Item5Appendix2HRADalfaberFarmhouse20210390DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 Appendix 2 26/08/2022

AGENDA ITEM 5

APPENDIX 2

2021/0390/DET

HAB­IT­ATS REG­U­LA­TIONS APPRAISAL

HAB­IT­ATS REG­U­LA­TIONS APPRAISAL

Plan­ning ref­er­ence and pro­pos­al inform­a­tion	2021/0390/DET Demoli­tion of derel­ict farm­house and erec­tion of house, Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore
Appraised by	Nina Caudrey – Plan­ning Officer
Date	7/12/2021
Checked by	NatureScot
Date	11/02/2022

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INFORM­A­TION

European site details
Name of European site(s) poten­tially affected	1. Kin­veachy Forest SPA’ 2. River Spey SAC
Qual­i­fy­ing interest(s)	1. Breed­ing — caper­cail­lie and Scot­tish cross­bill 2. Atlantic sal­mon, fresh water pearl mus­sel, sea lamprey and otter
Con­ser­va­tion object­ives for qual­i­fy­ing interests
1. Kin­veachy Forest SPA:
	To avoid deteri­or­a­tion of the hab­it­ats of the qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies or sig­ni­fic­ant dis­turb­ance to the qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies, thus ensur­ing that the integ­rity of the site is main­tained; and To ensure for the qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies that the fol­low­ing are main­tained in the long term: Pop­u­la­tion of the spe­cies as a viable com­pon­ent of the site Dis­tri­bu­tion of the spe­cies with­in site Dis­tri­bu­tion and extent of hab­it­ats sup­port­ing the spe­cies Struc­ture, func­tion and sup­port­ing pro­cesses of hab­it­ats sup­port­ing the spe­cies No sig­ni­fic­ant dis­turb­ance of the species
2. 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 2d 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

It is recog­nised that effects on caper­cail­lie at any one of the Badenoch and Strath­spey caper­cail­lie SPAs or asso­ci­ated wood­lands shown on the map in Annex I has the poten­tial to affect the wider caper­cail­lie meta­pop­u­la­tion of Badenoch and Strath­spey. Atten­tion has been focused in this HRA on the woods likely to be used reg­u­larly for recre­ation by users of the pro­posed devel­op­ment site, which in this case are Kin­vech­ie Forest SPA and the asso­ci­ated Boat of Garten, Loch Garten, Glen­more and Rothiemurchus woods (woods I, J, K, L, M, N and O on the map). Oth­er caper­cail­lie SPAs and woods were con­sidered dur­ing the ini­tial phase of the assess­ment (see Annex I ques­tion 3) but detect­able effects were ruled out, so they have not been included in this HRA. If how­ever the HRA had con­cluded an adverse effect on site integ­rity, or required mit­ig­a­tion, then all of the caper­cail­lie SPAs in Badenoch and Strath­spey would have been reas­sessed in rela­tion to poten­tial effects on the metapopulation.

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2d. 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

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APPRAIS­AL

STAGE 1: What is the plan or project?
Rel­ev­ant sum­mary details of pro­pos­al (includ­ing loc­a­tion, tim­ing, meth­ods, etc)	The pro­posed devel­op­ment is part of the site alloc­ated as H2 in the 2021 LDP, which has con­sent for up to 83 dwell­ings over a lar­ger area than the pro­posed devel­op­ment site. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is an amend­ment to the exist­ing con­sent which sought to reuse the exist­ing farm­house, instead demol­ish­ing it and rebuild­ing a new house on the same site. The pro­posed devel­op­ment will be con­nec­ted to mains water and sew­er­age. Kin­veachy SPA is approx­im­ately 2km to the west along pub­lic roads and paths from the pro­posed devel­op­ment. River Spey SAC is approx­im­ately 185 m to the east of the closest part of the pro­posed devel­op­ment. The SAC is across the well used Spey Val­ley golf course, with no dir­ect water­course con­nectiv­ity. The edge of the SAC has veget­a­tion and mature trees cre­at­ing a ripari­an riverb­ank strip between the golf course and river.
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)?
1. Kin­veachy Forest SPA
	Caper­cail­lie – there is a risk of LSE from the poten­tial long term dis­turb­ance through increased human activ­ity by the addi­tion of the occu­pants of the pro­posed devel­op­ment – as explained with­in Annex I. Fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tion is required. Scot­tish cross­bill — no LSE as none of their hab­it­at will be affected. Scot­tish cross­bill are there­fore not con­sidered fur­ther in this assessment.
2. River Spey SAC
	No LSE due to no dir­ect water course con­nectiv­ity and no indir­ect effects likely from the pro­posed devel­op­ment and asso­ci­ated infra­struc­ture due to the inter­ven­ing golf course and topo­graphy, so no effects on hab­it­ats and sup­port­ing pro­cesses of the qual­i­fy­ing interests. While the pro­posed devel­op­ment site is with­in 200m of the SAC, which is the dis­turb­ance zone for breed­ing otter, the inter­ven­ing golf course that goes up to the bound­ary of the river and SAC is well used. This will not change as a res­ult of the pro­posed devel­op­ment. There­fore any otter in the vicin­ity will already be used to the exist­ing level of human activ­ity, which should not change as

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a res­ult of the pro­posed devel­op­ment, and so there will be no LSE through dis­turb­ance to otter as a res­ult of the pro­posed devel­op­ment. There­fore the River Spey SAC is not con­sidered fur­ther in this appraisal.

STAGE 4: Under­take an Appro­pri­ate Assess­ment of the implic­a­tions for the site(s) in view of the(ir) con­ser­va­tion objectives
1. Kin­veachy Forest SPA
Dis­tri­bu­tion and extent of hab­it­ats sup­port­ing the spe­cies and Struc­ture, func­tion and sup­port­ing pro­cesses of hab­it­ats sup­port­ing the species	There will be no dir­ect or indir­ect effects on the hab­it­ats, their struc­ture or func­tion or sup­port­ing pro­cesses, due to the loc­a­tion of the pro­posed devel­op­ment on a brown­field site with­in a set­tle­ment, remote from the SPA. There­fore these con­ser­va­tion object­ives should be met.
No sig­ni­fic­ant dis­turb­ance of the species	The assess­ment in Annex I res­ults in a con­clu­sion that there will not be any sig­ni­fic­ant dis­turb­ance of the spe­cies, there­fore this con­ser­va­tion object­ive will be met.
Dis­tri­bu­tion of the spe­cies with­in site	As there should not be sig­ni­fic­ant dis­turb­ance of the spe­cies, the dis­tri­bu­tion should be unaf­fected and so this con­ser­va­tion object­ive will be met.
Pop­u­la­tion of the spe­cies as a viable com­pon­ent of the site	As all the oth­er con­ser­va­tion object­ives will be met, this con­ser­va­tion object­ive will not be affected by the pro­posed devel­op­ment. There­fore, the pro­posed devel­op­ment will not affect any of the con­ser­va­tion object­ives for the SPA.
STAGE 5: Can it be ascer­tained that there will not be an adverse effect on site integrity?
1. Kin­veachy Forest SPA
	Yes, as all con­ser­va­tion object­ives are met it is pos­sible to con­clude that there will not be an adverse effect on site integrity.

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Annex I 2021/0390/DET, Demoli­tion of derel­ict farm­house and erec­tion of house, Dal­faber Farm, Dal­faber Drive, Aviemore

QI. Is the pro­posed devel­op­ment likely to change levels of human activ­ity or pat­terns of recre­ation around the pro­posed development/​associated set­tle­ment? QI: This and Q2 are included as screen­ing ques­tions to fil­ter out any devel­op­ments that aren’t likely to have changed levels or pat­terns of recre­ation.

No, there would not be a dis­cern­able change in the level of human activ­ity (or pat­terns of recre­ation) from the pro­posed devel­op­ment. The farm­house was pre­vi­ously included as a dwell­ing in the exist­ing con­sent for the wider devel­op­ment, so the demoli­tion and replace­ment would not affect the num­ber of units com­pared to the over­all exist­ing con­sent. There are a num­ber of exist­ing pro­moted and well used paths and routes in Aviemore and the sur­round­ing area, as seen in the fig­ure below (taken from the Aviemore Paths leaf­let https://​www​.vis​itaviemore​.com/​w​p​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​2​0​1​3​/​0​9​/​C​N​P​A​.​Paper .1911.Aviemore-Paths.pdf). There are also inform­al un-pro­moted but well used routes that con­nect with form­al paths and roads. Res­id­ents of the pro­posed devel­op­ment (approx­im­ate loc­a­tion marked by the black star in the below fig­ure) are likely to use the pro­moted paths, due to inform­a­tion being avail­able about them. There is no reas­on to believe that people stay­ing at the pro­posed devel­op­ment would under­take a dif­fer­ent pat­tern of recre­ation to exist­ing users of paths and routes in Aviemore and the sur­round­ing area.

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