Item5AACairngormBikeTracks

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 27/05/22

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PRO­POSED: Form­a­tion of moun­tain bike track and related infra­struc­ture at Ranger Base Office Cairngorm Moun­tain Glen­more Aviemore PH22 IRB

REF­ER­ENCE: 2022/0046/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Cairngorm Moun­tain (Scot­land) Limited

DATE CALLED-IN: 14 Feb­ru­ary 2022

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve, sub­ject to Con­di­tions and Developer Contribution

CASE OFFICER: Stephanie Wade, Plan­ning Officer

CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 27/05/22

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The applic­a­tion site is loc­ated on the north-west­ern slope of Coire Cas and to the south and south-east­ern area, adja­cent to the Cairngorm Moun­tain Ski Centre Day Lodge. It com­prises slop­ing, veget­ated land with drain­age chan­nels flow­ing into the Allt a‑Choire Chais. The land, forms part of the ski slope used by the ski centre and is segreg­ated in places by snow fen­cing. A foot­path runs par­tially with­in, and sub­sequently adja­cent to, the north-east­ern devel­op­ment site bound­ary, which links the Day Lodge to the Mid- Sta­tion area, fur­ther up the slope. The vehicu­lar track to the west­ern side of the Funicu­lar rail­way is also par­tially with­in the devel­op­ment area. The devel­op­ment area also includes the vehicu­lar track which runs north-east­erly to south-west­erly at the Mid- Station.

2. The wider ski centre is accessed by the exist­ing B970 road from Glen­more, which ter­min­ates at a large park­ing area, beside the Day Lodge and Funicu­lar Rail­way Base Station.

3. The applic­a­tion site lies with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Scen­ic Area but is not covered by any oth­er spe­cif­ic envir­on­ment­al des­ig­na­tions. The Cairngorms Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion, des­ig­nated for hab­it­at interests, and the North­ern Cor­ries, Cairngorms Site of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest lies over 400 metres west of the site. The Cairngorms Wild Land Area No.15 lies over 600 metres west of the site at its closet point, circ­ling the entire ski area.

Pro­pos­al

1. The draw­ings and doc­u­ments asso­ci­ated with this applic­a­tion are lis­ted below and are avail­able on the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity web­site unless noted otherwise:

http://​www​.eplan​ningcnpa​.co​.uk/​o​n​line- applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=R6Y9OQSI0C100

Title Draw­ing Date on Date Received Num­ber Plan* PLANS Plan- Loc­a­tion Plan 001 Rev.A 16/11/21 14/02/22 Plan- Loc­a­tion Site Lay­out Plan 001 Rev.A 16/11/21 14/02/22 Plan- Site Lay­out Plan Over­all Trail 002 Rev.A 16/11/21 14/02/22 Plan Plan- Learner Zone Trail Lay­out 003 Rev.A 16/11/21 14/02/22 Plan- Site Lay­out Plan- Upper Zone 005 Rev.A 16/11/21 14/02/22 Plan- Site Lay­out Plan- Mid Moun­tain 004 Rev.A 16/11/21 14/02/22 Zone Plan- Con­vey­or Belt Over­view Plan Pr19-10- 13/10/21 12/04/22 142_r2

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 27/05/22

Plan- Con­vey­or Belt 93m Large Size Pr19-10- 13/10/21 12/04/22 Plan 142_​r2 Plan- Con­vey­or Belt 96m Large Size Pr19-10- 13/10/21 12/04/22 Plan 142 r2 2_​r2 Plan- Con­vey­or Belt 93m Length Pr19-10- 13/10/21 12/04/22 Plan I of 2 142_​r2 Plan- Con­vey­or Belt 93m Length Pr19-10- 13/10/21 12/04/22 Plan 2 of 2 142 r2 Plan- Con­vey­or Belt 96m Length Pr19-10- 13/10/21 12/04/22 Plan I of 2 142_​r2 Plan- Con­vey­or Belt 96m Length Pr19-10- 13/10/21 12/04/22 Plan 2 of 2 142 r2 Plan- Trail Align­ment and Poten­tial 676287- 21/04/22 03/05/22 GWDTE Hab­it­at QGIS001 SUP­PORT­ING DOC­U­MENT­A­TION Oth­er- Work­ing with the 01/02/18 14/02/22 Envir­on­ment Oth­er- Vis­it­or Man­age­ment Plan 21/01/22 14/02/22 Oth­er- Sup­port­ing State­ment 01/01/22 14/02/22 Oth­er- Cov­er­ing Let­ter, Sup­port­ing CAIR0017/ 19/01/22 14/02/22 Inform­a­tion bm/​jp Oth­er- Con­struc­tion Meth­od 01/02/18 14/02/22 State­ment Oth­er- Assess­ment of Risks to 01/11/21 16/02/22 Adja­cent European Sites to Inform HRA Oth­er- Eco­lo­gic­al Con­straints 9779 26/11/21 16/02/22 Sur­vey Oth­er- Fur­ther Inform­a­tion for 29/04/22 29/04/22 Trans­port Quer­ies and Vis­it­or Num­bers Oth­er- Agent response to Roads 01/04/22 29/04/22 Plan­ning Con­di­tions Oth­er- Fur­ther Inform­a­tion for 29/04/22 29/04/22 Land­scape Quer­ies Oth­er- Agent Response to Eco­logy 03/05/22 03/05/22 Quer­ies Oth­er — Mon­it­or­ing Strategy for 01/05/22 05/05/22 Path Num­ber 4701 *Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the Ist of the month.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 27/05/22

1. This applic­a­tion seeks plan­ning per­mis­sion for the form­a­tion of three inter­linked moun­tain bike trails togeth­er with the install­a­tion of a con­vey­or belt uplift sys­tem com­pris­ing two con­vey­or belts of 93m and 96m in length. The pro­pos­al would be sited with­in the low­est sec­tion of Cairngorm Moun­tain between the base sta­tion and the mid- station.

2. It is under­stood that the pro­pos­al has been developed by the applic­ant in asso­ci­ation with the Devel­op­ing Moun­tain Bik­ing in Scot­land (DMBS)- who are part of Scot­tish Cyc­ling and who is respons­ible for over­see­ing the deliv­ery of the Scot­tish Moun­tain Bike Strategy. The trails are aimed at the fam­ily mar­ket, on grav­ity flow type beginner/​inter­me­di­ate trails accom­mod­at­ing young riders, with the magic car­pet type uplift. Flow trails are pur­pose-built moun­tain bike trails.

3. The con­vey­or belt would be sited with­in the pro­posed Learner Zone. Access is from the track run­ning south from the Day Lodge. An area of hard­stand­ing is pro­posed to be cre­ated at the start of the first con­vey­or belt to provide a sur­faced, wait­ing area for the users. The first con­vey­or belt would be 93m in length provid­ing an uplift up the slope with users step­ping off this belt and mov­ing across to take the 96m con­vey­or belt to ascend fur­ther or tak­ing the des­cent trail back down from this point. The con­vey­or belts both have flat entry and exit plat­forms, a cent­ral belt of approx­im­ately 0.6m in width and walk­ways of approx­im­ately 0.3m on either side. Cut and fill of ground where the con­vey­ors will be sited is required to ensure the belt gradi­ents are main­tained through­out the lengths of the belts. The aver­age grade for the belts is 15%. The belt itself is black, nat­ur­al rub­ber, raised above the ground and sup­por­ted by met­al legs which are adjustable to cre­ate the gradient.

4. At the top of the second con­vey­or belt, begin­ner trails No.08 and No.09 provide mean­der­ing des­cent routes, with added berms on corners, back to the bot­tom of the Learner Zone. The Inter­me­di­ate des­cent trail No.10 runs along the south­ern side of the con­vey­or belts through the Learner Zone.

5. Ascent trail No.01 con­nects the top of the con­vey­or belt with the exist­ing foot­path which will be used by the bikers and walk­ers for a sec­tion link­ing into Ascent Tail No.02, which meanders up the hill­slope adja­cent to the exist­ing vehicle track. With­in the Upper Zone, ascent trail No.03 runs adja­cent to the exist­ing hill track at the Mid Sta­tion, join­ing into des­cent trails No.04 and No.05 and sub­sequently No.06. Des­cent trail No.04 links into the Mid-Zone area. This area includes Advance des­cent trail No.07, with trail No.04 provid­ing the final des­cent link back to join des­cent trail No.10.

6. The trails are to be con­struc­ted of a com­pacted sub­base and fin­ished with a 25mm dust, com­pacted sur­face. The widths of the trails will pre­dom­in­antly be of I metre or below, with straight­er trail sec­tions reduced to 0.75m. Land­ings and run offs are gen­er­ally less than 2m for short sec­tions at approx­im­ately 6 to 7 metres in length at the fea­ture. A small num­ber of high­er rider level fea­tures are more than 2m for 6 to 7 metres in length. The over­all trail lengths are included with­in the table below:

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 27/05/22

Trail Name Length/​Area Ascent Trail 01 240m Ascent Trail 02 650m Ascent Trail 03 250m Des­cent Trail 04 694m Des­cent Trail 05 75m Des­cent Trail 06 100m Des­cent Trail 07 120m Learner Zone Area 1.05 Ha Mid Moun­tain Zone Area 0.43 Ha

1. The new ascent trail which adopts a zig-zag route, is spe­cific­ally required to reduce the steep­ness of the incline to adequately address the fam­ily mar­ket that is tar­geted. Where the ascent track joins the hill­walk­ers path, the sup­port­ing inform­a­tion states that the exist­ing path is wide enough to cater for both users without con­flict for that sec­tion. Trail and con­vey­or belt drain­age is pro­posed by way of the con­struc­tion of turf lined drain­age ditches where required, and trails are to be con­struc­ted of por­ous mater­i­al with a com­pacted, dust fin­ish above a com­pacted subbase.

2. The sup­port­ing inform­a­tion pro­jects vis­it­ors to use the moun­tain bike facil­it­ies between May — Octo­ber (inclus­ive). Annu­al vis­it­or num­bers are pro­jec­ted at 10,408 in year 1, increas­ing to 11,488 in year 2 and 13,738 in year 3. This is based on a max­im­um capa­city of 90 people, a 10% increase in year 2 and 20% in year 3, driv­en by increased effi­ciency in oper­a­tion and max­im­isa­tions of poten­tial sea­son use.

3. A Vis­it­or Man­age­ment Plan has been sub­mit­ted, which includes inform­a­tion on how the facil­ity will be oper­ated, pro­posed sig­nage and book­ing information.

4. Plans of the pro­pos­al can be viewed at Appendix 1.

His­tory

1. There have been numer­ous plan­ning applic­a­tions with­in the wider Cairngorm Moun­tain area. On 14^th Octo­ber 2021, High­land Coun­cil gran­ted con­sent (21/03808/S42) for the con­tin­ued tem­por­ary sit­ing of a double snow fact­ory unit on ground near the Day Lodge, extend­ing the dur­a­tion of the sit­ing which has been per­mit­ted by both the CNPA and High­land Coun­cil in pre­vi­ous years.

2. An applic­a­tion for the install­a­tion of car park bar­ri­ers (2020/0097/DET) at the entrance to the Upper Coire Cas car park was gran­ted con­sent by the CNPA on 16 June 2020. In May 2020, plan­ning per­mis­sion was gran­ted by the CNPA for the engin­eer­ing works related to the strength­en­ing of the funicu­lar via­duct (2020/0076/DET).

3. With­in the same devel­op­ment area as the applic­a­tion being con­sidered with­in this report, was plan­ning per­mis­sion 2019/0247/DET which per­mit­ted engin­eer­ing works to smooth and regrade the land.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 27/05/22

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al [HRA] has been under­taken to con­sider the effects of the pro­pos­al upon the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the European Sites: River Spey SAC, Cairngorms SAC and Cairngorms SPA. A copy of the HRA is attached at Appendix 2.

2. CNPA and NatureScot worked with the applic­ant to devise a mon­it­or­ing strategy to address poten­tial effects on the Cairngorms SAC. The mon­it­or­ing strategy meth­od­o­logy was ori­gin­ally pro­posed as a con­di­tion in the ori­gin­al HRA. How­ever, on fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tion, this was used to cre­ate a mon­it­or­ing strategy doc­u­ment, which was sub­mit­ted by the applic­ant in May 2022 as sup­port­ing documentation.

3. The HRA con­cludes that there will be no dir­ect or indir­ect effects on the hab­it­ats, their struc­tures or func­tion or sup­port­ing pro­cesses, sub­ject to the inclu­sion of two plan­ning con­di­tions. The first being for the agree­ment of a con­struc­tion meth­od state­ment to ensure pol­lu­tion does not enter the River Spey SAC and so avoid an adverse effect on site integ­rity. The second plan­ning con­di­tion required is for the imple­ment­a­tion of the sub­mit­ted Mon­it­or­ing Strategy for Path 4701 to ensure dam­age to qual­i­fy­ing hab­it­ats is min­im­ised and so avoid adverse effect on site integrity.

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 & 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 POLICY 10 RESOURCES X POLICY 11 DEVELOPER CON­TRI­BU­TIONS X

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

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 27/05/22

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.

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 Policy 8 Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X Policy 9 Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance Policy 10 Resources Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X Policy 11 Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance (2015) X

CON­SULTA­TIONS

Sum­mary of the main issues raised by consultees

1. NatureScot agree with the con­tent and con­clu­sions of the HRA and have no fur­ther com­ments to make. They also agree with the con­tent of the mon­it­or­ing strategy document.

2. SEPA have no spe­cif­ic com­ments to make as the devel­op­ment falls below their con­sulta­tion threshold and their Stand­ing Advice there­fore applies.

3. High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team does not wish to com­ment on the applic­a­tion. They note that the applic­a­tion is for out­door recre­ation­al use and there­fore water com­pat­ible under SEPA’s Flood Risk and Land Use Vul­ner­ab­il­ity Guidance.

4. High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team has reviewed the revised inform­a­tion which includes vis­it­or fore­casts and con­firm they have no objec­tion to the applic­a­tion sub­ject to the inclu­sion of plan­ning con­di­tions for:

a) Pro­vi­sion of addi­tion­al covered cycle park­ing close to the main entrance; and b) A fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tion towards the road safety issues from the ski road into the Sug­ar­bowl car park. The Team note that the access is poor and there is a con­flict point between cars using the road and ped­es­tri­ans want­ing to cross it. The pro­posed devel­op­ment will increase the volume of traffic on the ski road and exacer­bate these exist­ing con­flicts and the fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tion would help the devel­op­ment of pro­pos­als to address them. c) Pro­vi­sion of a con­struc­tion traffic man­age­ment plan to pro­tect the integ­rity of the pub­lic roads.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 27/05/22

1. CNPA Eco­logy Officer has no objec­tion. Regard­ing the pro­tec­ted spe­cies sur­vey, the Officer notes that the sur­vey was under­taken at the wrong time of the year to pick up breed­ing birds, breed­ing mam­mals and amphi­bi­an and rep­tile pres­ence. From pre­vi­ous sur­veys under­taken on Cairngorm Moun­tain we know that the site area is likely to be used by moun­tain hare, amphi­bi­ans, breed­ing birds and rep­tiles. This has been acknow­ledged with­in the report and likely sig­ni­fic­ance sur­mised and mit­ig­a­tion provided.

2. Regard­ing the water envir­on­ment, includ­ing GWDTE, the Officer is con­tent that the inform­a­tion sup­plied detail­ing the loc­a­tion of the GWDTE’s and the pro­posed moun­tain bike trails along with the pro­posed mit­ig­a­tion to micro-site the tracks to avoid the GWDTE will pre­vent any dam­age to this hab­it­at type res­ult­ing from this pro­pos­al. The Officer recom­mends the addi­tion of plan­ning con­di­tions for pre-con­struc­tion sur­veys for moun­tain hare, water vole and breed­ing birds and a con­struc­tion meth­od statement.

3. CNPA Land­scape Officer assesses that there is some land­scape capa­city to devel­op moun­tain bike trails in-between the Cairngorm Main Build­ing and Funicu­lar Mid- Sta­tion, par­tic­u­larly due to the strong influ­ence of exist­ing ski infra­struc­ture on the char­ac­ter of the exist­ing land­scape. It is import­ant, how­ever, that this does not extend or amp­li­fy the exist­ing land­scape and visu­al effects of the ski centre by a sig­ni­fic­ant degree in the Nation­al Park.

4. Based on the inform­a­tion sub­mit­ted, it is assessed that the pro­posed Ascent Trail 01 and 02 would res­ult in adverse cumu­lat­ive effects in addi­tion to exist­ing access routes and it is advised that scope to util­ise exist­ing accent routes to reach the ​‘Upper Zone’ are con­sidered and/​or ration­al­isa­tion and res­tor­a­tion of exist­ing tracks is undertaken.

5. The pro­posed con­vey­or uplift would relate in char­ac­ter to oth­er infra­struc­ture around the Cairngorm Main Build­ing. Non­ethe­less, this would intro­duce a new lin­ear struc­ture which extends approx­im­ately 200m across the slopes south of the Cairngorm Main Build­ing and would have cumu­lat­ive effects in addi­tion to exist­ing infra­struc­ture. It is advised that fur­ther inform­a­tion on this con­vey­or is provided, includ­ing illus­tra­tions and visualisations.

6. CNPA Out­door Access Officer notes there is an absence of detail con­cern­ing how the pub­lic will be man­aged around con­struc­tion works while they are under­way, spe­cific­ally in respect of stat­utory access rights which are exer­cis­able across much of the land area with­in the site pro­posed for devel­op­ment includ­ing over pre-exist­ing tracks and paths in the locality.

7. Aviemore and Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil sup­port the applic­a­tion, on the basis that it falls with­in the terms of the Cairngorm Mas­ter­plan. How­ever, this is based on the devel­op­ment being con­tained with­in the lower area of the cor­rie and they would be con­cerned about the impact of any sub­sequent spread fur­ther up the moun­tain. They also have a con­cern that the sep­ar­a­tion of cycle paths from walk­ing routes is not totally clear and seek reas­sur­ance on this point.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 27/05/22

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. The applic­a­tion was advert­ised when first val­id­ated. Two let­ters of objec­tion have been received from Badenoch and Strath­spey Con­ser­va­tion Group and a fur­ther mem­ber of the pub­lic. One let­ter has been received from North East Moun­tain Trust offer­ing gen­er­al com­ments on the scheme. Their com­ments are sum­mar­ised below, and full cop­ies can be viewed at Appendix 4.

2. The North East Moun­tain Trust (NEMT) are gen­er­ally opposed to the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment of moun­tain bik­ing facil­it­ies at high­er alti­tudes, how­ever they accept that a bik­ing facil­ity on Cairngorm is part of the man­age­ment plan for the moun­tain. They raise con­cern that the accept­ance of high­er alti­tude facil­it­ies will cause poten­tial dam­age to veget­a­tion. They request the agree­ment of mon­it­or­ing meas­ures by plan­ning con­di­tion. They also raise con­cern regard­ing the visu­al impact of the pro­pos­al and request mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures to reduce the impact. NEMT also raise con­cern about the future expan­sion of the proposal.

3. Key points raised by parties in objec­tion are as fol­lows: a) Lack of a suf­fi­cient devel­op­ment plan b) Lack of sup­port­ing detail c) Adverse land­scape and envir­on­ment­al impact d) Fails to accord with plan­ning policy e) Pro­pos­al could lead to fur­ther expan­sion of the facil­ity and even more impacts. f) Pro­posed loc­a­tion of facil­ity on a moun­tain is inap­pro­pri­ate for the tar­get user due to weath­er. g) Pro­pos­al would increase vehicles with­in the Glen­more cor­ridor h) Insuf­fi­cient inform­a­tion on address­ing land­scape impacts

APPRAIS­AL

1. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions are the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment; the impact upon land­scape, sit­ing, and design; the envir­on­ment­al impacts; access impacts and developer contributions.

Prin­ciple

1. Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sets out that devel­op­ment which enhances form­al and inform­al recre­ation and leis­ure facil­it­ies; and tour­ism and leis­ure-based busi­ness activ­it­ies where:

a) It has no adverse envir­on­ment­al or amen­ity impacts on the site or neigh­bour­ing areas; and b) It makes a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the exper­i­ence of vis­it­ors; and c) It sup­ports or con­trib­utes to a year-round economy.

1. In addi­tion to the above policy, Policy 8: Open Space, Sport and Recre­ation per­mits exten­sions and enhance­ments to exist­ing sport and recre­ation related busi­ness activ­it­ies where:

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 27/05/22

a) They demon­strate best prac­tice in terms of sus­tain­able design, oper­a­tion and future main­ten­ance, and where there are no adverse envir­on­ment­al impacts on the site or neigh­bour­ing areas; and b) They will meet an iden­ti­fied com­munity or vis­it­or need; and c) They main­tain and max­im­ise all oppor­tun­it­ies to link into the exist­ing path network.

1. The sup­port­ing doc­u­ment­a­tion explains that the oper­at­ors of the ski centre look to pro­gress towards provid­ing facil­it­ies to increase the year-round attract­ive­ness of the resort. The doc­u­ment ref­er­ences the Cairngorm Moun­tain Mas­ter­plan and Strategy G with­in that doc­u­ment which relates to moun­tain bik­ing. The vis­ion of the pro­ject is to diver­si­fy the sea­son­al activ­it­ies of Cairngorm Moun­tain by bring­ing a fam­ily-ori­ent­ated moun­tain bik­ing offer­ing that is both com­ple­ment­ary to the sur­round­ing tour­ism sec­tor but attracts addi­tion­al sus­tain­able tour­ism and leis­ure usage of the Cairngorm Moun­tain Estate. The facil­it­ies are pro­posed to offer cyc­ling paths for begin­ner to inter­me­di­ate level riders provid­ing a wider range of intro­duct­ory trails with­in the area. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is there­fore con­sidered to sup­port the ongo­ing viab­il­ity and oper­a­tion of this tour­ist site and the prin­ciple accords with Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth and Policy 8: Open Space, Sport and Recre­ation of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, sub­ject to the oth­er mater­i­al plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions as out­lined below.

Land­scape Impacts

1. The applic­a­tion site is loc­ated with­in the Cairngorm Nation­al Scen­ic Area, the Nation­al Park and close to the Cairngorms Wild Land Area No.15. As such, it is import­ant that the land­scape impacts of the pro­posed devel­op­ment are fully con­sidered in rela­tion to Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. This policy seeks to ensure that all new devel­op­ment con­serves and enhances the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park and the set­ting of the devel­op­ment. Any sig­ni­fic­ant impacts must be clearly out­weighed by social or eco­nom­ic bene­fits of nation­al import­ance and all adverse effects must be min­im­ised and mitigated.

2. In this regard, the devel­op­ment is con­fined to the exist­ing developed area of Cairngorm Moun­tain which is cur­rently strongly char­ac­ter­ised by a vari­ety of ski infra­struc­ture includ­ing: the funicu­lar, ski tows, snow fences, build­ings, car park­ing, vehicle tracks and foot­paths. Whilst the pro­pos­al involves changes to veget­ated land by the intro­duc­tion of bike trails and con­vey­or belts, the wider con­text is one of rur­al devel­op­ment and the addi­tion of this devel­op­ment would be seen in the con­text of the wider ski infra­struc­ture with­in the developed bowl of this part of Coire Cas. It is there­fore con­sidered, that due to this exist­ing char­ac­ter, there is capa­city to devel­op the moun­tain bike trails in between the base sta­tion and funicu­lar mid-station.

3. Much of the exist­ing infra­struc­ture is lin­ear in nature and the pro­pos­als fol­low this over­all form. The new trails have a com­plex align­ment that adds to the extent of the exist­ing tracks while the con­vey­or is a flat fea­ture of strong uni­form col­our that con­trasts with the land­form and infra­struc­ture. Indi­vidu­ally the track and con­vey­or have an adverse effect on the land­scape char­ac­ter. Togeth­er there is also a cumu­lat­ive adverse effect, even when seen in con­junc­tion with the exist­ing infra­struc­ture and the car park and build­ings etc. Nev­er­the­less, the visu­al effects will be rel­at­ively loc­al­ised, and

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 27/05/22

always seen in con­junc­tion with the exist­ing infra­struc­ture on the site. In addi­tion, the func­tion of the con­vey­or and tracks would be broadly in line with the expect­a­tion of vis­it­ors as part of the bike/​ski facil­ity. Con­sequently, though there will be adverse land­scape and visu­al effects they are likely to be mod­er­ate and not sig­ni­fic­ant. Based on this, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to have a neut­ral impact on the land­scape char­ac­ter and the final con­vey­or belt details and fin­ishes are recom­men­ded to be agreed by plan­ning con­di­tion to ensure that the impact level remains the same. A plan­ning con­di­tion is also recom­men­ded to ensure the remov­al of struc­tures and rein­state­ment of land should the facil­ity cease to oper­ate in the future, to safe­guard the long term land­scape char­ac­ter of the site.

Envir­on­ment­al Impacts

1. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, seeks to ensure there are no adverse impacts upon des­ig­nated areas, pro­tec­ted spe­cies, or biod­iversity, whilst Policy 10: Resources sets out the need to fully con­sider impacts on flood­ing and water resources.

2. There are nat­ur­al her­it­age assets of inter­na­tion­al import­ance with­in the wider Cairngorm area, how­ever the work pro­posed is out­side the bound­ary of any nature con­ser­va­tion sites des­ig­nated for their bio­lo­gic­al or geo­graph­ic­al interests. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al has been under­taken and sub­ject to the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures being adhered to, by way of plan­ning con­di­tions, then the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the River Spey SAC, and Cairngorms SAC and SPA will be met and there will not be an adverse effect on site integ­rit­ies. NatureScot has no objec­tion to the pro­pos­al and agree with the con­clu­sions and mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures out­lined with­in the HRA.

3. Regard­ing the pro­posed impact on pro­tec­ted spe­cies and hab­it­ats, the CNPA Eco­logy Officer has no objec­tions to the scheme. Sat­is­fact­ory sur­vey work has been car­ried out with appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion iden­ti­fied in rela­tion to impacts upon pro­tec­ted spe­cies, hydro­logy, and ground water depend­ent ter­restri­al ecosystems.

4. The High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team has no objec­tion on the grounds of flood impact and the pro­pos­al is not con­sidered to cause any adverse impacts relat­ing to flood­ing on or off site. Veget­ated drain­age chan­nels are pro­posed to feed into the exist­ing drain­age net­work on site which is accept­able. Pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion dur­ing con­struc­tion will adhere to the meas­ures to be agreed with­in the con­struc­tion meth­od state­ment plan­ning condition.

5. Sub­ject to the recom­men­ded plan­ning con­di­tions relat­ing to pre-con­struc­tion eco­lo­gic­al sur­veys and sub­ject to the con­di­tions required from the HRA, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Access

1. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sets out the need for new devel­op­ment to be sat­is­fact­or­ily ser­vices without harm to resources or the environment.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 27/05/22

1. The High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team has reviewed the sub­mit­ted inform­a­tion relat­ing to road impacts arising from the addi­tion of the new facil­ity at Cairngorm Moun­tain and the vis­it­or fore­cast fig­ures. Plan­ning con­di­tions are recom­men­ded by the Team includ­ing a con­struc­tion traffic man­age­ment plan, and pro­vi­sion of addi­tion­al covered cycle park­ing to pro­mote act­ive travel facilities.

2. Policy 11: Developer Oblig­a­tions of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that where devel­op­ment cre­ates a need to increase or improve pub­lic ser­vices, facil­it­ies, or infra­struc­ture, or mit­ig­ate adverse effects, the developer will be required to make a fair and reas­on­able con­tri­bu­tion in cash or in kind towards addi­tion­al costs or requirements.

3. The Team also seeks a developer con­tri­bu­tion towards the road safety issues from the ski road into the Sug­ar­bowl car park. The Team note that the access is poor and there is a con­flict point between cars using the road and ped­es­tri­ans want­ing to cross it. The Team con­firms that the issue is not purely asso­ci­ated with the max­im­um quantum of vehicles on any typ­ic­al day but more about the level of risk expos­ure to the iden­ti­fied con­flict. This devel­op­ment is inten­ded to gen­er­ate addi­tion­al and more sus­tained access to the hill through­out the year, which will height­en the expos­ure to the above issue and the fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tion would help the devel­op­ment of pro­pos­als to address them.

4. The applic­ant sought fur­ther inform­a­tion on what the con­tri­bu­tion would fund, and it is con­firmed that the moneys being sought will sup­port a small traffic man­age­ment scheme (sign­ing and road mark­ings) to improve the iden­ti­fic­a­tion of the car park access and to high­light to approach­ing drivers the poten­tial for turn­ing vehicles and ped­es­tri­ans cross­ing the road to access loc­al walks on the hill. The con­tri­bu­tion request is con­sidered reas­on­able and relevant.

5. The Nation­al Park’s Out­door Access Officer has reques­ted fur­ther details to be sub­mit­ted regard­ing how the vis­it­ing pub­lic will be man­aged around the inten­ded works. A post determ­in­a­tion con­di­tion is there­fore recom­men­ded requir­ing the sub­mis­sion of an access man­age­ment plan.

6. Sub­ject to the appro­pri­ate con­di­tions being attached and the pay­ment of the developer con­tri­bu­tion, it is con­sidered that the applic­a­tion sat­is­fies the roads require­ments of Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing and Policy 11: Developer Con­tri­bu­tions of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Oth­er Issues Raised in Con­sulta­tions and Representations

1. Mat­ters raised by con­sul­tees and con­trib­ut­ors have largely been addressed through­out this report. There are how­ever some addi­tion­al points to com­ment on as noted below.

2. The Com­munity Coun­cil raise con­cern regard­ing how the shared path will work. The applic­ants have con­firmed that the bik­ing and walk­ers are kept sep­ar­ate for a major­ity of the ascent apart from one sec­tion which is wide enough to ensure that con­flicts between users will not arise. Shared paths are a com­mon fea­ture with­in the Nation­al Park and as the shared sec­tion is for the biker’s ascent, cyc­ling speeds will be at a very low level which would not impact on the safety of oth­er users of the path.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 27/05/22

1. Con­cern is raised regard­ing the future expan­sion of the pro­pos­al. Any future expan­sion would be dealt with through the appro­pri­ate pro­cess of a plan­ning applic­a­tion and there­fore it is not a mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tion in this proposal.

2. Mon­it­or­ing meas­ures have been agreed by Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and NatureScot to ensure the impacts on the European Sites remain acceptable.

CON­CLU­SION

1. This applic­a­tion involves the pro­vi­sion of moun­tain bik­ing trail facil­it­ies at an estab­lished tour­ist facil­ity with­in the Nation­al Park. The pro­pos­al to enhance the facil­it­ies at the ski centre is wel­comed, as evid­enced by the sup­port­ing let­ter from the Com­munity Coun­cil. Land­scape and envir­on­ment­al impacts are accept­able sub­ject to the refine­ments being agreed which will require the inclu­sion of plan­ning con­di­tions on any sub­sequent decision notice.

2. In these over­all cir­cum­stances, the devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with the rel­ev­ant policies of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, and there are no mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions which would war­rant the refuse of plan­ning per­mis­sion. Approv­al is there­fore recom­men­ded, sub­ject to the appro­pri­ate plan­ning con­di­tions and pay­ment of the developer contribution.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to APPROVE the Form­a­tion of moun­tain bike track and related infra­struc­ture at Ranger Base Office Cairngorm Moun­tain Glen­more Aviemore PH22 IRB sub­ject to:

a) The pay­ment of the developer con­tri­bu­tion for road safety improve­ments; and b) The fol­low­ing con­di­tions: Those con­di­tions lis­ted below in bold text are sus­pens­ive con­di­tions, which require to be dis­charged pri­or to imple­ment­a­tion of the development.

Con­di­tions

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site, until a Con­struc­tion Traffic Man­age­ment Plan (CTMP) has been sub­mit­ted to and agreed in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity, in con­sulta­tion with the High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team. The devel­op­ment shall there­after be under­taken in strict accord­ance with the approve CTMP and the CTMP shall include but not be lim­ited to:

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 27/05/22

a) Iden­ti­fic­a­tion of all Coun­cil main­tained roads likely to be affected by the vari­ous stages of devel­op­ment and pro­pos­als of any meas­ures to mit­ig­ate the impact of devel­op­ment traffic, espe­cially at affected set­tle­ments. b) Pro­posed meas­ures to mit­ig­ate the impact of gen­er­al con­struc­tion traffic on the loc­al road net­work fol­low­ing detailed assess­ment of rel­ev­ant roads. c) Details of any traffic man­age­ment required for the dur­a­tion of the con­struc­tion peri­od. d) Meas­ures to ensure that all affected pub­lic roads are kept free of mud and debris arising from the devel­op­ment. e) If the devel­op­ment involves any abnor­mal loads, a detailed pro­tocol and deliv­ery programme.

Reas­on: To ensure there are no adverse impacts on the road net­work in rela­tion to road safety and that con­struc­tion traffic asso­ci­ated with the devel­op­ment causes min­im­um dis­turb­ance to oth­er road users in accord­ance with Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until an updated Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment (CMS) and pro­gramme of works has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. The CMS shall include, but not be lim­ited to: a) The approach to site pre­par­a­tion, soils man­age­ment, res­tor­a­tion and rein­state­ment. b) Con­struc­tion stage SUDs. c) Ref­er­ence to the pre-com­mence­ment eco­lo­gic­al sur­veys and any sub­sequent spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans and how these will be adhered to dur­ing con­struc­tion. d) Con­struc­tion pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion measures.

The con­struc­tion of the devel­op­ment shall there­after be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the approved details.

Reas­on: A Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment must be agreed pri­or to the com­mence­ment of any works to ensure that work on site pro­ceeds without dam­age to the envir­on­ment, to ensure pol­lu­tion does not enter reach the River Spey SAC, and so avoid an adverse effect on these sites integ­rity, in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence, (unless oth­er­wise agreed in writ­ing), until pre-con­struc­tion sur­veys for breed­ing birds, moun­tain hare, and water vole, have been under­taken and the res­ults, togeth­er with any asso­ci­ated spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity — details of any mit­ig­a­tion required to be identified