Item5CommitteeReport20230455DETBalavilV02

Cairngorms Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 13 Decem­ber 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 1 of 12

Com­mit­tee report Devel­op­ment pro­posed: Repair and upgrade of exist­ing estate track (ret­ro­spect­ive in part) Ref­er­ence: Applic­ant: 2023/0455/DET Bal­avil Estate Date called-in: 22 Decem­ber 2023 Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to con­di­tions Case officer: Colin Bry­ans, Seni­or Plan­ning Officer Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 13 Decem­ber 2024 Page 2 of 12 CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site 0 35 70 140 Meters N Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2024. Ord­nance Sur­vey AC0000821810. The rep­res­ent­a­tion of fea­tures or bound­ar­ies in which Cairngorms Nation­al Park or oth­ers have an interest does not neces­sar­ily imply their true pos­i­tions. For fur­ther inform­a­tion please con­tact the appro­pri­ate authority.

This map 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.

Cairngorms Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 13 Decem­ber 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 3 of 12

Site descrip­tion, pro­pos­al and his­tory Site description

1. The Bal­avil Estate is approx­im­ately 3km north east of Kin­gussie. The estate is a long, thin estate stretch­ing from the A9, 13km north­w­est from there into the Mon­adh­liath Moun­tains and con­sists of mixed land uses includ­ing forestry, agri­cul­ture and sport­ing. The estate is cur­rently under­tak­ing a wood­land res­tor­a­tion and regen­er­at­ive land­scape man­age­ment programme.

2. The applic­a­tion site is largely a pre-exist­ing rough estate 4×4 access track of approx­im­ately 450m in length, run­ning from the main spin­al estate road down­hill to the Rat­tis Burn. The total site area is 1,125sq m.

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​veTab =summary&keyVal=S2H06USIOCP00

Title Draw­ing Date on plan Date received num­ber Plan – Site loc­a­tion plan n/​a 01/11/2023 26/09/2024 Plan – Site plan n/​a 01/11/2023 26/09/2024 Plan – Sec­tion plan n/​a n/​a 19/12/2023 Oth­er – Sup­port­ing state­ment n/​a n/​a 19/12/2023 Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the first of the month.

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment con­sists of the upgrade and widen­ing of a pre-exist­ing rough estate 4×4 access track (ret­ro­spect­ive in part), to include a cent­ral green strip. The upgraded track will facil­it­ate the wood­land res­tor­a­tion and regen­er­at­ive land­scape man­age­ment pro­gramme cur­rently under­way across the estate.

Cairngorms Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 13 Decem­ber 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 4 of 12

His­tory

1. Bal­avil Estate sub­mit­ted a plan­ning applic­a­tion for a new track to the north­ern part of the estate. This was approved in Janu­ary 2019, under ref­er­ence 2018/0400/DET.

2. Bal­avil Estate sub­mit­ted a plan­ning applic­a­tion for a new track (ret­ro­spect­ive). This was approved in Decem­ber 2019, under ref­er­ence 2019/0347/DET.

3. Balivil Estate sub­mit­ted a plan­ning applic­a­tion for the repair and upgrade of exist­ing estate track (ret­ro­spect­ive). This was approved August 2024, under ref­er­ence 2023/0445/DET.

4. Balivil sub­mit­ted a plan­ning applic­a­tion for the form­a­tion of a bor­row pit (ret­ro­spect­ive). This was approved August 2024, under ref­er­ence 2022/0290/DET.

Hab­it­ats reg­u­la­tions appraisal

1. It is not con­sidered that the pro­posed devel­op­ment is likely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect upon a des­ig­nated European site. As such a Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tion Apprais­al is not required in this case.

Devel­op­ment plan con­text Policies Nation­al policy Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045 (Policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross (x)) Policy 1 Tack­ling the cli­mate and nature crises X Policy 2 Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion X Policy 3 Biod­iversity X Policy 4 Nat­ur­al places X Policy 5 Soils Policy 6 Forestry, wood­land and trees Policy 7 His­tor­ic assets and places Policy 8 Green belts

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Policy 9 Brown­field, vacant and derel­ict land, and empty build­ings Policy 11 Energy Policy 12 Zero waste Policy 13 Sus­tain­able trans­port Policy 14 Design, qual­ity and place X Policy 15 Loc­al liv­ing and 20 minute neigh­bour­hoods Policy 16 Qual­ity homes Policy 17 Rur­al homes Policy 18 Infra­struc­ture first Policy 19 Heat­ing and cool­ing Policy 20 Blue and green infra­struc­ture Policy 21 Play, recre­ation and sport Policy 22 Flood risk and water man­age­ment Policy 23 Health and safety Policy 24 Digit­al infra­struc­ture Policy 25 Com­munity wealth build­ing Policy 26 Busi­ness and industry Policy 27 City, town, loc­al and com­mer­cial centres Policy 28 Retail Policy 29 Rur­al devel­op­ment X Policy 30 Tour­ism Policy 31 Cul­ture and cre­ativ­ity Policy 32 Aquacul­ture Policy 33 Min­er­als Stra­tegic policy Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027 Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2021) Loc­al plan policy (Policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross (x)) Policy 1 New hous­ing devel­op­ment Policy 2 Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth Policy 3 Design and place­mak­ing X Policy 4 Nat­ur­al her­it­age X

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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 X Policy 10 Resources Policy 11 Developer obligations

1. All new devel­op­ment pro­pos­als require to be assessed in rela­tion to policies con­tained in the adop­ted Devel­op­ment Plan which com­prises Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 (LDP). The full word­ing of policies can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-planning-framework‑4/documents/ and at: https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​w​p​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​2​0​2​1​/​0​3​/​C​N​P​A​-​L​D​P​-​2​0​2​1​-​w​e​b.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 (x).

Policy 1 Hous­ing sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance Policy 2 Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth non-stat­utory guid­ance Policy 3 Design and place­mak­ing non-stat­utory guid­ance X Policy 4 Nat­ur­al her­it­age non-stat­utory guid­ance X Policy 5 Land­scape non-stat­utory guid­ance X Policy 7 Renew­able energy non-stat­utory guid­ance Policy 8 Open space, sport and recre­ation non-stat­utory guid­ance Policy 9 Cul­tur­al her­it­age non-stat­utory guid­ance X Policy 10 Resources non-stat­utory guid­ance Policy 11 Developer oblig­a­tions sup­ple­ment­ary guidance

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Con­sulta­tions

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

2. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Land­scape Adviser raised no objec­tions to the pro­pos­al, how­ever did high­light that the lower sec­tion of the track would be more prom­in­ent than the upper sec­tions. It was also high­lighted that the track passes close to / through fea­tures asso­ci­ated with the Achadh a’ Chatha town­ship and farm­stead affect­ing their con­tri­bu­tion to the loc­al land­scape char­ac­ter, Spe­cial Land­scape Qual­it­ies and sense of place.

3. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Eco­logy Officer raised no objec­tions to the pro­pos­al but high­lighted that the sub­mis­sion of this ret­ro­spect­ive applic­a­tion makes it dif­fi­cult to determ­ine the sig­ni­fic­ance of impacts on pro­tec­ted spe­cies and birds. The sig­ni­fic­ance of effects on hab­it­ats is con­sidered slight.

4. The High­land Coun­cil His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Team (Archae­ology) advised that the applic­a­tion will impact on upstand­ing his­tor­ic remains and that a sur­vey should be made of the access route (as con­struc­ted) so that record can be made of any his­tor­ic remains that have been impacted. The Officer raised no objec­tions to the pro­pos­al sub­ject to the applic­a­tion of a suit­ably worded con­di­tion secur­ing remedi­al work and record­ing a new baseline.

5. Kin­craig Com­munity Coun­cil offered no con­sulta­tion response.

Rep­res­ent­a­tions

1. The applic­a­tion was advert­ised. No rep­res­ent­a­tions were received.

Apprais­al

1. Sec­tion 25 of the 1997 Act as amended requires applic­a­tions to be determ­ined in accord­ance with the Devel­op­ment Plan. This com­prises the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 and the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4). Where there is con­flict between policies, NPF4 policies will be used.

Cairngorms Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 13 Decem­ber 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 8 of 12

1. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions in this case are the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment, design, envir­on­ment­al impacts, land­scape impacts and cul­tur­al her­it­age impacts. These are con­sidered in detail below.

Prin­ciple

1. Not­with­stand­ing the fact that the works com­menced without the requis­ite grant of plan­ning per­mis­sion, the pro­pos­al is largely to upgrade a sec­tion of pre-exist­ing track / route fre­quently used by estate vehicles. All the works will be seen with­in the con­text of the large nat­ive wood­land plant­ing scheme and, sub­ject to detailed con­sid­er­a­tion of design and mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures, the prin­ciple of the track is acceptable.

Design

1. NPF4 Policy 14: Design, qual­ity and place seeks to sup­port devel­op­ment pro­pos­als that improve the qual­ity of an area regard­less of scale and that are con­sist­ent with the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places, that is: a) Healthy b) Pleas­ant c) Con­nec­ted d) Dis­tinct­ive e) Sus­tain­able f) Adaptable

2. LDP Policy 3: Design and place­mak­ing seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment meets the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places.

3. The pro­posed track upgrades and widen­ing are of a func­tion­al and mod­est design and the mater­i­als used reflect this, being sourced from an estate bor­row pit. The inclu­sion of a cent­ral green strip to the new track pro­file fur­ther ensures that the pro­pos­al will not appear incon­gru­ous with­in its set­ting. The applic­ant has also agreed to amend a sec­tion of the track to provide a gradi­ent which is less steep, address­ing con­cerns relat­ing to track erosion. An amended lay­out has been provided.

Cairngorms Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 13 Decem­ber 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 9 of 12

1. The design of the pro­pos­al is of a scale and nature that is appro­pri­ate to its set­ting and the mater­i­als pro­posed appro­pri­ate and loc­ally sourced. This, in com­bin­a­tion with the fact that it will facil­it­ate a regen­er­at­ive nat­ive wood­land plant­ing pro­ject, ensures that in terms of design the pro­pos­al com­plies with NPF4 Policy 14: Design, qual­ity and place and LDP Policy 3: Design and placemaking.

Envir­on­ment­al impacts

1. NPF4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als pro­tect biod­iversity, reverse biod­iversity loss, deliv­er pos­it­ive effects from devel­op­ment and strengthen nature net­works. Devel­op­ment pro­pos­als must include appro­pri­ate meas­ures to con­serve, restore and enhance biod­iversity, in accord­ance with nation­al and loc­al guidance.

2. NPF4 Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als pro­tect, restore and enhance nat­ur­al assets mak­ing best use of nature-based solu­tions. Devel­op­ment that has sig­ni­fic­ant adverse impacts on des­ig­nated sites, after mit­ig­a­tion, will not be supported.

3. LDP Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age seeks to ensure that there are no adverse effects on European Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies and oth­er biod­iversity interests.

4. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Eco­logy Officer raised no objec­tions to the pro­pos­al, with the effects of the pro­pos­al con­sidered slight. The envir­on­ment­al impacts of the pro­pos­al are of a scale and nature that is con­sidered accept­able and in com­pli­ance with the above devel­op­ment plan policies. The pro­pos­al does not include any spe­cif­ic meas­ures con­cern­ing biod­iversity net gain. How­ever, giv­en that the pro­posed devel­op­ment con­sti­tutes part of a wider pro­ject to plant and regen­er­ate nat­ive wood­land, it is evid­ent that the pro­ject will facil­it­ate the deliv­ery of wider biod­iversity enhance­ments. The pro­pos­al there­fore com­plies with NPF4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity, NPF4 Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places and LDP Policy 4 Nat­ur­al heritage.

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Land­scape impacts

1. LDP Policy 5: Land­scape pre­sumes against devel­op­ment which does not con­serve and enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park, and par­tic­u­larly the set­ting of the pro­posed development.

2. LDP Policy 5.2: Private roads and ways pre­sumes against private roads and ways in open moor­land unless it can be demon­strated that they are essen­tial for land man­age­ment pur­poses and they are designed to min­im­ise land­scape and envir­on­ment­al impacts, con­serving and enhan­cing spe­cial qualities.

3. The pro­posed upgraded track will inev­it­ably have a more sig­ni­fic­ant visu­al impact than the pre­vi­ous route. How­ever, giv­en that the track is asso­ci­ated with and will be seen in the con­text of an enclosed wood­land plant­ing scheme and is not prom­in­ent in the land­scape, the visu­al impacts it will have will reduce over time. In addi­tion, the green cent­ral strip installed fur­ther softens the visu­al appear­ance of the track and reduces its impact. The pro­pos­al is accept­able in terms of its impacts on land­scape and accords with LDP Policy 5.

Cul­tur­al heritage

1. NPF4 Policy 7: His­tor­ic assets and places seeks to pro­tect non-des­ig­nated his­tor­ic envir­on­ment assets, stat­ing that such assets and their set­tings should be pre­served in situ wherever feasible.

2. LDP Policy 9: Cul­tur­al her­it­age states that where pos­sible devel­op­ments should con­serve and enhance sites of archae­olo­gic­al or his­tor­ic­al sig­ni­fic­ance in situ, or take reas­on­able meas­ures to avoid, min­im­ise and mit­ig­ate any adverse effects.

3. The devel­op­ment site inter­acts with an his­tor­ic set­tle­ment site. The High­land Coun­cil His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Team (Archae­ology) have advised that a sur­vey should be made of the route (as con­struc­ted) so that a record can be made of any his­tor­ic remains that have been impacted. A detailed record (by pho­to­graph and sur­vey) should be made where impacts are noted. The Officer raised no objec­tions to the pro­pos­al sub­ject to the applic­a­tion of a suit­ably worded con­di­tion requir­ing the sub­mis­sion, approv­al and imple­ment­a­tion of a writ­ten scheme of investigation.

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1. Avoid­ance of impacts is not pos­sible in this case as the pro­pos­al is largely ret­ro­spect­ive. Through the applic­a­tion of the recom­men­ded con­di­tion the impacts on cul­tur­al her­it­age are accept­able and in com­pli­ance with NPF4 Policy 7: His­tor­ic assets and LDP Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Heritage.

Con­clu­sion

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment con­sist­ing of widen­ing the pre-exist­ing access track has been mostly under­taken and as such this applic­a­tion is largely ret­ro­spect­ive. Not­with­stand­ing this, the pro­pos­al is of a mod­est and func­tion­al design, the impacts of which are con­sidered accept­able sub­ject to the recom­men­ded conditions.

2. The pro­posed devel­op­ment com­plies with the rel­ev­ant policies of Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, and there are no mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions which out­weigh this conclusion.

Recom­mend­a­tion

1. That mem­bers of the com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to approve the pro­posed repair and upgrade of an exist­ing estate track (ret­ro­spect­ive), sub­ject to the fol­low­ing conditions:

Con­di­tions Those con­di­tions lis­ted below in bold text are sus­pens­ive con­di­tions, which require to be dis­charged pri­or to imple­ment­a­tion of the development.

1. With­in three months of the date of this per­mis­sion, an archae­olo­gic­al Writ­ten Scheme of Invest­ig­a­tion (WSI) must be sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the plan­ning authority.

Upon approv­al a pro­gramme of archae­olo­gic­al works shall be car­ried out in accord­ance with the approved WSI. The WSI shall include details of how the record­ing and recov­ery of archae­olo­gic­al resources found with­in the applic­a­tion site shall be under­taken, and how any updates, if required, to the writ­ten scheme of

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invest­ig­a­tion will be provided through­out the imple­ment­a­tion of the pro­gramme of archae­olo­gic­al works. Should the archae­olo­gic­al works reveal the need for post excav­a­tion ana­lys­is the devel­op­ment hereby approved shall not be occu­pied or brought into use unless a Post-Excav­a­tion Research Design (PERD) for the ana­lys­is, pub­lic­a­tion and dis­sem­in­a­tion of res­ults and archive depos­ition has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the plan­ning author­ity. The PERD shall be car­ried out in com­plete accord­ance with the approved details.

Reas­on: To safe­guard and record the archae­olo­gic­al poten­tial of the area in accord­ance with Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Policy 7: His­tor­ic assets and places and Policy 9: Cul­tur­al her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Inform­at­ives

1. The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment is required to give the Plan­ning Author­ity pri­or writ­ten noti­fic­a­tion of the date 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.

Fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, a noti­fic­a­tion of 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.