Item6AABothyReport20200119DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 25/09/2020

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PRO­POSED: Pro­posed new Tast­ing Lodge with asso­ci­ated bound­ary fence and access track at Land 440M West Of Grant Cot­tage, Glen­liv­et, Ballindal­loch, Moray

REF­ER­ENCE: 2020/0119/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Chiv­as Broth­ers Ltd

DATE CALLED-IN: 11 May 2020

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve sub­ject to conditions

CASE OFFICER: Emma Wilson, Plan­ning Man­ager (DM)

CNPA Plan­ning Committee

Applic­a­tion Site

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 25/09/2020

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The site is with­in a rur­al loc­a­tion and is rough grass­land cov­er­ing an area of approx­im­ately 0.7 hec­tares on the north east flank of Carn Ghrantaich, Glen­liv­et. It lies below a con­i­fer­ous wood­land to the north and west with an exist­ing track to the south east. Views extend to the exist­ing Glen­liv­et Dis­til­lery to the north east and the former dis­til­lery to the east. The char­ac­ter of the area is that of open land­scape inter­spersed sporad­ic­ally with mod­est tra­di­tion­al build­ings. The site lies just with­in the Dark Sky Park and is approx­im­ately 460 metres from the Blairfindy Dark Skies Dis­cov­ery Point.

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​line- applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=Q9YFWISI0CH00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Site Plan	IAIV18-0015 A102	23/01/20	26/06/20
Loc­a­tion Plan	IAIV18-0015 A103	23/01/20	11/05/20
Pro­posed Elevations	IAIV18-0015 A100	23/01/20	11/05/20
Pro­posed Floor Plans	IAIV18-0015 A101	01/04/20	11/05/20
Oth­er — Light­ing and Small Power Layout	EM22320:63:001	01/12/19	22/05/20
Oth­er — Design and Access Statement			25/06/20
Oth­er — Drain­age and Water Sup­ply Statement		17/04/20	11/05/20
Oth­er — Light­ing Plan­ning Sup­port Information	EM22320 Issue 06		25/06/20
Oth­er — Access and Vis­ib­il­ity Requirements	R001 Issue 2		25/06/20
Oth­er — Drain­age Impact Assess­ment and Drain­age Strategy	R002 Issue I		25/06/20
Oth­er — Breed­ing Birds Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan			16/07/20
Oth­er — Road Safety Audit	92820(1,2)		13/08/20
Oth­er — Access Con­sid­er­a­tions — Brief­ing Note			13/08/20

• Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the Ist of the month.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 25/09/2020

1. The pro­pos­al is to con­struct a single storey build­ing which will be a mod­ern inter­pret­a­tion of a tra­di­tion­al bothy. The main build­ing will meas­ure approx­im­ately 6.8 metres by 13.4 metres and will be clad in nat­ur­al loc­al stone rubble with a pitched roof clad in loc­ally salvaged nat­ur­al slate. This will incor­por­ate a full height, curved glazed win­dow offer­ing views to the north and east and will accom­mod­ate a tiered seat­ing area, fire pit and serving area. A small ​‘lean-to’ exten­sion will pro­ject from the rear of the main build­ing meas­ur­ing 3.9 metres by 4.6 metres. This will be fin­ished in dark stained ver­tic­al tim­ber clad­ding and will accom­mod­ate a cloak­room and toi­lets. All win­dows and the extern­al ledge and brace door will be fin­ished in opaque stained timber.

2. Access will be from an exist­ing track which will be exten­ded for a short length up to the new bothy. This will include a small turn­ing area and park­ing /​drop off space. This area will be screened by the intro­duc­tion of a small nat­ur­ally con­toured mound with four to five Row­an trees. The site will be enclosed by a stock proof fence.

3. The devel­op­ment is for a whisky tast­ing facil­ity asso­ci­ated with the exist­ing Glen­liv­et Dis­til­lery. Vis­it­ors will meet at the exist­ing facil­ity and will be driv­en to the Bothy for their whisky tast­ing exper­i­ence in 4×4 vehicles. There will be no more than four tours per day and no more than 10 people on each tour. There will be no overnight use of the Bothy.

4. The build­ing will be con­nec­ted to the mains elec­tric­al sup­ply. Pot­able water will be delivered from the exist­ing Dis­til­lery and rain­wa­ter col­lec­ted for the use of the WC. A SUDs scheme will man­age oth­er sur­face water dis­charge. Foul water will be col­lec­ted in a stor­age tank and will be removed and taken by tanker to a treat­ment plant off site. The oper­a­tion of this sys­tem is reg­u­lated by the build­ing reg­u­la­tions and by SEPA licen­cing, not through the plan­ning sys­tem. The Bothy will be heated by using ground source heat pump and there will be a small wood burn­ing stove inside. There will be no kit­chen facil­it­ies with the excep­tion of one sink. Any food on the premises will be pre-pre­pared and will be taken there by the tour operators.

5. The pro­pos­als also include the erec­tion of a shield­ing struc­ture for star­gaz­ing at the Blairfindy Dark Skies Dis­cov­ery Point. This will be a ​‘C’ shaped struc­ture con­struc­ted in ver­tic­al tim­ber clad­ding with reclined bench seat­ing with­in it.

6. Plans and visu­al­isa­tions of the pro­pos­al are included with­in Appendix 1.

7. The fol­low­ing sup­port­ing inform­a­tion accom­pan­ies the applic­a­tion: a) Design and Access State­ment b) Light­ing Plan­ning Sup­port Inform­a­tion c) Access Vis­ib­il­ity Require­ments d) Drain­age Impact Assess­ment and Drain­age Strategy e) Breed­ing Birds Pro­tec­tion Plan

His­tory

1. In August 2019 an applic­a­tion was sub­mit­ted for a new tast­ing lodge /​bothy exper­i­ence with asso­ci­ated bound­ary wall and access track. The site was slightly dif­fer­ent to that of the cur­rent applic­a­tion. This applic­a­tion was with­drawn in Octo­ber 2019 giv­en the

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 25/09/2020

issues raised in rela­tion to the impact on the Dark Sky Park and how the devel­op­ment would sit with­in the landscape.

DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN CONTEXT

Policies

Nation­al Policy	Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy 2014
Stra­tegic Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 — 2022
Loc­al Plan Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2015)Those policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are­marked with a cross
POLICY I	NEW HOUS­ING DEVELOPMENT
POLICY 2	SUP­PORT­ING ECO­NOM­IC GROWTH	X
POLICY 3	SUS­TAIN­ABLE DESIGN	X
POLICY 4	NAT­UR­AL HERITAGE	X
POLICY 5	LAND­SCAPE	X
POLICY 6	THE SIT­ING AND DESIGN OF DIGIT­AL COM­MU­NIC­A­TIONS EQUIPMENT
POLICY 7	RENEW­ABLE ENERGY
POLICY 8	SPORT AND RECREATION
POLICY 9	CUL­TUR­AL HERITAGE	X
POLICY 10	RESOURCES	X
POLICY 11	DEVELOPER CON­TRI­BU­TIONS

1. All new devel­op­ment pro­pos­als require to be assessed in rela­tion to policies con­tained in the adop­ted Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. The full word­ing of policies can be found at: http://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​d​o​c​u​m​e​n​t​s​/Park Authority/Planning/LDP15.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.

Policy I	New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 3	Sus­tain­able Design Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance	X
Policy 5	Land­scape Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 7	Renew­able Energy Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance
Policy 8	Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 11	Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 25/09/2020

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2019

1. The emer­ging Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (“Pro­posed Plan”) which will cov­er the peri­od of 2020 – 2025 is cur­rently being pro­gressed. The pro­posed plan has been through a pub­lic con­sulta­tion pro­cess and the form­al responses have been assessed and sub­mit­ted along with all oth­er rel­ev­ant mater­i­als to Scot­tish Min­is­ters for exam­in­a­tion. As the exam­in­a­tion of the Pro­posed Plan is on- going, the Pro­posed Plan and its con­tents cur­rently carry lim­ited weight.

CON­SULTA­TIONS

Sum­mary of the Main Issues Raised by Consultees

1. Scot­tish Envir­on­ment­al Pro­tec­tion Agency (SEPA) have raised no objec­tions but offer reg­u­lat­ory advice: a) It is noted from the sub­mit­ted Drain­age Impact Assess­ment and Drain­age Strategy State­ment that the pro­posed foul water will be col­lec­ted and stored in a hold­ing tank before being col­lec­ted and dis­charged to a private treat­ment plant. b) Provided there is a sealed unit with no dis­charge and waste removed by a registered waste car­ri­er, then they have no com­ments to make. c) It is strongly recom­men­ded that the applic­ants con­tact dir­ect SEPA’s loc­al reg­u­lat­ory ser­vices team for fur­ther inform­a­tion on reg­u­lat­ory require­ment mat­ters. In addi­tion the applic­ants should seek advice from Build­ing Stand­ards with regard to the design of the sys­tem in terms of the require­ments of the build­ing regulations.

2. Scot­tish Water has no objec­tion, and con­firm that there is no Scot­tish Water fresh water sup­ply infra­struc­ture or waste water infra­struc­ture in the vicinity.

3. Moray Coun­cil Con­tam­in­ated Land Officer notes that devel­op­ment may be with­in the catch­ment area of three private water sup­ply sources which sup­ply around sev­en prop­er­ties. These water sources are wells that are likely to be fed by sur­face water and hence the devel­op­ment has poten­tial to affect them. They recom­mend a con­di­tion requir­ing a full assess­ment of the impact of the devel­op­ment is under­taken by a suit­ably qual­i­fied pro­fes­sion­al pri­or to any devel­op­ment, to con­firm appro­pri­ate meas­ures and any mit­ig­a­tion required.

4. Moray Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team has no objec­tions, how­ever they recom­mend a con­di­tion that requires site invest­ig­a­tion res­ults to sup­port their drain­age design.

5. Moray Coun­cil Trans­port­a­tion Man­ager ini­tially sought fur­ther inform­a­tion on vis­ib­il­ity splays, the pro­posed route to the bothy, car park alter­a­tions and pro­vi­sion of a passing place. The applic­ant sub­mit­ted fur­ther inform­a­tion show­ing the pro­vi­sion of reduced vis­ib­il­ity splays as well as a traffic speed sur­vey demon­strat­ing they are suf­fi­cient. The applic­ant has also pro­posed addi­tion­al sur­fa­cing at the access, pro­poses a ​‘shuttle’ route to and from the site and has agreed to provide a new passing place. This will be sub­ject to a con­di­tion on any consent.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 25/09/2020

1. CNPA Land­scape Adviser is sat­is­fied the pro­posed loc­a­tion of the Bothy is less prom­in­ent in terms of key view­points that pre­vi­ously pro­posed. It is also fur­ther away from the Dark Sky Obser­va­tion Point. The design is good and will com­ple­ment the char­ac­ter of oth­er domest­ic build­ings in the vicin­ity. The pro­pos­al has attemp­ted to min­im­ise the light level and it would appear to be at a very low level. The only extern­al light­ing pro­posed is for emer­gency use and will only be needed if the build­ing is occu­pied. These meas­ures will mean that there will be no adverse effect on the spe­cial land­scape qual­ity of dark sky. Red fil­ters are recom­men­ded for the extern­al light and there is no objec­tion to this. Con­di­tions are recom­men­ded in rela­tion to the sub­mis­sion of detailed hard and soft land­scap­ing and if the dark sky obser­va­tion struc­ture forms part of this application.

2. CNPA Eco­logy Adviser reques­ted fur­ther inform­a­tion on eco­lo­gic­al impacts and this has res­ul­ted in the applic­ant provid­ing a Breed­ing Birds Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan. A con­di­tion will require a revised Breed­ing Birds Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan with fur­ther detail.

3. Com­munity Coun­cil offered no comments.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. The applic­a­tion was advert­ised in the loc­al press and a total of 13 let­ters of rep­res­ent­a­tion have been received and these are attached in Appendix 2.

2. There have been 3 let­ters com­ment­ing on the pro­pos­als and 10 let­ters object­ing to the pro­pos­als. The main issues are sum­mar­ised as fol­lows: a) Det­ri­ment­al impact on an envir­on­ment­ally sens­it­ive area; b) Det­ri­ment­al impact on status as Dark Skies Park and pos­sible loss of accred­it­a­tion; c) Con­tra­ven­tion of Health and Safety with the omis­sion of out­side lights; d) Increased levels of traffic along this stretch of the Spey­side Way res­ult­ing in noise and pol­lu­tion and will erode the sur­face of the exist­ing track; e) Envir­on­ment­al impact of driv­ing water sup­ply to site; f) Replace­ment of gate with cattlegrid is not appro­pri­ate; g) Impact of pro­posed soak-away on qual­ity of private water sup­plies and con­sequent danger to pub­lic health; h) No bene­fit to loc­al eco­nomy or com­munity; i) Det­ri­ment­al to exist­ing diverse, fam­ily friendly tour­ist and recre­ation­al facil­it­ies; j) Con­trary to policies con­tained with­in the cur­rent Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015; k) Con­trary to policies con­tained with­in the Moray Devel­op­ment Plan 2015; l) Con­trary to policies con­tained with­in the emer­ging Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan; m) Detract from the wil­der­ness of the area; n) Con­flict­ing inform­a­tion regard­ing the pro­vi­sion of extern­al lights; o) No dis­abled access pro­posed; p) Insuf­fi­cient inform­a­tion on the impact to the bat pop­u­la­tion; and q) Insuf­fi­cient inform­a­tion to determ­ine the application.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 25/09/2020

APPRAIS­AL

Prin­ciple

1. Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 sup­ports devel­op­ment which enhances form­al and inform­al recre­ation and leis­ure facil­it­ies; tour­ism and leis­ure based busi­ness activ­it­ies and attrac­tions; tour­ism and leis­ure related infra­struc­ture where it has no adverse impacts on the site or neigh­bour­ing areas and it makes a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the exper­i­ence of vis­it­ors and adds to or extends the core tour­ist sea­son. The Policy also goes on to sup­port eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment that will enhance the range and qual­ity of eco­nom­ic opportunities.

2. The pro­posed tast­ing bothy will be ancil­lary to the exist­ing well estab­lished Glen­liv­et Dis­til­lery and will provide a whisky tast­ing exper­i­ence for vis­it­ors reflect­ing on the his­tory of the site and the land­scape the dis­til­lery is set with­in. The intro­duc­tion of this facil­ity will enhance this exist­ing tour­ist attrac­tion and provide an oppor­tun­ity for the poten­tial eco­nom­ic growth of the busi­ness to the bene­fit of the loc­al com­munity. The prin­ciple of the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to be accept­able sub­ject to com­pli­ance with oth­er loc­al plan policies on the issues dis­cussed below.

Land­scape and Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Issues

1. Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 pre­sumes against devel­op­ment which does not con­serve and enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park and in par­tic­u­lar the set­ting of the development.

2. Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan encour­ages devel­op­ment to pro­tect and enhance the fea­ture or its set­ting and take reas­on­able meas­ures to avoid, min­im­ise and mit­ig­ate any adverse effects.

3. A pre­vi­ous applic­a­tion for a tast­ing bothy raised sig­ni­fic­ant con­cerns regard­ing its loc­a­tion and the det­ri­ment­al impact it would have on its land­scape set­ting and on the Dark Skies Park. Fol­low­ing the with­draw­al of this applic­a­tion, fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tion has been giv­en to the loc­a­tion of the pro­posed bothy and how to address these issues. There is a pat­tern of single build­ings at low dens­it­ies with­in the vicin­ity. These tend to be loc­ated with­in the fold of the topo­graphy and have trees sur­round­ing them. The struc­ture is now loc­ated on a slightly high­er loc­a­tion, closer to the adja­cent wood­land plant­a­tion. This back­drop res­ults in the build­ing being less prom­in­ent from key view­points and allows it to con­tex­tu­ally blend in without dis­rupt­ing the bal­ance between open land­scape and built form.

4. The pro­posed bothy will lie just inside the defined E0‑0 Dark Skies Area. Meas­ures will be put in place to ensure the pro­posed light­ing will com­ply with the Dark Sky Man­age­ment Guid­ance for the Glen­liv­et Estate. The build­ing has been ori­ent­ated to ensure the main view­ing win­dow is par­tially con­cealed and all oth­er win­dows and doors have been posi­tioned and sized to lim­it light spill from the intern­al spaces. The bothy will not be used overnight.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 25/09/2020

1. In determ­in­ing the level of intern­al light­ing, cal­cu­la­tions have been based upon all lights being on at the same time and at 100% lumin­ance. This will nev­er be the case in prac­tice giv­en there will be dif­fer­ent light­ing scen­ari­os depend­ing on the time year and time of day the bothy is being used. It should be noted that all light set­tings will be reg­u­lated by pre-set dim­mers. In terms of extern­al light­ing, there will be no extern­al lights, how­ever to com­ply with Health and Safety (under the Build­ing Reg­u­la­tions require­ments) a light fit­ting will be loc­ated intern­ally, above the main entrance door. This light will only be used in an emer­gency situ­ation for aid­ing escape and then will only spill light over the door threshold. All light­ing will be selec­ted with appro­pri­ate col­our tem­per­at­ure to con­form to the Dark Skies require­ments. The pro­posed enclosed Dark Skies obser­va­tion struc­ture will shield light from the adja­cent pub­lic road and the Bothy’s mass­ing and ori­ent­a­tion allows for only two very small win­dows from facing the view­point. The bothy’s loc­a­tion also is such that it is not in the dir­ect line of site from the dark skies view­point. The meas­ures pro­posed above will allow for the pro­pos­al to be Dark Sky com­pli­ant and as such will ensure the devel­op­ment does not impact on the status of the Dark Skies Park.

2. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 5: Land­scape and Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Envir­on­ment­al Issues

1. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 seeks to restrict devel­op­ment that would have an adverse impact on pro­tec­ted spe­cies and where this can­not be avoided that appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures are provided.

2. The site has been iden­ti­fied as being with­in a prime area for waders and cur­lew, a pri­or­ity wader spe­cies hav­ing been observed in the area. Waders are in decline with­in Scot­land and the Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et Land­scape Pro­ject has developed the ​‘Peesie Pro­ject’ which works togeth­er with the Strath­spey Wet­lands and Waders Pro­ject to safe­guard waders by work­ing with landown­ers and farm­ers to deliv­er on the ground bene­fits. Giv­en the pro­posed devel­op­ment has the poten­tial to cause dis­turb­ance, it is essen­tial that appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures are under­taken and the applic­ant has sub­mit­ted a Breed­ing Bird Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan. This requires fur­ther detail and there­fore a con­di­tion should be attached to any con­sent to ensure suit­able oper­a­tion­al mit­ig­a­tion pro­pos­als are identified.

3. The pro­posed devel­op­ment, sub­ject to the appro­pri­ate con­di­tions is there­fore con­sidered to be in com­pli­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 25/09/2020

Scale, Mass and Design Issues

1. Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 requires that all devel­op­ment pro­pos­als should be designed to be sym­path­et­ic to the tra­di­tion­al pat­tern and char­ac­ter of the sur­round­ing area, loc­al ver­nacu­lar and loc­al dis­tinct­ive­ness whilst encour­aging innov­a­tion in design and use of mater­i­als. Devel­op­ment should seek to use mater­i­als and land­scap­ing that will com­ple­ment the set­ting of the devel­op­ment. Devel­op­ment should also ensure that the amen­ity of neigh­bours is protected.

2. The struc­ture will sit on its own and will fit com­fort­ably with­in its con­text of open land­scape with a few well dis­persed, mod­est in scale, tra­di­tion­al build­ings. The bothy is a con­tem­por­ary inter­pret­a­tion of a tra­di­tion­al bothy in terms of its design. A simple and sens­it­ive approach has been taken with a pro­posed palette of nat­ur­al mater­i­als which include loc­al stone, tim­ber clad­ding and loc­ally salvaged slate for the roof areas. A con­di­tion requir­ing the detailed spe­cific­a­tion of the extern­al mater­i­als is recom­men­ded to ensure these are of a stand­ard appro­pri­ate with­in this sens­it­ive location.

3. The bothy will sit sym­path­et­ic­ally with­in its land­scape set­ting and will be loc­ated a suf­fi­cient dis­tance from adja­cent prop­er­ties that will not intro­duce issues of over­look­ing and loss of pri­vacy and impact on the amen­ity enjoyed by these properties.

4. Sub­ject to an appro­pri­ately worded con­di­tion in rela­tion to extern­al mater­i­als it is con­sidered that the pro­posed devel­op­ment will sat­is­fy Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Road Safety Issues

1. Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 states that all new devel­op­ment will include appro­pri­ate means of access, egress and space for off street parking.

2. Moray Coun­cil Trans­port Devel­op­ment team ini­tially raised con­cerns regard­ing the pro­posed vis­ib­il­ity spays. The applic­ants have under­taken a speed sur­vey to demon­strate that the pro­posed reduced vis­ib­il­ity spay is sat­is­fact­ory and the Coun­cil is now sat­is­fied with this. The applic­ants also provided fur­ther cla­ri­fic­a­tion on the pro­posed route with a pro­posed ​‘shuttle’ ser­vice to take vis­it­ors to and from the bothy and have indic­ated their inten­tion to provide addi­tion­al sur­fa­cing at the access to reduce erosion of the sur­face. The Coun­cil has also sought the pro­vi­sion of a new passing place which the applic­ants have agreed to.

3. The pro­pos­als, sub­ject to the recom­men­ded con­di­tions are con­sidered to be accept­able in terms of road safety and are in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 25/09/2020

Flood Risk and Water Supply

1. Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 seeks to ensure that sur­face water is dealt with accord­ingly and that an appro­pri­ate SUDs is adop­ted. It also seeks to ensure that all new devel­op­ment is free from sig­ni­fic­ant risk of flood­ing and that there be no sig­ni­fic­ant adverse impact on exist­ing or private water supplies.

2. Fol­low­ing con­cerns raised by Moray Coun­cil Flood Risk team a full Drain­age Impact assess­ment and Drain­age Strategy was sub­mit­ted which provides a SUDs com­pli­ant sys­tem designed to cater for flood events and includes pro­vi­sion for cli­mate change allow­ances. It also includes a foul water solu­tion to address con­cerns from loc­al res­id­ents. The Coun­cil has now with­drawn their objec­tion but recom­mend a con­di­tion to ensure site invest­ig­a­tions are under­taken to sup­port the drain­age design – these were not pos­sible at the time the assess­ment was car­ried out giv­en the Cov­id restrictions.

3. The devel­op­ment is loc­ated 100 metres upslope and with­in the likely catch­ment of three private water sup­ply sources which provide pot­able sup­ply to the sev­en prop­er­ties. These water sources are wells and are likely to be fed by sur­face water and there­fore the devel­op­ment and its asso­ci­ated soakaway pose a risk of dis­turb­ance, pol­lu­tion of these water sup­plies. It is essen­tial that fur­ther invest­ig­a­tions are car­ried out and a con­di­tion is recom­men­ded to ensure this is undertaken.

4. In view of the fore­go­ing it is con­sidered that sub­ject to the recom­men­ded sus­pens­ive con­di­tions the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Oth­er Issues Raised in Representations

1. The major­ity of issues raised by the con­trib­ut­ors have been addressed in the para­graphs above, how­ever, the fol­low­ing points have not been addressed.

2. The replace­ment of a gate with a cattlegrid is not mater­i­al in the determ­in­a­tion of this application.

3. The pro­vi­sion of dis­abled access is not mater­i­al in the determ­in­a­tion of this applic­a­tion. This will be dealt with under the Build­ing Regulations.

CON­CLU­SION

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment will intro­duce a facil­ity that will enhance an exist­ing, well estab­lished tour­ist attrac­tion, and which will in turn, con­trib­ute to the vital­ity and viab­il­ity of the loc­al eco­nomy. Sub­ject to appro­pri­ately worded con­di­tions any land­scape and envir­on­ment­al impacts will be suit­ably mit­ig­ated against. The devel­op­ment has been sited and designed to respect its set­ting and sym­path­et­ic­ally integ­rate with­in its con­text. The pro­pos­als are con­sidered to com­ply with all oth­er rel­ev­ant policies of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 in

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 25/09/2020

terms of road safety and flood­ing issues. Approv­al is recom­men­ded sub­ject to appro­pri­ate plan­ning conditions.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to approve the Pro­posed new Tast­ing Lodge with asso­ci­ated bound­ary fence and access track at Land 440M West Of Grant Cot­tage, Glen­liv­et, Ballindal­loch, Moray for the fol­low­ing reasons/​subject to the fol­low­ing conditions:

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

Con­di­tions

1. No work shall com­mence on site until a fully detailed land­scap­ing scheme show­ing both hard and soft land­scap­ing pro­pos­als and the future main­ten­ance and man­age­ment of the pro­posed scheme has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the CNPA act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. This shall include, but not be lim­ited to hard land­scap­ing mater­i­al spe­cific­a­tion and plant and tree spe­cies and plant­ing specifications.

   There­after the devel­op­ment shall be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with those approved details and not later than the expiry of the next plant­ing sea­son fol­low­ing com­mence­ment of the devel­op­ment or with­in such time as approved by CNPA act­ing as Plan­ning Authority.

   Reas­on: To ensure the reten­tion of an appro­pri­ate land­scape set­ting, enhance biod­iversity and ensure the devel­op­ment will not have an adverse impact on the land­scape set­ting or eco­lo­gic­al qual­ity of the devel­op­ment in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 5 Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

2. No work shall com­mence on site until a revised Breed­ing Bird Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan, focus­sing on the exist­ing wader pop­u­la­tion, has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the CNPA act­ing as Plan­ning Authority.

   There­after the devel­op­ment shall be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the approved details.

   Reas­on: To ensure the devel­op­ment does not have a det­ri­ment­al impact on pro­tec­ted spe­cies and that appro­pri­ate oper­a­tion­al mit­ig­a­tion pro­pos­als are in place in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

3. **No work shall com­mence on site until full details and spe­cific­a­tions (samples may be required) of all extern­al fin­ish­ing mater­i­als have been

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 25/09/2020

sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the CNPA act­ing as Plan­ning Authority.**

There­after the devel­op­ment shall be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the approved details.

Reas­on: To ensure a full assess­ment is under­taken of the appro­pri­ate­ness of the extern­al mater­i­als and the devel­op­ment will not adversely impact upon the land­scape set­ting of the devel­op­ment site in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence (except for those works asso­ci­ated with the pro­vi­sion of the vis­ib­il­ity splay) until a vis­ib­il­ity splay 4.5 metres by 59 metres, has been provided in both dir­ec­tions at the access onto the pub­lic road; and there­after the vis­ib­il­ity splay shall be main­tained at all times free from any obstruc­tion exceed­ing 0.6 metres above the level of the carriageway.

   Reas­on: To enable drivers of vehicles leav­ing the site to have a clear view over a length of road suf­fi­cient to allow safe exit, in the interests of road safety for the pro­posed devel­op­ment and oth­er road users in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

2. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until a detailed draw­ing (scale 1:500) show­ing the loc­a­tion and design of a passing place on the sec­tion of the CH7H Bridge of Liv­et — Min­more Road or the U122H Bog­ar­row Road (to the Moray Coun­cil stand­ards and spe­cific­a­tion), has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the CNPA act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with the Moray Coun­cil Roads Author­ity; and there­after the passing place shall be con­struc­ted in accord­ance with the approved draw­ing pri­or to any devel­op­ment works com­men­cing (except for those works asso­ci­ated with the pro­vi­sion of the passing place).

   Reas­on: To enable drivers of vehicles to have adequate for­ward vis­ib­il­ity to see approach­ing traffic and for two vehicles to safely pass each oth­er ensur­ing the safety and free flow of traffic on the pub­lic road in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

3. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until fully a revised Drain­age Strategy sup­por­ted by detailed site invest­ig­a­tion res­ults has been sub­mit­ted to and approved by the CNPA act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with Moray Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment team.

There­after the devel­op­ment shall be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the approved details.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 25/09/2020

7.

Reas­on: To ensure that the pro­posed drain­age arrange­ments are sat­is­fact­ory and can be con­fid­ently sup­por­ted in accord­ance with Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until a report of an assess­ment of the impact on the private water sup­plies pre­pared by a suit­ably qual­i­fied pro­fes­sion­al, demon­strat­ing that there will be no adverse effects on water qual­ity or quant­ity from the devel­op­ment, has been sub­mit­ted to and approved by the CNPA act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with Moray Coun­cil Con­tam­in­ated Land Officer.

Reas­on: In the interests of health and safety and to ensure an adequate and whole­some water sup­ply to exist­ing prop­er­ties is main­tained in accord­ance with Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. Pri­or to the first use of the tast­ing lodge, the first 10m of the access track, meas­ured from the edge of the pub­lic car­riage­way, shall be con­struc­ted to the Moray Coun­cil spe­cific­a­tion and sur­faced with bitu­min­ous mac­adam. The width of the vehicu­lar access shall be as exist­ing and have a max­im­um gradi­ent of 1:20 meas­ured for the first 5.0m from the edge of the pub­lic carriageway.

   Reas­on: To ensure accept­able infra­struc­ture at the devel­op­ment access in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

2. No water shall be per­mit­ted to drain or loose mater­i­al be car­ried onto the pub­lic carriageway.

   Reas­on: To ensure the safety and free flow of traffic on the pub­lic road and access to the site by min­im­ising the road safety impact from extraneous mater­i­al and sur­face water in the vicin­ity of the access in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

3. A min­im­um of three car park­ing spaces shall be provided with­in the site pri­or to the first use of the tast­ing lodge, whichever is the soon­er. The park­ing spaces shall there­after be retained through­out the life­time of the devel­op­ment, unless oth­er­wise agreed in writ­ing with the CNPA act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with the Moray Coun­cil Roads Authority.

   Reas­on: To ensure the per­man­ent avail­ab­il­ity of the level of park­ing neces­sary for staff/​visitors/​others in the interests of an accept­able devel­op­ment and road safety and in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

4. A turn­ing area shall be provided with­in the cur­til­age of the site to enable vehicles to enter and exit in a for­ward gear.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 25/09/2020

Reas­on: To ensure the pro­vi­sion for vehicles to enter/​exit in a for­ward gear in the interests of the safety and free flow of traffic on the pub­lic road and in accord­ance with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. The devel­op­ment hereby approved and the pro­posed light­ing scheme shall fully con­form to the approved Light­ing Plan­ning Sup­port Inform­a­tion document.

Reas­on: In the interest of pro­tect­ing the Dark Skies Park status by min­im­ising the poten­tial for light spill from the devel­op­ment in accord­ance with Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Inform­at­ives

1. The devel­op­ment hereby approved must com­mence with­in 3 years of the date of this decision notice. If devel­op­ment has not com­menced with­in this peri­od then this plan­ning per­mis­sion will lapse.

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

3. Fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, a noti­fic­a­tion of the 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.

4. SEPA Reg­u­lat­ory Advice: It is noted from the Drain­age and Water Sup­ply State­ment that the pro­posed foul drain­age sys­tem is a sep­tic tank dis­char­ging to a soakaway (fil­ter trenches). Dis­charges to ground (or the water envir­on­ment) from private waste water drain­age sys­tems require pri­or author­isa­tion (a regis­tra­tion or a licence if over 15pe) from SEPA under The Water Envir­on­ment (Con­trolled Activ­it­ies) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2011 (CAR) (as amended). It is also noted that the foul water soakaway will be loc­ated upgradi­ent of three private water sup­plies (PWS) serving adja­cent Burn­side Cot­tage and Grant Cot­tage. The exact loc­a­tion of the source of these PWS is not known how­ever it is very likely to be with­in 500m from the pro­posed dis­charge and there­fore with­in the risk assess­ment area as defined by SEPA guid­ance ​‘Reg­u­lat­ory Meth­od (WAT-RM-04).

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 25/09/2020

1. The applic­ant should be aware that the pro­posed soakaway will not be gran­ted author­isa­tion unless a risk of the PWS sources demon­strates that there will be no det­ri­ment­al impact on the qual­ity of water avail­able to the PWS. The applic­ant should provide the exact loc­a­tion of the PWS source detail­ing the type (e.g. bore­hole, spring, well), depth, use and volume of ground water abstrac­ted. For fur­ther advice on this mat­ter con­tact should be made with the reg­u­lat­ory ser­vices team dir­ect at waterpermitting@​sepa.​org.​uk). It is not pos­sible for SEPA to com­ment on the con­sent­ab­il­ity of a future CAR applic­a­tion at this depends on the level of treat­ment pro­posed and the loc­a­tion and type of sup­ply source.

If appro­pri­ate with­in the pro­posed bothy struc­ture, pro­vi­sion should be made for bat roost­ing opportunities.

The map on the first page of this report 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.