Item5Appendix2HRA CairngormMountain20220307DET

Cairngorms Item 5 Appendix 2 28 April 2023 Nation­al Park Author­ity Ügh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Agenda item 5

Appendix 2

2022/0307/DET

Hab­it­ats reg­u­la­tions appraisal

HAB­IT­ATS REG­U­LA­TIONS APPRAISAL

Plan­ning ref­er­ence and pro­pos­al inform­a­tion	2022/0307/DET Relo­ca­tion of snow fact­ory and imple­ment­a­tion of related infrastructure
Appraised by	Kar­en Ald­ridge, Plan­ning Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer
Date	25 Janu­ary 2023
Checked by	NatureScot
Date	03/02/2023

INFORM­A­TION

European site details
Name of European site(s) poten­tially affected	River Spey SAC

Cairngorms SAC/SPA is approx­im­ately 250 m from the pro­posed site bound­ary, how­ever due to the loc­a­tion of the pro­posed devel­op­ment with the work site being sep­ar­ated through ski tows no con­nectiv­ity between the site and these European sites is con­sidered. There­fore, these des­ig­nated sites will not be con­sidered further.

Qual­i­fy­ing interest(s)
River Spey SAC
	Otter
	Fresh­wa­ter pearl mussel
	Sea lamprey
	Atlantic sal­mon

Con­ser­va­tion object­ives for qual­i­fy­ing interests

River Spey SAC

Con­ser­va­tion Object­ive 2. To ensure that the integ­rity of the River Spey SAC is restored by meet­ing object­ives 2a, 2b, 2c for each qual­i­fy­ing fea­ture (and 2^d for fresh­wa­ter pearl mussel):

2b. Restore the dis­tri­bu­tion of fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel through­out the site

2c. Restore the hab­it­ats sup­port­ing fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel with­in the site and avail­ab­il­ity of food

2^d. Restore the dis­tri­bu­tion and viab­il­ity of fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel host spe­cies and their sup­port­ing habitats

2a. Restore the pop­u­la­tion of fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel as a viable com­pon­ent of the site

2b. Main­tain the dis­tri­bu­tion of sea lamprey through­out the site

2c. Main­tain the hab­it­ats sup­port­ing sea lamprey with­in the site and avail­ab­il­ity of food

2a. Main­tain the pop­u­la­tion of sea lamprey as a viable com­pon­ent of the site

2b. Restore the dis­tri­bu­tion of Atlantic sal­mon through­out the site

2c. Restore the hab­it­ats sup­port­ing Atlantic sal­mon with­in the site and avail­ab­il­ity of food

2a. Restore the pop­u­la­tion of Atlantic sal­mon, includ­ing range of genet­ic types, as a viable com­pon­ent of the site

2b. Main­tain the dis­tri­bu­tion of otter through­out the site

2c. Main­tain the hab­it­ats sup­port­ing otter with­in the site and avail­ab­il­ity of food

2a. Main­tain the pop­u­la­tion of otter as a viable com­pon­ent of the site

Con­ser­va­tion Object­ive I. To ensure that the qual­i­fy­ing fea­tures of the River Spey SAC are in favour­able con­di­tion and make an appro­pri­ate con­tri­bu­tion to achiev­ing favour­able con­ser­va­tion status

APPRAIS­AL

STAGE 1:
What is the plan or project?
Rel­ev­ant sum­mary details of pro­pos­al (includ­ing loc­a­tion, tim­ing, meth­ods, etc)	Relo­ca­tion of the snow fact­ory from the Coire Cas car park to 350 m SE of the Ranger Base Sta­tion, Cairngorm Moun­tain. The pro­pos­al includes con­struc­tion of an access haul road, open­ing of a bar­row pit, installing an intake on nearby water­course and mov­ing of snow fact­ory unit.

Con­struc­tion and relo­ca­tion of the snow fact­ory will be under­taken as set out in Sup­port­ing Report: Meth­od­o­logy for relo­cat­ing snow fact­ory (June 2022) with meth­od­o­logy being fur­ther refined by the appoin­ted contractor’s meth­od state­ments but fol­low­ing the same prin­cipals. An excav­at­or will dig the pro­posed tracks and the removed turfs will be used for rein­state­ment of the new track. Bor­row pits will be rein­stated with top­soil and sur­face turf and any reseed­ing will take place as described with­in ​‘Work­ing with the Envir­on­ment at Cairngorm’. Once relo­ca­tion works are com­pleted, the haul road will be rein­stated by redu­cing the mar­gins, leav­ing a reduced width track. All works will only take place dur­ing day­light hours and any works dur­ing the nest­ing bird sea­son (March – August inclus­ive) will be sub­ject to nest­ing bird checks with­in 48 hours of works. All works adja­cent to water­bod­ies will fol­low SEPA pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion guides.

STAGE 2:
Is the plan or pro­ject dir­ectly con­nec­ted with or neces­sary for the man­age­ment of the European site for nature conservation?
No

STAGE 3:
Is the plan or pro­ject (either alone or in-com­bin­a­tion with oth­er plans or pro­jects) likely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the site(s)?
River Spey SAC	YES – there is poten­tial for a likely sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the hab­it­ats relied upon by the aquat­ic qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies of the River Spey SAC (Atlantic sal­mon, fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel, lamprey) and/​or their food caused by pol­lu­tion from sed­i­ment release affect­ing water qual­ity and smoth­er­ing hab­it­ats dur­ing excav­a­tions, ground and con­struc­tion works includ­ing the install­a­tion of an intake on the trib­u­tary of the Allt a Choire Chais, which flows dir­ectly into the River Spey SAC approx­im­ately Ikm down­stream. There is NO poten­tial for a likely sig­ni­fic­ant effect on otter dis­tri­bu­tion from dis­turb­ance dur­ing con­struc­tion due to the pro­posed devel­op­ment site being approx­im­ately 800 m upstream and so out­with the dis­turb­ance dis­tance for River Spey SAC otter. This aspect

is there­fore not con­sidered further.

STAGE 4:
Under­take an Appro­pri­ate Assess­ment of the implic­a­tions for the site(s) in view of the(ir) con­ser­va­tion objectives
River Spey SAC	The pro­posed devel­op­ment has the poten­tial to pre­vent the con­ser­va­tion object­ives being met for the River Spey SAC for Atlantic sal­mon, fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel and lamprey. This would occur due to:

• The very high risk of sed­i­ment and/​or fuels/​oil etc enter­ing the Allt a choire chais water­course that flows into the River Spey SAC dur­ing con­struc­tion work, due to prox­im­ity of works along­side and the pro­posed in stream works. Any pol­lu­tion events would poten­tially affect the water qual­ity relied upon by the qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies, and poten­tially smoth­er hab­it­ats sup­port­ing the qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies and their food, there­fore affect­ing dis­tri­bu­tion and pop­u­la­tion levels.

How­ever, the Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment Man­age­ment Plan (CEMP) Addendum (dated 13 Janu­ary 2023), sub­mit­ted with the applic­a­tion should address the risk of pol­lu­tion events through appro­pri­ate pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion and con­trol meas­ures, such that the pol­lu­tion risk could be min­im­ised and effects on the River Spey SAC avoided.

STAGE 5:
Can it be ascer­tained that there will not be an adverse effect on site integrity?
River Spey SAC	Provided the CEMP is applied in full (should per­mis­sion be gran­ted), then the con­ser­va­tion object­ives will be met and there will not be an adverse effect on site integrity:
Sug­ges­ted Con­di­tion: The Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment Man­age­ment State­ment (CEMP) with addendum, (dated 13 Janu­ary 2023), to be imple­men­ted in full.	Reas­on: To ensure pol­lu­tion does not enter the River Spey SAC and so avoid an adverse effect on site integrity.