Item5Rothes3CommitteeReport

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 27 Septem­ber 2024 Page 1 of 8

Com­mit­tee report

Devel­op­ment pro­posed: Rothes III Wind Farm — Noti­fic­a­tion of a vari­ation applic­a­tion under Sec­tion 36C of the Elec­tri­city Act

Ref­er­ence: 2024/0205/PAC (ECU00005150)

Applic­ant: Rothes III Ltd

Date called-in: N/A

Recom­mend­a­tion: No objection

Case officer: Emma Bryce, Plan­ning Man­ager (DM)

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 27 Septem­ber 2024 Page 2 of 8

Map show­ing wind­farm location

(Image of map show­ing wind­farm location)

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 Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 27 Septem­ber 2024 Page 3 of 8

Map show­ing Zone of The­or­et­ic­al Vis­ib­il­ity (ZTV)

(Image of ZTV map)

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 Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 27 Septem­ber 2024 Page 4 of 8

Pur­pose of report

1. The pur­pose of this report is to inform the com­mit­tee decision and sub­sequent con­sulta­tion response to the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Energy Con­sents & Deploy­ment Unit (ECDU) on an applic­a­tion sub­mit­ted under Sec­tion 36 of the Elec­tri­city Act 1989 for a pro­posed wind farm loc­ated to the north­east of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment are the determ­in­ing Author­ity for this applic­a­tion as the out­put is more than 50 MW. The applic­a­tion is accom­pan­ied by a series of sup­port­ing inform­a­tion includ­ing a Plan­ning and Envir­on­ment­al Report, Land­scape and Visu­al Impact Assess­ment, an Envir­on­ment­al Noise Impact Assess­ment, Orni­tho­logy and Eco­logy Apprais­al and Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Assessment.

2. The plan­ning issues to be con­sidered are con­fined to the effects of the pro­posed wind farm on the land­scape char­ac­ter and Spe­cial Land­scape Qual­it­ies (SLQs) of the Nation­al Park. All oth­er mat­ters, such as eco­logy, noise, gen­er­al amen­ity etc, are assessed by the decision maker (Scot­tish Min­is­ters) with advice from stat­utory consultees.

Site descrip­tion and pro­posed development

1. The Site (con­sen­ted Rothes III wind farm and site access) is loc­ated approx­im­ately 4km west of Rothes vil­lage. The oper­a­tion­al Rothes I and II wind­farms are loc­ated imme­di­ately north­w­est of the devel­op­ment site. The site falls with­in the admin­is­trat­ive bound­ary of Moray Coun­cil, out­side the Nation­al Park.

2. The con­sen­ted, but not yet oper­a­tion­al, Rothes III wind­farm con­sists of 28 wind tur­bines, includ­ing three with a max­im­um tip height of 149.9m, eight with a max­im­um tip height of 200m and 17 tur­bines with a tip height of 225m.

3. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is to vary the con­sen­ted scheme to increase the tip height of the three tur­bines (numbered 9, 13 and 14) of 149.9m to a

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 27 Septem­ber 2024 Page 5 of 8

max­im­um tip height of 200m. These tur­bines will be the same mod­el installed for all tur­bines of a tip height of 200m.

Rel­ev­ant plan­ning history

1. Rothes I wind­farm became oper­a­tion­al in 2005 and con­sists of 22 tur­bines with a max­im­um tip height of 100m.

2. Rothes II wind­farm became oper­a­tion­al in 2013 and com­prises of 18 tur­bines, 15 tur­bines with a tip height of 125m and three with a tip height of 110m.

3. The Rothes III wind­farm was con­sen­ted on 21 Octo­ber 2022 by Scot­tish Min­is­ters. This scheme is con­sidered to be an exten­sion to the oper­a­tion­al Rothes I and II windfarms.

Plan­ning policy context

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is loc­ated wholly out­with the Nation­al Park and there­fore the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies do not apply. How­ever, an assess­ment of the pro­pos­al must be in accord­ance with Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) and have regard to the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP).

Nation­al policy

1. Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) pub­lished 13 Feb­ru­ary 2023 sets out nation­al plan­ning policies that reflect Scot­tish Min­is­ters’ pri­or­it­ies for the devel­op­ment and use of land, as well as for oper­a­tion of the plan­ning sys­tem. The con­tent of NPF4 forms the nation­al ele­ment of the stat­utory devel­op­ment plan, which also includes the rel­ev­ant Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. Decisions on plan­ning applic­a­tions (and Sec­tion 36 applic­a­tions) are to be made in accord­ance with the devel­op­ment plan, and as such NPF4.

2. Policy relat­ing spe­cific­ally to Nation­al Parks and devel­op­ment man­age­ment can be found in Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Places and Policy 11: Energy. In general

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 27 Septem­ber 2024 Page 6 of 8

terms Policy 4a) cites that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als which by vir­tue of type, loc­a­tion or scale will have an unac­cept­able impact on the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment, will not be supported.

1. NPF4 Policy 4c) spe­cific­ally applies to a Nation­al Park and states that ​“devel­op­ment pro­pos­als that will affect a Nation­al Park…will only be sup­por­ted where:

   I. the object­ives of des­ig­na­tion and the over­all integ­rity of the area will not be com­prom­ised; or II. any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse effects on the qual­it­ies for which the area has been des­ig­nated are clearly out­weighed by social, envir­on­ment­al or eco­nom­ic bene­fits of nation­al importance”.

2. NPF4 Policy 4c) cla­ri­fies that the policy test applies where devel­op­ment pro­pos­als may affect a nation­ally des­ig­nated land­scape, and so can be applied to devel­op­ment pro­pos­als out­with the Nation­al Park bound­ary, but poten­tially affect­ing it. Of rel­ev­ance to the gen­er­a­tion of wind energy devel­op­ment nation­ally and there­fore to the pro­posed development:

α) NPF4 Nation­al Devel­op­ment 3 ​‘Stra­tegic Renew­able Elec­tri­city Gen­er­a­tion and Trans­mis­sion Infra­struc­ture’ con­firms that this class of nation­al devel­op­ment sup­ports renew­able elec­tri­city gen­er­a­tion, repower­ing and expan­sion of the elec­tri­city grid.

b) It incor­por­ates three types of devel­op­ment, includ­ing on and off­shore elec­tri­city gen­er­a­tion, includ­ing elec­tri­city stor­age, from renew­ables exceed­ing 50 mega­watts capacity.

1. The Rothes III Wind Farm pro­pos­al falls with­in a Nation­al Devel­op­ment 3.

2. NPF4 Policy 11 Energy fur­ther cla­ri­fies that:

b) ​“Devel­op­ment pro­pos­als for wind farms in Nation­al Parks…will not be sup­por­ted: and

d) Devel­op­ment pro­pos­als that impact on inter­na­tion­al or nation­al des­ig­na­tions will be assessed in rela­tion to Policy 4”.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 27 Septem­ber 2024 Page 7 of 8

Stra­tegic policy

1. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP) 2022 – 2027 is required under Sec­tion 11 of the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000. It is the man­age­ment plan for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park approved by Scot­tish Min­is­ters. The NPPP sets out how all those with a respons­ib­il­ity for the Nation­al Park will coordin­ate their work to tackle the most import­ant issues. There is a duty for decision makers to have regard to the NPPP, a require­ment set out in Sec­tion 14 of the Act. As such, the NPPP is a mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tion in plan­ning decisions.

2. The NPPP iden­ti­fies that the land­scapes of the Nation­al Park are val­ued by many and under­pin the area’s eco­nomy. It con­tains policies to safe­guard land­scape interests. Of rel­ev­ance to wind farm devel­op­ment pro­pos­als are policies A4 and C2a.

3. Policy A4 seeks to con­serve and enhance the SLQs. Policy C2a seeks to sup­port devel­op­ment of a low car­bon eco­nomy and increase renew­able energy gen­er­a­tion where this is com­pat­ible with con­serving the SLQs. In rela­tion to wind farm devel­op­ment, the policy states that ​“large scale wind tur­bines are not com­pat­ible with the land­scape char­ac­ter or spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park. They are inap­pro­pri­ate with­in the Nation­al Park, or in areas out­side the Nation­al Park where they adversely affect its land­scape char­ac­ter or spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies”. If a pro­pos­al fails policy C2a, it would also be in con­flict with policy A4, which seeks to con­serve and enhance the SLQs.

Con­sulta­tions

NatureScot advice

1. In accord­ance with the NatureScot / Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA) case­work agree­ment, NatureScot have provided advice on the pro­posed vari­ation. They have stated that the pro­pos­al will not impact on nat­ur­al her­it­age interests of nation­al interest. The mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures to be

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Item 5 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 27 Septem­ber 2024 Page 8 of 8

approved and imple­men­ted as part of the Con­sen­ted Devel­op­ment remain appropriate.

Apprais­al

1. The policies of NPF4 and the NPPP set out how pro­pos­als out­with the bound­ary of the Nation­al Park should be con­sidered in terms of effects on the Nation­al Park. In the policy con­text of NPF4 and the NPPP, con­sid­er­a­tion is required of the effects of the pro­posed devel­op­ment, on land­scape char­ac­ter and the SLQs, both alone and cumu­lat­ively with oth­er wind farms in the sur­round­ing area.

2. This scheme is con­sidered to be an exten­sion to the oper­a­tion­al Rothes I and II wind­farms. Rothes III wind­farm has con­sent and the pro­posed increase in tip height of three of the approved tur­bines will not intro­duce sig­ni­fic­ant impacts and as such the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with the rel­ev­ant policies of NPF4 and the NPPP.

3. For these reas­ons, it is con­sidered that CNPA should not object to the pro­posed wind farm development.

Recom­mend­a­tion

That mem­bers of the com­mit­tee con­firm that CNPA does not object to the applic­a­tion for the pro­posed vari­ation to the Rothes III Wind Farm.