Item6Appendix2HRA20210207DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 6 Appendix 2 24/09/2021

AGENDA ITEM 6

APPENDIX 2

2021/0207/DET

HAB­IT­ATS REG­U­LA­TIONS APPRAISAL

HAB­IT­ATS REG­U­LA­TIONS APPRAISAL

Plan­ning ref­er­ence and pro­pos­al inform­a­tion	2021/0207/DET Form­a­tion of park­ing area, land 150 metres west of Loch Moraig, Blair Atholl, Perthshire
Appraised by	Nina Caudrey, Plan­ning Officer
Date	5 August 2021
Checked by	Rebecca Watts
Date	5 August 2021

INFORM­A­TION

European site details
Name of European site(s) poten­tially affected	1. Tulach Hill and Glen Fend­er Mead­ows SAC 2. Cairngorms Mas­sif SPA (Beinn a’ Ghlo SAC was also con­sidered at the screen­ing stage but as there was no poten­tial for con­nectiv­ity it was screened out from requir­ing HRA.)
Qual­i­fy­ing interest(s)	1. Tulach Hill and Glen Fend­er Mead­ows SAC Base rich fens Dry heaths Dry grass­lands and scrub­lands on chalk or lime­stone Geyer’s whorl snail Lime­stone pave­ments Round mouthed whorl snail 2. Cairngorms Mas­sif SPA Golden eagle (breed­ing)
Con­ser­va­tion object­ives for qual­i­fy­ing interests	1. Tulach Hill and Glen Fend­er Mead­ows SAC To avoid deteri­or­a­tion of the qual­i­fy­ing hab­it­ats thus ensur­ing that the integ­rity of the site is main­tained and the site makes an appro­pri­ate con­tri­bu­tion to achiev­ing favour­able con­ser­va­tion status for each of the qual­i­fy­ing fea­tures; and To ensure for the qual­i­fy­ing hab­it­ats that the fol­low­ing are main­tained in the long term: Struc­ture and func­tion of the hab­it­at Pro­cesses sup­port­ing the hab­it­at Dis­tri­bu­tion of typ­ic­al spe­cies of the hab­it­at Viab­il­ity of typ­ic­al spe­cies as com­pon­ents of the hab­it­at No sig­ni­fic­ant dis­turb­ance of typ­ic­al spe­cies of the hab­it­at Extent of the hab­it­at on site Dis­tri­bu­tion of the hab­it­at with­in site To avoid deteri­or­a­tion of the hab­it­ats of the qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies or sig­ni­fic­ant dis­turb­ance to

the qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies, thus ensur­ing that the integ­rity of the site is main­tained and the site makes an appro­pri­ate con­tri­bu­tion to achiev­ing favour­able con­ser­va­tion status for each of the qual­i­fy­ing fea­tures; and

To ensure for the qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies that the fol­low­ing are main­tained in the long term:

Dis­tri­bu­tion of the spe­cies with­in site

Dis­tri­bu­tion and extent of hab­it­ats sup­port­ing the species

Struc­ture, func­tion and sup­port­ing pro­cesses of hab­it­ats sup­port­ing the species

No sig­ni­fic­ant dis­turb­ance of the species

Pop­u­la­tion of the spe­cies as a viable com­pon­ent of the site

1. Cairngorms Mas­sif SPA

To avoid deteri­or­a­tion of the hab­it­ats of the qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies or sig­ni­fic­ant dis­turb­ance to the qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies, thus ensur­ing that the integ­rity of the site is main­tained; and

To ensure for the qual­i­fy­ing spe­cies that the fol­low­ing are main­tained in the long term:

Dis­tri­bu­tion of the spe­cies with­in site

Dis­tri­bu­tion and extent of hab­it­ats sup­port­ing the species

Struc­ture, func­tion and sup­port­ing pro­cesses of hab­it­ats sup­port­ing the species

No sig­ni­fic­ant dis­turb­ance of the species

Pop­u­la­tion of the spe­cies as a viable com­pon­ent of the site

APPRAIS­AL

STAGE 1:
What is the plan or project?
Rel­ev­ant sum­mary details of pro­pos­al (includ­ing loc­a­tion, tim­ing, meth­ods, etc)	The pro­pos­al is to cre­ate a form­al aggreg­ate based car park, bound by low bunds, for 61 vehicles in a loc­a­tion used for inform­al park­ing on grass­land to the west of Loch Moraig near Blair Atholl.
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. Tulach Hill and Glen Fend­er Mead­ows SAC The pro­posed car park is with­in the SAC. How­ever advice from NatureScot is that none of the qual­i­fy­ing interest are present in this area. There­fore there will be no likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects on any of the qual­i­fy­ing interest. There­fore the SAC is not con­sidered fur­ther. 2. Cairngorms Mas­sif SPA The pro­posed car park is loc­ated approx­im­ately 130m to the south west of the closest part of the bound­ary of the SPA, on ground that is already used for inform­al car park, in an area that already exper­i­ences a sig­ni­fic­ant amount of human recre­ation­al activ­ity. The pro­posed car park will replace inform­al park­ing in the same loc­a­tion and along the road­side, so the amount of vis­it­ors is not expec­ted to change. There­fore there will be no likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects on golden eagle, either on hab­it­ats relied upon by eagle or their prey spe­cies or dis­turb­ance to breed­ing golden eagle. There­fore the SPA is not con­sidered further.
STAGE 4:
Under­take an Appro­pri­ate Assess­ment of the implic­a­tions for the site(s) in view of the(ir) con­ser­va­tion objectives
STAGE 5:
Can it be ascer­tained that there will not be an adverse effect on site integrity?