loc­al hol­i­day let business.

1. SSEN have made com­ments on the pro­posed devel­op­ment, which are sum­mar­ised as fol­lows: a) There is vari­ous SSEN owned trans­mis­sion infra­struc­ture, includ­ing under­ground cabling, in the applic­a­tion site. b) The pro­posed lay­out may have an impact on the exist­ing under­ground cabling, par­tic­u­larly in the east, and north west sec­tions of the site, and SSEN would seek agree­ment to any meth­od of cross­ing these areas with heavy con­struc­tion machinery. c) The pro­posed plant­ing, in the north and west of the exist­ing sub-sta­tion, is over exist­ing under­ground cabling, and, as such, SSEN would seek to agree the details of the pro­posed plant­ing, pri­or to con­struc­tion. d) It is recom­men­ded that any con­sent issued includes a con­di­tion that the applic­ant agrees with SSEN the con­struc­tion work details, a detailed Trans­port Man­age­ment Plan in rela­tion to the pro­posed access track, and any land­scap­ing works and tree planting.

APPRAIS­AL

1. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions are con­sidered to be the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment; the impact upon the land­scape; lay­out, sit­ing, amen­ity and design; envir­on­ment­al impacts; ser­vi­cing and access and cul­tur­al heritage.

Prin­ciple of Development

1. Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy (SPP) is a key con­sid­er­a­tion with regards to the pro­posed devel­op­ment, 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).

2. Policy 2.4: Oth­er Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that pro­pos­als which sup­port or extend the eco­nomy, or which enhance the range and qual­ity of eco­nom­ic oppor­tun­it­ies or facil­it­ies, will be con­sidered favour­ably where they:

a) have no adverse envir­on­ment­al or amen­ity impacts on the site or neigh­bour­ing areas; and b) are compatible/​complementary with exist­ing busi­ness activ­ity in the area; and c) sup­port the vital­ity and viab­il­ity of the loc­al economy.

1. Any envir­on­ment­al and amen­ity impacts, as a res­ult of the pro­posed devel­op­ment, will be assessed in the rel­ev­ant sec­tions of this report. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to be oper­a­tion­ally com­pat­ible and visu­ally com­ple­ment­ary to the exist­ing elec­tri­city sub­sta­tion, loc­ated imme­di­ately to the south of the devel­op­ment site. The devel­op­ment site is loc­ated on ground owned by East Croft­more Farm and income from the bat­tery stor­age use will sup­port the diver­si­fic­a­tion of the farm business.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 23/09/2022

1. There will be a total of two full time jobs gen­er­ated as a res­ult of the pro­pos­als. These will be once the devel­op­ment is oper­a­tion­al and will include off and on- site oper­a­tion, mon­it­or­ing pos­i­tions and site secur­ity. Fur­ther­more, it is anti­cip­ated that the con­struc­tion phase will gen­er­ate up to 15 tem­por­ary jobs, employ­ing loc­al pro­fes­sion­als and con­tract­ors, as well as fur­ther eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment through the use of loc­al aggreg­ate and build­ing sup­pli­ers. There­fore, the bat­tery stor­age unit will sup­port the loc­al economy.

2. The bat­tery stor­age unit will provide sup­port to the Nation­al Grid and will ensure a con­sist­ent sup­ply of energy from all sources, though the oppor­tun­it­ies for bat­tery stor­age have been partly driv­en by the peaks and troughs of renew­able energy gen­er­a­tion. In gen­er­al terms, the bat­tery stor­age facil­ity will con­trib­ute to the resi­li­ence and effi­ciency of the Nation­al Grid to ensure con­tinu­ity of sup­plies to all users, includ­ing busi­nesses and can be said to sup­port the vital­ity and viab­il­ity of the loc­al eco­nomy as an essen­tial util­ity and is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 2.4: Oth­er Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

3. Policy 7.1: Renew­able Energy of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states all renew­able energy devel­op­ments pro­pos­als for renew­able energy gen­er­a­tion will be con­sidered favour­ably where:

a) they con­trib­ute pos­it­ively to the min­im­isa­tion of cli­mate change. b) they sup­port the sus­tain­ab­il­ity cre­den­tials of the devel­op­ment. c) they con­serve and enhance the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Park. d) they include appro­pri­ate means of access and traffic man­age­ment, includ­ing appro­pri­ate arrange­ments for con­struc­tion areas and com­pounds. e) they adequately min­im­ise all cumu­lat­ive effects.

1. Although the bat­tery stor­age facil­ity is not a renew­able energy devel­op­ment itself, it is will sup­port the decar­bon­isa­tion of the elec­tric­al grid in the Nation­al Park and bey­ond. The pro­posed devel­op­ment will sup­port the Nation­al Grid, import­ing and stor­ing power when there is an excess of renew­able gen­er­a­tion, and then export­ing this power back on to the grid when there is a defi­cit of such gen­er­a­tion. This will reduce the require­ment for non-renew­able gen­er­a­tion and sup­port a con­tinu­ity of energy sup­ply. There­fore, the pro­posed devel­op­ment will deliv­er a sig­ni­fic­ant con­tri­bu­tion towards the min­im­isa­tion of cli­mate change.

2. Any impacts on the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park will be assessed in the Land­scape Impacts, Envir­on­ment­al Impacts and Cul­tur­al Her­it­age sec­tions of this report.

3. In terms of access, traffic man­age­ment and con­struc­tion arrange­ments, there has been a Traffic and Access Assess­ment and a Con­struc­tion and Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan sub­mit­ted. An assess­ment of these issues can be found in the Ser­vi­cing and Access sec­tion of this report.

4. On this basis, the pro­posed bat­tery stor­age unit is con­sidered to be accept­able in terms of Policy 7: Renew­able Energy, of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, sub­ject to com­pli­ance with oth­er rel­ev­ant Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 23/09/2022

Land­scape Impacts

1. Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 pre­sumes against devel­op­ment which does not con­serve and enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park and in par­tic­u­lar the set­ting of the pro­posed development.

2. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is loc­ated on the edge of wood­land, loc­ated 250m from the south­ern bank of the River Spey. The bat­tery stor­age unit will not res­ult in the loss of any land­scape fea­tures and will primar­ily affect a loc­al land­scape of rough grass­land used for graz­ing. Giv­en that the pro­posed devel­op­ment has been loc­ated adja­cent to an exist­ing elec­tri­city sub-sta­tion, the addi­tion of the pro­pos­als will not have an adverse impact on the land­scape char­ac­ter of the site and the sur­round­ing area. There is con­sidered to be loc­al land­scape capa­city for the pro­posed development.

3. The pro­posed devel­op­ment has been posi­tioned to the side of a shal­low slope and will not be a prom­in­ent fea­ture in the loc­al land­scape. The bat­tery stor­age unit has been set back from the River Spey, and will not have any dir­ect impact on this land­scape fea­ture. The exist­ing veget­a­tion and topo­graphy around the site will also provide a level of visu­al con­tain­ment. The pro­pos­als will only res­ult in the loss of 5 trees, with the exist­ing wood­land being util­ised for screen­ing. How­ever, in order to ensure the pro­tec­tion of the exist­ing trees dur­ing the con­struc­tion phase, any con­sent issued will include a suit­ably worded con­di­tion that the root pro­tec­tion meas­ures set out in the revised Con­struc­tion and Envir­on­ment Man­age­ment Plan (CEMP) should be imple­men­ted in full.

4. The tree plant­ing and oth­er land­scap­ing pro­pos­als will fur­ther screen views and soften the edges of the pro­posed devel­op­ment and will mit­ig­ate the pro­posed cut slope. A con­di­tion is recom­men­ded that details are sub­mit­ted of how the areas with­in the red line bound­ary, but out with the lim­its of the Plant­ing Plan, are to be planted and managed.

5. It is pro­posed to sur­round the devel­op­ment site with a tim­ber faced secur­ity and acous­tic fence. How­ever, in order to reduce any poten­tial land­scape impacts, any con­sent issued will include a con­di­tion that details of the col­our of the fence shall be sub­mit­ted for approv­al pri­or to works com­men­cing on site. Fur­ther­more, as the plant­ing matures, it will be fully screened.

6. How­ever, views of the con­struc­tion site could lead to a neg­at­ive, but tem­por­ary, impact. It is there­fore recom­men­ded that any con­sent gran­ted should include a suit­ably worded con­di­tion that all dis­turbed areas as a res­ult of the con­struc­tion phase will be restored upon com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment using appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion measures.

7. In light of the above, and sub­ject to the afore­men­tioned con­di­tions, the pro­posed devel­op­ment will not intro­duce any not­able det­ri­ment­al changes to the land­scape char­ac­ter of the site and imme­di­ate area, and is, there­fore, con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 5: Land­scape, of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 23/09/2022

Lay­out, Sit­ing, Design and Amenity

1. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that all devel­op­ments must be designed to be sym­path­et­ic to the tra­di­tion­al pat­tern and char­ac­ter of the sur­round­ing area, loc­al ver­nacu­lar and loc­al dis­tinct­ive­ness, whilst encour­aging innov­a­tion in design and use of mater­i­als. All mater­i­als and land­scap­ing should com­ple­ment the set­ting of the devel­op­ment. In terms of amen­ity, all devel­op­ment should pro­tect the amen­ity enjoyed by neigh­bours, includ­ing min­im­isa­tion of dis­turb­ance caused by access to the devel­op­ment site.

2. In this instance, the pro­posed devel­op­ment will be sim­il­ar in size and design to the exist­ing elec­tri­city sub-sta­tion, loc­ated to the south of the site. Fur­ther­more, the type of struc­tures, and mater­i­als, that are being pro­posed are typ­ic­al of those to be found in this type of devel­op­ment and are in- keep­ing with the adja­cent elec­tri­city sub – sta­tion, and oth­er agri­cul­tur­al build­ings in the sur­round­ing area. How­ever, the pro­posed bat­tery stor­age units are light grey which is an inap­pro­pri­ate col­our for this rur­al loc­a­tion. There­fore, any con­sent issued will include a con­di­tion that details of the col­our and fin­ish of the bat­tery stor­age units is sub­mit­ted for approv­al pri­or to works com­men­cing on site.

3. In terms of amen­ity, the poten­tial effects on neigh­bour­ing amen­ity are expec­ted to be min­im­al. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is 175m from Alden Lodge to the west, and 300