Item7AACorriegarth2Windfarm20210050PAC

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 7 23/04/2021

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PRO­POSED: Cor­rie­garth 2 wind farm

Con­sulta­tion from Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Energy Con­sents & Deploy­ment Unit

REF­ER­ENCE:	2021/0050/PAC (ECU00002175)
APPLIC­ANT:	Cor­rie­garth 2 Wind farm Ltd
DATE CON­SUL­TED:	10 Feb­ru­ary 2021
RECOM­MEND­A­TION:	No objec­tion
CASE OFFICER:	Nina Caudrey, Plan­ning Officer

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 7 23/04/2021

PUR­POSE OF REPORT

1. The pur­pose of this report is to inform the com­mit­tee decision and sub­sequent con­sulta­tion response to the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Energy Con­sents & Deploy­ment Unit (ECDU) on an applic­a­tion sub­mit­ted under Sec­tion 36 of the Elec­tri­city Act 1989 for a pro­posed wind farm loc­ated to the south west of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment are the determ­in­ing Author­ity for this applic­a­tion as the out­put is more than 50 MW. The applic­a­tion is accom­pan­ied by an Envir­on­ment­al Report (ER), which presents the find­ings of the applicant’s Envir­on­ment­al Impact Assess­ment (EIA).
2. The plan­ning issues to be con­sidered are con­fined to the effects of the pro­posed wind farm on the land­scape char­ac­ter and Spe­cial Land­scape Qual­it­ies (SLQs) of the Nation­al Park. All oth­er mat­ters, such as eco­logy, noise, gen­er­al amen­ity, etc, are assessed by the decision maker (Scot­tish Min­is­ters) with advice from stat­utory consultees.
3. Under the cur­rent work­ing agree­ment on roles in land­scape case­work between NatureScot and the Park Author­ity, NatureScot lead on the pro­vi­sion of advice on the effects on the SLQs caused by pro­pos­als out­with the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Their advice has been used to inform this report.

SITE DESCRIP­TION AND PRO­POSED DEVELOPMENT

1. The pro­posed wind farm will encircle the exist­ing Cor­rie­garth wind farm in the Mon­adh­liaths, approx­im­ately 15 kilo­metres (km) north-east of Fort Augus­tus and 10 km south-east of Foy­ers by Loch Ness, as shown in the applicant’s ER fig­ure 8.6b on page 2 of this report. The exist­ing Cor­rie­garth wind farm has 26 tur­bines at a blade tip height of 120m. As also shown in the fig­ure, in the sur­round­ing area there are numer­ous oth­er exist­ing and con­sen­ted wind farms, plus sev­er­al pro­posed wind farms in the plan­ning system.
2. The pro­posed devel­op­ment would com­prise 16 tur­bines with a max­im­um height of 149.9m to the tip of the blade in an upright pos­i­tion, approx­im­ately 13km of upgraded exist­ing track plus 10km of new track, as well as oth­er infra­struc­ture and works (such as sub­sta­tion, under­ground cabling, bor­row pits, etc). It is expec­ted that the pro­posed wind farm would have an estim­ated total installed capa­city of around 76.8MW, depend­ent on the tur­bine spe­cific­a­tion used.
3. The nearest tur­bine would be approx­im­ately 10 km to the north of the closest part of the bound­ary of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, with the oth­er tur­bines, tracks and asso­ci­ated infra­struc­ture loc­ated fur­ther from the Nation­al Park boundary.
4. The­or­et­ic­al vis­ib­il­ity of the pro­posed wind farm from with­in the Nation­al Park is shown by the applicant’s ER fig­ure 6.3a (Appendix I). How­ever, when con­sid­er­ing the cumu­lat­ive visu­al effects, fig­ure 6.10b of the applicant’s ER (Appendix II) demon­strates that the area is already influ­enced by a num­ber of oth­er exist­ing and con­sen­ted wind farm. The pro­posed wind farm does not cre­ate vis­ib­il­ity of a wind farm in areas that do not or would not already see exist­ing wind farms.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 7 23/04/2021

1. Visu­al­isa­tions from three view­points, VP9 Carn Sgu­lain and VP13 Geal Charn (both in the Mon­adh­liaths near the bound­ary of the Nation­al Park) and VP19 Ptar­mig­an res­taur­ant (Cairngorm moun­tain), have been provided in the applicant’s ER to demon­strate the level of vis­ib­il­ity that would be had from within/​on the bound­ary of the Nation­al Park, at dis­tances of approx­im­ately 12, 13 and 42 km respect­ively to the nearest pro­posed tur­bine. In addi­tion, visu­al­isa­tions were pro­duced to sup­port the wild land assess­ment, includ­ing three view­points look­ing from with­in the Nation­al Park towards the pro­posed wind far, which are also of use when con­sid­er­ing the effects on the SLQs of the Nation­al Park: VP 6.42 (Carn Ban), 6.43 (Càrn an Fhreicea­dain) and 6.44 (A’Chailleach).

2. The visu­al­isa­tions asso­ci­ated with each view point are avail­able to the pub­lic by search­ing the applic­a­tion doc­u­ments on the ECDU web­site https://www.energyconsents.scot/ApplicationDetails.aspx?cr=ECU00002175 for:

   • Vol 2^d Fig 6.29 View­point 9 Carn Sgulain
   • Vol 2^d Fig 6.33 Geal Carn
   • Vol 2^d Fig 6.39 View­point 19 Ptar­mig­an Res­taur­ant, Cairngorm
   • Vol 2c Fig 6.42 WLA3 Carn Ban
   • Vol 2c Fig 6.43 WLA5 Càrn an Fhreiceadain
   • Vol 2c Fig 6.44 WLA7 A’Chailleach

REL­EV­ANT PLAN­NING HISTORY

1. PRE/2020/0012 CNPA respon­ded to scop­ing and gat­echeck con­sulta­tions by ECDU in March and July 2020.

PLAN­NING POLICY CONTEXT

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is loc­ated wholly out­with the Nation­al Park, there­fore the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies do not apply. How­ever, an assess­ment of the pro­pos­al must have regard to Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy (SPP) and the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP).

Nation­al Policy

1. Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy (revised Decem­ber 2020) sets out nation­al plan­ning policies that reflect Scot­tish Min­is­ters pri­or­it­ies for the devel­op­ment and use of land, as well as for oper­a­tion of the plan­ning sys­tem. The con­tent of SPP is a mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tion in plan­ning decisions that car­ries sig­ni­fic­ant weight.

2. Policy relat­ing spe­cific­ally to Nation­al Parks and devel­op­ment man­age­ment can be found in para­graphs 84 and 85 of SPP. These re-state the four aims of the Nation­al Parks as set out in the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000, as well as the need to pur­sue these col­lect­ively. SPP high­lights that if there is a con­flict between the first aim (con­serving and enhan­cing the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the area) and any of the oth­ers, then

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 7 23/04/2021

great­er weight must be giv­en to the first aim. Plan­ning decisions are expec­ted to reflect this weight­ing and be con­sist­ent with the four aims.

1. Para­graph 85 of SPP also cla­ri­fies that the aims and require­ments of para­graphs 84 and 85 apply to devel­op­ment out­with a Nation­al Park that affects the Park.

2. Para­graph 212 of SPP states that ​“where devel­op­ment affects a Nation­al Park… it should only be per­mit­ted where:

   a) the object­ives of the des­ig­na­tion and the over­all integ­rity of the area will not be com­prom­ised; or b) any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse impacts on the qual­it­ies for which the area has been des­ig­nated are clearly out­weighed by social, envir­on­ment­al or eco­nom­ic bene­fits of nation­al importance”.

Stra­tegic Policy

1. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP) 2017 – 2022 is required under sec­tion 11 of the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000. It is the man­age­ment plan for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park approved by Scot­tish Min­is­ters. The NPPP sets out how all those with a respons­ib­il­ity for the Nation­al Park will coordin­ate their work to tackle the most import­ant issues. There is a duty for decision makers to have regard to the NPPP, a require­ment set out in Sec­tion 14 of the Act. As such, the NPPP is a mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tion in plan­ning decisions.

2. The NPPP iden­ti­fies that the land­scapes of the Nation­al Park are val­ued by many and under­pin the area’s eco­nomy. It con­tains policies to safe­guard land­scape interests. Of rel­ev­ance to wind farm devel­op­ment pro­pos­als are policies 1.3 and 3.3.

3. Policy 1.3 seeks to con­serve and enhance the SLQs as a gen­er­al policy object­ive for man­age­ment of the Nation­al Park.

4. Policy 3.3a seeks to sup­port devel­op­ment of a low car­bon eco­nomy and increase renew­able energy gen­er­a­tion where this is com­pat­ible with con­serving the SLQs. In rela­tion to wind farm devel­op­ment, the policy states that ​“large scale wind tur­bines are not com­pat­ible with the land­scape char­ac­ter or spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park. They are inap­pro­pri­ate with­in the Nation­al Park, or where out­side the Park they sig­ni­fic­antly adversely affect its land­scape char­ac­ter or spe­cial land­scape qualities”.

CON­SULTA­TIONS

NatureScot advice

1. In accord­ance with the NatureScot/​CNPA case­work agree­ment, NatureScot have provided CNPA with advice in rela­tion to the effects on the Nation­al Park, of the pro­posed wind farm both alone and cumu­lat­ively with oth­er exist­ing and con­sen­ted wind farms in the sur­round­ing area.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 7 23/04/2021

1. NatureScot advise that there will be no sig­ni­fic­ant adverse effects on the land­scape char­ac­ter of the Nation­al Park.

2. In rela­tion to the SLQs, NatureScot advise that there would be a mod­er­ate and sig­ni­fic­ant adverse effect on one SLQ, ​‘vast­ness of space, scale and height’, when exper­i­enced from a small num­ber of hill sum­mits on the north west­ern edge of Nation­al Park at a dis­tance of 10 – 15km from the pro­posed wind farm.

3. The area is already influ­enced by a num­ber of exist­ing and con­sen­ted wind farms. The pro­posed wind farm would increase prom­in­ence of tur­bines due to the com­bin­a­tion of the great­er tur­bine size and high­er elev­a­tions that they would be loc­ated on (com­pared to the exist­ing Cor­rie­garth wind farm), as well as adding to visu­al com­plex­ity due to dif­fer­ent tur­bine heights and increased over­lap­ping. There would be a slight exten­sion to the hori­zont­al extent occu­pied by wind tur­bines, how­ever it would not sig­ni­fic­antly change the visu­al sep­ar­a­tion between exist­ing wind farm and the pro­posed wind farm.

4. Over­all, the mag­nitude of change would be medi­um. The effects on the ​‘vast­ness of space, scale and height’ SLQ would be mod­er­ate, being loc­al­ised and lim­ited to a small num­ber of hill tops on the bound­ary of the Nation­al Park at a dis­tance of 10 — 15km, in an area already influ­enced by wind farm development.

5. Fol­low up dis­cus­sions with NatureScot con­firm that nature and sig­ni­fic­ance of the effects on the affected SLQ are such that the integ­rity and object­ives of the Nation­al Park would not be compromised.

APPRAIS­AL

1. The policies of the NPPP and SPP set out how pro­pos­als out­with the bound­ary of the Nation­al Park should be con­sidered in terms of effects on the Nation­al Park.

2. Policy 3.3a of the NPPP sets out a test for con­sid­er­ing effects on the land­scapes of the Nation­al Park, in that large scale wind tur­bines are inap­pro­pri­ate out­side the Park where they ​‘sig­ni­fic­antly adversely affect its land­scape char­ac­ter or spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies’. If a pro­pos­al fails policy 3.3a, it would also be in con­flict with policy 1.3, which seeks to con­serve and enhance the SLQs.

3. Para­graph 212 of SPP sets out that ​“devel­op­ment that affects a Nation­al Park… should only be per­mit­ted where:

   a) the object­ives of des­ig­na­tion and the over­all integ­rity of the area will not be com­prom­ised; or b) any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse effects on the qual­it­ies for which the area has been des­ig­nated are clearly out­weighed by social, envir­on­ment­al or eco­nom­ic bene­fits of nation­al importance.”

4. In the policy con­text of the NPPP and SPP, con­sid­er­a­tion is required of the effects of the pro­posed devel­op­ment, on land­scape char­ac­ter and the SLQs, both alone and cumu­lat­ively with oth­er wind farms in the sur­round­ing area.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 7 23/04/2021

1. There are a num­ber of exist­ing and con­sen­ted wind farms in the area sur­round­ing the pro­posed wind farm, as shown on page 2 of this report. Adding the pro­posed Cor­rie­garth 2 wind farm to the baseline would not sig­ni­fic­antly add to the exist­ing level of effects, either alone or in com­bin­a­tion with oth­er exist­ing or con­sen­ted wind farms.

2. Only one SLQ is mod­er­ately affected, with the effects being lim­ited and loc­al­ised to areas that already have vis­ib­il­ity of exist­ing and con­sen­ted wind farms. The nature and sig­ni­fic­ance of the effects are such that the pro­pos­al is there­fore con­sidered to com­ply with Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan policy 3.3a.

3. Because the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with policy 3.3a, and is also con­sidered to com­ply with policy 1.3.

4. When con­sid­er­ing the loc­al­ised and lim­ited nature and sig­ni­fic­ance of the effects, in an area already affected by oth­er wind farm devel­op­ments, the pro­pos­al is not con­sidered to com­prom­ise the integ­rity or object­ives of the Nation­al Park. The pro­pos­al is there­fore also con­sidered to be in accord­ance with Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy para­graph 212.

5. For these reas­ons, it is recom­men­ded that CNPA should not object to the pro­posed wind farm development.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee confirm:

• That the CNPA has NO OBJEC­TION to the applic­a­tion for the pro­posed Cor­rie­garth 2 wind farm.