CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/12/2021

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED:

Erec­tion of Bothy and Form­a­tion of Access Track at Land 515M SE of Farm­house, Kil­liehuntly, Kingussie

REF­ER­ENCE: 2020/0220/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Bob Reid, Wild­land Ltd

DATE CALLED-IN: 28 Septem­ber 2020

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve sub­ject to conditions

CASE OFFICER: Katie Crerar Plan­ning Officer

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CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/12/2021

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/12/2021

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The applic­a­tion site is loc­ated approx­im­ately 500 metres south east of Kil­liehuntly Farm on the north west side of Lochan nan Reamh, just over 3 miles east of Kingussie.

2. The site com­prises a mix­ture of unim­proved acid grass­land in the north­ern part of the site and semi-mature con­i­fer­ous wood­land in the south and flat­ter moor­land to the east.

3. Access to the devel­op­ment site will be taken from an exist­ing vehicle track run­ning south east from Kil­liehuntly Farm which lies approx­im­ately 100 metres to the north of the pro­posed bothy site. The site of the new access track runs through the grass­land, into the wood­land plant­a­tion to where the bothy will be loc­ated. The bothy will be situ­ated on the edge of the wooded area, over­look­ing Lochan nan Reamh.

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​l​i​n​e​-​a​p​p​l​i​c​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​a​p​p​l​i​c​a​t​i​o​n​D​e​t​a​i​l​s​.​d​o​?​a​c​t​i​v​e​T​a​b​=​s​u​m​m​a​r​y​&​k​e​y​V​a​l​=​Q​H​0​H​B​6​S​I​0CH00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan	826_01_101	16/09/20	28/09/20
Plan — Pro­posed Loc­a­tion Plan 2	826_01_103	01/09/20	28/09/20
Plan — Pro­posed Site Plan	826_01_102	12/08/21	27/09/21
Plan — Pro­posed Floor Plan	826_01_201	20/11/19	28/09/20
Plan — Pro­posed Front Elevation	826_01_401	20/11/19	28/09/20
Plan — Pro­posed Back Elevation	826_01_402	20/11/19	28/09/20
Plan — Pro­posed Side Elev­a­tion 1	826_01_403	20/11/19	28/09/20
Plan — Pro­posed Side Elev­a­tion 2	826_01_4040	20/11/19	28/09/20
Oth­er — Access Proposals		01/01/21	11/01/21
Plan — Bothy Access Land­scape Gen­er­al Arrangement	6539.15-LP-PLN-001	08/01/21	11/01/21

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/12/2021

Plan — Bothy Access Indic­at­ive Gradi­ents	6539.15-LP-SKE-001	01/11/20	19/11/20
Oth­er — Con­struc­tion Meth­od Statement	D_826_01	01/09/21	28/09/21
Oth­er — Tree Sur­vey Tree Con­straints Plan	6539-LP-PLN-101	02/09/21	27/09/21
Oth­er — Tree Sur­vey Pro­posed Tree Works	6539-LP-PLN-102	24/09/21	27/09/21
Oth­er — Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies Survey	10666B	04/06/21	28/06/21
Oth­er — Drain­age Solu­tions Assessment		22/02/21	11/03/21
Oth­er — Addi­tion­al Information		11/03/21	11/03/21
Oth­er — Pre­lim­in­ary Eco­lo­gic­al Appraisal		20/01/20	24/11/20
Oth­er — Bothy Planting		01/11/20	19/11/20
Oth­er — Archae­ology Report	3852	01/04/19	28/09/20
Oth­er — Land­scape and Visu­al Appraisal		10/03/20	28/09/20
Oth­er — Plan­ning Policy Review		10/03/20	28/09/20

• Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the 1^st of the month.

1. The applic­a­tion seeks full plan­ning per­mis­sion for the con­struc­tion of a ​‘bothy’ (a small and basic self-cater­ing unit) and the form­a­tion of an access­ible track (that can accom­mod­ate a vehicle if required) taken from an exist­ing vehicu­lar track approx­im­ately 100m north of the pro­posed bothy site. The devel­op­ment will com­prise the con­struc­tion of a pre-fab­ric­ated, self-con­tained bothy extend­ing to approx­im­ately 90 square metres (with an intern­al floor area of 55 square metres) situ­ated with­in the trees over­look­ing Lochan nan Reamh.

2. The bothy will be access­ible and has there­fore been designed with a lar­ger foot­print com­pris­ing of two com­pon­ent parts or ​‘volumes’, each designed in a tra­di­tion­al bothy shape with a dual-pitch roof. The smal­ler but more prom­in­ent sec­tion or ​‘volume’ is posi­tioned over­look­ing the Lochan with a roof pitch height of 4400mm. The lar­ger second part or ​‘volume’ is posi­tioned to the rear of this with a roof pitch height of 4000mm.

3. The main living/​kitchen area is loc­ated in the smal­ler sec­tion which is posi­tioned to max­im­ise the more open views (and nat­ur­al day­light) to the south and east over­look­ing the Lochan. The oth­er lar­ger sec­tion or ​‘volume’ con­tains the entrance hall/​vestibule, an access­ible shower room and bed­room with a bath and is posi­tioned (and con­nec­ted) behind the smal­ler volume and is more enclosed provid­ing great­er pri­vacy. Level access to the bothy is provided on the north-west elev­a­tion. In addi­tion there is an extern­ally accessed room/​storage facil­ity adja­cent to the entrance.

4. The bothy will be con­struc­ted of and fin­ished in tim­ber. The struc­ture will be built of Glu­lam (glued lam­in­ated tim­ber) and then fin­ished in black stained Siberi­an larch

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/12/2021

1. clad­ding boards with dark grey stained win­dow and door frames. It is inten­ded that the larch will over time age and weath­er to blend in with the surroundings.

The bothy will be pre-fab­ric­ated to reduce waste and on-site foot­fall dur­ing con­struc­tion. A tim­ber deck will be installed to cre­ate a stable work­ing plat­form from which the bothy will be con­struc­ted. The bothy will be situ­ated above ground on an elev­ated steel chassis using ground screw found­a­tions to min­im­ise impacts on the ground and provide level access on the slop­ing ground whilst also provid­ing elev­ated views. Minor excav­a­tions will be required to secure anchor points for the chassis and structure.

1. The build­ing com­pon­ents of the bothy will be delivered by lorry to Kil­liehuntly farm­house and then dropped onsite by a heli­copter and con­struc­ted and posi­tioned by a small team. Heli­copter drops will be man­aged in con­sulta­tion with the pro­ject eco­lo­gic­al con­sult­ants to avoid bird breed­ing sea­sons and min­im­ise any impacts on wildlife.

2. Intern­ally, the bothy has been con­figured to allow for sep­ar­ate sleep­ing and liv­ing areas with large spaces to accom­mod­ate a range of mobil­ity require­ments and com­fort­able use of the facil­it­ies. In addi­tion, there is suf­fi­cient space provided to allow a carer or com­pan­ion to stay as well. Intern­al fin­ishes will also be designed to sup­port all levels of mobil­ity includ­ing access­ible toi­let and wash­ing facil­it­ies. The bothy will have a urine divert­ing dry toi­let (UDDT) (main­tained and emp­tied as part of ongo­ing main­ten­ance) and waste water will be filtered pri­or to being dis­posed of via a soakaway. Grey water will be treated via a Biorock sys­tem and dis­charged via a soakaway. Whilst the bothy will be cap­able of being ​‘off grid’ if desired, it will have mains water and elec­tri­city to accom­mod­ate the vary­ing needs of those stay­ing there. Extern­al light­ing will be kept to a min­im­um. Any extern­al light­ing required such as at the bothy entrance, will be triggered by motion sensor and timed.

3. Access to the bothy will be a path taken from an exist­ing track 100 metres north of where the bothy will be situ­ated. The pro­posed path is routed to keep its gradi­ent to a min­im­um to make it more access­ible and will be able to accom­mod­ate a vehicle if required. The path will head in a south-west­erly dir­ec­tion before a hair-pin bend tak­ing the path back in an east­erly dir­ec­tion to the bothy. The total dis­tance of the new path will be approx­im­ately 230m and 1.8m wide.

4. The path will be con­struc­ted in the style of a tra­di­tion­al hill path using loc­ally sourced mater­i­als to ensure it is in keep­ing with the sur­round­ing con­text and loc­al land­scape char­ac­ter. The path will com­prise slight vari­ations in width to avoid straight edges and uni­form­ity and will be con­struc­ted with a free drain­ing sur­face course (using crushed loc­al aggreg­ate as a bind­ing lay­er) and a 250mm depth trench with level tray base of firm min­er­al soil. The nat­ur­al aggreg­ates will be built up in graded lay­ers of inter­lock­ing stone with lar­ger for the base and smal­ler for the sur­face. The path will be edged with loc­ally sourced boulders and turfs and veget­a­tion. The mains water and elec­tri­city will be installed under the path dur­ing con­struc­tion, so as to reduce the need for addi­tion­al excavations.

5. It is anti­cip­ated that the path will encounter rel­at­ively low rates of usage due to the small num­ber of guests and ser­vice staff using it and there­fore the access path has been

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/12/2021

designed to be low impact. It will be main­tained to keep it useable how­ever veget­a­tion clear­ance will be min­im­ised to allow moss­ing over of aggreg­ates and soften­ing of the path edges to integ­rate the path into its surroundings.

1. The path will be wheel­chair access­ible with rest­ing points (see Site Plan) and a hand rail along the lower half of the path where the gradi­ent is slightly steep­er. How­ever over­all the gradi­ent of the path is rel­at­ively gentle (1:20) and the hand­rails will be con­struc­ted using wrought iron posts and a guide rope to reflect the rur­al char­ac­ter of the area.

2. Tree sur­vey inform­a­tion provided with the applic­a­tion indic­ated that approx­im­ately 38 trees (all Cat­egory C) will be removed to con­struct the path and to accom­mod­ate the bothy itself (see Site Plan). Tree removals along the access route will primar­ily com­prise young (seed­ling) pines and those asso­ci­ated with the bothy are primar­ily nat­ur­ally grow­ing goat wil­low on the wet­ter ground near the shore of the Lochan.

3. The Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment states that the remov­al of these will be under­taken out­side of key bird breed­ing sea­son. The applic­ant is pro­pos­ing to under­take a sig­ni­fic­ant amount of nat­ive tree plant­ing com­pris­ing 397 bare root whips and 82 spe­ci­men trees cov­er­ing an area of 2165 square metres on an area of unim­proved acid grass­land. A Tree Sur­vey com­pris­ing a tree con­straints plan and pro­posed tree works has been sub­mit­ted with the application.

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

His­tory

1. There is no recent plan­ning his­tory on the bothy site itself, how­ever there have been a num­ber of applic­a­tions in recent years at Kil­liehuntly Farm house and vicin­ity includ­ing a change of use of the Farm­house to Class 7 Hotel & Gues­t­house (16/00829/FUL), Use of the farm stead­ing as a com­mer­cial kit­chen with ancil­lary meet­ing room, laun­dry, man­agers office and flat (16/00846/FUL), and sought cer­ti­fic­ates of law­ful­ness for the change of use of res­id­en­tial dwell­ings to hol­i­day accom­mod­a­tion (17/01983/CLP and 16/00888/CLP).

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA)

1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) has been car­ried out to ensure that the devel­op­ment will not have an adverse effect on the integ­rity of the River Spey SAC, River Spey — Insh Marshes SPA and Ram­sar site. The HRA iden­ti­fied the poten­tial for impacts from con­struc­tion on the River Tromie (such as sed­i­ment release which impacts on water qual­ity), dis­turb­ance to otter (which is a qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies of the SAC) from con­struc­tion activ­ity and human dis­turb­ance. The HRA (which has been agreed by NatureScot) con­cluded that all con­ser­va­tion object­ives could be met sub­ject to con­di­tions requir­ing a pre-con­struc­tion sur­vey for otter and the imple­ment­a­tion of the Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment (CMS) sub­mit­ted with the applic­a­tion to ensure that neces­sary meas­ures will be under­taken to min­im­ise impacts on the sur­round­ing envir­on­ment and dis­turb­ance to otter.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/12/2021

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 1	NEW HOUS­ING DEVELOPMENT
POLICY 2	SUP­PORT­ING ECO­NOM­IC GROWTH	X
POLICY 3	DESIGN AND PLACEMAKING	X
POLICY 4	NAT­UR­AL HERITAGE	X
POLICY 5	LAND­SCAPE	X
POLICY 6	THE SIT­ING AND DESIGN OF DIGIT­AL COM­MU­NIC­A­TIONS EQUIPMENT
POLICY 7	RENEW­ABLE ENERGY
POLICY 8	OPEN SPACE, SPORT AND RECREATION
POLICY 9	CUL­TUR­AL HERITAGE
POLICY 10	RESOURCES	X
POLICY 11	DEVELOPER OBLIG­A­TIONS

1. All new devel­op­ment pro­pos­als require to be assessed in rela­tion to policies con­tained in the adop­ted Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. The full word­ing of policies can be found at: 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.

Policy 1	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
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 11	Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance (2015)

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/12/2021

CON­SULTA­TIONS

Sum­mary of the Main Issues Raised by Consultees

1. SEPA state that the pro­pos­al is below the threshold for provid­ing advice how­ever do note that the grey water dis­charge and UDDT pro­pos­als appear adequate for their pur­pose and that dis­charges of the grey water to the ground may require pri­or author­isa­tion from SEPA under The Water Envir­on­ment (Con­trolled Activ­it­ies) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tion 2011 (CAR).

2. NatureScot were con­sul­ted on the Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al to which they agreed there would be no adverse effect on the integ­rity of the River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC), River Spey – Insh Marshes Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area (SPA) and Ram­sar Site.

3. High­land Coun­cil (Floor Risk Man­age­ment) do not object to the application.

4. High­land Coun­cil (Trans­port Plan­ning) do not object to the application.

5. High­land Coun­cil (Envir­on­ment­al Advice & Con­sultancy – Archae­ology) do not object to the application.

6. High­land Coun­cil (Envir­on­ment­al Health) advise that should it not be pos­sible to con­nect the bothy to mains water, that the fol­low­ing sus­pens­ive con­di­tion should be applied: a) ​‘Pri­or to the devel­op­ment com­men­cing the applic­ant shall con­firm that a con­nec­tion to the mains pub­lic water sup­ply is to be made. If this is not pos­sible, then they must sub­mit the fol­low­ing inform­a­tion, as described in the Private Water Sup­plies Plan­ning Advice Note, for the writ­ten approv­al of the Plan­ning Authority:

   i. A completed private water supply questionnaire (Form PWS I).
   ii. A plan of the development and water supply.
   iii. A report from a competent person which demonstrates that there will be a sufficient piped supply of wholesome water to meet the demands of this property.
   

   b) Where the report iden­ti­fies a need for water treat­ment this shall be put in place pri­or to the occu­pancy’. c) They also sug­gest the fol­low­ing informative:

   i. 'The applicant should be informed that if the premises cannot be connected to the mains public water supply and is to be supplied with water from a private water supply, and it is to be used for a commercial purpose, then, under the requirements of The Water Intended for Human Consumption (Private Supplies) (Scotland) Regulations 2017, The Highland Council must add it to the register of private water supplies, to risk assess the supply and to sample and test it on an annual basis to ensure the water provided meets the regulatory standard. The applicant should be informed that there is a charge for this statutory function. The applicant should inform the environmental health team of The Highland Council if the property is used for a commercial purpose'.
   

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/12/2021

1. CNPA Out­door Access do not object to the application.

2. CNPA Land­scape Advisor is of the view that the pro­posed devel­op­ment site pos­sesses some capa­city for the type of devel­op­ment being pro­posed on account of its dis­creet loc­a­tion, the pres­ence of struc­tures with­in the wider area and small scale unob­trus­ive design. The effects of the pro­posed access path would be more extens­ive due to its length and the remov­al of some trees. How­ever over­all it is pre­dicted that whilst the pro­pos­al could have some adverse effects on the loc­al land­scape char­ac­ter, these would not be sig­ni­fic­ant to the integ­rity of the Nation­al Park landscape.

3. The Land­scape Advisor has reques­ted a land­scape man­age­ment and main­ten­ance plan includ­ing con­sid­er­a­tion of poten­tial activ­it­ies that could have land­scape effects. Fur­ther land­scape mon­it­or­ing pro­pos­als were also sought to address any path erosion.

4. The CNPA Eco­logy Advisor high­lights the need for pre-start and pre-fell (if required) checks for red squir­rel, pine marten, badger, otter, rep­tiles, bats and Scot­tish wild­cat (and breed­ing birds depend­ing on time of year). It is spe­cific­ally reques­ted that heli­copter flights take place out­with the bird breed­ing sea­son and that the use of noisy plant and machinery is avoided in the two hours before sun­set for badger.

5. It is reques­ted that vis­it­or man­age­ment details are provided to lim­it the impact to otter and any breed­ing birds and encour­age responsible/​sensitive beha­viour from guests.

6. Kin­craig Com­munity Coun­cil have expressed con­cern about the access and the remov­al of trees for this plan­ning application.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. One rep­res­ent­a­tion was received from a res­id­ent of Drumguish who objects to the pro­pos­al on the basis that the bothy would be an intru­sion in what they con­sider to be wild land. They feel that there is suf­fi­cient oppor­tun­ity for those who wish to watch the bird life in this area and are con­cerned that the bothy would lim­it pub­lic access to observe the wild­life at Lochan nan Reamh. They also note that no pro­vi­sion has been made to house the staff needed to ser­vice the bothy and over­all this pro­pos­al will put pres­sures on the lim­ited afford­able hous­ing in the area.

APPRAIS­AL

Prin­ciple

1. The prin­ciple of this devel­op­ment is con­sidered against the rel­ev­ant parts of Policy 2: Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, spe­cific­ally 2.2 Tour­ist Accommodation.

2. In terms meet­ing 2.2 Tour­ist Accom­mod­a­tion, it is con­sidered that this pro­pos­al can be delivered without hav­ing an adverse impact on the envir­on­ment (sub­ject to the

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/12/2021

rel­ev­ant con­di­tions) or affect­ing the amen­ity of neigh­bour­ing areas. The bothy is a small, low impact vis­it­or accom­mod­a­tion that will not have a det­ri­ment­al impact on its surroundings.

1. The bothy will make a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the tour­ism accom­mod­a­tion pro­vi­sion in the area, par­tic­u­larly improv­ing for those with lim­ited mobil­ity and dis­abled people. It provides a unique oppor­tun­ity for all abil­it­ies to exper­i­ence stay­ing in a remote and wild set­ting sur­roun­ded by the Nation­al Park’s land­scapes and wild­life with the neces­sary sup­port. It will also con­trib­ute to provid­ing a wider range of vis­it­or accom­mod­a­tion options and over­all it is con­sidered that the prin­ciple of this applic­a­tion com­plies with Policy 2 Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Land­scape and Visual/​Design

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

2. The bothy lies with­in the ​‘Badenoch – Insh Marshes’ land­scape char­ac­ter area and the loc­al land­scape char­ac­ter is influ­enced by the dis­tinct lin­ear space, land­form and the River Tromie, which also includes a mix of nat­ive wood­land, agri­cul­tur­al fields and the estate set­tle­ment of Kil­liehuntly, as well as dis­tinct his­tor­ic land­scape fea­tures such as stone build­ings and walls.

3. The bothy lies on a south-east facing wooded slope on the edge of a semi-mature plant­a­tion to the west of Lochan nan Reamh. It is sur­roun­ded to the north and west by the wood­land with an open aspect to the south east look­ing over the lochan. The bothy itself is small in scale and will be dis­creetly posi­tioned with­in the trees. Views into the site are lim­ited due to loc­al screen­ing by trees and the land­form but bothy and access path would be vis­ible from the marshy shore of the lochan and from the loc­al track over Torr Breac between Kil­liehuntly and the wood­land to the south east.

4. The bothy itself has been designed to reflect loc­al ver­nacu­lar using simple tra­di­tion­al bothy shapes with a dual pitched roof. The design is slightly unusu­al as it com­prises two sec­tions or ​‘volumes’ (to increase the floor area to provide great­er access­ib­il­ity) but it is con­sidered that it has been appro­pri­ately posi­tioned and sits well with­in the land­scape, nestled with­in the trees.

5. The bothy will be con­nec­ted to mains water and elec­tri­city which will be installed under the access path and would not require any over­head lines. Heat will be provided via a wood burn­ing stove and the design and mater­i­als used seek to util­ise energy efficiency.

6. The bothy will be vis­ible from the Lochan and imme­di­ate sur­round­ings, how­ever it is not con­sidered to have a det­ri­ment­al impact on the land­scape char­ac­ter of this area and the stained larch clad­ding fin­ish will help the bothy to integ­rate into its surroundings.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/12/2021

1. The access path (approx. 230m see Site Plan) will be more prom­in­ent from the main access track to the north of the lochan. How­ever it is con­sidered that the use of loc­al mater­i­als and tra­di­tion­al design will help the path integ­rate into the land­scape. The pro­posed addi­tion­al tree plant­ing will be focused around the access path which over time will lessen its visu­al impact.

2. A tree sur­vey com­pris­ing a Tree Con­straints Plan and Pro­posed Tree Works provide a sur­vey of the trees in the area and identi­fy those pro­posed for remov­al as well as the pro­posed tree plant­ing and a work­ing cor­ridor has been iden­ti­fied (See Tree Con­straints Plan). Whilst there is a pre­sump­tion against the remov­al of wood­land, the pro­pos­al will not res­ult in the remov­al of an area of wood­land, but trees dis­persed with­in it. The wood­land com­prises semi-mature con­i­fer­ous trees and those pro­posed for remov­al are all Cat­egory C (which are smal­ler and of lower qual­ity). In addi­tion, sub­stan­tial com­pens­at­ory and addi­tion­al plant­ing is pro­posed which over time will improve the wood­land in terms of size and diversity of tree spe­cies and it is con­sidered that this provides appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion for the tree loss.

3. A land­scape man­age­ment and main­ten­ance plan was also reques­ted how­ever it is not con­sidered neces­sary in this instance as the num­ber of people using the bothy (two at a time) along staff is unlikely to res­ult in sig­ni­fic­ant addi­tion­al erosion of the paths or cre­ate any wider land­scape or dis­turb­ance issues.

4. Over­all, the pro­pos­al has been sym­path­et­ic­ally designed to com­ple­ment and integ­rate with­in its sur­round­ings. The scale, design and mater­i­als of the bothy are in keep­ing with the char­ac­ter of the area, the pro­pos­al will not res­ult in any sig­ni­fic­ant land­scape impacts and there­fore com­plies with Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Eco­logy

1. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to restrict devel­op­ment that would have an adverse impact on pro­tec­ted spe­cies and where this can­not be avoided that appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures are provided.

Des­ig­na­tions and Pro­tec­ted Species

1. The applic­a­tion site lies on the edge of Lochan nan Reamh, which out­flows into the River Tromie, part of the River Spey SAC and is also con­nec­ted via the River Tromie to the River Spey — Insh Marshes SPA and Ram­sar site.

2. The poten­tial for otter in the area (as a qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies of the River Spey SAC) around the devel­op­ment site was raised and a fur­ther detailed pro­tec­ted spe­cies sur­vey was under­taken which spe­cific­ally looked at otter, badger and red squir­rel. The sur­vey noted that Lochan nan Reamh (which is con­nec­ted to the River Tromie) provides suit­able com­mut­ing and for­aging hab­it­at for otter. Evid­ence of otter was noted around the peri­phery of the lochan (two ret­ing places (hov­ers) approx­im­ately 200m from the site) but no evid­ence of holts were recor­ded. It is there­fore proposed

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/12/2021

that a pre-con­struc­tion otter sur­vey is under­taken and a spe­cies pro­tec­tion plan set­ting out appro­pri­ate meas­ures if neces­sary) is required as a con­di­tion. In addi­tion, a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment has been pre­pared which will reduce the risk of dis­turb­ance dur­ing con­struc­tion to a min­im­um level.

1. Hab­it­at to the north of the bothy is suit­able for­aging and sett cre­ation hab­it­at for badger. A badger sett was recor­ded in wood­land to the west of the lochan (190m from the bothy site and 100m from the path) and oth­er evid­ence of badger was recor­ded in the area. No evid­ence of red squir­rel was recor­ded how­ever it is acknow­ledged that there is the poten­tial for these spe­cies to be present in the wider area and there­fore a pre-con­struc­tion and pre-felling checks are recom­men­ded as a con­di­tion. The Eco­logy Advisor also advises pre-con­struc­tion checks for pine marten, rep­tiles, bats, Scot­tish wild­cat and breed­ing birds depend­ing on the time of year.

2. Con­cern was expressed about the poten­tial impacts of con­struc­tion on both the des­ig­nated sites and pro­tec­ted spe­cies. As noted above, whilst there is lim­ited evid­ence demon­strat­ing the use of the site by these spe­cies, it is import­ant the con­struc­tion meth­ods are util­ised to ensure that there will be no impacts on any pro­tec­ted spe­cies should they be present in the wider area.

3. A Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment has been pre­pared and sets out that all ground works and heli­copter flights for deliv­er­ing mater­i­als will be under­taken in late winter/​spring to avoid bird breed­ing sea­sons, that all excav­a­tions will be covered or have a ramp placed in them to avoid entrap­ment and work­ing hours should not occur between one hour before sun­set and one hour after sun­rise to avoid dis­turb­ance to spe­cies such as otter.

4. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) has been car­ried out to ensure that the devel­op­ment will not have an adverse effect on the integ­rity of the River Spey SAC, River Spey — Insh Marshes SPA and Ram­sar Site. The HRA iden­ti­fied the poten­tial for impacts from con­struc­tion on the River Tromie (such as sed­i­ment release which impacts on water qual­ity), dis­turb­ance to otter (which is a qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies of the SAC) from con­struc­tion activ­ity and human dis­turb­ance. The HRA (which has been agreed by NatureScot) con­cluded that all con­ser­va­tion object­ives could be met sub­ject to con­di­tions requir­ing a pre-con­struc­tion sur­vey for otter and the imple­ment­a­tion of the Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment (CMS) sub­mit­ted with the applic­a­tion to ensure that neces­sary meas­ures will be under­taken to min­im­ise impacts on the sur­round­ing envir­on­ment and dis­turb­ance to otter.

5. Over­all, it is con­sidered that the pro­pos­al will not have an adverse effect on any of the des­ig­nated sites or pro­tec­ted spe­cies. As high­lighted above, con­di­tions have been added to require pre-con­struc­tion (and if rel­ev­ant, pre-felling) sur­veys for pro­tec­ted spe­cies and if required spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans.

Biorock Treat­ment System

1. The devel­op­ment pro­poses that grey/​waste water will be treated via a Biorock treat­ment sys­tem in the ground and dis­charged via an out­fall incor­por­at­ing at least 25m² of con­struc­ted par­tial soakaway that ter­min­ates in Lochan nan Ream. Con­cern was expressed about the poten­tial impacts nitrate and phos­phor­ous levels which could

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/12/2021

impact on the des­ig­nated sites/​species, as the lochan flows into the River Tromie, part of the River Spey SAC.

1. How­ever, NatureScot advised that phos­phor­ous levels are not of con­cern at this gen­er­al loc­a­tion. So long as the treat­ment sys­tem and soakaway com­ply with build­ing reg­u­la­tions, such sys­tems should not have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on fresh­wa­ter qual­i­fy­ing interests. There­fore there would not be a likely sig­ni­fic­ant effect on any of the qual­i­fy­ing interests from the waste water treat­ment system.

2. In addi­tion, as high­lighted by SEPA, dis­charges to the ground or water envir­on­ment will require pri­or author­isa­tion from SEPA under The Water Envir­on­ment (Con­trolled Activ­it­ies) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tion 2011 (CAR).

3. Over­all, officers are sat­is­fied that the Biorock treat­ment sys­tem is appro­pri­ate and will not adversely affect the lochan, River Tromie or the River Spey SAC.

Eco­logy Conclusion

1. Over­all it is con­sidered that the scale and con­struc­tion of this pro­pos­al can be achieved without caus­ing sig­ni­fic­ant effects on hab­it­ats, pro­tec­ted spe­cies or area pro­tec­ted for nature con­ser­va­tion. Con­di­tions will be attached to ensure the appro­pri­ate pre-con­struc­tion checks are under­taken for pro­tec­ted spe­cies and con­struc­tion will adhere to what is set out in the Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment to min­im­ise any dis­turb­ance to the sur­round­ing area. Over­all, this devel­op­ment com­plies with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Ser­vi­cing and Access

1. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing requires all devel­op­ments to seek to min­im­ise the effects of devel­op­ment on cli­mate change, make sus­tain­able use of resources, main­tain and max­im­ise oppor­tun­it­ies for respons­ible out­door access and provide appro­pri­ate means of access and egress.

2. Access to the site will be via foot or vehicle along the exist­ing vehicu­lar track from Kil­liehuntly Farm­house and then along the new access­ible path (approx­im­ately 230m). Vis­it­ors will leave their vehicles at Kil­liehuntly Farm­house and then walk or be driv­en to the bothy. It is con­sidered that this provides a suit­able means of access giv­en the nature of the accom­mod­a­tion and inten­tion for it to be an immers­ive, back to nature exper­i­ence. In addi­tion, as noted, the bothy will have an elec­tri­city and water sup­ply to bet­ter sup­port the vary­ing needs of vis­it­ors. Heat­ing will be provided by woodburner.

3. Policy 10: Resources requires devel­op­ments to have suit­able and safe water sup­plies and man­age waste water appro­pri­ately so as not to res­ult in the deteri­or­a­tion of water resources. Grey and waste water will be man­aged via a Biorock treat­ment sys­tem and soakaway. The bothy will also have a UDDT which will be emp­tied and man­aged by the Estate. Giv­en the nature of the devel­op­ment and that up to two vis­it­ors at any one time will just be stay­ing for short peri­ods of time, it is con­sidered that the bothy is appro­pri­ately ser­viced. All rubbish/​waste and main­ten­ance of the bothy will be

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/12/2021

under­taken by the Estate and we are sat­is­fied that no spe­cif­ic main­ten­ance require­ments are necessary.

1. Over­all it is con­sidered that the bothy is adequately ser­viced and has suit­able access pro­vi­sion and com­plies with Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

CON­CLU­SION

1. It is con­sidered that this pro­pos­al for the erec­tion of the bothy and the form­a­tion of an access path is accept­able in land use plan­ning terms. The prin­ciple com­plies with Policy 2: Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment and whilst ini­tial issues in respect of impacts on eco­logy and grey water were raised, appro­pri­ate con­di­tions have been added to ensure there are not adverse impacts. Over­all it is con­sidered that the nature and design of the pro­pos­al is com­pat­ible with its sur­round­ings and sub­ject to pre- con­struc­tion sur­veys and imple­ment­a­tion of the asso­ci­ated Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment (as set out in the apprais­al and con­di­tioned) it is not con­sidered that there will be any sig­ni­fic­ant land­scape or eco­lo­gic­al impacts as a res­ult of the pro­pos­al and there­fore the applic­a­tion is con­sidered to com­ply with the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies and is recom­men­ded for approval.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to the Erec­tion of bothy and form­a­tion of access track at Land 515M SE Of Farm­house Kil­liehuntly Kin­gussie 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.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 5 10/12/2021

Con­di­tions

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a pre-con­struc­tion sur­vey for otter (of the pro­posed devel­op­ment site and a 200m buf­fer in line with NatureScot guid­ance https://www.nature.scot/species-planning-advice-otters) shall be under­taken, with the sur­vey res­ults used to inform a Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan set­ting out mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures appro­pri­ate to the res­ults, all to be sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Authority.

   There­after the plan will be imple­men­ted in full and over­seen by a suit­ably qual­i­fied Eco­lo­gic­al Clerk of Works.

   Reas­on: To avoid dis­turb­ance to otter, a qual­i­fy­ing interest of the River Spey SAC and a European Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies and ensure the pro­tec­tion of pro­tec­ted spe­cies in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

2. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a pre-con­struc­tion walk over sur­vey for pro­tec­ted spe­cies such as, but not lim­ited to, pine marten, red squir­rel, badger, bats, Scot­tish Wild­cat and rep­tiles shall be under­taken in accord­ance with the rel­ev­ant NatureScot guid­ance (https://www.nature.scot/professional-advice/planning-and-development/planning-and-development-advice/planning-and-development-protected-species) by a suit­ably exper­i­enced and licensed eco­lo­gic­al sur­vey­or, with the sur­vey res­ults to inform a Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan detail­ing appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures for any pro­tec­ted spe­cies found. This Plan shall be sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Authority.

   There­after the plan will be imple­men­ted in full and over­seen by a suit­ably qual­i­fied Eco­lo­gic­al Clerk of Works.

   Reas­on: To ensure the pro­tec­tion of pro­tec­ted spe­cies includ­ing breed­ing birds in in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

3. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a pre-con­struc­tion walk over sur­vey for breed­ing birds if any pre­par­at­ory or con­struc­tion works are under­taken dur­ing March – August (inclus­ive), under­taken in accord­ance with the rel­ev­ant guid­ance by a suit­ably exper­i­enced and licensed eco­lo­gic­al sur­vey­or, with the sur­vey res­ults to inform a Breed­ing Bird Pro­tec­tion Plan detail­ing appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures for any breed­ing birds found, the Plan sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity pri­or to works com­men­cing on site.

   There­after the plan will be imple­men­ted in full and over­seen by a suit­ably qual­i­fied Eco­lo­gic­al Clerk of Works