Item6AAGarbetWindFarm20210039PAC

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 6 23/04/2021

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PRO­POSED: Garb­et wind farm

Con­sulta­tion from Moray Council

REF­ER­ENCE: 2021/0039/PAC (21/00020/EIA)

APPLIC­ANT: Energiekontor

DATE CON­SUL­TED: 3 Feb­ru­ary 2021

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: No objection

CASE OFFICER: Nina Caudrey, Plan­ning Officer

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 6 23/04/2021

Key

Pro­posed tur­bine locations

Land­scape and Visu­al Study Area

Loc­al author­ity boundaries

Lines indic­at­ing the dis­tance from the pro­posed tur­bine locations

Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Exist­ing / Under Con­struc­tion Wind Farms

E01) Midtown of Glass E21) New­ton of Fortrie E02) Clashin­dar­roch E22) Deu­chries E03) Dorenell E23) Mains of Hat­ton E04) Calimbor­row E24) Gor­don­stown Hill E05) Hill of Tow­ie E25) Gawns­moss Cluster E06) Edintore E26) Rothi­enor­man E07) Upper Wheedlem­ont Farm E27) Strath of Bry­dock E08) Kil­drummy E28) Boyn­die Air­field E09) Caim­more E29) Hill of Glas­chyle E10) Dum­muies E30) Meikle Camaloun E11) Glens of Foud­land E31) Hill of East­er­ton E12) Neth­er­ton of Windy­hills E32) East­er Tol­mauds E13) Myre­ton E33) St Johns Wells E14) Rothes I & II E34) Back­hill of Yon­der­ton Exten­sion E15) Kel­las E35) St Johns Wells E16) Paul’s Hill E36) Castle of Auchiry Farm E17) Hill of Til­ly­mor­gan E18) Muirake E19) Berry Burn E20) Mains of Auchinderran

Con­sen­ted Wind Farms

C01) Hill of Tow­ie E37) Cairnhill C02) Ault­more E38) Milton of Fish­er­ie C03) Lurg Hill E39) Haddo C04) Meikle Hill C05) Hill of Carlin­craig C06) Com­abo C07) Hill of Petty C08) North Haddo C09) Caim Duhle

Applic­a­tion Wind Farms

A01) Clashindamoch II A04) Paul’s Hill A02) Meik­leton of Ardon­ald A05) Clash Gour A03) Rothes III

Topo­graphy

1310m AOD and above

Om AOD

Fig­ure 6.12 Cumu­lat­ive Wind Farms with­in 45km

Novem­ber 2020

wood.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 6 23/04/2021

PUR­POSE OF REPORT

1. The pur­pose of this report is to inform the com­mit­tee decision and sub­sequent con­sulta­tion response to Moray Coun­cil on an applic­a­tion sub­mit­ted under the Plan­ning etc. (Scot­land) Act 2006 for a pro­posed wind farm loc­ated to the north east of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The applic­a­tion is accom­pan­ied by an Envir­on­ment­al Report (ER), which presents the find­ings of the applicant’s Envir­on­ment­al Impact Assess­ment (EIA).

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 (Moray Coun­cil) with advice from stat­utory consultees.

3. Under the cur­rent work­ing agree­ment on roles in land­scape case­work between NatureScot (formerly Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Her­it­age, SNH) and the Park Author­ity, NatureScot lead on the pro­vi­sion of advice on the effects on the SLQs caused by pro­pos­als out­with the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Their advice has been used to inform this report.

SITE DESCRIP­TION AND PRO­POSED DEVELOPMENT

1. The pro­posed wind farm is loc­ated in Moray, approx­im­ately 5.5km south­east of Dufftown and 13km west of Huntly, as shown in the applicant’s ER fig­ure 6.12 on page 2 of this report. As also shown in the fig­ure, in the sur­round­ing area there are numer­ous exist­ing and con­sen­ted wind farms, plus sev­er­al pro­posed wind farms in the plan­ning system.

2. The pro­posed devel­op­ment would com­prise 7 tur­bines with a max­im­um height of 190m to the tip of the blade in an upright pos­i­tion, approx­im­ately 1.6km of upgraded exist­ing track plus around 5km of new track, as well as oth­er infra­struc­ture and works (such as sub­sta­tion, under­ground cabling, bor­row pits, etc). It is expec­ted that the pro­posed wind farm would have an estim­ated total installed capa­city of around 46.2MW, depend­ent on the tur­bine spe­cific­a­tion used.

3. The nearest tur­bine would be around 11 km to the north east of the closest part of the bound­ary of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, with the oth­er tur­bines, tracks and asso­ci­ated infra­struc­ture loc­ated fur­ther from the Nation­al Park boundary.

4. The­or­et­ic­al vis­ib­il­ity of the pro­posed wind farm from with­in the Nation­al Park would typ­ic­ally be lim­ited and at dis­tance, as shown by the applicant’s ER fig­ure 6.2 (Appendix I). Some the­or­et­ic­al vis­ib­il­ity is found at around 20 – 30km from the wind farm in the Crom­dale Hills, with some the­or­et­ic­al vis­ib­il­ity at great­er dis­tances fur­ther into the Nation­al Park, as shown by the col­oured areas.

5. How­ever, when con­sid­er­ing the cumu­lat­ive visu­al effects, the pro­posed wind farm would not add sig­ni­fic­antly to the level of vis­ib­il­ity of wind farms seen from with­in the Nation­al Park — as shown by the fig­ure provided by the applic­ant in Appendix II.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 6 23/04/2021

1. Visu­al­isa­tions from two view­points, VP14 Little Gael Carn in the Lad­der Hills and VP15 Carn Daimh around 8km north of Tomin­toul, have been provided in the applicant’s ER to demon­strate the level of vis­ib­il­ity that would be had from with­in the Nation­al Park, at a dis­tance of approx­im­ately 18 and 23 km respect­ively to the nearest pro­posed tur­bine. These are avail­able to the pub­lic via the Moray Coun­cil web­site, eplan­ning https://​pub​lic​ac​cess​.moray​.gov​.uk/​e​p​l​a​n​ning/, by search­ing for the applic­a­tion ref­er­ence ​“21/00020/EIA”, then under the ​“Doc­u­ments” tab, select­ing the rel­ev­ant fig­ure num­bers (fig­ure 6.33 for view­point 14 and 6.34 for view­point 15).

REL­EV­ANT PLAN­NING HISTORY

1. 2021/0039/PAC CNPA respon­ded to a scop­ing con­sulta­tion from Energy Con­sents and Deploy­ment Unit (ECDU) in early April 2020. (The pro­posed wind farm has sub­sequently been reduced in MW out­put, so is now being determ­ined by Moray Council.)

PLAN­NING POLICY CONTEXT

1. The devel­op­ment pro­pos­al is loc­ated wholly out­with the Nation­al Park, there­fore the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies do not apply. How­ever, an assess­ment of the pro­pos­al must have regard to Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy (SPP) and the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP).

Nation­al Policy

1. Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy (revised Decem­ber 2020) 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 SPP is a mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tion in plan­ning decisions that car­ries sig­ni­fic­ant weight.

2. Policy relat­ing spe­cific­ally to Nation­al Parks and devel­op­ment man­age­ment can be found in para­graphs 84 and 85 of SPP. These re-state the four aims of the Nation­al Parks as set out in the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000, as well as the need to pur­sue these col­lect­ively. SPP high­lights that if there is a con­flict between the first aim (con­serving and enhan­cing the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the area) and any of the oth­ers, then great­er weight must be giv­en to the first aim. Plan­ning decisions are expec­ted to reflect this weight­ing and be con­sist­ent with the four aims.

3. Para­graph 85 of SPP also cla­ri­fies that the aims and require­ments of para­graphs 84 and 85 apply to devel­op­ment out­with a Nation­al Park that affects the Park.

4. Para­graph 212 of SPP states that ​“where devel­op­ment affects a Nation­al Park… it should only be per­mit­ted where:

a) the object­ives of the des­ig­na­tion and the over­all integ­rity of the area will not be com­prom­ised; or

b) any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse impacts on the qual­it­ies for which the area has been des­ig­nated are clearly out­weighed by social, envir­on­ment­al or eco­nom­ic bene­fits of nation­al importance”.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 6 23/04/2021

Stra­tegic Policy

1. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP) 2017 – 2022 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 1.3 and 3.3a.

3. Policy 1.3 seeks to con­serve and enhance the SLQs as a gen­er­al policy object­ive for man­age­ment of the Nation­al Park.

4. Policy 3.3a 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 where out­side the Park they sig­ni­fic­antly adversely affect its land­scape char­ac­ter or spe­cial land­scape qualities”.

CON­SULTA­TIONS

Nature Scot advice

1. In accord­ance with the NatureScot/​CNPA case­work agree­ment, NatureScot have provided CNPA with advice in rela­tion to the effects on the Nation­al Park, of the pro­posed wind farm both alone and cumu­lat­ively with oth­er exist­ing and con­sen­ted wind farms in the sur­round­ing area.

2. NatureScot advice that there will be no sig­ni­fic­ant adverse effects on the Spe­cial Land­scape Qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park.

APPRAIS­AL

1. The policies of the NPPP and SPP set out how pro­pos­als out­with the bound­ar­ies of the Nation­al Park should be con­sidered in terms of effects on the Park.

2. Policy 3.3a of the NPPP sets out a test for con­sid­er­ing effects on the land­scapes of the Nation­al Park, in that large scale wind tur­bines are inap­pro­pri­ate out­side the Park where they ​‘sig­ni­fic­antly adversely affect its land­scape char­ac­ter or spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies’. If a pro­pos­al fails policy 3.3a, it would also be in con­flict with policy 1.3, which seeks to con­serve and enhance the SLQs.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 6 23/04/2021

1. Para­graph 212 of SPP sets out that ​“devel­op­ment that affects a Nation­al Park… should only be per­mit­ted where:

a) the object­ives of des­ig­na­tion and the over­all integ­rity of the area will not be com­prom­ised; or

b) 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.”

1. In the policy con­text of the NPPP and SPP, 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. While there are a num­ber of exist­ing and con­sen­ted wind farms in the area to the north-east of the Nation­al Park (as shown on page 2), which the pro­posed wind farm adds to, it is not con­sidered that the pro­posed wind farm alone or in com­bin­a­tion with oth­er exist­ing or con­sen­ted wind farms will sig­ni­fic­antly adversely affect the land­scape char­ac­ter or SLQs of the Nation­al Park.

3. As a res­ult, the pro­posed wind farm is con­sidered to com­ply with nation­al plan­ning policies that seek to safe­guard Nation­al Parks, as well as NPPP policies 3.3a and 1.3. There­fore, it recom­men­ded that CNPA should not object to the pro­posed wind farm development.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee confirm:

• That the CNPA has NO OBJEC­TION to the applic­a­tion for the pro­posed Garb­et wind farm.