Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Item 6 Appendix 2 28 August 2026 Page 1 of 9

Agenda item 6

Appendix 2

2026/0104/DET

Hab­it­ats reg­u­la­tions appraisal

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HAB­IT­ATS REG­U­LA­TIONS APPRAISAL

Field	Value
2026/0104/DET
Plan­ning ref­er­ence and pro­pos­al information	Install­a­tion of raised deck­ing for out­door eating/​drinking; pro­vi­sion of 10 car park­ing spaces; and pro­vi­sion of pic­nic tables. Old Bridge Inn, 23 Dal­faber Road, Aviemore Highland
Appraised by	Scott Shanks, Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer (Plan­ning)
Date	29 May 2026  Updated: 11 August 2026
Checked by	Anne Elli­ott NatureScot Oper­a­tions Officer
Date	11 August 2026

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INFORM­A­TION

European site details

Name of European site(s) poten­tially affected

1) River Spey SAC (with­in 10m of pro­posed development)

Qual­i­fy­ing interest(s)

1) River Spey SAC

• Fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel (FWPM)
• Sea lamprey
• Atlantic sal­mon
• Otter

Con­ser­va­tion object­ives for qual­i­fy­ing interests

1) 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

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• 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 1. 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 pro­pos­al is for the Install­a­tion of raised deck­ing for out­door eat­ing and drink­ing; pro­vi­sion of 10 car park­ing spaces; and pro­vi­sion of pic­nic tables at the Old Bridge Inn, Dal­faber Road, Aviemore. The pro­posed devel­op­ment site is on the east side of Dal­faber Road, adja­cent to the River Spey.

The devel­op­ment site is cur­rently used for out­door eat­ing and drink­ing and is a key access point for pad­dlers and canoeists enter­ing the River Spey at Aviemore, so has an exist­ing level of recre­ation­al activity.

The pro­posed tim­ing of con­struc­tion activ­ity for the devel­op­ment will be Septem­ber — Octo­ber 2026, last­ing approx­im­ately 10 days.

STAGE 2:

Is the plan or pro­ject dir­ectly con­nec­ted with or neces­sary for the man­age­ment of the European site for nature conservation?

1) River Spey SAC – No, this pro­ject is not dir­ectly con­nec­ted with or neces­sary for the man­age­ment of the European site for nature conservation.

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) River Spey SAC

Atlantic sal­mon, Sea lamprey, Fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel: Yes, LSE from indir­ect impacts on water quality.

The River Spey SAC is approx­im­ately 10m east of the pro­posed devel­op­ment bound­ary. There­fore, any pol­lu­tion events on site dur­ing the con­struc­tion phase could res­ult in neg­at­ive impacts on qual­i­fy­ing interests through impacts on water qual­ity, or mobil­ised sed­i­ment enter­ing the water­course and smoth­er­ing hab­it­at import­ant for spawn­ing Atlantic sal­mon, juven­ile sea lamprey and FWPM.

Otter: Yes, LSE from indir­ect impacts on water qual­ity and pos­sible dis­turb­ance to otter.

The River Spey SAC is approx­im­ately 10m east of the pro­posed devel­op­ment bound­ary. The site is cur­rently used as an out­door eat­ing ven­ue dur­ing spring, sum­mer and autumn, and is used as a key access point to the River Spey by water sport enthu­si­asts. It is likely that otter present along this stretch of the River Spey will be habitu­ated to an exist­ing level of dis­turb­ance from recre­ation­al activ­ity. There­fore, it is con­sidered unlikely that tem­por­ary construction-phase

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activ­ity and con­tin­ued oper­a­tion­al-phase use of the site as an out­door eat­ing ven­ue would lead to a sig­ni­fic­ant increase in dis­turb­ance to otter above cur­rent levels of dis­turb­ance. How­ever, there is poten­tial for con­struc­tion-phase pol­lu­tion events on the site to impact upon otter habitats/​food sources.

STAGE 4:

Under­take an Appro­pri­ate Assess­ment of the implic­a­tions for the site(s) in view of the(ir) con­ser­va­tion objectives

1) 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):

Atlantic Sal­mon & Fresh­wa­ter Pearl Mussel

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

The cur­rent and poten­tial dis­tri­bu­tion of Atlantic sal­mon or FWPM with­in the site will not be dir­ectly affected as no devel­op­ment will occur in the water­course. How­ever, pol­lu­tion from con­struc­tion activ­it­ies (e.g. sed­i­ment, fuels or oils) could indir­ectly impact on the dis­tri­bu­tion of these spe­cies due to changes in water qual­ity (tem­por­ary) and, if sig­ni­fic­ant amounts of sed­i­ment reach the water­course, through smoth­er­ing of hab­it­ats which are used by sal­mon for spawning/​juveniles and hab­it­ats suit­able for sup­port­ing FWPM (long term).

A site-spe­cif­ic Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan (PPP) (to be secured by con­di­tion) would mean that the risk of pol­lu­tion can be reduced to a min­im­al level, so that the con­ser­va­tion object­ive could still be met. The PPP should include detailed meas­ures to pro­tect the River Spey from the release of mobil­ised sed­i­ment or oth­er pol­lut­ants and adhere to good prac­tice guid­ance measures¹.

If the mit­ig­a­tion is agreed and fully imple­men­ted before con­struc­tion com­mences, this con­ser­va­tion object­ive would be met.

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

The cur­rent and poten­tial res­tor­a­tion of the dis­tri­bu­tion of hab­it­ats sup­port­ing Atlantic sal­mon and FWPM with­in the site would not be dir­ectly affected as no devel­op­ment will occur with­in the watercourse.

How­ever, pol­lu­tion from con­struc­tion activ­it­ies would affect sup­port­ing hab­it­ats if sig­ni­fic­ant amounts of sed­i­ment reach the water­course and cause smoth­er­ing, redu­cing the dis­tri­bu­tion and extent of hab­it­at suit­able for spawn­ing and juven­ile sal­mon and hab­it­ats suit­able for sup­port­ing FWPM (long term).

How­ever, mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures iden­ti­fied for 2b above would reduce the risk of pollution

¹ Guid­ance for Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion (GPP) doc­u­ments | Net­Regs | Envir­on­ment­al guid­ance for your busi­ness in North­ern Ire­land & Scotland

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reach­ing the water­course to a min­im­al level and so this con­ser­va­tion object­ive would be met.

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

The dis­tri­bu­tion and viab­il­ity of FWPM host spe­cies (Atlantic sal­mon & trout) would not be dir­ectly affected as no devel­op­ment will occur with­in the watercourse.

How­ever as dis­cussed in 2b & 2c, there is poten­tial for pol­lu­tion from con­struc­tion activ­it­ies to indir­ectly affect the hab­it­ats sup­port­ing these spe­cies which may in turn lead to a change in dis­tri­bu­tion or in change in health of the sup­port­ing spe­cies. How­ever, with the imple­ment­a­tion of the mit­ig­a­tion men­tioned in 2b the risk of pol­lu­tion events there­fore the devel­op­ment would not hinder the dis­tri­bu­tion or viab­il­ity of FWPM host species.

2a. Restore the pop­u­la­tion of Atlantic sal­mon (includ­ing range of genet­ic types) and Fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel, as a viable com­pon­ent of the site

As the oth­er con­ser­va­tion object­ives can be met for Atlantic sal­mon and FWPM with mit­ig­a­tion, the pro­posed devel­op­ment would not hinder or pre­vent the res­tor­a­tion of the pop­u­la­tion of Atlantic sal­mon as a viable com­pon­ent of site. There­fore, this con­ser­va­tion object­ive would be met.

Sea Lamprey

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

The cur­rent dis­tri­bu­tion of sea lamprey would not be dir­ectly impacted by the devel­op­ment pro­pos­als as no works will take place with­in the water­course. How­ever, there is poten­tial for pol­lu­tion from con­struc­tion activ­it­ies which could indir­ectly impact upon spawn­ing sub­strates (long term) and water qual­ity (tem­por­ary) which may alter the dis­tri­bu­tion of sea lamprey.

As detailed with­in 2b for Atlantic sal­mon & fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel, a site-spe­cif­ic PPP would allow this con­ser­va­tion object­ive to be met.

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

The cur­rent suit­able hab­it­ats for sup­port­ing sea lamprey will not be dir­ectly impacted upon as no works will take place with­in the water­course. How­ever, there is poten­tial for pol­lu­tion, such as sed­i­ment to enter the water­course and smooth­er the suit­able spawn­ing grounds (long term) mak­ing it dif­fi­cult for the sea lamprey to find suit­able hab­it­at. Changes to water qual­ity through sus­pen­ded solids or chem­ic­als (tem­por­ary) may lead to a reduc­tion in food avail­ab­il­ity through neg­at­ively impact­ing the dis­tri­bu­tion of fish species.

The imple­ment­a­tion of stand­ard pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion meas­ures will reduce the risk of pol­lu­tion enter­ing the water­course there­fore this con­ser­va­tion object­ive would be met.

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

As the oth­er con­ser­va­tion object­ives for sea lamprey can be met through the imple­ment­a­tion of mit­ig­a­tion, the pro­posed devel­op­ment would not neg­at­ively impact on the cur­rent pop­u­la­tion of sea lamprey with­in the SAC, there­fore this con­ser­va­tion object­ive would be met.

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Otter

2b. Main­tain the dis­tri­bu­tion of Otter through­out the site

Otter have been recor­ded along the River Spey at Aviemore (Ref: Lut­ra lut­ra : Otter | NBN Atlas). An otter sur­vey under­taken as part of a Pre­lim­in­ary Eco­lo­gic­al Apprais­al (Ref: Applied Eco­logy Ltd, May 2026) did not find evid­ence of otter or holts, couches or oth­er rest­ing sites for otter in suit­able hab­it­at with­in 200m of the devel­op­ment site – includ­ing on the oppos­ite bank of the River Spey. Giv­en cur­rent use of the site as an out­door eat­ing ven­ue, and for access to the River Spey by water sport enthu­si­asts, it is con­sidered likely that any otter com­mut­ing or for­aging near the devel­op­ment site are habitu­ated to some levels of noise and dis­turb­ance and there­fore dis­tri­bu­tion of otter through­out the site would not be sig­ni­fic­antly impacted by the con­struc­tion-phase or oper­a­tion­al-phase of this development.

Light­ing pro­posed with­in the new devel­op­ment area will be approx­im­ately 30m from the River Spey SAC and will con­sist of 2 strings of fes­toon light­ing above the raised wooden deck­ing area. There­fore, there will not be sig­ni­fic­ant addi­tion­al light pol­lu­tion in prox­im­ity to the River Spey that might inhib­it use by otter.

Hab­it­at with­in the devel­op­ment site is over 90% bare ground with areas of improved grass close to the road, and 3 mature trees. It does not provide suit­able for­aging hab­it­at for otter, how­ever it’s pos­sible that otter may occa­sion­ally enter the devel­op­ment area due to the prox­im­ity to the River Spey.

Imple­ment­a­tion of an Otter Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan (SPP) with meas­ures to ensure that con­struc­tion phase activ­ity avoids impacts on com­mut­ing or for­aging otter would reduce the risk of impacts on the dis­tri­bu­tion of otter through­out the site to a min­im­al level, so that this Con­ser­va­tion Object­ive would be met.

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

No con­struc­tion activ­ity will occur with­in the River Spey SAC, and there­fore the dis­tri­bu­tion of hab­it­ats sup­port­ing otter with­in the River Spey SAC will not be dir­ectly affected. How­ever, the pol­lu­tion issues iden­ti­fied earli­er for the oth­er fresh­wa­ter spe­cies, could affect otter prey spe­cies. Pro­duc­tion and imple­ment­a­tion of a pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion plan (PPP) detail­ing meas­ures to pre­vent pol­lu­tion incid­ents would reduce the risk of indir­ect impacts on otter hab­it­at to a min­im­al level, so that this con­ser­va­tion object­ive would be met.

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

As the oth­er con­ser­va­tion object­ives can be met for otter with the mit­ig­a­tion included in the pro­pos­al, the pro­posed devel­op­ment would not hinder or pre­vent the main­ten­ance of the pop­u­la­tion of otter as a viable com­pon­ent of site, there­fore this con­ser­va­tion object­ive would be met.

Con­ser­va­tion Object­ive 1. 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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As all the oth­er con­ser­va­tion object­ives would be met, the pro­posed devel­op­ment would not pre­vent or hinder the con­di­tion or con­ser­va­tion status of the qual­i­fy­ing interests of the SAC, and so this con­ser­va­tion object­ive would be met.

In con­clu­sion, mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures includ­ing: imple­ment­a­tion of an otter spe­cies pro­tec­tion plan and imple­ment­a­tion of a Pol­lu­tion Pro­tec­tion Plan will reduce the poten­tial effects to a min­im­al level, so that all the con­ser­va­tion object­ives can be met for the River Spey SAC.

STAGE 5:

Can it be ascer­tained that there will not be an adverse effect on site integrity?

1) River Spey SAC

Yes, provid­ing the fol­low­ing are con­di­tioned, it is pos­sible to con­clude that there will not be an adverse effect on site integrity:

• A Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan (PPP) should be secured by con­di­tion. The PPP should be pro­duced and agreed with the CNPA pri­or to any works com­men­cing on site and then fully imple­men­ted dur­ing construction.

• An Otter Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan (SPP) should be secured by con­di­tion. The SPP should be pro­duced and agreed with the CNPA pri­or to works com­men­cing on the site and then fully imple­men­ted dur­ing con­struc­tion. Suit­able meas­ures to pro­tect com­mut­ing and for­aging otter are detailed with­in Chapter 4 of the Pre­lim­in­ary Eco­lo­gic­al Apprais­al and Otter Sur­vey (Applied Eco­logy Ltd, May 2026) include:

  • trenches and excav­a­tions will be covered at the end of each work­ing day, or will include ramps, to pre­vent entrap­ment of anim­als; and
  • if any aspects of the work will be car­ried out dur­ing the hours of dark­ness, machinery and flood­lights will be dir­ec­ted away from water­course or water­bod­ies edges.

Reas­on — to pro­tect inter­na­tion­ally import­ant hab­it­ats and spe­cies with­in the River Spey SAC from pol­lu­tion events caused dur­ing the con­struc­tion activ­ity on the devel­op­ment site.