Item6AATromieBothyReport20200221DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 10/12/2021

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PRO­POSED: Erec­tion of Bothy and Asso­ci­ated Ser­vice Route at Land 400M SW of Farm­house, Kil­liehuntly, Kingussie

REF­ER­ENCE: 2020/0221/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Bob Reid, Wild­land Ltd

DATE CALLED-IN: 28 Septem­ber 2020

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve sub­ject to conditions

CASE OFFICER: Katie Crerar, Plan­ning Officer

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CNPA Plan­ning Committee

Applic­a­tion Site

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 10/12/2021

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 10/12/2021

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The applic­a­tion site is loc­ated approx­im­ately 400 metres south west of Kil­liehuntly Farm adja­cent to the River Tromie, just over 3 miles east of Kingussie.

2. The pro­posed site for devel­op­ment com­prises a mix of semi-nat­ur­al wood­land situ­ated along the banks of the River Tromie. The bothy site itself is situ­ated in an area of dry dwarf shrub heath on the edge of the semi-nat­ur­al broadleaved wood­land (mostly birch with aspen) over­look­ing the River Tromie. The loc­a­tion of the bothy itself is in a small slightly elev­ated clear­ing con­tained by the woodland.

3. The bothy will be accessed by an exist­ing nar­row and low-key foot­path through an area of marsh grass­land and which runs around the edge of the exist­ing wood­land along the edge of the River Tromie and by a small new ser­vice track through marshy grass­land and open wood­land east of the bothy. Both accesses run off a main estate track.

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=QH0I2JSI0CH00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Loc­a­tion Plan — Pro­posed Loc­a­tion Plan 2	826 02 103	01/09/21	06/09/21
Site Plan — Pro­posed Site Plan	826 02 102	27/09/21	06/10/21
Plan — Pro­posed Floor Plan	826 02 201	20/11/19	28/09/20
Plan — Pro­posed Front Elevation	826 02 401	20/11/19	28/09/20
Plan — Pro­posed Back Elevation	826 02 402	20/11/19	28/09/20
Plan — Pro­posed Side Elev­a­tion I	826 02 403	20/11/19	28/09/20
Plan — Pro­posed Side Elev­a­tion 2	826 02 404	20/11/19	28/09/20
Plan — Pro­posed Log Store	826 02 405	27/09/21	05/10/21
Oth­er — Access Proposals		01/08/21	06/09/21
Oth­er — Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies Survey	10666B		28/06/21
Oth­er — Con­struc­tion Meth­od Statement	D_826_02	01/10/21	06/10/21
Oth­er — Drain­age Report		22/02/21
Oth­er — Archae­ology Report	3852	01/04/19	28/09/20
Oth­er — Land­scape and Visu­al Appraisal		10/03/20	28/09/20
Oth­er — Pre­lim­in­ary Eco­logy Appraisal		20/01/20	28/09/20
Oth­er — Plan­ning Policy Review		10/03/20	28/09/20
Oth­er — Design Ethos		01/09/20	28/09/20

1. *Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the 1^st of the month. The applic­a­tion seeks full plan­ning per­mis­sion for the con­struc­tion of a tim­ber bothy and asso­ci­ated ser­vice access. The bothy will be situ­ated adja­cent to the River Tromie in an area of dry dwarf shrub heath on the edge of semi-nat­ur­al broadleaved wood­land (mostly birch with aspen).

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 10/12/2021

1. The bothy com­prises a single tra­di­tion­al bothy shape with a dual pitched roof. It has an intern­al floor area of 28 square metres and a total foot­print of 48.5 square metres.

2. The bothy will be con­struc­ted of and fin­ished in tim­ber. The struc­ture will be built of Glu­lam (glued lam­in­ated tim­ber) and then fin­ished in untreated Siberi­an larch clad­ding with the recessed entrance area stained in black. The win­dows and door frames will be painted dark grey. It is inten­ded that the larch will over time age and weath­er to blend in with the surroundings.

3. The entrance to the bothy is loc­ated on the north­ern elev­a­tion and is recessed provid­ing a covered arrival area. Each elev­a­tion of the bothy has large win­dows to max­im­ise nat­ur­al light and shut­ters to provide a sense of enclos­ure and warmth.

4. Intern­ally the bothy com­prises an entrance ves­ti­bule which leads into a liv­ing space with a liv­ing space and food pre­par­a­tion area. This then leads through to an enclosed com­postable toi­let on one side of the bothy and a sink on the oppos­ite side, allow­ing move­ment to the bed­room between the two (see Pro­posed Floor Plan). At the end of the bothy is a sleep­ing area with a bed and a bath. The main liv­ing area on the west­ern elev­a­tion has been posi­tioned to look onto the river and bed­room faces south to max­im­ise even­ing light.

5. The bothy will have a urine divert­ing dry toi­let (UDDT) (main­tained and emp­tied as part of ongo­ing main­ten­ance) and waste water will be filtered pri­or to being dis­posed of via a soakaway. Grey water will be treated via a Biorock sys­tem and dis­charged via a soakaway. The bothy will be off-grid and installed with a stove for cook­ing, heat­ing and hot water, an off-grid ​‘ram pump’ to sup­ply filtered water for drink­ing and photo­vol­ta­ic pan­els on the front elev­a­tion of the roof to provide a small amount of electricity.

6. The bothy will be pre-fab­ric­ated to reduce waste and on-site foot­fall dur­ing con­struc­tion. A tim­ber deck will be installed to cre­ate a stable work­ing plat­form from which the bothy will be con­struc­ted. The bothy will be situ­ated above ground on an elev­ated steel chassis and ground screw found­a­tions to min­im­ise impacts on the ground.

7. The build­ing com­pon­ents of the bothy will be delivered by lorry to Kil­liehuntly farm­house and then dropped onsite by a heli­copter and con­struc­ted and posi­tioned by a small team. Heli­copter drops will be man­aged in con­sulta­tion with the pro­ject eco­lo­gic­al con­sult­ants to avoid bird breed­ing sea­sons and min­im­ise any impacts on wildlife.

8. Vis­it­ors to the bothy will access it via an exist­ing foot­path from the north of the site which curves around the edge of exist­ing semi-nat­ur­al wood­land before cut­ting in to the river­side to the bothy. The foot­path is cur­rently rough grass­land which is quite wet and marshy in areas and runs between the bothy and an exist­ing vehicu­lar track (approx­im­ately 500m to the north) which then con­nects to Kil­liehuntly Farm­house. The major­ity of this route will be main­tained as it is with some upgrad­ing in the wet areas using slabs of loc­al stone which are already present is some areas along the path. It is also pro­posed that dis­creet way­find­ing ele­ments would be posi­tioned along the path which will be dis­creet, use nat­ur­al mater­i­als and not require any ground works.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 10/12/2021

1. A new ser­vice route from the east of the bothy is also pro­posed. This route will link the exist­ing vehicu­lar track approx­im­ately 250m to the east of the bothy site with the bothy itself to enable staff and ser­vi­cing access (see Site Plan). The ser­vice access will com­prise of part sur­faced track along with two sec­tions of board walk which will go over the wetter/​boggy ground. This route will con­nect with the exist­ing walk­ing route just south of the bothy itself.

2. The sur­faced track to the bothy will be approx­im­ately 1.8m wide and will be able to accom­mod­ate ser­vice ATVs. The track will be con­struc­ted using nat­ur­al and loc­ally sources aggreg­ates to provide a stable free drain­ing path suit­able for year round use. The path edges will be turfed to soften it and it will have a cent­ral turfed strip which will be min­im­ally maintained.

3. The sec­tions of board­walk will be used over the wetter/​boggy areas to avoid impacts to their hydro­logy. It will be a ground level tim­ber board­walk meas­ur­ing 2m wide slightly wider than the track. These sec­tions will have gentle bends to reduce visu­al impact and the board walk will be installed as low as is prac­tic­al to the sur­face of the ground. Stobs that sup­port stingers will be used to con­struct the path and deck­ing boards will be fixed to the stingers at right angles with a board gap of approx. 20mm. Grooved deck­ing boards will be used and the board­walk will have no handrail.

4. Where the new ser­vice route meets the exist­ing river­side walk­ing path, a small log store will be loc­ated — just to the south of the bothy (see Site Plan). It will meas­ure approx. 1.5m high by 3m long and 3will be clad in Siberi­an larch.

5. The guest path to the bothy will encounter rel­at­ively low rates of addi­tion­al usage due to the small num­ber of guests (2 at a time) using it. In addi­tion the new ser­vice access route will also encounter sim­il­arly low rates of usage and has there­fore been designed to be low impact. Both paths will be main­tained to keep them useable how­ever veget­a­tion clear­ance will be min­im­ised to allow moss­ing over of aggreg­ates and soften­ing of the path edges to integ­rate the path into its surroundings.

6. It is not pro­posed that any trees will be removed for the ser­vice route or the bothy, how­ever if abso­lutely neces­sary, any tree remov­al will be under­taken on an essen­tial basis only. Lim­ited removals are per­mit­ted without the need for a felling licence.

7. Plans of the pro­pos­al are included with­in Appendix 1.

His­tory

1. There is no recent plan­ning his­tory on the bothy site itself, how­ever there have been a num­ber of applic­a­tions in recent years at Kil­liehuntly Farm house and vicin­ity includ­ing a change of use of the Farm­house to Class 7 Hotel & Gues­t­house (16/00829/FUL), Use of the Farm stead­ing as a com­mer­cial kit­chen with ancil­lary meet­ing room, laun­dry, man­agers office and flat (16/00846/FUL), and sought cer­ti­fic­ates of law­ful­ness for the change of use of res­id­en­tial dwell­ings to hol­i­day accom­mod­a­tion (17/01983/CLP and 16/00888/CLP).

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 10/12/2021

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA)

1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) has been car­ried out to ensure that the devel­op­ment will not have an adverse effect on the integ­rity of the River Spey SAC, River Spey — Insh Marshes SPA and Ram­sar site. The HRA iden­ti­fied the poten­tial for impacts from con­struc­tion on the River Tromie (such as sed­i­ment release which impacts on water qual­ity), dis­turb­ance to otter (which is a qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies of the SAC) from con­struc­tion activ­ity and human dis­turb­ance. The HRA (which has been agreed by NatureScot) con­cluded that all con­ser­va­tion object­ives could be met sub­ject to con­di­tions requir­ing a pre-con­struc­tion sur­vey for otter and the imple­ment­a­tion of the Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment (CMS) sub­mit­ted with the applic­a­tion to ensure that neces­sary meas­ures will be under­taken to min­im­ise impacts on the sur­round­ing envir­on­ment and dis­turb­ance to otter.

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 (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	X
POLICY 3	DESIGN AND PLACEMAKING	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
POLICY 10	RESOURCES	X
POLICY 11	DEVELOPER OBLIG­A­TIONS

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

2. Oth­er rel­ev­ant loc­al policies are (delete if not applicable)

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.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 10/12/2021

| Policy I | New Hous­ing Devel­op­ment Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance (2015) | | Policy 2 | Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance | X | | Policy 3 | Sus­tain­able Design Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance (2015) | 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 | | Policy 10 | Resources Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance | X | | Policy 11 | Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance (2015) |

CON­SULTA­TIONS

Sum­mary of the Main Issues Raised by Consultees

1. SEPA is sat­is­fied that the loc­a­tion of the bothy is con­sid­er­ably elev­ated above the River Tromie and would be unlikely to be loc­ated with­in the func­tion­al flood­plain or at risk from flooding.

2. They also note that dis­charges to the ground or water envir­on­ment may require pri­or author­isa­tion from SEPA under The Water Envir­on­ment (Con­trolled Activ­it­ies) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tion 2011 (CAR).

3. NatureScot expressed con­cern about how pol­lu­tion of the river would be avoided. How­ever through con­sulta­tion on the Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al they are sat­is­fied with the pro­pos­al and agree there would be no adverse effect on the integ­rity of the River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC), River Spey – Insh Marshes Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area (SPA) and Ram­sar site.

4. High­land Coun­cil (Floor Risk Man­age­ment) do not object to the applic­a­tion. They are sat­is­fied that the bothy will be con­struc­ted in such a way that ensures the riverb­ank will not be destabilised.

5. High­land Coun­cil (Trans­port Plan­ning) do not object to the application.

6. High­land Coun­cil (Envir­on­ment­al Advice & Con­sultancy – Archae­ology) do not object to the application.

7. High­land Coun­cil (Envir­on­ment­al Health) advise that should it not be pos­sible to con­nect the bothy to mains water, that the fol­low­ing sus­pens­ive con­di­tion should be applied: a) ​‘Pri­or to the devel­op­ment com­men­cing the applic­ant shall sub­mit the fol­low­ing inform­a­tion, as described in the Private Water Sup­plies Plan­ning Advice Note, for the writ­ten approv­al of the Plan­ning Authority:

   i. A completed private water supply questionnaire (Form PWS I).
   

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 10/12/2021

    ii. A plan of the development and water supply.
    iii. A report from a competent person which demonstrates that there

will be a suf­fi­cient piped sup­ply of whole­some water to meet the demands of this property

b) Where the report identifies a need for water treatment this shall be put in

place pri­or to the occupancy’.

c) They also suggest the following informative:
    i. 'The applicant should be informed that if the premises is to be used

for a com­mer­cial pur­pose (such as a hol­i­day let), then, under the require­ments of The Water Inten­ded for Human Con­sump­tion (Private Sup­plies) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2017, The High­land Coun­cil must add it to the register of private water sup­plies, to risk assess the sup­ply and to sample and test it on an annu­al basis to ensure the water provided meets the reg­u­lat­ory stand­ard. The applic­ant should be informed that there is a charge for this stat­utory func­tion. The applic­ant should inform the envir­on­ment­al health team of The High­land Coun­cil if the prop­erty is used for a com­mer­cial purpose’.

1. CNPA Out­door Access do not object to the applic­a­tion. They express con­cern about the man­age­ment of the pub­lic access on the routes to the bothy whilst pro­tect­ing its privacy.

2. CNPA Land­scape Advisor is of the view that the pro­posed devel­op­ment site pos­sesses some capa­city for the type of devel­op­ment being pro­posed on account of its dis­creet loc­a­tion, the pres­ence of struc­tures with­in the wider area and small scale unob­trus­ive design.

3. It is acknow­ledged that the ser­vice route would be clearly vis­ible from the nearby core path which would draw atten­tion to the bothy how­ever it would not be out of char­ac­ter with the wider land­scape and over­all the pro­pos­al would not be sig­ni­fic­ant to the integ­rity of the Nation­al Park landscape.

4. The CNPA Eco­logy Advisor acknow­ledges that the pro­pos­al will res­ult in very little loss of hab­it­at but may increase dis­turb­ance for spe­cies. They wel­come many of the meas­ures to min­im­ise impacts dur­ing con­struc­tion and the design of the board­walk. They high­light the need for pre-start and pre-fell (if required) checks for red squir­rel, pine marten, badger, otter, rep­tiles, bats and Scot­tish wild­cat (and breed­ing birds depend­ing on time of year). It is spe­cific­ally reques­ted that heli­copter flights take place out­with the bird breed­ing sea­son and that the CMS also includes cap­ping of any pipe­work to avoid entrapment.

5. High­land Coun­cil (Forestry) notes that in the pre­lim­in­ary eco­lo­gic­al apprais­al that the pro­pos­al would res­ult in the loss of a small num­ber of trees (less than three) and high­lighted that this has not been demon­strated through a tree sur­vey. Whilst acknow­ledging that the pro­pos­al could be built with min­im­al adverse impact on trees, it is reques­ted that a tree sur­vey along with Arbor­i­cul­tur­al Impact Assess­ment, Tree Con­straints Plan, Tree Pro­tec­tion Plan and Arbor­i­cul­tur­al Meth­od State­ment is provided.

6. Kin­craig Com­munity Coun­cil have expressed con­cern about the close prox­im­ity of the bothy to the River Tromie and the access track.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 10/12/2021

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. One objec­tion to the pro­pos­al was received on the grounds that the bothy would be an unac­cept­able intru­sion in the land­scape, cre­ate addi­tion­al pres­sure on the exist­ing track and lim­ited pub­lic access to that part of the river bank. They believe that that this type of tour­ism devel­op­ment makes no pro­vi­sion for hous­ing for the neces­sary staff to ser­vice it.

APPRAIS­AL

1. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions are con­sidered to be: the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment; eco­logy; land­scape; sit­ing and design; access and services.

Prin­ciple of Development

1. The prin­ciple of this devel­op­ment is con­sidered against the rel­ev­ant parts of Policy 2: Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, spe­cific­ally 2.2 Tour­ist Accommodation.

2. In terms meet­ing 2.2 Tour­ist Accom­mod­a­tion, it is con­sidered that this pro­pos­al can be delivered without hav­ing an adverse impact on the envir­on­ment (sub­ject to the rel­ev­ant con­di­tions) or affect­ing the amen­ity of neigh­bour­ing areas. The bothy is a small, low impact vis­it­or accom­mod­a­tion that will not have a det­ri­ment­al impact on its surroundings.

3. This pro­pos­al will play a role in con­trib­ut­ing to the pro­vi­sion of a wider range of vis­it­or accom­mod­a­tion with­in the Nation­al Park, and will be avail­able all year round. The bothy will be a unique off-grid vis­it­or exper­i­ence and over­all it is con­sidered that the prin­ciple of this applic­a­tion com­plies with Policy 2: Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Land­scape and Design

1. The 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. The bothy lies with­in the ​‘Badenoch – Insh Marshes’ land­scape char­ac­ter area and the loc­al land­scape char­ac­ter is influ­enced by the dis­tinct lin­ear space, land­form and the River Tromie, which also includes a mix of nat­ive wood­land, agri­cul­tur­al fields and the estate set­tle­ment of Kil­liehuntly, as well as dis­tinct his­tor­ic land­scape fea­tures such as stone build­ings and walls.

3. Views of the bothy site are lim­ited due to its sit­ing with­in a clus­ter­ing of semi-nat­ur­al broadleaved wood­land (mostly birch) on the edge of the River Tromie which along with the sur­round­ing land­form provides nat­ur­al screening.

4. The bothy itself has been designed to be sym­path­et­ic to its sur­round­ing land­scape with its tra­di­tion­al rect­an­gu­lar dual-pitched bothy shape which is reflect­ive of other

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 10/12/2021

built struc­tures in the sur­round­ing area and loc­al land­scape char­ac­ter. Its small scale and extern­al fin­ish of untreated Siberi­an larch clad­ding provides a nat­ur­al col­our palette help­ing to integ­rate the struc­ture with­in its nat­ur­al set­ting and wider landscape.

1. In addi­tion, the bothy will be off-grid, using a small sol­ar pan­el on its front elev­a­tion (see Front Elev­a­tion Plan) to provide a small amount of elec­tri­city for vis­it­ors. Heat will be provided via a wood burn­ing stove and the design and mater­i­als used seek to util­ise energy efficiency.

2. The bothy would be vis­ible from the main access track through Glen Tromie (Core Path CC8) dur­ing the winter sea­son, when the screen­ing effect of the inter­ven­ing birch trees would be reduced. How­ever it is con­sidered that the scale, design and mater­i­als of the bothy are in keep­ing with the sur­round­ing con­text and will not res­ult in an adverse land­scape impact.

3. The ser­vice access would be more prom­in­ent from the main access track through Glen Tromie. It is acknow­ledged that, par­tic­u­larly the board­walk areas would be more prom­in­ent how­ever the pro­pos­als have spe­cific­ally sought to min­im­ise the land­scape impacts such as keep­ing the board­walk as low to the ground as pos­sible, not using hand­rails and using the shortest route that fits into the exist­ing land­scape to avoid tree felling or sig­ni­fic­ant earth­works. Gentle bends have been integ­rated to reduce any hard edges and to reduce the visu­al impact.

4. A tree sur­vey and tree pro­tec­tion plan are not con­sidered neces­sary in this instance on the basis that it is not inten­ded that any trees will be removed, and if required will be min­im­al. The trees around the bothy loc­a­tion are small and giv­en the con­strained nature of the site due to the river­side loc­a­tion, wet ground con­di­tions and bed­rock, and the steps the applic­ant has out­lined in their con­struc­tion meth­od state­ment it would not be add clar­ity to request a tree pro­tec­tion plan or the install­a­tion of tree pro­tec­tion fen­cing. The excav­ated area is being min­im­ised and the smal­lest prac­tic­al machinery used. We are sat­is­fied that the inten­tion is not to remove any trees how­ever if abso­lutely neces­sary, a very small num­ber would be per­miss­ible without the need for a licence.

5. No land­scape man­age­ment or main­ten­ance plan iscon­sidered neces­sary in this instance as the num­ber of addi­tion­al people using path to access the bothy (two at a time) is unlikely to res­ult in sig­ni­fic­ant erosion of the path or cre­ate any wider land­scape or dis­turb­ance issues. This also applies to the ser­vice route which will have lim­ited use.

6. Over­all, the pro­pos­al has been sym­path­et­ic­ally designed and seeks to cre­ate a low impact vis­it­or accom­mod­a­tion in a dis­crete loc­a­tion means that the devel­op­ment will not res­ult in any sig­ni­fic­ant land­scape impacts and there­fore com­plies with Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

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Eco­logy CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 10/12/2021

1. 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.

Des­ig­na­tions and Pro­tec­ted Species

1. The applic­a­tion site lies on the edge of the River Tromie which is part of the River Spey SAC and it is also con­nec­ted via the River Tromie to the River Spey — Insh Marshes SPA and Ram­sar site.

2. The poten­tial for otter in the area (as a qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies of the River Spey SAC) around the devel­op­ment site was raised and a fur­ther detailed pro­tec­ted spe­cies sur­vey was under­taken which spe­cific­ally looked at otter, badger and red squir­rel. The sur­vey noted that whilst the River Tromie provides optim­al hab­it­at for otter, no evid­ence was recor­ded with­in a 200m buf­fer zone around the pro­posed devel­op­ment. How­ever it is recom­men­ded that a pre-con­struc­tion sur­vey for otter is com­pleted pri­or to the com­mence­ment of development.

3. For­aging evid­ence of badger and no evid­ence of red squir­rel were recor­ded how­ever it is acknow­ledged that there is the poten­tial for these spe­cies to use the wider area and there­fore a pre-con­struc­tion sur­vey is recom­men­ded as a con­di­tion. The Eco­logy Advisor also advises pre-con­struc­tion checks for pine marten, rep­tiles, bats, Scot­tish wild­cat and breed­ing birds depend­ing on the time of year.

4. Con­cern was expressed about the poten­tial impacts of con­struc­tion on both the des­ig­nated sites and pro­tec­ted spe­cies. As noted above, whilst there is lim­ited evid­ence demon­strat­ing the use of the site by these spe­cies, it is import­ant the con­struc­tion meth­ods are util­ised to ensure that there will be no impacts on any pro­tec­ted spe­cies should they be present in the wider area.

5. There­fore a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment has been pre­pared and sets out that all ground works and heli­copter flights for deliv­er­ing mater­i­als will be under­taken in late winter/​spring to avoid bird breed­ing sea­sons, that all excav­a­tions will be covered or have a ramp placed in them to avoid entrap­ment and work­ing hours should not occur between one hour before sun­set and one hour after sun­rise to avoid dis­turb­ance to spe­cies such as otter.

6. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) has been car­ried out to ensure that the devel­op­ment will not have an adverse effect on the integ­rity of the River Spey SAC, River Spey — Insh Marshes SPA and Ram­sar site. The HRA iden­ti­fied the poten­tial for impacts from con­struc­tion on the River Tromie (such as sed­i­ment release which impacts on water qual­ity), dis­turb­ance to otter (which is a qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies of the SAC) from con­struc­tion activ­ity and human dis­turb­ance. The HRA (which has been agreed by NatureScot) con­cluded that all con­ser­va­tion object­ives could be met sub­ject to con­di­tions requir­ing a pre-con­struc­tion sur­vey for otter and the imple­ment­a­tion of the Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment (CMS) sub­mit­ted with the

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 10/12/2021

applic­a­tion to ensure that neces­sary meas­ures will be under­taken to min­im­ise impacts on the sur­round­ing envir­on­ment and dis­turb­ance to otter.

1. Over­all, it is con­sidered that the pro­pos­al will not have an adverse effect on any of the des­ig­nated sites or pro­tec­ted spe­cies. As high­lighted above, con­di­tions have been added to require pre-con­struc­tion (and if rel­ev­ant, pre-felling) sur­veys for pro­tec­ted spe­cies and if required spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans.

Biorock Treat­ment System

1. The devel­op­ment pro­poses that grey/​waste water will be treated via a Biorock treat­ment sys­tem in the ground and dis­charged via an out­fall incor­por­at­ing at least 25m² of con­struc­ted par­tial soakaway that ter­min­ates in the River Tromie. Con­cern was expressed about the poten­tial impacts on nitrate and phos­phor­ous levels which could impact on the des­ig­nated sites /​species, as the lochan flows into the River Tromie, part of the River Spey SAC.

2. How­ever, NatureScot advised that phos­phor­ous levels are not of con­cern at this gen­er­al loc­a­tion. So long as the treat­ment sys­tem and soakaway com­ply with build­ing reg­u­la­tions, such sys­tems should not have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on fresh­wa­ter qual­i­fy­ing interests. There­fore there would not be a likely sig­ni­fic­ant effect on any of the qual­i­fy­ing interests from the waste water treat­ment system.

3. In addi­tion, as high­lighted in their earli­er response, dis­charges to the ground or water envir­on­ment will require pri­or author­isa­tion from SEPA under The Water Envir­on­ment (Con­trolled Activ­it­ies) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tion 2011 (CAR).

4. Over­all we are sat­is­fied that the Biorock treat­ment sys­tem is appro­pri­ate and will not adversely affect the river or the River Spey SAC.

Eco­logy Conclusion

1. Over­all it is con­sidered that the scale and con­struc­tion of this pro­pos­al can be achieved without caus­ing sig­ni­fic­ant effects on hab­it­ats, pro­tec­ted spe­cies or areas pro­tec­ted for nature con­ser­va­tion. Con­di­tions will be attached to ensure the appro­pri­ate pre-con­struc­tion checks are under­taken for pro­tec­ted spe­cies and con­struc­tion will adhere to what is set out in the Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment to min­im­ise any dis­turb­ance to the sur­round­ing area. Over­all, this devel­op­ment com­plies with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Ser­vi­cing and Access

1. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing requires all devel­op­ments to seek to min­im­ise the effects of devel­op­ment on cli­mate change, make sus­tain­able use of resources, main­tain and max­im­ise oppor­tun­it­ies for respons­ible out­door access and provide appro­pri­ate means of access and egress.

2. Access to the site will be via foot along the exist­ing vehicu­lar track from Kil­liehuntly Farm­house and then along a nar­row foot­path on rough grass­land (approx­im­ately

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 10/12/2021

500m). There will be an addi­tion­al ser­vice access which can accom­mod­ate an ATV how­ever there will be no dir­ect vehicu­lar access.

1. Vis­it­ors can leave their vehicles at Kil­liehuntly Farm­house and then walk to the bothy. It is con­sidered that this provides a suit­able means of access giv­en the nature of the accom­mod­a­tion and inten­tion for it to be an immers­ive off-grid exper­i­ence. There is the option of ATV access for ser­vi­cing and in emer­gen­cies. In addi­tion, as noted, the bothy will be off grid with a photo­vol­ta­ic pan­el to provide lim­ited elec­tri­city. Heat­ing will be provided by woodburner.

2. Policy 10: Resources requires devel­op­ments to have suit­able and safe water sup­plies and man­age waste water appro­pri­ately so as not to res­ult in the deteri­or­a­tion of water resources. Grey and waste water will be man­aged via a Biorock treat­ment sys­tem and soakaway. The bothy will also have a UDDT which will be emp­tied and man­aged by the Estate. Giv­en the nature of the devel­op­ment and that up to two vis­it­ors will just be stay­ing at any one time for short peri­ods of time, it is con­sidered that the bothy is appro­pri­ately ser­viced. All rubbish/​waste and main­ten­ance of the bothy will be under­taken by the Estate and we are sat­is­fied that no spe­cif­ic main­ten­ance require­ments are necessary.

3. Over­all it is con­sidered that the bothy is adequately ser­viced and has suit­able access pro­vi­sion and com­plies with Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

CON­CLU­SION

1. It is con­sidered that this pro­pos­al for the erec­tion of the bothy and its asso­ci­ated ser­vice access route is accept­able in land use plan­ning terms. The prin­ciple com­plies with Policy 2: Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment and whilst ini­tial issues in respect of impacts on eco­logy and grey water were raised, appro­pri­ate con­di­tions have been added to ensure there are not adverse impacts. Over­all it is con­sidered that the nature and design of the pro­pos­al is com­pat­ible with its sur­round­ings and sub­ject to pre- con­struc­tion sur­veys and imple­ment­a­tion of the asso­ci­ated Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment (as set out in the apprais­al and con­di­tioned) it is not con­sidered that there will be any sig­ni­fic­ant land­scape or eco­lo­gic­al impacts as a res­ult of the pro­pos­al and there­fore the applic­a­tion is con­sidered to com­ply with the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies and is recom­men­ded for approval.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to APPROVE the Erec­tion of Bothy and Asso­ci­ated Ser­vice Route at Land 400M SW of Farm­house, Kil­liehuntly, Kin­gussie 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.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 6 10/12/2021

Con­di­tions

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until the applic­ant sub­mits the fol­low­ing inform­a­tion, as described in the Private Water Sup­plies Plan­ning Advice Note, for the writ­ten approv­al of the Plan­ning Authority: a) A com­pleted private water sup­ply ques­tion­naire (Form PWS I). b) A plan of the devel­op­ment and water sup­ply. c) A report from a com­pet­ent per­son which demon­strates that there will be a suf­fi­cient piped sup­ply of whole­some water to meet the demands of this property.

Where the report iden­ti­fies a need for water treat­ment this shall be put in place pri­or to the occupancy.

Reas­on: Ensure the suit­able pro­vi­sion water for vis­it­ors to the bothy in accord­ance with Policy 10: Resources.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a pre-con­struc­tion sur­vey for otter (of the pro­posed devel­op­ment site and a 200m buf­fer in line with NatureScot guid­ance https://www.nature.scot/species-planning-advice- otters) is car­ried out, with the sur­vey res­ults used to inform a Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan set­ting out mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures appro­pri­ate to the res­ults, all to be sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Authority.

There­after the plan will be imple­men­ted in full and over­seen by a suit­ably qual­i­fied Eco­lo­gic­al Clerk of Works.

Reas­on: To avoid dis­turb­ance to otter, a qual­i­fy­ing interest of the River Spey SAC and a European Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies and ensure the pro­tec­tion of pro­tec­ted spe­cies in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. **No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a pre-con­struc­tion walk over sur­vey for pro­tec­ted spe­cies such as, but not lim­ited to, pine marten, red squir­rel, badger, bats, Scot­tish wild­cat and rep­tiles is under­taken in accord­ance with the rel­ev­ant NatureScot guid­ance (https://www.nature.scot/professional-advice/planning-and- devel­op­ment/­plan­ning-and-devel­op­ment-advice/­plan­ning-and-devel­op­ment- pro­tec­ted-spe­cies) by a suit­ably exper­i­enced and licensed eco­lo­gic­al sur­vey­or, with the sur­vey res­ults to inform a Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan detail­ing appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures for any pro­tec­ted spe­cies found. This Plan shall be sub­mit­ted to and approved