Item6AAPitmainEstateTrack20220421DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 28/04/2023

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED:

Con­struc­tion of 4.83km forestry track, form­a­tion of passing places, renew­al of bridge at Land 760M NW Of Rise­ley Cot­tage, Glen Road, Newtonmore.

REF­ER­ENCE: 2022/0421/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Pit­main and Glen­ban­chor Estate Ltd

DATE CALLED-IN: 12 Decem­ber 2022

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Refuse

CASE OFFICER: Ed Swales, Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer

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CNPA Plan­ning Committee

Applic­a­tion Site

0 215 430 860

Meters

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 28/04/2023

Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2023. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber 100040965

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 28/04/2023

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The site lies across both Pit­main and Glen­ban­chor Estates. The track crosses estate and com­mon graz­ing land, the start and its west­ern end lying approx­im­ately one mile north­w­est of New­ton­more. The pro­posed bridge will cross the Allt a’ Chaor­ann which is a trib­u­tary of the River Calder and its farthest, east­ern end will be one mile to the east of Loch Gyn­ack and 2 miles north­w­est of Kingussie.

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=RM9DNHSIO CP00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
PLANS
Plan — Site Loc­a­tion Plan	143146⁄045	24/11/2021	09/12/2022
Plan — Pro­posed Track Lay­out and Location	143146/011C	22/11/2021	09/12/2022
Plan — Pro­posed Track Lay­out & Loc­a­tion Plan	143146/011C	24/11/2021	09/12/2022
Plan — Pro­posed Track Layout	143146/014B	22/11/2021	02/03/2023
Plan — Pro­posed Track Layout	143146⁄014	22/11/2021	02/03/2023
Plan — Track Lay­out Plan — Sheet 1	143146/012B	24/11/2021	09/12/2022
Plan — Track Lay­out Plan — Sheet 2	143146/013B	24/11/2021	09/12/2022
Plan — Track Lay­out Plan — Sheet 3	143146/014B	24/11/2021	09/12/2022
Plan — Track Lay­out Plan — Sheet 4	143146/015B	24/11/2021	09/12/2022
Plan — Track Lay­out Plan — Sheet 5	143146/016B	24/11/2021	09/12/2022
Plan — Track Lay­out Plan — Sheet 6	143146/017B	24/11/2021	09/12/2022

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 28/04/2023

Plan — Track Lon­git­ud­in­al Sec­tions — Sheet 1	143146/018A	24/11/2021	09/12/2022
Plan — Track Lon­git­ud­in­al Sec­tions — Sheet 2	143146/019B	24/11/2021	09/12/2022
Plan — Track Lon­git­ud­in­al Sec­tions — Sheet 3	143146/020B	24/11/2021	09/12/2022
Plan — Track Lon­git­ud­in­al Sec­tions — Sheet 4	143146/021B	24/11/2021	09/12/2022
Plan — Track Lon­git­ud­in­al Sec­tions — Sheet 5	143146/022B	24/11/2021	09/12/2022
Plan — Track Con­struc­tion Details — Sheet 1	143146/023A	24/11/2021	09/12/2022
Plan — Allt A Chao­rainn Crossing	143146⁄6000	13/06/2022	09/12/2022
Plan — Bridge Desk Study	143146/ED/G/R/01	01/09/2022	08/12/2022
Plan — Track Con­struc­tion Details — Sheet 2	143461/024A	21/11/2021	09/12/2022
Plan — Track Drain­age Con­struc­tion Details – Sheet 1	143461/025B	21/11/2021	09/12/2022
Plan — Vehicle Swept Path — Sheet Lay­out & Loc­a­tion Plan	143461/028A	13/05/2022	09/12/2022
Plan — Vehicle Swept Path — A86 Main Street — Ban­chor View — Sheet 1	143461⁄029	13/05/2022	09/12/2022
Plan — Vehicle Swept Path — Plan- Ban­chor View — Forest Path Sheet 2	143461⁄030	13/05/2022	09/12/2022
Plan — Vehicle Swept Path — Forest Path — Dog Tri­al Road Sheet 3	143461⁄031	13/06/2022	09/12/2022
Plan — Vehicle Swept Path — Dog Tri­al Road — Middle Road Wood­land — Sheet 4	143461⁄032	13/06/2022	09/12/2022
Plan — Vehicle Swept Path — Middle Road Wood­land — Bridge — Sheet 5	143461⁄033	13/06/2022	09/12/2022
Plan — Vehicle Swept Path — Bridge — Cattle Gate — Sheet 6	143461⁄034	13/06/2022	09/12/2022
Plan — Vehicle Swept Path — Cattle Gate — Derel­ict House — Sheet 7	143461⁄035	13/05/2022	09/12/2022
Plan — Vehicle Swept Path — Derel­ict House — Sheep Pen Wood­land — Sheet 8	143461⁄036	13/05/2022	09/12/2022

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 28/04/2023

Plan — Vehicle Swept Path — Sheep Pen Wood­land — Derel­ict House — Sheet 9	143461⁄037	13/05/2022	09/12/2022
Plan — Vehicle Swept Path — Derel­ict House — Cattle Gate — Sheet 10	143461⁄038	13/06/2022	09/12/2022
Plan — Vehicle Swept Path — Cattle Gate — Bridge — Sheet 11	143461⁄039	13/05/2022	09/12/2022
Plan — Vehicle Swept Path — Bridge — Middle Road Wood­land — Sheet 12	143461⁄040	13/06/2022	09/12/2022
Plan — Vehicle Swept Path — Middle Road Wood­land — Dog Tri­al Road — Sheet 13	143461⁄041	13/06/2022	09/12/2022
Plan — Vehicle Swept Path — Dog Tri­al Road — Forest Path — Sheet 14	143461⁄042	13/05/2022	09/12/2022
Plan — Vehicle Swept Path — Forest Path — Ban­chor View — Sheet 15	143461⁄043	13/05/2022	09/12/2022
Plan — Vehicle Swept Path — Ban­chor View — A86 Main Street — Sheet 16	143461⁄044	13/05/2022	09/12/2022
SUP­PORT­ING INFORMATION
Oth­er — Peat Sur­vey Report	72651	01/09/2022	08/12/2022
Oth­er — NVC Map Survey	72651/​HB/​005α	16/09/2022	09/12/2022
Oth­er — Design State­ment (rev 3)	FG/2357	02/03/2023	08/12/2022
Oth­er — Out­door Access Man­age­ment Plan	FG/2357	03/03/2023	03/03/2023
Oth­er — Fur­ther Jus­ti­fic­a­tion from Agent		02/03/2023	02/03/2023
Oth­er — Pro­posed Wood­land Management		19/07/2019	09/12/2022
Oth­er — Cur­rent Woodlands	Glenbanchor2021_​SC1	28/02/2023	02/03/2023
Oth­er — Pro­posed Road Visualisations		10/10/2022	09/12/2022

*Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the 1^st of the month.

1. The pro­pos­al is for a 3.5km track cross­ing between the Glen­ban­chor and Pit­main Estates, and include a new bridge cross­ing, a new sec­tion of road and

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 28/04/2023

tem­por­ary addi­tion of passing places along the Glen Road, the pub­lic road that runs out of New­ton­more provid­ing access to the Mon­daliath. The total length of new track is 4.5km, includ­ing the new road for the replace­ment bridge.

1. Plans of the pro­pos­al can be viewed in Appendix 1.

His­tory

1. Pit­main Estate has sub­mit­ted a num­ber of track applic­a­tions, some ret­ro­spect­ive, includ­ing a track north of the Strone Road cross­ing the applic­a­tion site.

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

1. An Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al [HRA] has been under­taken to con­sider the effects of the pro­pos­al upon the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the European Sites as lis­ted with­in the doc­u­ment, attached at Appendix 2.

2. The doc­u­ment con­cludes that there will be a likely sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the River Spey SAC dur­ing any con­struc­tion activ­ity. How­ever, if the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures included in the plan­ning applic­a­tion are secured by con­di­tion and imple­men­ted, then the con­ser­va­tion object­ives will be met and there­fore there will not be an adverse effect on site integ­rity for the River Spey SAC. The reas­on for the con­di­tions is to avoid pol­lu­tion enter­ing the Allt a Chao­rainn (part of the SAC) and neg­at­ively impact­ing upon the qual­i­fy­ing features.

DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN CON­TEXT Policies

Nation­al Policy	Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045
POLICY 1	Tack­ling the Cli­mate and Nature Crises
POLICY 2	Cli­mate Mit­ig­a­tion and Adaptation
POLICY 3	Biod­iversity
POLICY 4	Nat­ur­al Places
POLICY 5	Soils
POLICY 6	Forestry, Wood­land and Trees
POLICY 13	Sus­tain­able Transport
POLICY 14	Design, Qual­ity and Place
POLICY 18	Infra­struc­ture First
POLICY 33	Min­er­als
Stra­tegic Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027
Loc­al Plan Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2021) Those policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross

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POLICY 1	NEW HOUS­ING DEVELOPMENT
POLICY 2	SUP­PORT­ING ECO­NOM­IC GROWTH	x
POLICY 3	DESIGN AND PLACEMAKING	x
POLICY 4	NAT­UR­AL HERITAGE	x
POLICY 5	LAND­SCAPE	x
POLICY 6	THE SIT­ING AND DEISGN OF DIGIT­AL COM­MU­NIC­A­TIONS EQUIPMENT
POLICY 7	RENEW­ABLE ENERGY
POLICY 8	OPEN SPACE, SPORT AND RECREATION
POLICY 9	CUL­TUR­AL HERITAGE	x
POLICY 10	RESOURCES	x
POLICY 11	DEVELOPER OBLIG­A­TIONS

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 28/04/2023

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​1​/​0​3​/​C​N​P​A​-​L​D​P​-​2021- web.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 1	Hous­ing Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guidance	x
Policy 3	Design and Place­mak­ing Non-Stat­utory Guidance	x
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance	x
Policy 5	Land­scape Non-Stat­utory Guidance	x
Policy 7	Renew­able Energy Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 8	Open Space, Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance	x
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guidance	x
Policy 11	Developer Oblig­a­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance

CON­SULTA­TIONS

Sum­mary of the main issues raised by consultees

1. NatureScot state there are nat­ur­al her­it­age interests of inter­na­tion­al import­ance close to the site, but in our view, these will not be adversely

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 28/04/2023

affected by the pro­pos­al. They also state the track could be built so that effects are avoided on the Allt a’Chaorainn and oth­er trib­u­tary streams. They note that a bridge is pro­posed across the Allt a’Chaorainn, at the same loc­a­tion as the exist­ing bridge, leav­ing the bed of the stream unaf­fected so that the nat­ur­al move­ment of fish or sed­i­ment can con­tin­ue without con­straints. The con­struc­tion of the track and any asso­ci­ated hard stand­ing would require a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment to set out how sed­i­ment­a­tion or oth­er pol­lu­tion into any of the water courses would be avoided. If these are applied, the pro­pos­al is unlikely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on any qual­i­fy­ing interests either dir­ectly or indir­ectly. An appro­pri­ate assess­ment is there­fore not required.

1. SEPA state that the pro­pos­al is below their threshold for provid­ing comment.

2. The High­land Coun­cil Archae­ology Officer states the applic­a­tion lies with­in an area of archae­olo­gic­al poten­tial and sug­gests a con­di­tion is applied to any approv­al gran­ted request­ing a pro­gramme of work for the sur­vey, eval­u­ation, pre­ser­va­tion and record­ing of any archae­olo­gic­al and his­tor­ic fea­tures affected by the pro­posed development/​work, includ­ing a timetable for invest­ig­a­tion, has been sub­mit­ted to, and approved in writ­ing by, the Plan­ning Authority.

3. The High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team states they have no objec­tion to the applic­a­tion sub­ject to the applic­a­tion of a con­di­tion requir­ing any new water course cross­ing is designed in accord­ance with rel­ev­ant SEPA guid­ance and that all new water­course cross­ings should be designed to con­vey a 1 in 200 year plus cli­mate change flood event.

4. The High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team state they have no objec­tion to the proposal.

5. CNPA Eco­logy Officer states that giv­en the loc­a­tion and pro­pos­al details, simple oppor­tun­it­ies for biod­iversity enhance­ment are lim­ited how­ever giv­en the loss of hab­it­ats the applic­a­tion should con­sider fur­ther mit­ig­a­tion to off­set the loss. For any approv­al the pro­pos­al would require a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment, Breed­ing Bird Sur­veys as well as mit­ig­a­tion to avoid poten­tially sig­ni­fic­ant effects of the loss of Scot­tish Biod­iversity List habitats.

6. CNPA Land­scape Officer States the pro­posed track would relate to some aspects of the loc­al land­scape char­ac­ter, includ­ing exist­ing ele­ments of land man­age­ment such as fences, con­ifer wood­land blocks and access tracks to the west and east. Non­ethe­less, it would res­ult in some adverse land­scape and visu­al effects, par­tic­u­larly in con­trast to the sur­round­ing open moor­land and cre­at­ing a new prom­in­ent lin­ear feature.

7. The pro­posed new link road to the pro­posed bridge over the Allt a’ Chao­rainn could res­ult in some sig­ni­fic­ant adverse land­scape and visu­al effects which

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 28/04/2023

would be exper­i­enced from the pub­lic park­ing area at the end of Glen­ban­chor Road and trav­el­ling along Core Path UBS8 (the Glen Ban­chor Cart Track her­it­age path). A full assess­ment of these effects is not pos­sible at this time due to insuf­fi­cient details.

1. Addi­tion­al inform­a­tion is required, includ­ing on the pro­posed link road to the bridge over the Allt a’ Chao­rainn, bor­row pits, track con­struc­tion mater­i­als, poten­tial restoration/​downgrading fol­low­ing tim­ber extrac­tion, land­scape man­age­ment and a Con­struc­tion Meth­od Statement.

2. CNPA Out­door Access Officer states that Glen Ban­chor and the sur­round­ing area is vari­ously pop­u­lar with loc­als and vis­it­ors for both inform­al loc­ally focussed recre­ation and onward access into the sur­round­ing hills. A sig­ni­fic­ant ele­ment of this is sup­por­ted by the avail­ab­il­ity of park­ing at the ter­minus of the pub­lic road just east of the Dal­churn Bridge from which point a track leads into the glen proper.

3. The pro­pos­al to replace the exist­ing Dal­churn Bridge and realign the road on the approach to the bridge are con­cur­rent with the route taken by CNP Core Path UBS8 and appear likely to also impact the exist­ing inform­al park­ing areas at the ter­minus of the pub­lic road.

4. The pro­posed new track lead­ing north/​westwards to reach the Strone Road will inter­face dir­ectly with a num­ber of estab­lish paths dur­ing con­struc­tion and on a per­man­ent basis whilst also intro­du­cing tem­por­ary effects on wider access rights dur­ing construction.

5. It is recom­men­ded that an Out­door Access Man­age­ment Plan is pre­pared pri­or to any approv­al being granted.

6. An Out­door Access Man­age­ment Plan has sub­sequently been pro­duced how­ever the Access Officer remains con­cerned that the pro­pos­al relates to the poten­tial scale of land­scape change brought about by the new road and the res­ult­ing degree to which exist­ing estab­lished oppor­tun­ity for exer­cise of rights is either lost or impacted includ­ing access to the River Calder.

7. CNPA Peat­land officer states that the gen­er­al land­scape set­ting of the pro­posed forest road is on slop­ing hill ground con­sist­ing of a mosa­ic of upland hab­it­ats. The peat depth sur­vey provided for the forest road shows the major­ity of peat present is less than 50cm, this cor­rel­ates to the NVC hab­it­ats mapped. It appears that there are areas of deep­er peat, form­ing blanket bog hab­it­at, below the pro­posed forest road.

8. A map­ping lay­er, Car­bon and Peat­land 2016, there is a mapped area of Class 1 and 2 peat­land across the gen­er­al hill­side that the pro­posed forest road is loc­ated on. Class 1: Nation­ally import­ant car­bon-rich soils, deep peat and pri­or­ity peat­land hab­it­at — Areas likely to be of high con­ser­va­tion value. Class

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 28/04/2023

2: Nation­ally import­ant car­bon-rich soils, deep peat and pri­or­ity peat­land hab­it­at — Areas of poten­tially high con­ser­va­tion value and res­tor­a­tion poten­tial. This inform­a­tion con­firms the likely pres­ence of peat in this location.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. There have been a num­ber of rep­res­ent­a­tions received. These focus on the need and pur­pose of the track, along with the over­all neg­at­ive land­scape impact. Fur­ther­more, they ques­tion the lack of jus­ti­fic­a­tion for the use of smal­ler vehicles, which oth­er loc­al estates else­where are using.

2. The over­all length of the track crosses an exist­ing track that pre­sum­ably could be used for tim­ber extrac­tion, thus redu­cing the need for the addi­tion­al sec­tion bey­ond this one.

3. The over­all neg­at­ive impact is com­poun­ded by the pro­posed required width to accom­mod­ate tim­ber lorries.

4. There are con­cerns from object­ors relat­ing to the track cross­ing areas of peatland.

5. There is lim­ited com­mer­cial value of the wood­land being extrac­ted as it is mostly wind­blow thus the argu­ment for an eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment is irrelevant.

APPRAIS­AL Prin­ciple of Devel­op­ment — Eco­nom­ic Development

1. Policy 29: Rur­al Devel­op­ment of Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045 seeks to encour­age rur­al eco­nom­ic activ­ity, innov­a­tion and diver­si­fic­a­tion whilst ensur­ing that the dis­tinct­ive char­ac­ter of the rur­al area and the ser­vice func­tion of small towns, nat­ur­al assets and cul­tur­al her­it­age are safe­guarded and enhanced. Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth, of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, states that pro­pos­als which sup­port or extend the eco­nomy, or which enhance the range and qual­ity of eco­nom­ic oppor­tun­it­ies or facil­it­ies, will be con­sidered favour­ably where they have no adverse envir­on­ment­al impacts.

2. The pro­pos­al will con­trib­ute to sup­port­ing the loc­al eco­nomy giv­en it is to serve the loc­al estates by improv­ing access for tim­ber extrac­tion and ongo­ing forestry man­age­ment, in com­pli­ance with this part of the policy. How­ever, the intro­duc­tion of a track of this design, length and scale will intro­duce adverse envir­on­ment­al impacts, which are dis­cussed in more detail with­in oth­er sec­tions of the apprais­al. The applicant’s jus­ti­fic­a­tion for the need for the track is that they will need to extract some tim­ber from exist­ing wood­lands; that large tim­ber lor­ries can­not safely use the pub­lic road that accesses the

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 28/04/2023

plant­a­tions and that smal­ler vehicles are not avail­able or uneco­nom­ic­al to trans­fer timber.

1. The pro­posed track to facil­it­ate the remov­al of com­mer­cial wood­land, has an eco­nom­ic bene­fit due to the tim­ber being extrac­ted, how­ever, as there are adverse envir­on­ment­al impacts which will be out­lined below, the pro­pos­al does not com­ply with Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Land­scape Impacts

1. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Places of Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045 and Policy 5: Land­scape, of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 set out the devel­op­ment plan policy in rela­tion to land­scape matters.

2. Policy 4: nat­ur­al Places of NPF4 states that states devel­op­ment pro­pos­als which by vir­tue of type, loc­a­tion or scale will have an unac­cept­able impact on the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment, will not be sup­por­ted. Policy 5: Land­scape, of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sets out more detail in rela­tion to the Nation­al Park and states there will be a pre­sump­tion against any devel­op­ment that does not con­serve or enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park includ­ing wild­ness and the set­ting of the pro­posed devel­op­ment and that Devel­op­ment that does not com­ple­ment or enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter of the Nation­al Park and the set­ting of the pro­posed devel­op­ment will be per­mit­ted only where any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse effects on the spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park are clearly out­weighed by social or eco­nom­ic bene­fits of nation­al import­ance. The policy It also states that there will be a pre­sump­tion against new private roads and ways in open moor­land areas unless it can be demon­strated that they are essen­tial for land man­age­ment pur­poses; and they are designed to min­im­ise land­scape and envir­on­ment­al impacts, and they con­serve and enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park includ­ing wild­ness or, where appro­pri­ate they form part of a pro­gramme of works includ­ing the remov­al of oth­er exist­ing private roads and ways to deliv­er a net bene­fit for the spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park includ­ing wildness

3. The pro­posed track will res­ult in some adverse land­scape and visu­al effects, par­tic­u­larly in con­trast to the sur­round­ing open moor­land, cre­at­ing a new prom­in­ent lin­ear fea­ture. There are no pro­pos­als with the applic­a­tion to remove oth­er tracks to deliv­er a net bene­fit for the spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park; few meas­ures to min­im­ise the land­scape and visu­al impacts of the new track are pro­posed with­in the applic­a­tion; and the cut and fill and approach to gabi­on rein­force­ment of slopes is insuf­fi­ciently clear with­in the applic­a­tion to con­clude they would con­serve or enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies if the Nation­al Park. For

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 28/04/2023

example, if the track was with­in a wood­land plant­ing scheme, it would be screened in time and could be integ­rated more eas­ily into the sur­round­ing landscape.

1. Tak­ing this into account, it is con­sidered that the applic­a­tion does not com­ply with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Places of Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Scot­land 2045 or Policy 5: Land­scape, of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Envir­on­ment­al Impacts

1. Policy 3: Biod­iversity and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Places of Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045 seek to pro­tect biod­iversity and nat­ur­al assets, which in turn play a cru­cial role in car­bon reduc­tion. Policy 5: Soils provides sig­ni­fic­ant pro­tec­tion for peat­land. There are areas of mapped Class 1 and 2 peat­land across the gen­er­al hill­side that the pro­posed forest road is loc­ated on. Class 1 are nation­ally import­ant car­bon-rich soils, deep peat and pri­or­ity peat­land hab­it­at and are areas that are likely to be of high con­ser­va­tion value. Class 2 are nation­ally import­ant car­bon-rich soils, deep peat and pri­or­ity peat­land hab­it­at and are areas of poten­tially high con­ser­va­tion value and res­tor­a­tion poten­tial. Policy 5 c provides sig­ni­fic­ant pro­tec­tion for peat­land and car­bon rich soils by stat­ing devel­op­ment pro­pos­als on peat­land, car­bon-rich soils and pri­or­ity peat­land hab­it­at will only be sup­por­ted for: essen­tial infra­struc­ture and there is a spe­cif­ic loc­a­tion­al need and no oth­er suit­able site. There has been no robust jus­ti­fic­a­tion sub­mit­ted by the applic­ant for this devel­op­ment and there­fore it is not classed as essen­tial and as such the pro­pos­al is con­trary to Policy 5: Soils of NPF4 which in turn, is there­fore con­trary to policies 3: Biod­iversity and 4: Nat­ur­al Places of NPF4.

2. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that where there is evid­ence to indic­ate that a pro­tec­ted or pri­or­ity hab­it­at or spe­cies may be present on, or adja­cent to, a site, or could be adversely affected by the devel­op­ment, the developer will be required to under­take a focused sur­vey of the area’s nat­ur­al envir­on­ment to assess the effect of the devel­op­ment on it and to sub­mit a species/​habitat pro­tec­tion plan where neces­sary to set out meas­ures to avoid, reduce or mit­ig­ate such effects.

3. The eco­logy and peat sur­veys have sug­ges­ted that there will not be any spe­cies that will be adversely affected by this devel­op­ment although sus­pens­ive con­di­tions would be required for the pro­pos­al to com­ply with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

4. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that devel­op­ment should cre­ate opportunities

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 28/04/2023

for fur­ther biod­iversity and pro­mote eco­lo­gic­al interest. Although the applic­ant states that the track will sup­port their wider object­ives of man­aging wood­land for more biod­iversity bene­fits, the only clear bene­fit appears to be in rela­tion to ease of extrac­tion of tim­ber. New tree plant­ing would not require fre­quent access by tim­ber vehicles. It is also unclear when and how much tim­ber would be com­mer­cially extrac­ted from the exist­ing plant­a­tions, many of which have suffered extens­ive wind­throw over past years. The pro­pos­al itself has no meas­ures to enhance biod­iversity as part of the applic­a­tion and simply res­ults in a net loss of hab­it­ats and poten­tial dis­turb­ance to hab­it­ats and spe­cies, so it is con­sidered the applic­a­tion does not com­ply with Policies 3: Biod­iversity or 4: Nat­ur­al Places of Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045 nor Policies 3: Design and Place­mak­ing or Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. Policy 33 Min­er­als of NPF4 sup­ports the sus­tain­able man­age­ment of resources and min­im­ise the impacts of the extrac­tion of min­er­als on com­munit­ies and the envir­on­ment. Policy 10: Resources, para­graph 10.6: Min­er­als of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, states devel­op­ment to exploit min­er­al reserves will only be con­sidered favour­ably where full res­tor­a­tion details are incor­por­ated as part of the pro­pos­al. The inform­a­tion sub­mit­ted with the applic­a­tion is unclear on the use of bor­row pits, both claim­ing that none would be required and that if mater­i­al is required then it would be obtained from an exist­ing bor­row pit on the estate. There is no detail on res­tor­a­tion of any new or exist­ing bor­row pits and so the applic­a­tion is not con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 33 Min­er­als of Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045 or Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Archae­ology

1. Policy 7: His­tor­ic assets and places of NPF4 seeks to pro­tect and enhance the his­tor­ic envir­on­ment assets and places. Para­graph o) states non- des­ig­nated his­tor­ic envir­on­ment assets, places and their set­ting should be pro­tec­ted and pre­served in situ wherever feas­ible. Where there is poten­tial for non-des­ig­nated bur­ied archae­olo­gic­al remains to exist below a site, developers will provide an eval­u­ation of the archae­olo­gic­al resource at an early stage so that plan­ning author­it­ies can assess impacts. His­tor­ic build­ings may also have archae­olo­gic­al sig­ni­fic­ance which is not under­stood and may require assess­ment. Giv­en the require­ment to apply a con­di­tion to any approv­al for the sub­mis­sion of a pro­gramme of works for the sur­vey, eval­u­ation, pre­ser­va­tion and record­ing of any archae­olo­gic­al and his­tor­ic fea­tures, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 7: His­tor­ic assets and places of NPF4.

2. Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that devel­op­ment affect­ing a site, fea­ture, or

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 28/04/2023

use of land of loc­al or wider cul­tur­al, his­tor­ic, or archae­olo­gic­al sig­ni­fic­ance or its set­ting should con­serve and enhance the fea­ture and its set­ting in situ where pos­sible or take reas­on­able meas­ures to avoid, min­im­ise and mit­ig­ate any adverse effects.

1. There are sev­er­al archae­olo­gic­al fea­tures along the pro­posed route of the track, espe­cially an iden­ti­fied town­ship where the realigned glen road is pro­posed. The High­land Coun­cil Archae­olo­gist has reques­ted a con­di­tion is applied to any approv­al requir­ing that no works, includ­ing site clear­ance shall com­mence until a pro­gramme of work for the sur­vey of any archae­olo­gic­al and his­tor­ic fea­tures affected by the development.

2. There­fore, it is con­sidered that with an appro­pri­ate con­di­tion applied to any approv­al giv­en the pro­pos­al would com­ply with Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Out­door Access

1. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that devel­op­ment should main­tain and max­im­ise all oppor­tun­it­ies for respons­ible out­door access, includ­ing links into the exist­ing path net­work and ensur­ing con­sist­ency with the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Core Paths Plan.

2. There remain out­stand­ing issues in rela­tion to tem­por­ary and per­man­ent out­door access pro­vi­sion related to the pro­posed devel­op­ment, but these could all be resolved through con­di­tions requir­ing fur­ther detail to be approved, allow­ing the applic­a­tion to com­ply with Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

CON­CLU­SION

1. The prin­ciple of a track for tim­ber extrac­tion is one that policy sup­ports and under some cir­cum­stances is a form of per­mit­ted devel­op­ment that can be approved through the pri­or noti­fic­a­tion and pri­or approv­al pro­cess. This track how­ever is for a range of estate uses and would allow simple vehicle access from one side of the estate to the oth­er without using the pub­lic road net­work. How­ever, the track has not been designed to min­im­ise impacts on the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment or spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park and does not com­ply with a num­ber of devel­op­ment plan policies.

2. On the basis of the inform­a­tion sub­mit­ted with the plan­ning applic­a­tion, officers do not con­sider the eco­nom­ic bene­fit of the extrac­tion of tim­ber is enough to out­weigh the adverse effects on the land­scape char­ac­ter, visu­al amen­ity and spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park loss of habitats

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 28/04/2023

it crosses. The pro­pos­al is con­sidered con­trary to the rel­ev­ant policies of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan and officers recom­mend refus­al of the applic­a­tion. Oth­er mat­ters that relate to the detail of the pro­pos­als and com­pli­ance with oth­er policies that could all be addressed through sus­pens­ive con­di­tions if the applic­a­tion were to be approved, become addi­tion­al reas­ons for its refusal.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to REFUSE the Con­struc­tion of 4.83km forestry track, form­a­tion of passing places, renew­al of