Item5AACairngormMountain20190247DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 13/12/2019

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PRO­POSED: Engin­eer­ing works to smooth and re-grade land at Cairngorm Moun­tain Glen­more Aviemore High­land PH22 IRB

REF­ER­ENCE: 2019/0247/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Mr Jim Cornfoot

DATE CALLED-IN: 5 August 2019

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve sub­ject to conditions

CASE OFFICER: Stephanie Wade, Plan­ning Officer

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CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site N 0 40 80 160 Meters Atit Cre­ag an Leth-choin D Ski Centre Allt Coire an 625m 640m Ski Tow Ski Tows White Lady Shiel­ing S Sron Funicu­lan Rail­way Path 675m Q 4029 G Car Park Path FB Day Lodge B A Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2019. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber 100040965 G FB 655m 스 N CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 13/12/2019 Path Path 069 Ski Tow 569 Track 88 Ford 30m Path 795m 2

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 13/12/2019

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion 1. 2. 3. The applic­a­tion site is loc­ated on the north-west­ern slope of Coire Cas and to the south and south-east 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 White Lady Shiel­ing Tow area, fur­ther up the slope. The ​‘Car Park Tow’ runs along the south­ern devel­op­ment site bound­ary with the Car Park Tow Drive Sta­tion loc­ated to the west. A couple of snow-mak­ing fan guns are loc­ated on the hill slope. The devel­op­ment site cov­ers a length of approx­im­ately 470 metres of the low­est moun­tain piste with­in the ski centre.

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.

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 lie approx­im­ately 180 metres west of the site. The Cairngorms Wild Land Area No.15 as iden­ti­fied in Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Heritage’s wild land area map lies around 600 metres west of the site at its closest, circ­ling the entire ski area.

Pro­pos­al 4. 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=PVJVZ2SI0CH00

Title Draw­ing Date on Date Num­ber Plan* Received Plans Loc­a­tion Plan — - 05 August 2019 Drain­age Pipe Install­a­tion — - 12 August Route Plan 2019 Sec­tion Area E, C and D Plan — - 12 August 2019 Sec­tion Area I and J Plan — - 12 August 2019

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 13/12/2019

Sec­tion Area K Plan — - 12 August 2019 Sec­tion Area M Plan — - 12 August 2019 Sec­tion Area N Plan — - 12 August 2019 Sec­tion Across Area A Plan — - 20 August 2019 Sec­tion Across Area B,C,H — - 20 August Plan 2019 Con­tour Plan — - 04 Octo­ber 2019 Sup­port­ing Doc­u­ments Sup­port­ing Inform­a­tion — 01 Janu­ary 05 August 2019 2019 Work­ing with the — 14 Feb­ru­ary 05 August Envir­on­ment at Cairngorm 2018 2019 doc­u­ment Eco­lo­gic­al Sur­vey Report 8804 17 July 2919 05 August 2019 Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan — - 11 Septem­ber 2019 CMSL Response to SEPA — - 11 Septem­ber Advice doc­u­ment 2019 Response to SEPA Plan­ning — 11 Septem­ber 11 Septem­ber Objec­tions doc­u­ment, 2019 2019 pre­pared by Bruce Cran­ston Addi­tion­al Inform­a­tion from — - 04 Octo­ber Applic­ant 2019 Nation­al Veget­a­tion 673031/MC/002 03 Octo­ber 04 Octo­ber Clas­si­fic­a­tion Sur­vey 2019 2019 Hydro­lo­gic­al Assess­ment 673031/​kmd/​003 06 Novem­ber 07 Novem­ber flows and run-off 2019 2019 Con­struc­tion Meth­od — - 13 Novem­ber State­ment 2019 Plant­ing Plan — - 26 Novem­ber 2019 *Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the Ist of the month. 5. This applic­a­tion for plan­ning per­mis­sion pro­poses the smooth­ing and re-grad­ing of land togeth­er with the install­a­tion of drain­age pipes and infilling of drain­age chan­nels on the base area of the low­est moun­tain piste. The applic­a­tion describes the works as ​“crit­ic­al

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 13/12/2019

to max­im­ise the poten­tial of snow­mak­ing on the low­est pistes of the moun­tain” and that they are required to be under­taken as part of the main­ten­ance work of the ski centre to improve the ski slope sur­face for the man-made snow cov­er­age. The applic­a­tion details state ​“by infilling the large depres­sions, the amount of pro­duced snow needed to get the begin­ners area into oper­a­tion will be reduced, cre­at­ing a wider area of useable snow in a short­er time, mak­ing snow pro­duc­tion both more energy effi­cient and sav­ing costs.” The works have been split into the fol­low­ing parts:

a. Area A: Pro­posed infilling of 26 cubic metres of ground togeth­er with the lay­ing of a 450 – 600mm dia­met­er HDPE pipe and build­ing up the area with infill from embank­ment in Area H. The pro­posed pipe will join into the exist­ing cul­vert pipe togeth­er with the cre­ation of a silt trap to min­im­ise sed­i­ment entry into the Allt Chais water course. The fin­ished ground level would be at the height of the adja­cent path.

b. Area B: Pro­posed infilling of 19 cubic metres of ground from cut and smooth­ing of Area H embank­ment. Install­a­tion of the HDPE pipe and con­nec­tion with the exist­ing cul­ver­ted path cross­ing pipe­work. Ground level to be re-graded to match the adja­cent path level.

C. Area C: Pro­posed infilling of 14 cubic metres of ground from the cut and smooth­ing of Area H ground. Install­a­tion of HDPE pipe.

d. Area D: Pro­posed infilling of 7 cubic metres of ground, smooth­ing off the depres­sion in Area D and lift­ing the sur­face level.

e. Area E: Pro­posed infilling of 20 cubic metres of ground com­pris­ing two exist­ing eroded peat chan­nels. Height of infill is pro­posed to match the exist­ing sur­round­ing sur­face level. Pro­posed install­a­tion of HDPE pipe link­ing into upper drain­age pipe run.

f. Area F: Pro­posed smooth­ing off of any extra mater­i­al from the pro­posed HDPE pipe installation.

g. Area G: Pro­posed cut of 20 cubic metres of ground to remove embankment.

h. Area H: Pro­posed cut of 57 cubic metres of ground to reduce exist­ing embank­ment using mater­i­al cut from area I and area K.

i. Area I: Pro­posed cut of 84 cubic metres of ground to level area in keep­ing with the sur­round­ing ground level. The non-nat­ive mont­ane pine loc­ated on this mound is pro­posed to be removed and the scots pine, sil­ver birch and com­mon juni­per are pro­posed to be relo­cated downslope from the car­park tow unit.

j. Area J: Pro­posed infilling of 8 cubic metres of ground to smooth out base area of car park tow.

k. Area K: Pro­posed cre­ation of embank­ment adja­cent to the car park tow drive sta­tion using 72 cubic metres of fill taken from the cut of Area I. The ground is pro­posed to be built up against the con­crete base with a flat top and tapered

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 13/12/2019

down to the exist­ing ground level in the interests of health and safety requirements.

l. Area L: Pro­posed remov­al of large rocks exposed above 150mm above ground level of sur­round­ing surface.

m. Area M: Pro­posed cut of ground on west­ern side of Area M and filling ground of east­ern side of Area M to cre­ate a more level sur­face across this sec­tion of ground.

n. Area N: Pro­posed regrad­ing of east­erly aspect of embank­ment with­in this area to cre­ate a gentler slope to the west­ern area ground levels.

6. Plans of the pro­pos­al are included with­in Appendix 1.

His­tory 7. 8. 9. There are no recent plan­ning applic­a­tions relat­ing to the imme­di­ate red line area of this applic­a­tion, how­ever there have been numer­ous plan­ning applic­a­tions with­in the wider Cairngorm Moun­tain area, which are sum­mar­ised below:

The ori­gin­al funicu­lar rail­way applic­a­tion was approved in 1997 and dealt with by High­land Coun­cil pri­or to the form­ing of the Nation­al Park, (Ref­er­ence 94/00254/FULBS). In 2002, full plan­ning per­mis­sion was gran­ted by the High­land Coun­cil to vary con­di­tion 11 of the ori­gin­al funicu­lar rail­way con­sent in order to retain a 3 metre wide access track for vehicu­lar use, (ref­er­ence 02/00382/FUL).

In 2006, plan­ning per­mis­sion was gran­ted by the CNPA for the ​“erec­tion of a cam­era obscura” with­in the moun­tain garden area of Cairngorm Moun­tain (ref­er­ence 06/319/CP) and for ​“path­works, dyk­ing, land­scap­ing and art works” (ref­er­ence 06/258/CP).

1. Full plan­ning per­mis­sion was also gran­ted by the High­land Coun­cil in 2015 for an exten­sion to the west wall poma ski tow beside the Ptar­mig­an and a new return wheel at the south­ern­most end of the ski tow (ref­er­ence 15/01000/FUL).

2. In 2014, full plan­ning per­mis­sion was gran­ted in Novem­ber 2014 at the CNPA plan­ning com­mit­tee for the remov­al of the Shiel­ing ski-tow and replace­ment with a mod­ern rope-tow of sim­il­ar length and pro­file, loc­ated beside the funicu­lar railway.

3. In 2017, ret­ro­spect­ive plan­ning per­mis­sion was gran­ted by the CNPA plan­ning com­mit­tee for the ​“reten­tion of a ski area access track” (ref­er­ence 2016/0295/DET). Also, the High­land Coun­cil gran­ted per­mis­sion for the ​“sit­ing of a snow fact­ory unit” in Novem­ber 2017 (ref­er­ence 17/04736/FUL).

4. In 2018, plan­ning per­mis­sion was refused by the CNPA Plan­ning com­mit­tee in Octo­ber for the install­a­tion of a begin­ner and inter­me­di­ate arti­fi­cial ski slopes with asso­ci­ated ser­vices.” The applic­a­tion was refused on grounds of sit­ing, loc­a­tion, col­our of mater­i­al, changes to land­form lead­ing to unac­cept­able land­scape impacts in the short and medi­um term on the site and on views to the site, with the pro­pose mit­ig­a­tion not

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 13/12/2019

being achieved in an accept­able time frame. Also in 2018, the High­land Coun­cil gran­ted a tem­por­ary per­mis­sion for the install­a­tion of a double unit snow fact­ory (ref­er­ence 18/05078/FUL).

1. In May 2019, plan­ning per­mis­sion was gran­ted for the renov­a­tion and erec­tion of exten­sion to the Ptar­mig­an Res­taur­ant build­ing (ref­er­ence 2018/0177/DET).

2. The High­land Coun­cil are cur­rently con­sid­er­ing and pro­cessing two live plan­ning applic­a­tions. Applic­a­tion ref­er­ence 19/03944/S42, seeks to vary con­di­tion I of plan­ning per­mis­sion 19/01765/FUL (install­a­tion of a tube slide, zip line and play area with­in the Coire Cas car park at Cairngorm Moun­tain) and applic­a­tion ref­er­ence 19/04135/S42 for the vari­ation of con­di­tion I of plan­ning per­mis­sion 18/05078/FUL to alter the ces­sa­tion date of the per­mit­ted snow factory.

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 (2015) 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 SUS­TAIN­ABLE DESIGN X POLICY 4 NAT­UR­AL HER­IT­AGE X POLICY 5 LAND­SCAPE POLICY 6 THE SIT­ING AND DESIGN OF DIGIT­AL COM­MU­NIC­A­TIONS EQUIP­MENT POLICY 7 RENEW­ABLE ENERGY POLICY 8 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:

http://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​d​o​c​u​m​e​n​t​s​/Park Authority/Planning/LDP15.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.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 13/12/2019

Policy I New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance Policy 2 Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X Policy 3 Sus­tain­able Design Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance 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

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2020

1. The emer­ging Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (“Pro­posed Plan”) which will cov­er the peri­od 2020 – 2025 is cur­rently being pro­gressed. The pro­posed plan has been through a pub­lic con­sulta­tion pro­cess and the form­al responses have been assessed and sub­mit­ted along with all oth­er rel­ev­ant mater­i­als to Scot­tish Min­is­ters for exam­in­a­tion. As the exam­in­a­tion of the Pro­posed Plan is yet to start, the Pro­posed Plan and its con­tents cur­rently carry lim­ited weight.

CON­SULTA­TIONS

Sum­mary of the main issues raised by consultees

1. Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency ini­tially objec­ted to the applic­a­tion on the grounds of lack of inform­a­tion in rela­tion to ground­wa­ter ter­restri­al eco­sys­tems and reques­ted the sub­mis­sion of addi­tion­al inform­a­tion includ­ing an NVC sur­vey. Fol­low­ing the sub­mis­sion of the required inform­a­tion SEPA had the fol­low­ing comments:

a. Ground­wa­ter Depend­ant Ter­restri­al Eco­sys­tems (GWDTE): Fol­low­ing the sub­mis­sion of the Veget­a­tion Sur­vey (Septem­ber 2019), SEPA con­firm the remov­al of their pre­vi­ous objec­tion not­ing that the re-pro­fil­ing uphill of poly­gons is to land that pro­trudes above the sur­round­ing land­form, and the downslope GWTE areas each include M32a springs which are small, loc­al­ised fea­tures. SEPA would not expect the re-pro­fil­ing to dis­rupt the ground­wa­ter sup­ply­ing the M32a, and as they expect the springs are sup­ply­ing the water to the M6b, M15a and M10a, then they would not expect any impact to GWTE. In rela­tion to the drain­age pipe that starts above poly­gons 44 and 46, their under­stand­ing is that the new pipe will fol­low largely the same route as the cur­rent ditch for the high voltage ring main, and that the depth of the ditch will not be deepened, there­fore SEPA con­sider there to be min­im­al impact to the hydro­logy as a res­ult of repla­cing the new pipe.

b. Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion: SEPA con­firm that the sub­mit­ted Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan is accept­able and that the con­di­tion pre­vi­ously reques­ted in con­sulta­tion response (PCS167250) is no longer required.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 13/12/2019

1. Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Her­it­age has no objec­tions to the pro­pos­al not­ing that the work pro­posed is out­side the bound­ary of any nature con­ser­va­tion sites des­ig­nated for their bio­lo­gic­al or geo­lo­gic­al interests and will not impact on any of those interests.

2. The High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team ini­tially objec­ted to the applic­a­tion due to the lack of inform­a­tion on flood risk and drain­age. Regard­ing flood risk, the Team note that the site is loc­ated next to the Allt a’ Choire Chais and as such may be at risk of flood­ing from this source. How­ever, based on the gen­er­al topo­graphy, steeply slop­ing ground with the water­course in a well-defined chan­nel, they are sat­is­fied that the works are out­side of any poten­tial flood­plain apart from Area A, which is imme­di­ately upstream of a cul­ver­ted embank­ment that car­ries a footpath/​access track over the water­course. The Team there­fore reques­ted the sub­mis­sion of fur­ther topo­graph­ic inform­a­tion was provided to cov­er all of Area A, the water­course and the oppos­ite bank, and the down­stream cul­vert and embank­ment to demon­strate if any of this area is poten­tial flood­plain, which would in turn require a Flood Risk Assessment.

3. Regard­ing drain­age, the Team note that the pro­pos­al does not include any new areas of hard­stand­ing and so they are sat­is­fied that the re-grad­ing will have lim­ited impact on dir­ect run­off from the site once the slopes have reve­get­ated. The Team agree that the applic­ant is not increas­ing the volume of water flow­ing from upslope areas. How­ever, the exist­ing ditch is a veget­ated, semi-nat­ur­al­ised fea­ture and, would help reduce sed­i­ment trans­fer, slow con­vey­ance and poten­tially atten­u­ate run­off ori­gin­at­ing from access tracks and oth­er pos­it­ively drained areas. The install­a­tion of drain­age pipes down steeply slop­ing ground has the poten­tial to increase the rate of run­off into the water course and increase flood risk down­stream. The Team there­fore reques­ted fur­ther assess­ment of the impact of installing the new drain­age pipes with con­sid­er­a­tion giv­en to the rate of run­off into the Allt a’ Choire Chais under cur­rent and pro­posed conditions.

4. Fol­low­ing the sub­mis­sion of fur­ther inform­a­tion includ­ing a Hydro­lo­gic­al Assess­ment Report, the Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team with­draw their objec­tion, sub­ject to the inclu­sion of the fol­low­ing two conditions:

a. Flood Risk: Appro­pri­ate com­pens­at­ory stor­age is provided upstream of the Allt a Choire Chais cul­vert for any ground rais­ing in this area that is to take place on land cur­rently below 631.5m AOD.

b. Drain­age: The meas­ures to atten­u­ate dis­charge from the piped drain­age sys­tem pro­posed in the Hydro­lo­gic­al Assess­ment are implemented.

1. CNPA Land­scape Officer notes that the exist­ing land­scape is strongly char­ac­ter­ised by the infra­struc­ture of a ski centre, with the fen­cing, uplift equip­ment, the funicu­lar and the build­ings provid­ing a strong con­tri­bu­tion to the over­all char­ac­ter as the topo­graphy and ground cov­er. The Officer con­siders that the extent of the works is lim­ited though sev­er­al smal­ler areas are included in the pro­ject. There are a hand­ful of small trees that will be removed and some of these are non-nat­ive spe­cies. The regrad­ing of the topo­graphy is con­sidered by the Officer to reduce the appar­ent nat­ur­al­ness to a small degree (even allow­ing for the fact that some of the areas were dis­turbed dec­ades ago). How­ever, the Officer con­siders that over­all; this will be of

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 13/12/2019

min­im­al effect to the char­ac­ter and unlikely to be notice­able for most view­ers once the ground has recovered. The loss of trees is noted as being unfor­tu­nate by the Officer, how­ever, out­with the burn and ski-centre garden the trees are a small com­pon­ent of this land­scape. The effects of the pro­pos­al can be lim­ited by applic­a­tion of mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures includ­ing a con­struc­tion meth­od state­ment and a plant­ing plan show­ing areas of com­pens­a­tion plant­ing in the vicin­ity of the lower slopes. Fol­low­ing the applicant’s sub­mis­sion of a plant­ing plan, the Officer con­firms that the plant­ing spe­cific­a­tion is accept­able and requires no fur­ther information.

1. CNPA Eco­logy Officer wel­comes the sub­mis­sion of the eco­lo­gic­al sur­veys with the ori­gin­al applic­a­tion details but notes the cla­ri­fic­a­tion required by SEPA on the pres­ence of GWDTE, by way of the sub­mis­sions of an NVC sur­vey. The Eco­logy also requires con­firm­a­tion regard­ing the loc­a­tion of the most spe­cies rich of the his­tor­ic drain­age chan­nels and an over­lay of areas of ground that will be dis­turbed over the Phase I Hab­it­at Sur­vey to assess impacts on hab­it­ats includ­ing wind clipped lichen rich heath, and flush and wet heath. A spe­cies pro­tec­tion plan detail­ing tim­ing of ground­works which will impact on birds and rep­tiles and spe­cify­ing the require­ment for a walkover sur­vey pri­or to the con­struc­tion to check for moun­tain hare, breed­ing birds, rep­tiles and water vole is recom­men­ded, in addi­tion to the hab­it­at com­pens­a­tion pro­pos­als as sug­ges­ted by the CNPA Land­scape Officer.

2. Fol­low­ing the sub­mis­sion of the addi­tion­al inform­a­tion, the Officer notes the sub­mit­ted Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan is a com­pre­hens­ive plan which will pro­tect the water envir­on­ment. Regard­ing the Nation­al Veget­a­tion Clas­si­fic­a­tion Sur­vey sub­mit­ted, the Officer notes that the con­firm­a­tion from the report that all GWDTE’s are out­with the regrad­ing area. The Officer is con­tent with the hab­it­at rein­state­ment pro­pos­als as out­lined in the sup­port­ing doc­u­ment­a­tion and wel­comes the addi­tion­al tree plant­ing and eco­lo­gic­al mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures. The Officer fur­ther notes the addi­tion­al sub­mis­sion details of the Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment and togeth­er with the sub­mit­ted pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion plan, and the HIE doc­u­ment ​“Work­ing with the Envir­on­ment at Cairngorm”, the Officer is sat­is­fied that the works under­taken will pre­vent pol­lu­tion of the burn and also present the best meth­od of soil remov­al, stor­age and sub­sequent rein­state­ment. The Officer con­firms that no fur­ther inform­a­tion is required.

3. CNPA Out­door Access Officer has no objec­tion to the pro­pos­al not­ing that although the red line area extends over the lower loop path, there will be no works affect­ing the ongo­ing phys­ic­al con­di­tion and future pub­lic use of the path. Not­with­stand­ing this, the Access Officer makes ref­er­ence to the require­ments of com­pli­ance with the Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2003 where the path might be affected by the works.

4. Aviemore Com­munity Coun­cil sup­ports the applic­a­tion. They note that ski­ing plays a very import­ant role in the eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment of Badenoch and Strath­spey dis­trict with the sur­viv­al of com­munit­ies in the area depend­ing upon the con­tinu­ing activ­ity of ski­ing as a tour­ist attrac­tion, which can bring a great deal of money and employ­ment. The pro­posed works are con­sidered by the Com­munity Coun­cil to min­im­ise any adverse effects of recre­ation­al ski­ing on the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment and spe­cial qual­it­ies and will increase and improve sus­tain­able recre­ation oppor­tun­it­ies for the loc­al com­munity and vis­it­ors max­im­ising the bene­fits to the loc­al and National

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 13/12/2019

Park, eco­nomy and sup­port ini­ti­at­ives encour­aging train­ing and recre­ation. The Com­munity Council’s full com­ments can be found at Appendix 2.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. The applic­a­tion was advert­ised when first sub­mit­ted. A total of 15 let­ters of pub­lic rep­res­ent­a­tion have been received. Cop­ies of all pub­lic responses can be viewed at Appendix 3. In sup­port of the applic­a­tion, a total of five let­ters have been received- one let­ter from an indi­vidu­al and four let­ters from the fol­low­ing groups/​businesses: Cairngorm Ski Trust, Cairngorm Moun­tain Trust, Badenoch and Strath­spey Schools Snowsports Asso­ci­ation and Free Ski. Their com­ments are sum­mar­ised as follows:

a. Any future mas­ter­plan for Cairngorm Moun­tain will include lift served wintersports.

b. Changes to the work­ing at height reg­u­la­tions are already stat­ute and must be com­plied with. The pro­posed ground works at the cur­rent Car Park T Bar load­ing area are a sens­ible solution.

C. The pro­pos­al relates solely to the qual­ity and deliv­ery of ski­ing on the piste and not uplift.

d. Works pro­posed will enhance an area for begin­ners ski­ing, help­ing CMSL and oth­er ski schools in deliv­er­ing les­sons and improv­ing participation.

e. f. g. h. i. j. Pro­pos­al will also for a safer, wider slope mak­ing the learn­ing out­comes great­er. Pro­pos­al will allow a great­er num­ber of instruct­ors work and employ­ment, help­ing to increase the com­mer­cial viab­il­ity and sus­tain­ab­il­ity of those busi­nesses that rely on Cairngorm Moun­tain. Pro­pos­al will boost vis­it­or num­bers. Works relate to an already well developed area of ski runs and are on a small per­cent­age of the ski area. Enhance the con­tinu­ations of the loc­al schools snowsports pro­gramme Pro­motes sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment and under­stand­ing and recre­ation­al enjoy­ment of the Nation­al Park.

1. In con­trast, a total of nine let­ters of rep­res­ent­a­tion have been received object­ing to the pro­pos­al, com­pris­ing: six let­ters from indi­vidu­al mem­bers of the pub­lic and three let­ters from the Cairngorms Cam­paign, North East Moun­tain Trust and the Badenoch and Strath­spey Con­ser­va­tion Group (BSCG). BSCG request to address the com­mit­tee. The main issues raised from the object­ors are sum­mar­ised as follows:

a. Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment has declared a cli­mate emer­gency and dis­turb­ance of the peat on the pro­posed site may lead to the release of car­bon dioxide;

b. Impact of pro­pos­al on increas­ing flood risk and its poten­tial to increase water run-off rates.

C. Con­cerns raised relat­ing to the accur­acy of the applic­a­tion sub­mis­sion details includ­ing infill and volume of mater­i­al figures.

d. No mas­ter­plan for Cairngorm Ski Area. e. Con­flict with CNPA’s Work­ing Prin­ciples for Cairngorm Mountain.

f. Insuf­fi­cient inform­a­tion sub­mit­ted relat­ing to envir­on­ment­al assess­ment for the proposal.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 13/12/2019

g. h. i. j. Loss of veget­ated drain­age ditches which help to mit­ig­ate flood risk and provide valu­able habitats.

No sub­mis­sion of con­struc­tion meth­od state­ment details.

Impact on spe­cies includ­ing: dot­ter­el, ring ouzel, snow bunt­ing, moun­tain bumble­bee, ptar­mig­an, moun­tain hare, and water voles.

Scale and nature of oper­a­tions, would have an extens­ive impact on the land­scape and nat­ur­al her­it­age of the ground between the bot­tom and middle sta­tions, with the land­scape impacts impact­ing on the exist­ing ter­rain and veget­a­tion cov­er with sub­stan­tial areas of exposed ground that will take time to regain any­thing approach­ing a more nat­ur­al and attract­ive appearance.

1. Moun­tain­eer­ing Scot­land also provided gen­er­al com­ments on the scheme regard­ing the pre­ma­tur­ity of the applic­a­tion, the tim­ing of the works and the level of detail sub­mit­ted in sup­port of the applic­a­tion, such as the con­struc­tion meth­od statement.

APPRAIS­AL

1. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions in rela­tion to this applic­a­tion com­prise: the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment, and the impact on the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment in respect of des­ig­nated areas, pro­tec­ted spe­cies and hab­it­ats and land­scape impacts, togeth­er with the impact on flooding.

Prin­ciple

1. Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth seeks to sup­port devel­op­ment which enhances form­al and inform­al recre­ation and leis­ure facil­it­ies provid­ing; there are no adverse envir­on­ment­al impacts, it makes a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the exper­i­ence of vis­it­ors, and it adds to or extends the core tour­ist sea­son. Policy 8: Sport and Recre­ation also seeks to sup­port diver­si­fic­a­tion or exten­sion to exist­ing sport and recre­ation related busi­ness activ­it­ies. Nation­al plan­ning policy as con­tained in Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy sim­il­arly seeks to pro­mote busi­ness devel­op­ment which increases eco­nom­ic activ­ity whilst also safe­guard­ing and enhan­cing the nat­ur­al environment.

2. In this regard, the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment, which is related to the oper­a­tion of a long estab­lished ski centre, gen­er­ally com­plies with policy provid­ing envir­on­ment­al impacts are accept­able. The pro­pos­al is related to the re-grad­ing of land, which is used as a ski slope to make the use of the ski slope more effi­cient and useable for longer peri­ods, out­with the nat­ur­al snow fall by way of man­made snow. The prin­ciple is bene­fi­cial to vis­it­ors, provid­ing that there are no adverse land­scape or envir­on­ment­al impacts. These mat­ters are now con­sidered in more detail.

Envir­on­ment­al Issues

1. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 seeks to ensure that there are no adverse effects on nat­ur­al her­it­age interests, des­ig­nated sites or pro­tec­ted spe­cies and that any impacts upon biod­iversity are avoided, min­im­ised or com­pensated. Policy 10: Resources, also seeks to ensure that dis­turb­ance to soils, peat and any asso­ci­ated veget­a­tion is minimised.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 13/12/2019

1. There are nat­ur­al her­it­age interests of inter­na­tion­al import­ance with­in the wider area, how­ever the work pro­posed is out­side the bound­ary of any nature con­ser­va­tion sites des­ig­nated for their bio­lo­gic­al or geo­lo­gic­al interests and Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Her­it­age con­firm they have no objec­tion to the pro­pos­al not­ing that it will not impact on the interests of the adja­cent nat­ur­al her­it­age designations.

2. Eco­lo­gic­al sur­vey work sub­mit­ted in sup­port of the applic­a­tion has been reviewed by the CNPA Eco­logy Officer who has no objec­tion to the pro­pos­al not­ing that sat­is­fact­ory envir­on­ment­al sur­vey work has been car­ried out to enable impacts to be fully con­sidered with appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion iden­ti­fied in rela­tion to the impacts upon pro­tec­ted spe­cies and ground water depend­ent ter­restri­al eco­sys­tems. Plan­ning Con­di­tions are recom­men­ded to ensure the mit­ig­a­tion and hab­it­at com­pens­a­tion meas­ures, includ­ing the spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans as lis­ted in the eco­lo­gic­al sur­vey report, are undertaken.

3. Also in rela­tion to hab­it­ats, SEPA con­firm that fol­low­ing the sub­mis­sion of the Veget­a­tion Sur­vey (Septem­ber 2019), they have no objec­tion to the pro­pos­al in rela­tion to its impact on nearby ground­wa­ter depend­ent ter­restri­al eco­sys­tems. Regard­ing the install­a­tion of the drain­age pipe, SEPA con­sider this would cause min­im­al impact to the hydro­logy of the area. Both SEPA and the CNPA Eco­logy Officer con­sider the sub­mit­ted pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion plan to be accept­able and a con­di­tion is there­fore recom­men­ded to ensure the work is under­taken in accord­ance with these details. The CNPA Eco­logy Officer also con­firms that the sub­mit­ted doc­u­ment­a­tion in rela­tion to con­struc­tion meth­ods and pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion are accept­able and no fur­ther inform­a­tion is required.

4. In these over­all cir­cum­stances and sub­ject to appro­pri­ate plan­ning con­di­tions, the applic­a­tion is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Land­scape Issues

1. The applic­a­tion is 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 Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015. 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 adverse impacts must be clearly out­weighed by social or eco­nom­ic bene­fits of nation­al import­ance and all adverse effects must be min­im­ised and mit­ig­ated. Sim­il­arly, Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment is suit­ably designed.

2. In this regard, the devel­op­ment is clearly related to the exist­ing ski centre oper­a­tions at Cairngorm Moun­tain and will be viewed in the con­text of that infra­struc­ture. This part of the moun­tain is char­ac­ter­ised by a vari­ety of ski infra­struc­ture includ­ing: ski tows, snow fences, build­ings, car park­ing and foot­paths. Whilst the site itself cur­rently com­prises veget­ated land with drain­age chan­nels, the wider con­text is one of rur­al devel­op­ment and as the works pre­dom­in­antly relate to the regrad­ing of the current

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 13/12/2019

land form with­in the applic­a­tion site area and the install­a­tion of pipe­work with­in the drain­age chan­nels, the pro­pos­al there­fore does not intro­duce any struc­tures or ele­ments that would give rise to adverse land­scape impacts. It is under­stood that the exist­ing works relate to pre­vi­ously regraded land, where earth­works were under­taken for the install­a­tion of the ring main cable in 1960.

1. The Nation­al Park’s Land­scape Officer con­siders that the nature of the works are rel­at­ively small and sub­ject to mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures being under­taken, the pro­pos­al will have no sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the land­scape char­ac­ter or spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the area. It is noted that the works will be dis­rupt­ive due to the nature of the earth­works, how­ever the impact would be lim­ited to the veget­a­tion recov­ery time of approx­im­ately 1 – 3 years. Com­pens­at­ory plant­ing for the loss of the trees with­in the work­ing area is recom­men­ded and the applic­ant has sub­sequently sub­mit­ted a plant­ing plan, which the CNPA Land­scape Officer con­firms as being accept­able. The mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures also serve to ensure that there will be lim­ited impact upon the wild land area and in these over­all cir­cum­stances, the applic­a­tion is con­sidered to com­ply with Policies 3 and 5 of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015, sub­ject to appro­pri­ate plan­ning con­di­tions being attached to any con­sent issued.

Impact on Flooding

1. Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 seeks to ensure that all devel­op­ments do not increase flood risk nor adversely impact on the water qual­ity of the area. As the pro­pos­al involves the install­a­tion of drain­age pipe­work in place of the exist­ing nat­ur­al drain­age chan­nels, it is there­fore essen­tial to con­sider the poten­tial risks from flood­ing to both the site and oth­er recept­ors in the area, as required by policy.

2. The site is loc­ated next to the Allt a’ Choire Chais and as such may be at risk of flood­ing from this source. How­ever, based on the gen­er­al topo­graphy of steeply slop­ing ground with the water­course in a well-defined chan­nel, the major­ity of the works are out­with any poten­tial flood plain apart from Area A, which is imme­di­ately upstream of the cul­ver­ted embank­ment. The High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team has reviewed the sub­mit­ted Hydro­lo­gic­al Assess­ment and has no objec­tion to the scheme. Regard­ing flood risk, the Team note that the report con­clu­sions that a dis­place­ment of 4.3m³ of flood stor­age volume in area A, upstream of the embank­ment, from the pro­pos­al and there­fore requests that a plan­ning con­di­tion is attached to any sub­sequent decision to ensure that appro­pri­ate com­pens­at­ory stor­age is provided upstream of the Allt a’ Choire Chais cul­vert for any ground rais­ing in this area that is to take place on land cur­rently below 631.5m AOD.

3. Regard­ing drain­age, the pro­pos­al does not intro­duce any new areas of hard­stand­ing and the land re-grad­ing will there­fore have lim­ited impact on dir­ect run­off from the site once the slopes have reve­get­ated. The High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Team are sat­is­fied with the pro­pos­als to intro­duce meas­ures to reduce velo­city and provide atten­u­ation at the out­lets of the drain­age pipes pri­or to indir­ect dis­charge into the Allt a’ Choire Chais and request a plan­ning con­di­tion to ensure imple­ment­a­tion of the meas­ures as out­lined in the sup­port­ing Hydro­lo­gic­al Assess­ment are imple­men­ted. The pro­posed install­a­tion of the drain­age pipe is there­fore not con­sidered to increase

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 13/12/2019

upstream or down­stream flood risk sub­ject to the imple­ment­a­tion of the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures. On this basis, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with the require­ments of Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Oth­er Issues Raised in Con­sulta­tions and Representations

1. A num­ber of object­ors have raised con­cern that the applic­a­tion has been sub­mit­ted in advance of any mas­ter­plan for the wider site at Cairngorm Moun­tain being pro­duced as set out in the Cairngorm and Glen­more Strategy (CGS) and the CNPA’s work­ing prin­ciples for Cairngorm Moun­tain’. Both the CGS and the work­ing prin­ciples set high level object­ives for the area and reflect the CNPA’s desire for new devel­op­ment on Cairngorm to be based on a ration­al long term plan. HIE have now star­ted the pro­cess of devel­op­ing a mas­ter­plan for the whole site but this will take some months to be completed.

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