Item6Appendix2HRA

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 6 Appendix 2 25/06/2021

AGENDA ITEM 6

APPENDIX 2

2021/0035/DET

HAB­IT­ATS REG­U­LA­TIONS APPRAISAL

HAB­IT­ATS REG­U­LA­TIONS APPRAISAL

Plan­ning ref­er­ence and pro­pos­al inform­a­tion	2021/0035/DET	Change of use of agri­cul­tur­al land to form cara­van park erec­tion of stor­age shed and install­a­tion of deck­ing and hot tubs and form­a­tion of access	land adja­cent to Old Hall, Din­net Bridge, Din­net, Aboyne, Aber­deen­shire, AB34 5PJ
Appraised by	Stephanie Wade and Nina Caudrey, Plan­ning Officers
Date	27th May, 8th June and 17th June 2021
Checked by	Sally Mack­en­zie
Date	17 June 2021

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INFORM­A­TION European site details

Name of European site(s) poten­tially affected

1) River Dee SAC 2) Din­net Oak­woods SAC

Qual­i­fy­ing interest(s)

1) River Dee SAC Fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel Atlantic sal­mon Otter 2) Din­net Oak­woods SAC West­ern acid­ic oak woodland

Con­ser­va­tion object­ives for qual­i­fy­ing interests

River Dee SAC Fresh­wa­ter pearl mussel

1. To ensure that the integ­rity of the River Dee SAC is restored by meet­ing object­ives 2a, 2b, 2c for each qual­i­fy­ing fea­ture (and 2^d for fresh­wa­ter pearl mussel)

2b. Restore the dis­tri­bu­tion of fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel through­out the site

2c. Restore the hab­it­ats sup­port­ing the fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel with­in the site and avail­ab­il­ity of food

2^d. Main­tain the dis­tri­bu­tion and viab­il­ity of fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel host spe­cies and their sup­port­ing habitats

2a. Restore the pop­u­la­tion of fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel as a viable com­pon­ent of the site Atlantic salmon

2b. Main­tain the dis­tri­bu­tion of Atlantic sal­mon through­out the site

2c. Main­tain the hab­it­ats sup­port­ing Atlantic sal­mon with­in the site and avail­ab­il­ity of food

2a. Main­tain the pop­u­la­tion of Atlantic sal­mon, includ­ing range of genet­ic types, as a viable com­pon­ent of the site Otter

2b. Main­tain the dis­tri­bu­tion of otter through­out the site

2c. Main­tain the hab­it­ats sup­port­ing otter with­in the site and avail­ab­il­ity of food

2a. Main­tain the pop­u­la­tion of otter, as a viable com­pon­ent of the site All qual­i­fy­ing interests

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1. To ensure that the qual­i­fy­ing fea­tures of the River Dee SAC are in favour­able con­di­tion and make an appro­pri­ate con­tri­bu­tion to achiev­ing favour­able con­ser­va­tion status

2. Din­net Oak­wood SAC

3. To ensure that the integ­rity of the SAC is main­tained by meet­ing object­ives 2a, 2b and 2c

2a. Main­tain the extent and dis­tri­bu­tion of the hab­it­at with­in the site

2b. Main­tain the struc­ture, func­tion and sup­port­ing pro­cesses of the habitat

2c. Main­tain the dis­tri­bu­tion and viab­il­ity of typ­ic­al spe­cies of the habitat

1. To ensure that the qual­i­fy­ing fea­ture of the SAC is in favour­able con­di­tion and makes an appro­pri­ate con­tri­bu­tion to achiev­ing favour­able con­ser­va­tion status

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APPRAIS­AL STAGE 1: What is the plan or project?

Rel­ev­ant sum­mary details of pro­pos­al (includ­ing loc­a­tion, tim­ing, meth­ods, etc)

Change of use of agri­cul­tur­al land to provide 8 cara­van pitches cre­ated of sub-base and gran­ite chip top to provide the hard­stand­ings. Two hot tubs are pro­posed to be sited on tim­ber deck­ing. Track areas around trees are to be con­struc­ted of a cel­lu­ar con­fine­ment sys­tem over the root pro­tec­tion areas. Due to the Cara­van Club Cer­ti­fied Loc­a­tion Licens­ing, only 5 out of the 8 pitches will be used at any one time. No tracks are pro­posed to be cre­ated with­in the grass to access the pitches. 7 foot high deer fence sep­ar­ates the site from the Din­net Oak­wood SAC. Waste water is to be dis­posed of by a sep­tic tank and soakaway (the pro­posed sep­tic tank is a Klargester Gamma 3500 litre sep­tic tank with a 65m² soakaway, as shown in the dia­gram in the sub­mit­ted Design and Sus­tain­ab­il­ity State­ment, Busi­ness Plan sec­tion), with the soakaway also tak­ing sur­face water (from the stor­age shed roof) and hot tub water. Hot tub water will be pumped into a port­able extern­al stor­age tank between guests, which is recycled through a 3 stage fil­ter and pumped back for reuse. After one month this water is dis­posed of to the soakaway via the 3 stage fil­ters first.

STAGE 2: Is the plan or pro­ject dir­ectly con­nec­ted with or neces­sary for the man­age­ment of the European site for nature conservation?

No. STAGE 3: Is the plan or pro­ject (either alone or in-com­bin­a­tion with oth­er plans or pro­jects) likely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the site(s)?

1) River Dee SAC Atlantic sal­mon and fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel – poten­tial for LSE due to increased nutri­ents from the pro­posed waste water sep­tic tank and soakaway arrange­ment affect­ing water qual­ity in the SAC approx­im­ately 50 metres away.

Otter — there is poten­tial for LSE on otter due to dis­turb­ance if occu­pants of pro­pos­al go down to the river caus­ing an increase in human activ­ity with­in that area.

2) Din­net Oak­wood SAC No LSE due to 7 foot deer fence sur­round­ing SAC that bounds the pro­pos­al site pre­vent­ing access oth­er than through form­al access points out­with the pro­pos­al site, on form­al exist­ing paths, so no effect on hab­it­at. Din­net Oak­wood SAC is not con­sidered fur­ther in this assess­ment STAGE 4:

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Under­take an Appro­pri­ate Assess­ment of the implic­a­tions for the site(s) in view of the(ir) con­ser­va­tion object­ives River Dee SAC Fresh­wa­ter pearl mussel:

1. To ensure that the integ­rity of the River Dee SAC is restored by meet­ing object­ives 2a, 2b, 2c for each qual­i­fy­ing fea­ture (and 2^d for fresh­wa­ter pearl mussel)

2b. Restore the dis­tri­bu­tion of fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel through­out the site

2c. Restore the hab­it­ats sup­port­ing the fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel with­in the site and avail­ab­il­ity of food

2^d. Main­tain the dis­tri­bu­tion and viab­il­ity of fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel host spe­cies and their sup­port­ing habitats

2a. Restore the pop­u­la­tion of fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel as a viable com­pon­ent of the site Atlantic salmon:

1. To ensure that the integ­rity of the River Dee SAC is restored by meet­ing object­ives 2a, 2b, 2c for each qual­i­fy­ing fea­ture (and 2^d for fresh­wa­ter pearl mussel)

2b. Main­tain the dis­tri­bu­tion of Atlantic sal­mon through­out the site

2c. Main­tain the hab­it­ats sup­port­ing Atlantic sal­mon with­in the site and avail­ab­il­ity of food

2a. Main­tain the pop­u­la­tion of Atlantic sal­mon, includ­ing range of genet­ic types, as a viable com­pon­ent of the site

The Con­ser­va­tion Advice Pack­age for the River Dee SAC advises that react­ive phos­phor­ous, bio­lo­gic­al oxy­gen demand and fil­a­ment­ous algae are poten­tial issues affect­ing water qual­ity and the hab­it­ats the qual­i­fy­ing interests rely on.

The pro­posed sep­tic tank to soakaway sys­tem meets the per­son equi­val­ent capa­city require­ments for build­ing reg­u­la­tions and SEPA, how­ever it should be noted that the per­col­a­tion res­ults are on the threshold of requir­ing sec­ond­ary treat­ment accord­ing to SEPA guid­ance (page 23 Table 1 and foot­notes https://​www​.sepa​.org​.uk/​m​e​d​i​a​/​1​5​2​6​8​8​/​w​a​t​_​r​m​_​0​4.pdf). The pro­posed sys­tem would be loc­ated with­in 50 metres of the River Dee SAC. There are no water­courses in the vicin­ity and no dis­charge to any water­course is pro­posed. Togeth­er with advice from NatureScot we can con­clude no likely adverse effect on site integrity.

Con­ser­va­tion Object­ives 1, 2a, 2b, 2c and 2^d for the River Dee SAC will be met. Otter:

1. To ensure that the integ­rity of the River Dee SAC is restored by meet­ing object­ives 2a, 2b, 2c for each qual­i­fy­ing fea­ture (and 2^d for fresh­wa­ter pearl mussel)

2b. Main­tain the dis­tri­bu­tion of otter through­out the site

Although there will be a poten­tial increase in human activ­ity at the river oppos­ite the access to the pro­pos­al devel­op­ment, this would be for a max­im­um of 16 people (assum­ing 2 people per cara­van). There is an exist­ing fish­ing lodge at this loc­a­tion and there­fore exist­ing level of dis­turb­ance. People

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from the pro­posed devel­op­ment are more likely to go down there dur­ing the day and early even­ing which is when fish­er­men would be present and the time of day when river less use by otter. There­fore due to low levels of addi­tion­al activ­ity and exist­ing levels of dis­turb­ance. Dis­tri­bu­tion of otter will not be affected.

2c. Main­tain the hab­it­ats sup­port­ing otter with­in the site and avail­ab­il­ity of food Provided the con­di­tion required for fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel and Atlantic sal­mon is applied, there will be no effects on hab­it­at or avail­ab­il­ity of food and there­fore this con­ser­va­tion object­ive will be met.

2a. Main­tain the pop­u­la­tion of otter, as a viable com­pon­ent of the site Because con­ser­va­tion object­ive 2b and 2c can be met, the pop­u­la­tion of otter as a viable com­pon­ent of the site the con­ser­va­tion object­ive will be met.

STAGE 5: Can it be ascer­tained that there will not be an adverse effect on site integrity?

We can con­clude that there will not be an adverse effect on site integ­rity for the River Dee SAC as all con­ser­va­tion object­ives would be met.

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