Item5AAGlenbanchor20190121DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 28/06/2019

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PRO­POSED: Ret­ro­spect­ive resur­fa­cing of hill track at Land 2890M NW Of Carn Sgu­lain Newtonmore

REF­ER­ENCE: 2019/0121/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Glen­ban­chor Estate

DATE CALLED-IN: 29 April 2019

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve Sub­ject to Conditions

CASE OFFICER: Edward Swales, Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 28/06/2019

CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 28/06/2019

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The site is accessed via the Strone of Glen­ban­chor Croft which lies to the north east of New­ton­more. The track begins off the pub­lic road through the croft and bey­ond the gate at the end of the croft. This is where the applic­a­tion site begins and con­tin­ues for around 2.5km north and into the Mon­adh­liath Moun­tains and towards the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Boundary.

2. The site is pre­dom­in­ately open moor­land with some trees grow­ing close to the burns run­ning through the site.

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=PQD03TSI0CH00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Loc­a­tion Plan/​Site Plan	430092 PL01 a	01/01/19	12/06/19
Site Pho­to­graphs	430092 PL02 a	01/01/19	12/06/19
Track Route	430092 PL03 a	01/01/19	12/06/19
Grasspro­tecta Datasheet			12/06/19
Sup­port­ing Statement			12/06/19

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

1. Plans of the pro­pos­als are included with­in Appendix 1.

2. The pro­pos­al is to add a lay­er of mater­i­al across the length of the track, clear the track side drain­age and seed the centre of the track. The lay­er will increase the exist­ing height but add a cam­ber to allow water run­off, as well as a turn­ing circle at the end of the track. Some works have been car­ried out to cul­verts along the track as well.

3. The Estate expressed an interest in car­ry­ing out addi­tion­al works and there­fore the pro­cess was delayed while the neces­sary inform­a­tion was compiled.

4. A sup­port­ing state­ment and updated plans have now been sub­mit­ted to demon­strate the track will be lim­ited to a width of 2.5m and will have a cent­rally veget­ated strip with bor­row pits loc­ated along the length of the track. Fur­ther con­trols through con­di­tions will ensure any bor­row pits are fully restored and the veget­ated strip is a min­im­um width of 0.75m.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 28/06/2019

His­tory

1. The exist­ing track was sig­ni­fic­antly upgraded some­time around 2008 and then again in 2017 with fur­ther works required to com­plete this job. The works were repor­ted to the CNPA in 2017 and reques­ted to cease pending the sub­mis­sion of the applic­a­tion. The works that were being under­taken were bey­ond what is con­sidered reas­on­able repair and there­fore plan­ning per­mis­sion was required. The applic­ant informed the CNPA that fur­ther works were required and there­fore has sub­mit­ted an applic­a­tion to com­plete those works.

2. The track has been described as used for agri­cul­ture, deer man­age­ment and sport­ing purposes.

3. Pri­or to 2017, the track was a rough con­struc­ted land rover track used since about 2008, and upgraded to a smooth run­ning sur­face with improved drainage.

4. In 2017 Glen­ban­chor Estate under­took works on anoth­er track and sub­mit­ted an applic­a­tion under 2018/0209/DET which was approved in August 2018.

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
POLICY 3	SUS­TAIN­ABLE DESIGN	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	SPORT AND RECREATION
POLICY 9	CUL­TUR­AL HERITAGE
POLICY 10	RESOURCES
POLICY 11	DEVELOPER CON­TRI­BU­TIONS

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/LDPI5.pdf

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 28/06/2019

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
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guidance
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
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 11	Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance

CON­SULTA­TIONS

1. A sum­mary of the main issues raised by con­sul­tees now follows:

2. CNPA Eco­logy Officer is sat­is­fied with the pro­pos­als to fix the issues caused by the upgrades such as eco­lo­gic­ally bene­fi­cial culverts.

3. Com­munity Coun­cil has giv­en no com­ment regard­ing this proposal.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. There have been 5 objec­tions to this applic­a­tion, focus­sing on a num­ber of issues, the first being the prin­ciple of the ret­ro­spect­ive applic­a­tion and a lack of detail of the pro­posed works. The object­ors wish to see two dif­fer­ent applic­a­tions rather than one single application.

2. The object­ors focus on the lack of inform­a­tion sup­plied upfront, cit­ing no meth­od state­ment and no after care of applic­a­tion includ­ing the green strip in the middle of the track.

3. These are attached as Appendix 3.

APPRAIS­AL

Prin­ciple

1. The prin­ciple of the track is estab­lished as it has been in place for more than 10 years, how­ever the works car­ried out to date require plan­ning per­mis­sion and the pro­posed works require fur­ther scru­tiny in order for them to com­ply with the policies with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 28/06/2019

Land­scape and Eco­lo­gic­al Issues

1. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 states that devel­op­ment that would adversely affect the Cairngorms Nation­al Park will only be per­mit­ted where it will not adversely affect the integ­rity of the area. The track has an exist­ing drain­age chan­nel along its length and some clear­ance of this chan­nel is pro­posed to ensure prop­er water run­off. It is recom­men­ded that should the applic­a­tion be sup­por­ted a con­di­tion be attached to any con­sent requir­ing the sub­mis­sion of a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment which will address the works to be under­taken to the drain­age chan­nels to ensure the pro­pos­al com­plies with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.

2. Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 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 devel­op­ments. The recom­men­ded Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment will also address the width of the track to ensure its width is not increased through the devel­op­ment and that any work­ing cor­ridor is reduced as far as possible.

3. A turn­ing circle using a heavy duty poly­ethyl­ene mesh is pro­posed at the top end of the track how­ever no details have been sub­mit­ted show­ing the extent of this. There have also been no details sub­mit­ted in rela­tion to res­tor­a­tion works. As such con­di­tions are recom­men­ded requir­ing both the extent of the turn­ing circle and the sub­mis­sion of a detailed res­tor­a­tion plan for the bor­row pits along the route.

4. Sub­ject to full com­pli­ance with these con­di­tions are applied and met the pro­pos­al will com­ply with Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

5. Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 requires that all devel­op­ment pro­pos­als should be designed to min­im­ise the effect of the devel­op­ment on the landscape.

6. As the pro­pos­al has ret­ro­spect­ive ele­ments con­di­tions will be added to ensure if the fur­ther works do not take place remedi­ation along the track will be con­trolled and as such enable the devel­op­ment to com­ply with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Oth­er Issues raised in Representations

1. There were a num­ber of objec­tions cent­ring on 2 broad issues, the first being the lack of detail in the sub­mis­sion. The agent has partly addressed this by sub­mit­ting fur­ther inform­a­tion and through the impos­i­tion of the recom­men­ded con­di­tions these maters will be addressed.

2. The second point was the prin­ciple of a ret­ro­spect­ive applic­a­tion, fur­ther pro­posed works and the sep­ar­a­tion between those developments.

3. The applic­ant stopped work until an applic­a­tion for plan­ning per­mis­sion was sub­mit­ted. The agent also sub­mit­ted a sup­port­ing state­ment cla­ri­fy­ing what works were under­taken in 2017 and the plans show these works.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 28/06/2019

1. The rep­res­ent­a­tions sug­ges­ted the applic­a­tion should be con­sidered as two applic­a­tions rather than one. It is not con­sidered that this is appro­pri­ate in this instance. The recom­men­ded con­di­tions attached to any con­sent gran­ted under this applic­a­tion will ensure the seed­ing of the track and the res­tor­a­tion of the bor­row pit are under­taken should the fur­ther pro­posed devel­op­ment not be under­taken timeously. This also ensures that the ret­ro­spect­ive works will com­ply with the policies with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

CON­CLU­SION

1. The applic­a­tion to reg­u­lar­ise ret­ro­spect­ive works to the exist­ing track and carry out fur­ther works sub­ject to appro­pri­ate con­di­tions will ensure the pro­pos­al com­plies with all rel­ev­ant policies of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

• That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to Approve the Ret­ro­spect­ive resur­fa­cing of hill track at Land 2890M NW Of Carn Sgu­lain New­ton­more sub­ject to 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 fur­ther works shall com­mence on site until a revised detailed, site spe­cif­ic Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment (CMS) has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the CNPA act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. The CMS shall cov­er the fol­low­ing matters: a) Con­firm­a­tion of the work­ing cor­ridor, route and track width, demon­strat­ing that the track will be no more than 2.5m in width; b) Con­firm­a­tion that the cent­ral veget­a­tion along the whole of the track will be no less than 0.75m in width; c) Site spe­cif­ic sec­tions show­ing meth­ods of con­struc­tion for the length of the track. d) A detailed descrip­tion of any works to the drain­age along the track.

The works shall be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the details approved by the CNPA; Reas­on: To min­im­ise the land­scape and visu­al impacts of the devel­op­ment and min­im­ise dam­age to hab­it­ats adja­cent to the devel­op­ment in accord­ance with Policies 3, 4 and 5 of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 28/06/2019

1. No fur­ther works shall com­mence until a plan show­ing the extent of the turn­ing circle at the top of the track has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the CNPA act­ing as Plan­ning Authority.

The works shall be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the details approved by the CNPА; Reas­on: to ensure the mit­ig­a­tion works are car­ried out to a com­pet­ent stand­ard and in accord­ance with Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. No fur­ther works shall com­mence until a bor­row pit res­tor­a­tion plan has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. This plan shall include any fur­ther remod­el­ling works and tim­ings of all works, con­sid­er­a­tion of any rep­tiles present as well as a plan show­ing how the bor­row pits along the route of the track will be seeded. Reas­on: To ensure the mit­ig­a­tion works are car­ried out to a com­pet­ent stand­ard and in accord­ance with Policy 4: Eco­logy and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

2. Should the fur­ther pro­posed devel­op­ment not be imple­men­ted with­in I year from the date of this decision any exist­ing bor­row pits will be fully restored and reseeded with­in 6 months from the passing of that date to the sat­is­fac­tion of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity. Reas­on: To ensure the mit­ig­a­tion works are car­ried out to a com­pet­ent stand­ard and in accord­ance with Policy 4: Eco­logy and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

3. Should the fur­ther pro­posed devel­op­ment not be imple­men­ted with­in I year from the date of this decision then a centre strip of no less than 0.75m shall be seeded along the entire length of the track using loc­ally won seed with­in 6 months from the passing of that date to the sat­is­fac­tion of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity. Reas­on: To ensure the mit­ig­a­tion works are car­ried out to a com­pet­ent stand­ard and in accord­ance with Policy 4: Eco­logy and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 28/06/2019

Inform­at­ives 1 The devel­op­ment hereby approved must com­mence with­in 3 years of the date of this decision notice. If devel­op­ment has not com­menced with­in this peri­od then this plan­ning per­mis­sion will lapse.

2 The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment is required to give the Plan­ning Author­ity pri­or writ­ten noti­fic­a­tion of the date on which it is inten­ded to com­mence the devel­op­ment. Attached to this decision notice is a Notice of Ini­ti­ation of Devel­op­ment for com­ple­tion and sub­mis­sion. Sub­mis­sion of this inform­a­tion assists the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer in mon­it­or­ing act­ive work with­in the area to ensure com­pli­ance with the approved details and to identi­fy and cor­rect any poten­tial prob­lems, as they arise, rather than later when it may be more dif­fi­cult and more costly to rec­ti­fy. Fail­ure to give notice would con­sti­tute a breach of plan­ning con­trol which may res­ult in enforce­ment action being taken.

3 Fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, a noti­fic­a­tion of the com­ple­tion shall, as soon as prac­tic­able, be giv­en to the Plan­ning Author­ity. Attached to this decision notice is a Notice of Com­ple­tion of Devel­op­ment for com­ple­tion and sub­mis­sion. Sub­mis­sion of this form will assist the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer in mak­ing a final inspec­tion and check­ing com­pli­ance with the approved draw­ings and con­di­tions. If the devel­op­ment hereby approved is to be car­ried out in phases, then a notice of com­ple­tion should be sub­mit­ted at the com­ple­tion of each phase.

The map on the first page of this report has been pro­duced to aid in the stat­utory pro­cess of deal­ing with plan­ning applic­a­tions. The map is to help identi­fy the site and its sur­round­ings and to aid Plan­ning Officers, Com­mit­tee Mem­bers and the Pub­lic in the determ­in­a­tion of the pro­pos­al. Maps shown in the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Report can only be used for the pur­poses of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee. Any oth­er use risks infringing Crown Copy­right and may lead to pro­sec­u­tion or civil pro­ceed­ings. Maps pro­duced with­in this Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Report can only be repro­duced with the express per­mis­sion of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and oth­er Copy­right hold­ers. This per­mis­sion must be gran­ted in advance.