Item7AA20210208DETCommitteeReport

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 10/12/21

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED:

Erec­tion of Dis­cov­ery Hub, Learn­ing Hub and Hill­top Hub and alter­a­tions to vis­it­or centre at High­land Wild­life Park Kin­craig High­land PH21 INL

REF­ER­ENCE: 2021/0208/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Gemma Mudie, RZSS

DATE CALLED-IN: 21 June 2021

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve sub­ject to con­di­tions and developer contribution

CASE OFFICER: Stephanie Wade, Plan­ning Officer

CNPA Plan­ning Committee

[Applic­a­tion Site Map]

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 10/12/21

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The applic­a­tion site lies with­in the High­land Wild­life Park which is loc­ated adja­cent to the A9 trunk road at approx­im­ately 3km south of Kin­craig. The High­land Wild­life Park is an estab­lished 105 hec­tare safari park run by the Roy­al Zoolo­gic­al Soci­ety of Scot­land. It is home to a wide range of nature and non-nat­ive anim­al spe­cies which vis­it­ors can come to see. The Wild­life Park takes its main access from the B9152, via a pass under the A9 which also serves an adja­cent quarry and hol­i­day accom­mod­a­tion. The site is largely a mix of grass­land, scrub and wood­land with a vari­ety of anim­al enclos­ures and lim­ited built devel­op­ment (con­cen­trated in the south west). There is a large cir­cu­lar main drive through the reserve cov­er­ing the north and east­ern part of the Wild­life Park in a cir­cuit that con­nects to the main vis­it­or hub (in the south west) with a café, shop and ped­es­tri­an paths con­nect­ing dif­fer­ence anim­al enclos­ures. There is a main sur­faced vehicle track which runs through the open reserve part of the Park.

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​l​i​n​e​-​a​p​p​l​i​c​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​a​p​p​l​i​c​a​t​i​o​n​D​e​t​a​i​l​s​.​d​o​?​a​c​t​i​v​e​T​a​b​=​s​u​m​m​a​r​y​&​k​e​y​V​a​l​=​Q​U​S​T​R​7​S​I​0CH00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
PLANS
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan	2467	09/06/21	21/06/21
	AG(0)100
Plan — Dis­cov­ery Hub (Vis­it­or Centre) Floor Plan and Roof Plan as Existing	2467	02/06/21	21/06/21
	AG(0)03
Plan — Dis­cov­ery Hub Site Plan as Existing	2467	07/06/21	21/06/21
	AG(0)01
Plan — Learn­ing Hub Site Plan as Existing	2467	07/06/21	21/06/21
	AG(0)11
Plan — Hill­top Hub Site Plan as Existing	2467	07/06/11	21/06/21
	AG(0)21
Plan — Dis­cov­ery Hub Elev­a­tions and Sec­tions as Proposed	2467	25/11/21	25/11/21
	AG(0)06 Rev.A
Plan- Elev­a­tions and View of the Alter­a­tions to the Exist­ing Vis­it­or Centre	2467	22/11/21	25/11/21
	AG(0)07

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 10/12/21

Plan — Learn­ing Hub Elev­a­tions and Sec­tions as Pro­posed	2467	02/06/21	21/06/21
	AG(0)14
Plan — Hill­top Hub Elev­a­tions and Sec­tions as Proposed	2467	02/06/21	21/06/21
	AG(0)24
Plan — Learn­ing Hub Pro­posed Plans	2467	02/06/21	21/06/21
	AG(0)13
Plan — Hill­top Hub Pro­posed Plans	2467	02/06/21	21/06/21
	AG(0)23
Plan — Dis­cov­ery Hub Ground Floor Plan as Proposed	2467	02/06/21	21/06/21
	AG(0)04
Plan — Dis­cov­ery Hub Roof Plan as Proposed	2467	02/06/21	21/06/21
	AG(0)05
Plan — Dis­cov­ery Hub Site Plan as Proposed	2467	07/06/21	21/06/21
	AG(0)02
Plan — Learn­ing Hub Site Plan as Proposed	2467	07/06/21	21/06/21
	AG(0)12
Plan — Hill­top Hub Site Plan as Proposed	2467	07/06/21	21/06/21
	AG(0)22
Plan — Tree Sur­vey Priorities	0117(96)-01	01/10/18	02/09/21
	- Tree
Plan — Park­ing Lay­out Plan	PP01 Rev.A	11/11/21	12/11/21
SUP­PORT­ING INFORMATION
Oth­er — Tree Sched­ule Survey		01/09/18	02/09/21
Oth­er — Design and Access Statement		01/08/21	02/09/21
Oth­er — Land­scape Maintenance/​Management Plan		10/12/19	02/09/21
Oth­er — Out­line Land­scape Specification	1081	10/12/19	02/09/21
Oth­er — Trans­port­a­tion Assessment		01/08/21	02/09/21
Oth­er — Bat Sur­vey Report	21033 – 002	20/09/21	21/09/21
	V.I
Oth­er — Fur­ther response to Trans­port Plan­ning comments		01/08/21	14/10/21
Oth­er — Fur­ther response to Trans­port Plan­ning com­ments Part 2		15/10/21	15/10/21
Oth­er – Drain­age Strategy	E12753/WR	22/10/21	25/10/21
	De/​Doc/​52/​
	001 P01

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 10/12/21

Oth­er — A Con­ser­va­tion Action Plan for the Biod­iversity and Eco­sys­tems of the High­land Wild­life Park			26/07/21
Oth­er — Eco­nom­ic Impact Assessment		12/10/19	02/09/21
Oth­er — Dis­cov­ery Hub 07 — Exhib­i­tion Gal­lery Interior			21/06/21
Oth­er — Dis­cov­ery Hub 06 — Exhib­i­tion Gal­lery View to Entrance			21/06/21
Oth­er — Learn­ing Hub 13 — Interi­or Classroom View			21/06/21
Oth­er — Learn­ing Hub 14 — Interi­or Classroom with Fold­ing Wall			21/06/21
Oth­er — Hill­top Hub 25 — Interi­or View­ing Windows			21/06/21
Oth­er — Dis­cov­ery Hub 04 — Out­door Exhib­i­tion Area			21/06/21
Oth­er — Dis­cov­ery Hub 03 — Pine Hov­er­fly Window			21/06/21
Oth­er — Learn­ing Hub 12 — View from South West			21/06/21
Oth­er — Dis­cov­ery Hub 05 — Look­ing Back Through the Exhib­i­tion Canopy			21/06/21
Oth­er — Hill­top Hub 22 — View of Hub and Cairn from North East			21/06/21
Oth­er — Hill­top Hub 24 — View of Interi­or Display			21/06/21
Oth­er — Dis­cov­ery Hub 02 — View to Main Entrance			21/06/21
Oth­er — Learn­ing Hub 11 — View to Main Entrance			21/06/21
Oth­er — Dis­cov­ery Hub 01 — View to New Building			21/06/21
Oth­er — Hill­top Hub 23 — View to View­ing Win­dows from South West			21/06/21
Oth­er — Hill­top Hub 21 — View towards Entrance			21/06/21

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

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 10/12/21

1. This applic­a­tion for plan­ning per­mis­sion pro­poses the erec­tion of a Dis­cov­ery Hub build­ing, Learn­ing Hub build­ing and a Hill­top Hub build­ing with alter­a­tions to the exist­ing vis­it­or centre. The pro­pos­al is sought to improve the exist­ing vis­it­or facil­it­ies at the site to cre­ate expan­ded facil­it­ies for dis­abled vis­it­ors and fam­ily groups. The pro­pos­al would con­tin­ue to be served by the exist­ing access junc­tion onto the B9152 and no changes are pro­posed to the exist­ing num­ber of park­ing spaces on site, although a reor­gan­isa­tion of the main car park to include a hard and soft land­scap­ing scheme to form an appro­pri­ate set­ting to the new build­ing, improve the appear­ance and amen­ity of the main car park and to enhance the biod­iversity of the exist­ing site area is proposed.
2. The three build­ings are pro­posed to be erec­ted through­out the site and are described, indi­vidu­ally in more detail below:

Dis­cov­ery Hub and alter­a­tions to the exist­ing vis­it­or centre

1. The pro­posed Dis­cov­ery Hub build­ing is to be erec­ted to the west­ern elev­a­tion of the exist­ing vis­it­or centre com­plex and spans over the exist­ing intern­al vehicu­lar track in a north­erly dir­ec­tion to encom­pass land cur­rently used as the Crane enclos­ure. The build­ing takes form from a struc­ture of mono-pitched roofs with ele­ments open to the air and oth­er enclosed sec­tions. The build­ing is pro­posed to con­tain the inter­act­ive exhib­i­tion and the Pine Hov­er-fly dis­play and con­ser­va­tion facil­ity. With the covered sec­tion of the build­ing, an out­door exhib­i­tion space is pro­posed which links across to a new entrance to the exist­ing vis­it­or centre. The enclosed elev­a­tions of the Dis­cov­ery Hub are pro­posed with a nat­ur­al stone base with ver­tic­al tim­ber clad­ding for the upper sec­tions of the elevations.
2. The roof struc­ture is pro­posed as a dark green zinc, stand­ing seam roof. The exten­sion of the struc­ture over the vehicu­lar road is pro­posed to form a gate­way fea­ture and steps down to pro­tect the out­door exhib­i­tion area which has loc­al stone and a tim­ber floor. The height of the roof struc­ture over the road has been designed to accom­mod­ate emer­gency ser­vice vehicle heights. Regard­ing the exist­ing vis­it­or centre, alter­a­tions include the erec­tion of small exten­sions on the north elev­a­tion to cre­ate a new entrance lobby; on the east elev­a­tion to cre­ate a shop store and on the south­ern elev­a­tion to expand the exist­ing res­taur­ant area with an L‑shaped con­ser­vat­ory exten­sion, in the space where the covered out­door seat­ing area pre­vi­ously occu­pied. The mater­i­als will gen­er­ally tie in with the exist­ing build­ing and the shal­low­er roofs to the south are pro­posed with a dark grey Sarna­fil single ply mem­brane roof to keep the exten­sions low key. No water or foul drain­age facil­it­ies are pro­posed to be installed with­in the Dis­cov­ery Hub as these facil­it­ies are already provided with­in the exist­ing, adjoin­ing buildings.

The Learn­ing Hub

1. The pro­posed Learn­ing Hub is to be erec­ted with­in the south­ern area on the Park in place of the exist­ing single storey, Edu­ca­tion Bothy. The build­ing is pro­posed with a lar­ger foot­print than that exist­ing, to con­tain offices, a small meet­ing area and a large multi-pur­pose classroom which can be divided into smal­ler tem­por­ary spaces. The struc­ture takes form from a single storey, curved build­ing under a mono-pitched roof. The elev­a­tions are pro­posed as nat­ur­al stone with tim­ber clad­ding above and the roof

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 10/12/21

1. is pro­posed to be sedum. A raised decked area is pro­posed to be added to the south-east­ern elev­a­tion to cre­ate a view­ing area and will have a glass bal­us­trade. Regard­ing drain­age meas­ures, the build­ing is pro­posed to have com­post­ing toi­lets and water free urin­als. Grey water is pro­posed to be col­lec­ted, filtered and pro­cessed along­side the rain­wa­ter catchment.

The Hill­top Hub

1. The pro­posed Hill­top Hub is to be erec­ted with­in the cent­ral area of the Park on the knoll, to the north of the Dis­cov­ery Hub. The area is accessed via the foot­path net­work and would replace the exist­ing covered seat­ing struc­ture. The pro­posed build­ing would take form of a single storey, reverse ​“S”, to be erec­ted on the knoll and adja­cent to the exist­ing cairn. The build­ing is pro­posed to provide a covered view­point area, day-time obser­va­tion and listen­ing facil­ity. The curved form provide seat­ing around the exist­ing cairn. Like the oth­er Hubs, the build­ing is pro­posed to be clad with tim­ber clad­ding, under a sedum, mono-pitched roof. Excess rain­wa­ter is pro­posed to be diver­ted to French drains lead­ing into adja­cent meadows.

2. The applic­a­tion is sup­por­ted by the fol­low­ing information:

a) Design and Access State­ment and Visu­al­isa­tions: Provides a writ­ten descrip­tion of the pro­pos­al togeth­er with its access­ib­il­ity and design rationale. The doc­u­ment states that the pro­posed improve­ments will cre­ate an inclus­ive amen­ity and facil­ity for vis­it­ors with a refur­bished and enlarged Res­taur­ant and Shop, and 3 bespoke Hubs com­pris­ing a fully inter­act­ive inter­pret­ive space, teach­ing facil­ity and a wild­life mon­it­or­ing hub. Vari­ous visu­al­isa­tions of the pro­posed works have been provided to provide a visu­al aid to the proposal.

b) Eco­lo­gic­al Inform­a­tion: A Bat Sur­vey was under­taken on the build­ings at the Vis­it­or Centre and at the Edu­ca­tion Bothy. Bats were recor­ded roost­ing at both build­ings in low num­bers and cat­egor­ised as non-breed­ing roosts. A license sup­por­ted by a Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan is recom­men­ded to allow the works to take place. A Con­ser­va­tion Action Plan for the Biod­iversity and Eco­sys­tems of the High­land Wild­life Park has also been sub­mit­ted which cov­ers the full sur­vey under­taken of the Wild­life Park in terms of biod­iversity and hab­it­at and its con­ser­va­tion man­age­ment programme.

c) Tree Inform­a­tion: A Tree sched­ule has been sub­mit­ted along­side a Tree Sur­vey Plan. The Design and Access State­ment also includes inform­a­tion on pro­posed works to trees. The Doc­u­ment con­firms that for the erec­tion of the Dis­cov­ery Hub, five trees are pro­posed to be removed. Out of the five trees, four are of good con­di­tion with a pro­jec­ted life of 10 – 20 years and one is already sched­uled to remov­al. The doc­u­ment con­firms that com­pens­at­ory plant­ing will take place else­where on site for their removal.

d) Trans­port Assess­ment: includes inform­a­tion on how the site is pro­posed to util­ise the exist­ing access arrange­ments with no changes pro­posed to the cur­rent access onto the road. The report con­firms that although trip num­bers are pre­dicted to increase over time in ref­er­ence to the Wild­life Park’s over­all vis­it­or growth pre­dic­tions, this is not dir­ectly related to the pro­posed devel­op­ment which

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 10/12/21

is not con­sidered to provide an attrac­tion in itself to attract more vis­it­ors, instead it will sup­port the Park as a whole exper­i­ence for vis­it­ors. The doc­u­ment also ref­er­ences the exist­ing pub­lic trans­port links to the site and pedestrian/​cycle access routes.

e) Eco­nom­ic Impact Assess­ment: out­lines the over­all of the oper­a­tion costs of the Park at present togeth­er with the planned devel­op­ment pro­jects, of which this plan­ning applic­a­tion forms part of. The Assess­ment gives a per­form­ance over­view of the Park with vis­its fig­ures over the last five years being quoted. The Assess­ment notes that exclud­ing the Ham­ish the polar bear ​“effect”, recent vis­it­or num­ber trends have not fully reflec­ted the growth in vis­it­ors that Scot­land and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park have achieved in recent years and this can be attrib­uted largely to the lack of invest­ment in recent years in the Park’s infra­struc­ture whilst com­pet­ing attrac­tions have been intro­duced or improved. An addi­tion­al 20.4 FTE jobs would be cre­ated at the attrac­tion fol­low­ing the imple­ment­a­tion of this devel­op­ment. It is con­cluded that the devel­op­ment will help to sup­port the deliv­ery of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Eco­nom­ic Strategy.

f) Drain­age Inform­a­tion: A Drain­age Strategy has been sub­mit­ted, con­firms that the exist­ing site’s foul drain­age is drained to a sep­tic tank and sur­face water arrange­ments drain to water­course and the ground. For the pro­posed sur­face water arrange­ments, the Dis­cov­ery Hub is pro­posed to be served by a series of water butts to col­lect roof run­off which will be reused through­out the site. An over­flow to the nearby lochan will be put in place in the event of exceed­ing storm event. The pro­posed dis­charge flow rate will be restric­ted to the green­field run­off rate and atten­u­ation will be provided for a 200 year storm plus 40% allow­ance for cli­mate change. A fil­ter trench sys­tem is pro­posed for the treat­ment and stor­age of water for the devel­op­ment. The Learn­ing Hub is pro­posed to have its sur­face water reused, by using a rain­wa­ter har­vest­ing sys­tem with the tank sized to provide atten­u­ation for a 200 year storm event. The Hill­top Hub is pro­posed to con­tain sur­face water with­in the site using a soakaway sys­tem. The soakaway sys­tem is pro­posed with the same dis­charge flow rate as the oth­er sec­tions and will be treat­ment pri­or to infiltration.

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

His­tory

1. There have been a num­ber of small plan­ning applic­a­tions at the High­land Wild­life Park includ­ing erect­ing a poly­tun­nel (09/00032/FULBS), installing a small ped­es­tri­an access (14/02893/FUL), extend­ing the kit­chen build­ing at the café (14/02789/FUL) and con­struct­ing a road and car park (16/04258/FUL). More recent per­mis­sions for the site include applic­a­tion 2020/0177/DET for the ​“Con­struc­tion of enclos­ures, sit­ing of stor­age con­tain­er, and erec­tion of fen­cing” which gained per­mis­sion in August 2020 and determ­ined by the CNPA. Earli­er this year High­land Coun­cil gran­ted plan­ning per­mis­sion for the ​“Sit­ing of 3 port­able build­ing” (20/04379/FUL) and for the ​“erec­tion of wild cat quar­ant­ine enclos­ures” (21/02997/FUL).

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 10/12/21

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	OPEN SPACE, SPORT AND RECREATION
POLICY 9	CUL­TUR­AL HERITAGE
POLICY 10	RESOURCES	X
POLICY 11	DEVELOPER CON­TRI­BU­TIONS	X

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​-​2​0​2​1​-​w​e​b.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 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)	X

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 10/12/21

CON­SULTA­TIONS

Sum­mary of the main issues raised by consultees

1. Scot­tish Water has no objec­tion to this plan­ning applic­a­tion how­ever this does not con­firm that the pro­pos­al can cur­rently be ser­viced and advises that the pro­pos­al would be fed by water from the Aviemore Water Treat­ment works, but there is no pub­lic waste water infra­struc­ture with­in the vicin­ity of the proposal.

2. High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team ori­gin­ally had a hold­ing objec­tion to the applic­a­tion due to the request for fur­ther drain­age inform­a­tion to be sub­mit­ted in the form of a drain­age impact assess­ment. This was required to demon­strate that the drain­age of the pro­pos­als would not increase the flood risk to oth­ers or any plu­vi­al flows would be suit­ably controlled.

3. Fol­low­ing sub­mis­sion of addi­tion­al inform­a­tion, the Team have removed their objec­tion not­ing that the sub­mit­ted inform­a­tion out­lines drain­age for the new and altered struc­tures as well as dur­ing the con­struc­tion phase with drain­age cal­cu­la­tions provided for key ele­ments. The Team wel­comes the pro­pos­als to col­lect rain­wa­ter (in vary­ing amounts at sev­er­al loc­a­tions) for re-use through­out the park, which would appears to enhance the park’s over­all sustainability.

4. High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team also had a hold­ing objec­tion until fur­ther inform­a­tion was sub­mit­ted to allow the Team to review the impact the pro­pos­al would have on the road net­work and road safety. Fol­low­ing the sub­mis­sion of this doc­u­ment­a­tion, and giv­en the urgency of the devel­op­ment due to fund­ing dead­lines, The Trans­port Plan­ning Team con­firm remov­al of their objec­tion sub­ject to con­di­tions cov­er­ing: the pro­vi­sion of an Event Man­age­ment Plan, pro­vi­sion of footways/​waiting areas built to an adopt­able stand­ard with­in the adop­ted road verge to serve the bus stops; cycle park­ing for vis­it­ors; works to clear veget­a­tion to improve the exist­ing vis­ib­il­ity splays and junc­tion improve­ments at the access to the site and the B9152. A fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tion is also sought for the pro­vi­sion of real­time inform­a­tion dis­play at the bus stop with a fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tion for its con­tin­ued maintenance.

5. High­land Coun­cil Con­tam­in­ated Land Officer has no objections.

6. High­land Coun­cil Envir­on­ment­al Health Officer was con­sul­ted but provided no com­ments on the scheme.

7. CNPA Land­scape Officer con­siders that the pro­pos­al would relate to the loc­al land­scape char­ac­ter and SLQs of the Nation­al Park and would there­fore not res­ult in any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse land­scape and visu­al effects. The Officer has the fol­low­ing com­ments on each element:

a) Dis­cov­ery Hub and exist­ing centre: the pro­pos­al would gen­er­ally have a pos­it­ive land­scape effect by cre­at­ing a clear pub­lic entrance to the park and provid­ing some cohe­sion to the exist­ing mix of build­ings. Some struc­tures will be large and the zinc roofs will be prom­in­ent loc­ally, but these should appear to fit with the steep slope and exist­ing trees behind (to the north).

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 10/12/21

b) Hill Top Hub: This ele­ment would cre­ate a new wild­life view­ing struc­ture sim­il­ar in scale and func­tion to the oth­ers with­in the wild­life park. It would how­ever, be much lar­ger than the exist­ing shel­ter on site and seem more impos­ing upon the small knoll on which it would be sited. In addi­tion, its reverse ​“s” form would con­trast to the point fea­ture of the exist­ing knoll and cairn and divide views to either the west or east rather than encour­aging 360 degree views. Non­ethe­less, these effects would only be loc­al­ised and there are oth­er loc­a­tions across the wild­life park from which the sur­round­ing land­scape can be viewed.

c) Learn­ing Hub: The pro­pos­al would be much lar­ger than the exist­ing build­ing although it would appear fairly dis­crete with­in the wider land­scape due to being loc­ated on the edge of the strath, fit­ting with­in a patchy pat­tern of open spaces, and trees and relat­ing in form to the hori­zont­al emphas­is of the adja­cent, wide strath floor. The pro­posed view­ing deck would extend above an exist­ing steep slope that com­prises mixed nat­ive trees, shrubs and grasses, and which provides a spa­tial and visu­al buf­fer between the site and the A9 and oth­er view­points to the east. The pro­posed view­ing deck struc­ture and under-shad­ow could be prom­in­ent from the east if this buf­fer is com­prom­ised and thus it will be import­ant to con­firm the fol­low­ing: how the steep slope and its trees will be pro­tec­ted dur­ing the pro­posed con­struc­tion works; what veget­a­tion will be retained, planted or rein­stated imme­di­ately adja­cent to and under the view­ing deck; and how the veget­a­tion on the slope will be man­aged in the future.

1. The officer requests plan­ning con­di­tions to con­firm: the extern­al mater­i­als for the build­ings; details of the sedum roof spe­cies and man­age­ment; a final land­scap­ing plan with all soft and hard land­scap­ing detailed; con­struc­tion meth­od statement.

2. CNPA Eco­logy Officer has no objec­tions to the scheme. The Officer con­siders that the pro­pos­al will not neg­at­ively impact on the exist­ing eco­logy of the areas where the devel­op­ment is pro­posed, which are areas of short mown grass, exist­ing hard stand­ing and include the area which is now the Euras­i­an Crane enclos­ure. A Con­ser­va­tion Plan for the Biod­iversity and Eco­sys­tems of the High­land Wild­life Park has been pro­duced and demon­strates the value of the over­all site for spe­cies and hab­it­ats. The areas to be developed will be land­scaped to fit with­in the pro­gramme for enhance­ment and edu­ca­tion and this is wel­comed. The Officer wel­comes the sur­face water drain­age pro­pos­als but notes the oppor­tun­ity to use a rain garden instead of a French drain at the Hill­top Hub. The Officer requests the sub­mis­sion of a Bat Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan, and fur­ther inform­a­tion on hard and soft landscaping.

3. Kin­craig Com­munity Coun­cil have not provided any spe­cif­ic com­ments on the scheme.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. The applic­a­tion was advert­ised when first sub­mit­ted and no let­ters of pub­lic rep­res­ent­a­tion were received.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 10/12/21

APPRAIS­AL

1. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions are: the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment; the impact upon land­scape, sit­ing and design; the envir­on­ment­al impacts; amen­ity impacts; access and sus­tain­able trans­port issues; ser­vi­cing impacts; and developer contributions.

Prin­ciple of Development

1. The devel­op­ment looks to extend the vis­it­or facil­it­ies at an exist­ing visitor/​tourist attrac­tion and as such, Policy 2.3: Oth­er Tour­ism and Leis­ure Devel­op­ment applies. The policy sup­ports devel­op­ment which enhances form­al tour­ism and leis­ure based busi­ness facil­it­ies and attrac­tions where:

a) It has no adverse envir­on­ment­al or amen­ity impacts on the site or neigh­bour­ing areas; and b) It makes a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the exper­i­ence of vis­it­ors; and c) It sup­ports or con­trib­utes to a year round economy.

1. The High­land Wild­life Park is a well-estab­lished vis­it­or attrac­tion with­in the Nation­al Park which has been oper­at­ing since 1972. The Park is oper­ated by the Roy­al Zoolo­gic­al Soci­ety of Scot­land and is open to the pub­lic, through­out the entire year. The devel­op­ment as out­lined with­in this applic­a­tion is pro­posed to expand the exist­ing vis­it­or facil­it­ies and provide a new gate­way to the Cairngorms high­light­ing the con­ser­va­tion work of the RZSS in the loc­al area includ­ing their ongo­ing pro­tec­tion and con­ser­va­tion work for endangered spe­cies. The devel­op­ment would there­fore make a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the exper­i­ence of vis­it­ors. An addi­tion­al 20.4 FTE jobs would be cre­ated at the attrac­tion fol­low­ing the imple­ment­a­tion of this devel­op­ment. The pro­pos­al would help to sup­port the year round oper­a­tion of the attrac­tion and as such, the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment is con­sidered to be accept­able, in com­pli­ance with Policy 2: Eco­nom­ic Growth, sub­ject to the con­sid­er­a­tion of the oth­er mater­i­al plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions as out­lined below.

Land­scape Impacts, Sit­ing and Design

1. 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 pro­pos­al includes the erec­tion of three new hub build­ings to replace exist­ing built infra­struc­ture on site togeth­er with alter­a­tions to the exist­ing vis­it­or centre. The pro­pos­al lies with­in the Insh Marshes land­scape char­ac­ter area for which includes extens­ive wet­land, marsh and pools extend­ing across the floor of the wide stretch of Strath­spey, framed by wide ter­races and side slopes that are largely covered by semi-nat­ur­al wood­land inter­spersed with some open farmland.

3. CNPA Land­scape Officer con­siders that the pro­pos­al would relate to the loc­al land­scape char­ac­ter and SLQs of the Nation­al Park and would there­fore not res­ult in any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse land­scape and visu­al effects. The design and mater­i­als palette of

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 10/12/21

the pro­posed struc­tures are con­sidered to be appro­pri­ate to the area for their inten­ded pur­pose sub­ject to plan­ning con­di­tions to con­firm the final fin­ish of the extern­al build­ing mater­i­als togeth­er with details of the sedum roof spe­cies and man­age­ment scheme. The pro­posed Dis­cov­ery Hub would have a pos­it­ive land­scape effect cre­at­ing a clear pub­lic entrance to the Park and will provide some cohe­sion to the exist­ing mix of build­ings. The sit­ing of the build­ings are con­sidered to have loc­al­ised land­scape effects which would be seen in con­text of the exist­ing infra­struc­ture of the Wild­life Park. Although out­line land­scap­ing details have been provided, it is recom­men­ded that a final land­scap­ing plan with all soft and hard land­scap­ing detailed togeth­er with a con­struc­tion meth­od state­ment are con­di­tioned to ensure the finer details of the scheme are appro­pri­ate and mit­ig­a­tion being under­taken by way of addi­tion­al plant­ing and exist­ing veget­a­tion pro­tec­tion dur­ing con­struc­tion works. Sub­ject to the inclu­sion of the stated plan­ning con­di­tions, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. Envir­on­ment­al Impacts

1. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to ensure that there is no adverse impact upon des­ig­nated areas, pro­tec­ted spe­cies or biod­iversity whilst Policy 10: Resources sets out the need to fully con­sider impacts on flood­ing and water resources.
2. The con­nectiv­ity of the pro­pos­al to any European sites has been reviewed with regards to the River Spey SAC, Insh Marshes SAC and the Insh Marshes SPA which are all situ­ated to the south of the pro­posed devel­op­ment with the A9 and scrub hab­it­at between. As there is no con­nectiv­ity, a Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al has not been required on this occasion.
3. Regard­ing pro­tec­ted spe­cies and hab­it­ats, the CNPA Eco­logy Officer has no objec­tions to the scheme and notes that the pro­pos­al would not have a neg­at­ive impact on any pro­tec­ted spe­cies or hab­it­ats in or around the site. The Officer does require the sub­mis­sion of a Bat Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan, refined land­scap­ing plan and cla­ri­fic­a­tion on sur­face drain­age pro­pos­als by way of plan­ning con­di­tion. The Officer wel­comes the biod­iversity enhance­ment for CNAP spe­cies through the cre­ation of new wild­flower hab­it­at in the Hill­top and Learn­ing Hub areas cre­at­ing more eco­lo­gic­al con­nectiv­ity to exist­ing areas.
4. A total of five trees are sched­uled for remov­al to make way for the Dis­cov­ery Hub build­ing and a plan­ning con­di­tion is recom­men­ded to ensure com­pens­at­ory plant­ing takes place else­where with­in the site.
5. The pro­pos­al will enhance the site for biod­iversity on the loc­al scale and sub­ject to the inclu­sion of the plan­ning con­di­tions, the pro­pos­al accords with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.
6. Regard­ing oth­er envir­on­ment­al mat­ters, it is con­firmed that the site lies out­with any indic­ated areas of flu­vi­al or coastal flood­ing dur­ing a I in 200 year return peri­od storm event, although the site lies with­in loc­al­ised areas of plu­vi­al flood­ing dur­ing a I in 200

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 10/12/21

year return peri­od storm event. The High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team has no objec­tion to the grounds of flood risk to the Dis­cov­ery Hub, Hill­top Hub and to the Learn­ing Hub. The Team also con­firm that the drain­age pro­pos­als would not increase flood risk to oth­ers. The High­land Coun­cil Con­tam­in­ated Land Officer has no com­ment on the applic­a­tion. The pro­pos­al is there­fore con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Amen­ity

1. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to ensure that new devel­op­ment pro­tects amen­ity cur­rently enjoyed by neigh­bour­ing occu­pants to devel­op­ment sites. The pro­posed addi­tion­al build­ings are loc­ated at an appro­pri­ate dis­tance to the nearest res­id­en­tial dwell­ings, with­in the estab­lished key infra­struc­ture areas of the Park. On this basis the pro­pos­al is not con­sidered to give rise to any adverse impacts on the amen­ity of neigh­bour­ing land uses in accord­ance with Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. Access and Sus­tain­able Trans­port Issues and Servicing

2. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that all new devel­op­ment must include an appro­pri­ate means of access, egress and space for off street park­ing. The pro­pos­al as presen­ted, includes no changes to the cur­rent vehicu­lar access arrange­ments nor the num­ber of park­ing spaces on site, although a slight recon­fig­ur­a­tion of the main car park is proposed.

3. The High­land Coun­cil Trans­port Plan­ning Team have reviewed the sub­mit­ted inform­a­tion and seek improve­ments to the junc­tion and bus infra­struc­ture on the B9152 to mit­ig­ate the poten­tial increase in traffic arising from the pro­pos­al and gen­er­al vis­it­or growth of the Park to bring the exist­ing infra­struc­ture to an appro­pri­ate stand­ard. The land on which the improve­ment works are to take place on, adja­cent to the B9153, are part of the Trans­port Scot­land A9 dualling com­puls­ory pur­chase area, with improve­ments to the access and road drain­age meas­ures are out­lined with­in that scheme. It is there­fore recom­men­ded that plan­ning con­di­tions are attached to con­firm the details of the junc­tion improve­ments to ensure that the inter­im works do not pre­ju­dice any future A9 dualling junc­tion improve­ments. Regard­ing the bus infra­struc­ture improve­ments, a fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tion is sought for the pro­vi­sion and ongo­ing main­ten­ance of a real-time inform­a­tion dis­play at the bus.

4. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing also sets out that new devel­op­ment should be designed to main­tain and max­im­ise all oppor­tun­it­ies for respons­ible out­door access includ­ing links into the exist­ing path net­work. In this regard, improve­ments are recom­men­ded by plan­ning con­di­tion for the