Item6AACaddamTrackClova20210172DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 27/08/2021

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PRO­POSED: Form­a­tion, Main­ten­ance and Upgrad­ing of a Vehicu­lar Access Track (Part Ret­ro­spect­ive) at Land At Glen Clova Estate Glen Clova

REF­ER­ENCE: 2021/0172/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Mr Niven

DATE CALLED-IN: 31 May 2021

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve

CASE OFFICER: Ed Swales Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 27/08/2021

CNPA Plan­ning Committee

Applic­a­tion Site

N 0 40 80 160

Meters Cad­dam 231 FB Anc Ho Drain

Craigs of Inch­dowrie 3 Core­m­achy Hill Ho

Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2021. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber 100040965

Drain B955

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 27/08/2021

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The site forms part of the Glen Clova Estate and is loc­ated approx­im­ately 15 miles north of Kirriemuir. The track itself is on the south side of the B955, one mile south of the Glen Clova hotel.

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​v​e​T​a​b​=​s​u​m​m​a​r​y​&​k​e​y​V​a​l​=​Q​T​P​M​0​7​S​I​0CH00

Title Draw­ing Num­ber Date on Plan Date Received Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan and Site 01/04/21 31/05/21 Own­er­ship (1:1250) Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan (1:1500) 10/05/21 31/05/21 Plan — Site Plan (1:1000) 01/04/21 31/05/21 Plan — Site Plan Detail I of 2 (1:500) 10/05/21 31/05/21 Plan — Site Plan Detail 2 of 2 (1:500) 10/05/21 31/05/21 Plan — Cul­vert Install­a­tion — Plan 11/03/21 31/05/21 Plan — Drain­age Repairs 11/03/21 31/05/21 Plan — Relief Cul­vert Install­a­tion 31/05/21 Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan (1:5000) 10/05/21 31/05/21 Oth­er — Sup­port­ing State­ment 20/04/21 31/05/21 Oth­er — Track Remedi­ation Pro­pos­als 01/03/21 31/05/21 Sup­port­ing Inform­a­tion Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the Ist of the month.

1. This applic­a­tion seeks ret­ro­spect­ive plan­ning per­mis­sion for the upgrad­ing of an exist­ing driv­en route used for at least 10 years. The track is inten­ded to provide access to the hill­side for forestry pur­poses. The track is approx­im­ately 550m in length and up to 7m in width includ­ing drains and verges. It is partly sur­faced, although the sur­fa­cing is rough. The run­ning sur­face of the track itself is 4m in width.

2. The upper sec­tion of the track has grassed over sig­ni­fic­antly. The lower sec­tion is more heav­ily used and less vegetated.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 27/08/2021

His­tory

1. An applic­a­tion for hol­i­day lodges close to the Clova Hotel is cur­rently under con­sid­er­a­tion under applic­a­tion ref­er­ence: 2021/0168/DET

2. The CNPA plan­ning Com­mit­tee approved a Pri­or Approv­al applic­a­tion for the con­struc­tion of a forestry track with­in the Cad­dam Woods on the south side of Glen Clova on 26 May 2020.

3. A pri­or approv­al applic­a­tion for a forestry track high­er in Glen Clova was recently approved by Angus Council.

4. The CNPA approved a Hydro Elec­tric Scheme on land north of the Glen Clova Hotel in 2010.

DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN CONTEXT

Policies

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:

https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​w​p​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​2​0​2​0​/​1​1​/​C​N​P​A​-​L​D​P​-​2​0​2​0​-​a​s​-​M​o​d​i​f​i​e​d​-​f​o​r​-​w​e​b.pdf

Nation­al Policy Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy 2014 Stra­tegic Policy Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 — 2022 Loc­al Plan Policy Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2021) Those policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross POLICY I NEW HOUS­ING DEVEL­OP­MENT POLICY 2 SUP­PORT­ING ECO­NOM­IC GROWTH POLICY 3 DESIGN AND PLACE­MAK­ING 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 OEN SPACE, SPORT AND RECRE­ATION POLICY 9 CUL­TUR­AL HER­IT­AGE POLICY 10 RESOURCES X POLICY 11 DEVELOPER CONTRIBUTIONS

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 27/08/2021

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 Policy 3 Sus­tain­able Design Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance 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 Policy 10 Resources Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X Policy 11 Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance

CON­SULTA­TIONS

Sum­mary of the main issues raised by consultees

1. CNPA Eco­logy Officer has referred to the guid­ance giv­en by NatureScot on con­struc­tion of tracks in the Scot­tish uplands.

2. CNPA Land­scape Officer states the track does not res­ult in sig­ni­fic­ant land­scape and visu­al effects in addi­tion to the baseline con­di­tions which include the exist­ing con­ifer plant­a­tion. While of poor con­struc­tion, cor­rect mit­ig­a­tion as stated in the applicant’s ​‘Remedi­ation Pro­pos­als Sup­port­ing Inform­a­tion’ report is welcomed.

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al [HRA] has been under­taken to con­sider the effects of the pro­pos­al upon the con­ser­va­tion objec­tions of the European Sites of: the Cairngorms Mas­sif Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area [SPA] and the River South Esk Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion [SAC]. A copy of the full apprais­al can be viewed at Appendix 2.

2. Regard­ing the River South Esk SAC, it is con­cluded that the pro­pos­al would have no likely sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the con­ser­va­tion object­ives due to the dis­tance between the track and the nearest con­nect­ing water­course (150m) and the inter­ven­ing veget­a­tion and infra­struc­ture which would pre­vent sed­i­ment reach­ing the watercourse.

3. Regard­ing the Cairngorm Mas­sif SPA, the apprais­al also con­cludes that the con­ser­va­tion object­ives will be met and there will not be an adverse effect on site integrity.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. There have been no rep­res­ent­a­tions sub­mit­ted for this application.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 27/08/2021

APPRAIS­AL

1. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions are con­sidered to be the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment, the impact upon land­scape and the envir­on­ment­al impacts.

Prin­ciple of Development

1. The track has been con­struc­ted for forestry pur­poses, to man­age the south Inch­dowrie con­ifer plant­a­tion. Had it been sub­mit­ted through the Pri­or Noti­fic­a­tion Pro­cess before the works were under­taken, it would have been likely to have been approved due to its rela­tion­ship with the forestry plant­a­tion. How­ever because the works were car­ried out before a noti­fic­a­tion or applic­a­tion, a plan­ning applic­a­tion is required to be approved to reg­u­lar­ise the development.

2. The prin­ciple of the pro­posed upgrad­ing works is con­sidered to be accept­able sub­ject to com­pli­ance with oth­er rel­ev­ant loc­al plan policies with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Land­scap­ing and Envir­on­ment­al issues

1. Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 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 pro­posed development.

2. For the most part this track is hid­den with­in wood­land plant­a­tions, how­ever due to its con­struc­tion, often along the side of a hill and with deep drain­age chan­nels, the cut into the hill­side has left a scar that requires fur­ther mit­ig­a­tion in order to be con­sidered accept­able. The applic­ant has sub­mit­ted a ​‘remedi­ation pro­pos­als sup­port­ing inform­a­tion’ report which includes mit­ig­a­tion of erosion by installing and ret­ro­fit­ting cul­verts as well as seed­ing a cent­ral strip along the length of the track.

3. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 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.

4. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al has been under­taken (Appendix 2) regard­ing the proposal’s impacts on the des­ig­nated sites of the Cairngorms Mas­sif SPA and the River South Esk SAC which con­cludes that there would be no likely sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the qual­i­fy­ing interests of the stated European Sites.

5. With appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion through reve­get­a­tion to reduce the impact of the track itself, its ditches, cut­tings and spoil banks, the land­scape and visu­al impacts will be reduced and exposed ground will be sta­bil­ised. Sub­ject to a suit­ably worded con­di­tion to ensure the remedi­ation pro­pos­als report are fol­lowed in its entirety, the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment 2021.

6. Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to main­tain water qual­ity and avoid impacts on the water envir­on­ment. With the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures pro­posed in the plan­ning applic­a­tion, erosion of the track will be

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 27/08/2021

reduced and will min­im­ise sed­i­ment move­ment to sur­round­ing areas so is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment 2021

CON­CLU­SION

1. The devel­op­ment pro­posed is accept­able in prin­ciple as a forestry related track with­in exist­ing plant­a­tion wood­land and he details of mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures included with the applic­a­tion will min­im­ise the impacts of the track on the land­scape and envir­on­ment. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with the policies con­tained with­in the adop­ted Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan and approv­al is there­fore recommended.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to approve the Form­a­tion, Main­ten­ance and Upgrad­ing of a Vehicu­lar Access Track (Part Ret­ro­spect­ive) at Land At Glen Clova Estate Glen Clova.

INFORM­AT­IVES

1. 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.

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.

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