Item7AAGlenMuick20190080DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 24/05/2019

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED:

Erec­tion of Sub­sta­tion and Install­a­tion of Bur­ied 11kV Cable Con­nect­ing Power­house to Sub­sta­tion at Land At Glen Muick Bal­later Aberdeenshire

REF­ER­ENCE:

2019/0080/DET

APPLIC­ANT:

Mr Richard Gledson

DATE CALLED-IN:

11 March 2019

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: APPROVE SUB­JECT TO CONDITIONS

CASE OFFICER:

Emma Wilson, Plan­ning Man­ager (Devel­op­ment Management)

CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 24/05/2019

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The pro­posed site lies with­in the Birkhall Estate, approx­im­ately 7km south-west of Bal­later. The site is loc­ated on the west bank of the River Muick and runs for a dis­tance of approx­im­ately 5km.

2. The pro­posed over­all area for the devel­op­ment is 0.14 hec­tares and com­prises: improved grass­land, wooded areas and the domest­ic grounds of Birkhall House.

3. Access to the north area of the site is via the exist­ing lane off the south­ern side of the B976 which serves the res­id­en­tial prop­er­ties: Milton of Brackley and the Roy­al War­rant Hold­ers Cot­tages. Access to the south­ern area of the site is via the exist­ing road/​track from the B976 at Ard­meanach, which serves sev­er­al domest­ic and agri­cul­tur­al buildings.

4. There are two domest­ic prop­er­ties, Birkhall House and Mill of Ster­in, with­in the site bound­ary and a num­ber of domest­ic prop­er­ties with­in 100 metres from the pro­posed infrastructure.

5. A short sec­tions of the line lies with­in the River Dee Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC), where the des­ig­na­tion runs up the edge of a vehicle track. The SAC is des­ig­nated for its qual­i­fy­ing fea­tures of Atlantic Sal­mon, fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel and otter. Oth­er areas of the site are with­in areas of wood­land recor­ded on the Ancient Wood­land Invent­ory. The applic­a­tion site also includes land with­in the grounds of lis­ted build­ings, with Mill of Ster­in being Cat­egory B lis­ted and Birkhall House togeth­er with its sum­mer house, Wendy house, garden gate and ter­races lis­ted as Cat­egory B.

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=POB8G2SI0CH00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Over­all Site Plan	MUI/GEL/1000	04/05/2018	18/03/2019
Plan on Sub­sta­tion Kiosk			18/03/2019
Meter­ing Kiosk Gen­er­al Arrangement	MUI/GEL/400 Rev.P2	25/09/2017	18/03/2019
Onsite Cable Route Lay­out Draw­ing I of 7	15785 – 06 Rev.C	07/03/2019	18/03/2019
Onsite Cable Route Lay­out Draw­ing 2 of 7	15785 – 06 Rev.C	07/03/2019	18/03/2019

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 24/05/2019

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Onsite Cable Route Lay­out Draw­ing 3 of 7	15785 – 06 Rev.C	07/03/2019	18/03/2019
Onsite Cable Route Lay­out Draw­ing 4 of 7	15785 – 06 Rev.C	07/03/2019	18/03/2019
Onsite Cable Route Lay­out Draw­ing 5 of 7	15785 – 06 Rev.C	07/03/2019	18/03/2019
Onsite Cable Route Lay­out Draw­ing 6 of 7	15785 – 06 Rev.C	07/03/2019	18/03/2019
Onsite Cable Route Lay­out Draw­ing 7 of 7	15785 – 06 Rev.C	07/03/2019	18/03/2019
Kiosk End Elevation			18/03/2019
Kiosk Front Elevation			18/03/2019
Kiosk Spe­cific­a­tion Document			18/03/2019
Response to CNPA Scop­ing Advice			18/03/2019
Tree Pro­tec­tion Plan Report		Feb 2019	18/03/2019
Con­struc­tion Meth­od Statement		26/01/2019	18/03/2019
Private Wire Bur­ied Cable Route Survey			18/03/2019
Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Meas­ures Appen­dices A‑E			08/04/2019
Trench Sec­tions and Water­course, Cul­vert Cross­ing Plans	15785 – 07	12/04/2019	25/04/2019

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

1. This applic­a­tion seeks plan­ning per­mis­sion for the install­a­tion of an under­ground, IIkV cable to con­nect the adja­cent hydro scheme’s power house to a new sub- sta­tion kiosk loc­ated approx­im­ately 5km north, on the south­ern side of the B976.

2. The pro­posed cabling will be laid in a trench between a depth of approx­im­ately 900mm and 1.1 metres deep and with a width of approx­im­ately 300mm. The cable is pro­posed to be con­struc­ted of a single wire armoured alu­mini­um cable, laid in sand sur­round with­in the trench. Where the pro­posed cabling crosses exist­ing ditches and small burns with­in the site bound­ary, it is pro­posed that the cabling will be installed by dir­ec­tion­al drilling or thrust bor­ing. The stretch being laid with­in the grounds of Birkhall House, is pro­posed to be installed by dir­ec­tion­al drilling under the grounds, to avoid trenches with­in this area.

3. The pro­posed sub-sta­tion kiosk is to be loc­ated adja­cent to the field bound­ary with­in a fenced off area with access join­ing the adja­cent road which runs along the east­ern field bound­ary. The build­ing is pro­posed as a tim­ber clad struc­ture under a shal­low, dual pitched roof. The pro­posed roof is to be covered with cor­rug­ated iron style pro­filed sheet­ing. The struc­ture is pro­posed to be moun­ted on a con­crete plinth and would have an over­all foot­print of approx­im­ately 6.2 x 3.3 metres with a max­im­um height of approx­im­ately 2.9 metres. Two sets of tim­ber clad, double

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 24/05/2019

1. doors are pro­posed to be installed on the west­ern elev­a­tion of the build­ing. A 0.96 square metre cab­in­et is pro­posed to be sited adja­cent to the north­ern elev­a­tion of the pro­posed kiosk build­ing. If the work was under­taken by a stat­utory under­taker such as SSE, no plan­ning applic­a­tion would be required the works.

2. The sub­sta­tion kiosk is pro­posed to be con­nec­ted to the exist­ing SSE over­head line which runs in a south-west­erly to north-east­erly dir­ec­tion approx­im­ately 40 metres to the south-east of the kiosk site.

A sum­mary of the details with­in the sup­port­ing doc­u­ment­a­tion is included below: a) Tree Pro­tec­tion Plan Report: con­firms that no trees are pro­posed for felling with­in the pro­posed scheme and states that pro­tec­tion meas­ures will be incor­por­ated dur­ing the con­struc­tion phase for trees iden­ti­fied with­in the plan as being with­in, or imme­di­ately adja­cent to, the work­ing cor­ridor of the cable install­a­tion. These pro­tec­tion meas­ures include the erec­tion of pro­tect­ive bar­ri­ers and pre-empt­ive prun­ing where required to avoid acci­dent­al dam­age dur­ing the works. A total of 33 trees have been iden­ti­fied with­in the plan as war­rant­ing pro­tec­tion meas­ures. b) Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment: provides details of the con­struc­tion works asso­ci­ated with the pro­posed devel­op­ment. The Report iden­ti­fies the rel­ev­ant, good prac­tice policies, guid­ance and inform­a­tion which are pro­posed to be adhered to and states that the cable trench is pro­posed to be con­struc­ted in accord­ance with the guid­ance of the UK Power Net­works Engin­eer­ing Con­struc­tion Stand­ard ESC 02 – 0019. Not­able haz­ards and mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures, con­struc­tion meth­ods, record keep­ing and labour, plant and mater­i­als are all out­lined with­in the doc­u­ment. c) Private Wire Bur­ied Cable Route Sur­vey: provides a geo-ref­er­enced pho­to­graph­ic record of the route of the cable. d) Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Meas­ures Appen­dices A‑E: Out­lines the pro­posed pro­tec­tion and mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures to be imple­men­ted regard­ing: wood ant, otter, squir­rel, water vole and ground­wa­ter depend­ent ter­restri­al ecosystems.

1. Dur­ing the pro­gres­sion of the applic­a­tion, the agent has provided addi­tion­al inform­a­tion includ­ing an addi­tion­al plan in response to quer­ies raised dur­ing the con­sulta­tion pro­cess. A plan illus­trat­ing pro­posed trench sec­tions, water­course and cul­vert cross­ings has been sub­mit­ted in sup­port of the applic­a­tion togeth­er with pho­to­graphs of an example kiosk build­ing and con­firm­a­tion that veget­a­tion and soil will be treated in accord­ance with the details of the agreed Soil Man­age­ment Plan for the approved applic­a­tion 2018/0063/DET.

2. Plans of the pro­pos­als are included with­in Appendix 1.

His­tory

1. The site itself has no spe­cif­ic plan­ning his­tory. How­ever, it is rel­ev­ant that the pro­pos­al is dir­ectly related to the oper­a­tion of the adja­cent hydro scheme which gained per­mis­sion in July 2018 under applic­a­tion ref­er­ence 2018/0063/DET. The approved scheme is cur­rently under con­struc­tion and once com­pleted will provide a

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 24/05/2019

2MW run of river hydro­elec­tric scheme and asso­ci­ated infra­struc­ture which is loc­ated imme­di­ately south of this applic­a­tion site.

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 (2015) 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	SUS­TAIN­ABLE DESIGN	X
— — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
POLICY 4	NAT­UR­AL HERITAGE	X
— — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
POLICY 5	LAND­SCAPE	X
— — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
POLICY 6	THE SIT­ING AND DESIGN OF DIGIT­AL COM­MU­NIC­A­TIONS EQUIPMENT
— — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
POLICY 7	RENEW­ABLE ENERGY	X
— — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
POLICY 8	SPORT AND RECREATION
— — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
POLICY 9	CUL­TUR­AL HERITAGE	X
— — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
POLICY 10	RESOURCES	X
— — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
POLICY 11	DEVELOPER CON­TRI­BU­TIONS
— — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -

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/LDPI5.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
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
— — — — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Policy 3	Sus­tain­able Design Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
— — — — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance	X
— — — — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Policy 5	Land­scape Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
— — — — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Policy 7	Renew­able Energy Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance	X
— — — — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Policy 8	Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guidance
— — — — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
— — — — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
— — — — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Policy 11	Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance
— — — — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 24/05/2019

CON­SULTA­TIONS

Sum­mary of the Main Issues raised by Consultees

1. SNH notes that there are nat­ur­al her­it­age interests of inter­na­tion­al import­ance on the site and a Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al is there­fore required to be under­taken in view of the site’s con­ser­va­tion object­ives for the qual­i­fy­ing interests of fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel and sal­mon. They con­firm that the HRA does not need to include the impact on the qual­i­fy­ing interests of otter as the pro­pos­al in their view is unlikely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on otter as a fea­ture of the River Dee SAC. SNH provided com­ments on the CNPA’s draft HRA and are sat­is­fied that with appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion secured through con­di­tions, there nbe no sig­ni­fic­ant effects on the river Dee SAC.

2. SEPA has no objec­tion to the pro­pos­al sub­ject to a con­di­tion being attached to any sub­sequent decision requir­ing the sub­mis­sion and approv­al of a con­struc­tion envir­on­ment man­age­ment plan.

3. Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Infra­struc­ture Ser­vices Roads Depart­ment has no objec­tion to the scheme not­ing that the pro­posed cable has no impact on the pub­lic road.

4. Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Envir­on­ment­al Health Team has no objec­tion to the pro­pos­al and con­firm that no inform­a­tion relat­ing to con­tam­in­ated land is required in sup­port of the proposal.

5. Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Flood Risk & Coast Pro­tec­tion Ser­vices has no objec­tion to the application.

6. Police Scot­land notes that there are no known crimes or anti-social activ­ity asso­ci­ated with the applic­a­tion site, how­ever they sug­gest that secur­ity meas­ures should be imple­men­ted by the applic­ant to help mit­ig­ate against future poten­tial met­al theft and future poten­tial infra­struc­ture dis­rup­tion activity.

7. CNPA Land­scape Officer reques­ted cla­ri­fic­a­tion regard­ing: cross sec­tion­al details of the pro­posed chan­nels being cre­ated includ­ing at road cross­ings, water­courses and cul­verts; fur­ther details regard­ing the elev­a­tion­al details of the pro­posed Kiosk build­ing and ground work treat­ments pro­posed with­in the imme­di­ate site; cla­ri­fic­a­tion regard­ing the tree pro­tec­tion plan details; and details of how veget­a­tion and soil will be treated dur­ing con­struc­tion and post com­ple­tion of works. The applic­ant has sub­mit­ted fur­ther inform­a­tion in response to these queries.

8. CNPA Eco­logy Officer is sat­is­fied with the inform­a­tion sub­mit­ted to sup­port the applic­a­tion, includ­ing spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans and mit­ig­a­tion pro­pos­als. They under­took an Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) for the devel­op­ment which con­cludes that sub­ject to appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion, there will be no sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the site integ­rity of the river Dee SAC.

9. Bal­later and Crath­ie Com­munity Coun­cil has no objec­tion to the application.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 24/05/2019

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. The applic­a­tions have been advert­ised and no let­ters of pub­lic rep­res­ent­a­tion have been received in respect of the proposal.

APPRAIS­AL

Prin­ciple

1. Scot­tish Plan­ning Policy encour­ages Plan­ning Author­it­ies to sup­port the devel­op­ment of a diverse range of renew­able energy tech­no­lo­gies and guide devel­op­ment to appro­pri­ate loc­a­tions. Policy 7: Renew­able Energy of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 sup­ports pro­pos­als for renew­able energy gen­er­a­tion provid­ing they con­serve and enhance the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park. For hydro­power pro­pos­als there should be no det­ri­ment­al impact on water envir­on­ments and their recre­ation­al use. Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth favours devel­op­ment that will enhance the range and qual­ity of eco­nom­ic facil­it­ies and sup­port the vital­ity and viab­il­ity of the loc­al eco­nomy and broad­er eco­nomy of the Park. The pro­pos­al is put for­ward for con­sid­er­a­tion as part of a lar­ger hydro scheme to facil­it­ate the oper­a­tion of con­nect­ing the hydro scheme with the exist­ing elec­tric­al infra­struc­ture in the area. The prin­ciple of the devel­op­ment is there­fore con­sidered to be accept­able, sub­ject to com­pli­ance with oth­er loc­al plan policies as out­lined in more detail below.

Envir­on­ment­al Issues

1. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 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.

2. The site includes land with­in the River Dee Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC) des­ig­na­tion. The SAC sup­ports pop­u­la­tions of fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel, otter and sal­mon and as such the pro­pos­al has the poten­tial to have an adverse impact on the qual­i­fy­ing fea­tures of the SAC. SNH has con­sidered the applic­a­tion details and note that an appro­pri­ate assess­ment should be under­taken requir­ing the poten­tial impacts of the pro­pos­al on the fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel and sal­mon qual­i­fy­ing interests of the SAC. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al has sub­sequently been under­taken by the CNPA which con­cludes that there will be no sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the site’s integ­rity. SNH con­firm that the qual­i­fy­ing interests are not con­sidered to be adversely affected by the pro­pos­al provided work is car­ried out in accord­ance with a site spe­cif­ic con­struc­tion meth­od state­ment which out­lines the meas­ures required to pre­vent pol­lu­tion dur­ing the install­a­tion of the cable.

3. The applic­a­tion is sup­por­ted by spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans which out­line the pro­posed pro­tec­tion and mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures to be imple­men­ted regard­ing: wood ant, otter, squir­rel, water vole and ground­wa­ter depend­ent ter­restri­al eco­sys­tems. Which are con­sidered sat­is­fact­ory by the CNPA’s Eco­logy officer.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 24/05/2019

1. Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Envir­on­ment­al Health Team has no objec­tion to the pro­pos­al in rela­tion to any con­tam­in­ated land matters.

2. Turn­ing to the mat­ter of wood­land and tree pro­tec­tion, Cri­terion (5) of Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan states that devel­op­ment that would have an adverse effect on hab­it­ats or spe­cies iden­ti­fied in the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan, UK Biod­iversity Action Plan, Birds of Con­ser­va­tion Con­cerns or by Scot­tish Min­is­ters through the Scot­tish Biod­iversity List, includ­ing any cumu­lat­ive impact will only be per­mit­ted where: a) The developer can demon­strate that the need and jus­ti­fic­a­tion for the devel­op­ment out­weighs the loc­al, nation­al or inter­na­tion­al con­tri­bu­tion of the area of hab­it­at or pop­u­la­tions of spe­cies; and b) Sig­ni­fic­ant harm or dis­turb­ance to the eco­lo­gic­al func­tions, con­tinu­ity and integ­rity of the hab­it­ats of com­men­sur­ate or great­er nature con­ser­va­tion value are cre­ated as appro­pri­ate to the site.

3. The applic­a­tion is sup­por­ted by a tree pro­tec­tion plan report which provides the sur­vey res­ults for the pro­pos­al regard­ing its impact and pro­tec­tion meas­ures for trees with­in the site bound­ary which would be affected by the pro­pos­al. The report con­firms that no trees are pro­posed to be felled as a con­sequence of the pro­posed works. The doc­u­ment notes that the cable route has been designed to avoid nat­ur­al and semi-nat­ur­al hab­it­ats where pos­sible. The report cov­ers the pro­posed pro­tec­tion meas­ures for 33 iden­ti­fied trees with­in the site bound­ary, which range from poor to good physiolo­gic­al con­di­tions. The works also include the use of dir­ec­tion­al drilling under the grounds of Birkhall House grounds to mit­ig­ate against impacts on the exist­ing tree struc­ture with­in the set­ting of this lis­ted build­ing. Scot­tish Forestry has been con­sul­ted on the applic­a­tion and has no objections.

4. The Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment notes that all work is to be under­taken in accord­ance with the spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans and that an Eco­lo­gic­al Clerk of Works will be appoin­ted to super­vise and mon­it­or the imple­ment­a­tion of the pro­tec­tion plans. SNH request the sub­mis­sion of a more detailed site spe­cif­ic con­struc­tion meth­od state­ment to identi­fy the site spe­cif­ic meas­ures that will be required along the length of the pro­posed cable. This can be dealt with by way of plan­ning condition.

5. The pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Land­scape & Set­ting of Lis­ted Build­ings Considerations

1. Policy 5: Land­scape of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 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. Where devel­op­ment does not com­ple­ment nor enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter, devel­op­ment will only be per­mit­ted where adverse effects have been min­im­ised and mit­ig­ated through appro­pri­ate sit­ing, lay­out, scale, design and construction.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 24/05/2019

1. Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 requires devel­op­ment that affects a lis­ted build­ing to not have an adverse effect on the set­ting of that lis­ted building.

2. The site lies with­in two land­scape char­ac­ter areas: the Upper Deeside: Lower Glen Muick and the Upper Deeside: Inver to Cam­bus O’May. The under­ground works asso­ci­ated with the pro­pos­al are not con­sidered to adversely impact on the estab­lished char­ac­ter of the area nor the visu­al amen­ity of the area sub­ject to sat­is­fact­ory veget­a­tion and top soil reinstatement.

3. The pro­posed route of the cable passes through grounds included with­in the set­ting of two lis­ted build­ings. The pro­posed install­a­tion using dir­ec­tion­al drilling, which avoids the need for above ground works at Birkhall House is not con­sidered to impact on the estab­lished set­ting of the lis­ted build­ing. In addi­tion, the pro­posed trench works with­in the grounds of the lis­ted build­ing, Mill of Ster­in, is not con­sidered to cause any adverse impact on the set­ting of the lis­ted build­ing tak­ing into account the veget­a­tion and ground level rein­state­ment works.

4. The main visu­al land­scape impacts relate to the pro­posed erec­tion of the kiosk build­ing. The pro­posed build­ing is to be loc­ated with­in the corner area of an agri­cul­tur­al field adja­cent to an access road, off the south­ern side of the B976 road. The field is bound by post and wire fen­cing and there­fore views are eas­ily afforded of the site from the road. How­ever, this bound­ary treat­ment recurs along the south­ern side of the B976 and res­id­en­tial and asso­ci­ated build­ings, includ­ing tim­ber, agri­cul­tur­al field shel­ters can be seen when approach­ing the applic­a­tion site from either dir­ec­tion. The pro­posed erec­tion of the kiosk build­ing and asso­ci­ated post and wire bound­ary fen­cing, tak­ing into account the pro­posed scale and choice of mater­i­als, are there­fore not con­sidered to be out of place with­in the sur­round­ing site con­text and estab­lished char­ac­ter. The pro­posed access to the kiosk com­pound area is pro­posed to util­ise the exist­ing agri­cul­tur­al access with the track to be cre­ated of loc­ally sourced aggreg­ate material.

5. The CNPA Land­scape Officer reques­ted the sub­mis­sion of addi­tion­al inform­a­tion of which the agent has sub­sequently provided in response to the quer­ies raised. The agent con­firms that top­soil and veget­a­tion dis­turb­ance and rein­state­ment works, will be car­ried out in accord­ance with the details approved under the Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment and Soil Man­age­ment Plan approved as part of the 2018/0063/DET permission.

6. In these cir­cum­stances, the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 5: Land­scape and Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Flood­ing, Water Qual­ity and Drainage

1. Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 seeks to ensure that all devel­op­ments do not increase flood risk nor adversely impact on the water qual­ity of the area and that they are ser­viced by appro­pri­ate drain­age provisions.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 24/05/2019

1. The pro­posed cable route lies with­in an area sus­cept­ible to flood­ing. How­ever, the pro­posed cable install­a­tion is not con­sidered to increase flood risk tak­ing into account its under­ground pos­i­tion­ing and scale. Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Flood Risk & Coast Path Pro­tec­tion Ser­vices has no objec­tion to the pro­pos­al. SEPA also do not object to the pro­pos­al; how­ever they request the inclu­sion of a post determ­in­a­tion con­di­tion requir­ing details of a con­struc­tion envir­on­ment man­age­ment plan to be agreed pri­or to the com­mence­ment of works to address mat­ters includ­ing: wet­land man­age­ment, waste man­age­ment, back fill mater­i­al and a 250m Phase I Sur­vey. This should also include a Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan to safe­guard the water qual­ity of the area.

2. Sub­ject to the inclu­sion of the sug­ges­ted con­di­tion, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to have an accept­able, mit­ig­ated impact on the water envir­on­ment qual­ity in accord­ance with the require­ments of Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Sus­tain­able Design

1. Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 seeks to pro­tect the amen­ity enjoyed by neigh­bours includ­ing min­im­isa­tion of dis­turb­ance caused by access to the devel­op­ment and requires devel­op­ment to use mater­i­als and land­scap­ing that will com­ple­ment the set­ting of the development.

2. The pro­posed kiosk build­ing would have a tra­di­tion­al form with a dual pitched roof and the scale is con­sidered to be appro­pri­ate to the pro­posed use and the imme­di­ate set­ting of the build­ing. The exter­i­or fin­ish of the build­ing, with tim­ber clad elev­a­tions and a cor­rug­ated sheet roof, are con­sidered to help fur­ther assim­il­ate the devel­op­ment with the exist­ing built form along this sec­tion of the road. Over­all, the design, scale and mater­i­als of the pro­posed devel­op­ment are con­sidered to be acceptable.

3. The pro­posed cable install­a­tion is not con­sidered to have any adverse impact on the amen­ity of neigh­bour­ing, res­id­en­tial prop­er­ties, although it is acknow­ledged there may be a tem­por­ary impact dur­ing the con­struc­tion and install­a­tion of the pro­pos­al, through machinery oper­a­tion. A post determ­in­a­tion inform­at­ive is there­fore recom­men­ded to be attached to any sub­sequent decision regard­ing con­struc­tion work oper­a­tion times. Sub­ject to the inform­at­ive, the pro­pos­al is there­fore con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Impact on Roads

1. Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 also requires appro­pri­ate means of access to and egress from the site. The pro­posed vehicu­lar access to the kiosk build­ing looks to util­ise an exist­ing access off of the adja­cent road. The pro­pos­al there­fore does not intro­duce any addi­tion­al road access points.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 24/05/2019

1. Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Infra­struc­ture Ser­vices Roads Depart­ment has no objec­tion to the scheme. The pro­pos­al is there­fore not con­sidered to intro­duce any road safety issues in accord­ance with the require­ments of Policy 3: Sus­tain­able Design of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Oth­er Considerations

1. Bal­later and Crath­ie Com­munity Coun­cil have no objec­tions to the scheme and no let­ters of pub­lic rep­res­ent­a­tion have been received in respect of the proposal.

2. Police Scot­land do not object to the scheme but sug­gest inform­at­ive notes to be added to any sub­sequent decision notice relat­ing to the imple­ment­a­tion of secur­ity meas­ures by the applic­ant to help mit­ig­ate against future poten­tial met­al theft and future poten­tial infra­struc­ture dis­rup­tion activity.

CON­CLU­SION

1. The pro­pos­al will help to facil­it­ate the deliv­ery of a small scale run of river hydro scheme. This will intro­duce envir­on­ment­al and land­scape impacts how­ever, there are no adverse envir­on­ment­al impacts sub­ject to appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures being imple­men­ted. In these over­all cir­cum­stances, the devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with all the rel­ev­ant polices of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015 and the col­lect­ive aims of the Nation­al Park. There are no oth­er mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions which would war­rant the refus­al of plan­ning per­mis­sion. Approv­al is there­fore recom­men­ded sub­ject to appro­pri­ate plan­ning conditions.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to APPROVE the Erec­tion of Sub­sta­tion and Install­a­tion of Bur­ied IIkV Cable Con­nect­ing Power­house to Sub­sta­tion at Land At Glen Muick Bal­later Aber­deen­shire 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.

Con­di­tions

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until an amended Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment and Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan, which includes, but is not lim­ited to the fol­low­ing inform­a­tion is sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the CNPA act­ing as Plan­ning Authority: a) A res­tor­a­tion meth­od­o­logy for the cable route; b) A 250m Phase I Sur­vey (or until the river) and fur­ther details of ​‘appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures’; c) Wet­land (includ­ing GWDTE, wet heath and those occur­ring in mosa­ic) man­age­ment; d) Waste man­age­ment arrange­ments and back­fill material;

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 24/05/2019

e) Peat man­age­ment if appro­pri­ate (with ref­er­ence to SEPA guid­ance on work­ing in peat areas WST-G-52); f) Watercourse/​drain cross­ings using trench­less tech­no­logy; and g) A Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan. There­after, the devel­op­ment shall be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with those approved details.

Reas­on: To ensure that con­struc­tion meth­ods will not have an adverse impact on the envir­on­ment­al and land­scape qual­ity of the devel­op­ment site, the River Dee SAC and the sur­round­ing area in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2105.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until an Envir­on­ment­al Clerk of Works is appoin­ted and a sched­ule of report­ing has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. This will include, but shall not be lim­ited to, roles and respons­ib­il­it­ies, resourcing, report­ing mech­an­isms and mon­it­or­ing require­ments (pre-con­struc­tion, dur­ing con­struc­tion and post con­struc­tion). There­after the devel­op­ment shall be mon­itored and man­aged by the Envir­on­ment­al Clerk of Works in accord­ance with the approved sched­ule of reporting.

Reas­on: To ensure that there is an accur­ate account of applied work­ing meth­ods in accord­ance with the require­ments of Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until pro­tect­ive bar­ri­ers or fen­cing has been provided in accord­ance with the approved Tree Pro­tec­tion Plan. All trees shall there­after be pro­tec­ted in accord­ance with the approved Tree Pro­tec­tion Plan through­out the con­struc­tion of the devel­op­ment unless oth­er­wise agreed in writ­ing with the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. The trees shall there­after be retained on site in accord­ance with the approved details.

Reas­on: To ensure pro­tec­tion of retained trees through­out the con­struc­tion peri­od and so to ensure that the devel­op­ment con­serves and enhances the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park in accord­ance with Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

1. The devel­op­ment hereby per­mit­ted shall be car­ried out in strict accord­ance with the approved spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans, sub­mit­ted in sup­port of the approved applic­a­tion, for: wood ant, otter, squir­rel, water vole and ground­wa­ter depend­ent ter­restri­al eco­sys­tems. All mit­ig­a­tion set out in the approved plans, includ­ing tim­ing of works, shall be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the details con­tained in the Plans and any com­pens­at­ory fea­tures shall be retained through­out the life­time of the devel­op­ment hereby approved.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 24/05/2019

5. Reas­on: In accord­ance with the con­sul­tee advisor­ies from Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Eco­lo­gist fol­low­ing the assess­ment of the eco­lo­gic­al interests of the site and the des­ig­nated areas. The spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans will there­fore help to secure the strict pro­tec­tion of European Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies and eco­lo­gic­al interests of the site in accord­ance with the Con­ser­va­tion (Nat­ur­al Hab­it­ats, &c.) Reg­u­la­tions 1994 (as amended) and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015. The devel­op­ment, hereby approved, shall be con­struc­ted and imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the approved Con­struc­tion Soil Man­age­ment Plan of Con­di­tion 5 attached to plan­ning ref­er­ence: 2018/0063/DET unless oth­er­wise agreed in writ­ing by the CNPA act­ing as Plan­ning Authority.

Reas­on: To ensure that con­struc­tion meth­ods will not have an adverse impact on the land­scape set­ting or eco­lo­gic­al qual­ity of the devel­op­ment site or the River DEE SAC in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2015.

Inform­at­ives

1. The devel­op­ment hereby approved must com­mence with­in three years of the date of this decision notice. If it has not com­menced with­in this peri­od, then this plan­ning per­mis­sion con­sent shall lapse.

2. The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment is required to give the Plan­ning Author­ity pri­or writ­ten noti­fic­a­tion of the date on which it is inten­ded to com­mence the devel­op­ment. Attached to this decision notice is a Notice of Ini­ti­ation of Devel­op­ment for com­ple­tion and sub­mis­sion. Sub­mis­sion of this inform­a­tion assists the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer in mon­it­or­ing act­ive work with­in the area to ensure com­pli­ance with the approved details and to identi­fy and cor­rect any poten­tial prob­lems, as they arise, rather than later when it may be more dif­fi­cult and more costly to rec­ti­fy. Fail­ure to give notice would con­sti­tute a breach of plan­ning con­trol which may res­ult in enforce­ment action being taken.

3. The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment is reminded that pre-con­struc­tion sur­vey work to check for nest­ing birds should take place between April and August inclusive.

4. Con­struc­tion work should not take place out with the hours of 0800 hours to 1900 house Mondays to Fri­days, 0800 hours to 1300 hours on Sat­urdays or at any time on Sundays or Bank Hol­i­days in order to min­im­ise dis­turb­ance to the occu­pi­ers of the nearby res­id­en­tial properties.

5. The applic­ant is reminded of the sig­ni­fic­ant threat and risk from met­al theft from con­struc­tion sites and that appro­pri­ate meas­ures should be employed dur­ing the

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 7 24/05/2019

install­a­tion phase. The applic­ant is also reminded of the poten­tial threat of delib­er­ate infra­struc­ture dis­rup­tion activ­ity and the applic­ant is there­fore advised to use a secur­ity rated cab­in­et and impose appro­pri­ate secur­ity meas­ures around the approved substation.

1. Fol­low­ing the com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, a noti­fic­a­tion of the com­ple­tion shall, as soon as prac­tic­able, be giv­en to the Plan­ning Author­ity. Attached to this decision notice is a Notice of Com­ple­tion of Devel­op­ment for com­ple­tion and sub­mis­sion. Sub­mis­sion of this form will assist the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer in mak­ing a final inspec­tion and check­ing com­pli­ance with the approved draw­ings and con­di­tions. If the devel­op­ment hereby approved is to be car­ried out in phases, then a notice of com­ple­tion should be sub­mit­ted at the com­ple­tion of each phase.

The map on the first page of this report has been pro­duced to aid in the stat­utory pro­cess of deal­ing with plan­ning applic­a­tions. The map is to help identi­fy the site and its sur­round­ings and to aid Plan­ning Officers, Com­mit­tee Mem­bers and the Pub­lic in the determ­in­a­tion of the pro­pos­al. Maps shown in the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Report can only be used for the pur­poses of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee. Any oth­er use risks infringing Crown Copy­right and may lead to pro­sec­u­tion or civil pro­ceed­ings. Maps pro­duced with­in this Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Report can only be repro­duced with the express per­mis­sion of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and oth­er Copy­right hold­ers. This per­mis­sion must be gran­ted in advance.