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Item8 Kyladrochit Larder 20250238DET Committee Report

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 24 April 2026 Page 1 of 20

Com­mit­tee report

Devel­op­ment proposed: Demol­ish estate lar­der and erect a single storey steel portal framed replace­ment lar­der with gen­er­al pur­pose area at Kyl­nad­rochit Lodge, Tomin­toul, Ballindal­loch, Moray, AB37 9HJ

Ref­er­ence: 2025/0238/DET

Applic­ant: Crown Estate Scotland

Date called-in: 29 Septem­ber 2025

Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to conditions

Case officer: Katie Crerar, Plan­ning Officer


Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 24 April 2026 Page 2 of 20

(Image: Map show­ing the site and sur­round­ings with con­tour lines, roads, and geo­graph­ic­al fea­tures. The site is labeled Kyl­nad­rochit Lodge” and is situ­ated amidst a wooded area near the A939 road. Inset map provides a wider geo­graph­ic­al con­text. Text on the bot­tom states: This map 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.”)


Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 24 April 2026 Page 3 of 20

Site descrip­tion, pro­pos­al and history

Site descrip­tion

  1. This applic­a­tion site lies adja­cent to Kylad­rochit Lodge and stead­ing on Glen­liv­et estate, approx­im­ately 2km north­w­est of Tomintoul.
  2. The applic­a­tion site lies approx­im­ately 60 metres west of Cat­egory B lis­ted Kylad­rochit Lodge and Stead­ing. It com­prises an exist­ing small lar­der build­ing situ­ated in a clear­ing and some sur­round­ing Sitka spruce and west­ern hem­lock com­mer­cial plantation.
  3. The exist­ing lar­der, Kylad­rochit Lodge and Stead­ing are all accessed via an exist­ing private track which con­nects with the A939 approx­im­ately 250 metres to the north.

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: 2025/0238/DET | Demol­ish estate lar­der and erect a single storey steel portal framed replace­ment lar­der with gen­er­al pur­pose area | Kyl­nad­rochit Lodge At Bridge Of Brown Tomin­toul Ballindal­loch Moray AB37 9HJ
TitleDraw­ing num­berDate on plan*Date received
Loc­a­tion Plan & Pro­posed New Replace­ment Larder00118/07/202524/09/2025
Elev­a­tions & Plans of Exist­ing Lar­der (to be Demolished)00221/07/202524/09/2025
Elev­a­tions & Plans of Pro­posed Replacement00321/07/202524/09/2025
Site sur­vey and site sections00424/07/202524/09/2025
Drain­age Lay­out Plan and Details30120/8/202524/09/2025
Tree Con­straints PlanTCP:2107/124/07/202524/09/2025

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 24 April 2026 Page 4 of 20

Tree Pro­tec­tion PlanTPP:2107/125/07/202524/09/2025
Tree Plant­ing PlanTPLP:2107/113/08/202524/09/2025
Com­pens­at­ory Tree Plant­ing Plan (Tree Plant­ing Plan 2)TPLP:2108/113/08/202524/09/2025
Tree Sur­vey with Arbor­i­cul­tur­al Impact Assess­ment and Meth­od StatementN/A18/07/202524/09/2025
Tree Sur­vey ScheduleN/A18/07/202524/09/2025
Drain­age Design ReportN/A01/08/202524/09/2025
Phase 1 Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies ReportN/A27/02/202602/03/2026

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

  1. This pro­pos­al seeks plan­ning per­mis­sion for the demoli­tion of an exist­ing lar­der build­ing and the erec­tion of a replace­ment single storey lar­der build­ing with gen­er­al pur­pose area.
  2. The pro­posed build­ing is rect­an­gu­lar in form, extend­ing to 36 metres long by 12 metres wide. It has a pitched roof with a ridge height of 6.5 metres. The exter­i­or walls and roof will be fin­ished in a single skin plasticol coated clad­ding. The clad­ding col­our is shown as a bottle green on the plans although this is to be confirmed.
  3. There will be vehicle accesses on both the north and south (end) elev­a­tions which will be secured by elec­tron­ic­ally oper­ated gal­van­ised roller shut­ter doors meas­ur­ing 4m wide by 3.5m high. In addi­tion, the south­ern elev­a­tion will also have a ped­es­tri­an access / escape door adja­cent to the vehicle access.
  4. The east­ern elev­a­tion will have two fur­ther vehicle accesses with roller shut­ter doors – one into the lar­der area and anoth­er into the gen­er­al-pur­pose area. There will also be two ped­es­tri­an access / escape doors, again with one into the lar­der area and anoth­er into the gen­er­al-pur­pose area. There will be no open­ings on the west­ern elevation.

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 24 April 2026 Page 5 of 20

  1. Intern­ally, the new lar­der will be loc­ated with­in the north­ern part of the build­ing. It will com­prise a main intake area with a hanging rail sys­tem and two cold stores (one for birds and one for deer) accessed from it. From the lar­der, there will be a ped­es­tri­an access door into the gen­er­al-pur­pose area which is a large open space with an access­ible toi­let at the north­west­ern corner.
  2. Access to the new build­ing is pro­posed to be taken via the exist­ing track which is con­nec­ted dir­ectly with the A939 to the north­east of the site.
  3. There will be a sep­tic tank and foul water soakaway sys­tem provid­ing wastewa­ter drain­age for the build­ing (loc­ated in the south­east of the devel­op­ment site) and a sur­face water soakaway along the west­ern edge of the site.
  4. To facil­it­ate this devel­op­ment, approx­im­ately 0.19 hec­tares of unman­aged, non-nat­ive wood­land will be removed. These will com­prise approx­im­ately 212 Sitka spruce and 91 west­ern hem­lock trees. In addi­tion, six indi­vidu­al trees loc­ated out­with the main wood­land block will be removed.
  5. New plant­ing on the devel­op­ment site is pro­posed and will com­prise a mix­ture of nat­ive spe­cies includ­ing Scots pine, Sil­ver birch, Sessile oak and hazel, totalling 160 trees. In addi­tion, com­pens­at­ory plant­ing of 1,188 new trees is pro­posed on an altern­at­ive site on Glen­liv­et Estate (to the south­east of Tomin­toul) which will com­prise a mix­ture of sil­ver birch, downy birch, row­an, hazel and Scots pine. This plant­ing will link exist­ing nat­ive wood­lands and will be fully deer fenced to ensure protection.

His­tory

  1. There is no recent his­tory on the applic­a­tion site or adja­cent Kylad­rochit Lodge.

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

  1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) has been under­taken to con­sider the poten­tial effects of the devel­op­ment upon the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the Natura sites lis­ted with­in the HRA doc­u­ment, which is attached as Appendix 2. The Natura site in this case is the River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC)

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 24 April 2026 Page 6 of 20

which is des­ig­nated for its otter, fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel, sea lamprey and Atlantic sal­mon interests.

  1. The HRA con­siders that there will be no dir­ect loss of hab­it­at for Atlantic sal­mon and fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel, how­ever there is poten­tial for indir­ect impacts such as pol­lu­tion from con­struc­tion activ­it­ies. In addi­tion, whilst the onsite hab­it­at is not suit­able for otters, they are sens­it­ive to dis­turb­ance with­in 200m of a holt or shelter.
  2. There­fore, mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures are pro­posed which include a Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan (CEMP) which includes site spe­cif­ic pol­lu­tion-pre­ven­tion meas­ures, a sed­i­ment man­age­ment plan and details of bio­se­c­ur­ity con­trol pro­ced­ures, pre-con­struc­tion checks for pro­tec­ted spe­cies and the imple­ment­a­tion of an otter spe­cies pro­tec­tion plan. These meas­ures will reduce the poten­tial effects to a min­im­al level, so that all the con­ser­va­tion object­ives can be met for the River Spey SAC. NatureScot have con­firmed agree­ment with the con­tents of the HRA and its conclusions.

Devel­op­ment plan context

Policies

Nation­al policy

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045 Policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross (x)
Policy 1 Tack­ling the cli­mate and nature crisesX
Policy 2 Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adaptationX
Policy 3 BiodiversityX
Policy 4 Nat­ur­al placesX
Policy 5 Soils
Policy 6 Forestry, wood­land and treesX
Policy 7 His­tor­ic assets and placesX
Policy 8 Green belts
Policy 9 Brown­field, vacant and derel­ict land and empty buildings
Policy 10 Coastal development

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Policy 11 Energy
Policy 12 Zero waste
Policy 13 Sus­tain­able transport
Policy 14 Design, qual­ity and placeX
Policy 15 Loc­al Liv­ing and 20-minute neighbourhoods
Policy 16 Qual­ity homes
Policy 17 Rur­al homes
Policy 18 Infra­struc­ture first
Policy 19 Heat and cooling
Policy 20 Blue and green infrastructure
Policy 21 Play, recre­ation and sport
Policy 22 Flood risk and water management
Policy 23 Health and safety
Policy 24 Digit­al infrastructure
Policy 25 Com­munity wealth building
Policy 26 Busi­ness and industry
Policy 27 City, town, loc­al and com­mer­cial centres
Policy 28 Retail
Policy 29 Rur­al developmentX
Policy 30 Tourism
Policy 31 Cul­ture and creativity
Policy 32 Aquaculture
Policy 33 Minerals

Stra­tegic policy Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2021)

Loc­al plan policy (Policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross (x))

Policy 1 New hous­ing development
Policy 2 Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growthX
Policy 3 Design and placemakingX
Policy 4 Nat­ur­al heritageX
Policy 5 LandscapeX

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 24 April 2026 Page 8 of 20

Policy 6 The sit­ing and design of digit­al com­mu­nic­a­tions equipment
Policy 7 Renew­able energy
Policy 8 Open space, sport and recreation
Policy 9 Cul­tur­al heritageX
Policy 10 Resources
Policy 11 Developer obligations
  1. All new devel­op­ment pro­pos­als require to be assessed in rela­tion to policies con­tained in the adop­ted Devel­op­ment Plan which com­prises Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 (LDP). The full word­ing of policies can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-planning-framework‑4/documents/ and at: https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​w​p​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​2021​/​03​/​C​N​P​A​-​L​D​P​-​2021​-​w​e​b.pdf

Plan­ning guidance

  1. Sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance also sup­ports 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 (x).
Policy 1 Hous­ing sup­ple­ment­ary guidance
Policy 2 Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth non-stat­utory guidanceX
Policy 3 Design and place­mak­ing non-stat­utory guidanceX
Policy 4 Nat­ur­al her­it­age non-stat­utory guidanceX
Policy 5 Land­scape non-stat­utory guidanceX
Policy 7 Renew­able energy non-stat­utory guidance
Policy 8 Open space, sport and recre­ation non-stat­utory guidance
Policy 9 Cul­tur­al her­it­age non-stat­utory guidance
Policy 10 Resources non-stat­utory guidance
Policy 11 Developer oblig­a­tions sup­ple­ment­ary guidance

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 24 April 2026 Page 9 of 20

Con­sulta­tions

  1. A sum­mary of the main issues raised by con­sul­tees now follows:
  2. Scot­tish Water do not object to the applic­a­tion. They note that Scot­tish Water will not accept any sur­face water con­nec­tions into their com­bined sew­er sys­tem. They state that there are no Scot­tish Water drink­ing water catch­ments or water abstrac­tion sources in the area of the pro­posed development.
  3. His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land were con­sul­ted but did not respond.
  4. Moray Council’s Envir­on­ment­al Health Team note that the premises will require to com­ply with the Food Hygiene (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2006 and it is recom­men­ded that the applic­ant con­tacts Envir­on­ment­al Health to ensure the area of the devel­op­ment that will be used for food stor­age and pre­par­a­tion com­ply with the hygiene legis­la­tion enforced by the Envir­on­ment­al Health Team.
  5. Moray Council’s Con­tam­in­ated Land Team were con­sul­ted but did not respond.
  6. Moray Council’s Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team were con­sul­ted but did not respond.
  7. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer does not con­sider that there is any con­nectiv­ity between the devel­op­ment site and the Bridge of Avon Geo­lo­gic­al Con­ser­va­tion Site or Cre­ag nan Gam­hainn Site of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest (SSSI).
  8. The devel­op­ment site lies approx­im­ately 130m from the River Avon, which is a trib­u­tary of the River Spey SAC with inter­na­tion­ally des­ig­nated fea­tures that are sens­it­ive to pol­lu­tion. The devel­op­ment pro­poses a num­ber of soak-away drain­age fea­tures and the install­a­tion of a sep­tic tank that could have the poten­tial to impact the water envir­on­ment. There­fore, a Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan (CEMP) should be sub­mit­ted and agreed with the Nation­al Park Author­ity pri­or to con­struc­tion com­men­cing on site. The CEMP should include a detailed, site-spe­cif­ic pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion plan (PPP) with meas­ures to pro­tect the River Avon and the water envir­on­ment from all sources of pol­lu­tion (sed­i­ment, oils, fuels etc).

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 24 April 2026 Page 10 of 20

  1. The pro­posed remov­al of non-nat­ive Sitka Spruce and West­ern Hem­lock com­mer­cial plant­a­tion which is of low biod­iversity value and restock­ing with nat­ive tree spe­cies will have a mod­er­ate / slight effect on biod­iversity. The remov­al of wood­land is gen­er­ally not sup­por­ted and com­pens­at­ory plant­ing is required. How­ever, the pro­posed plant­ing of 160 nat­ive trees on site, com­bined with pro­posed off-site com­pens­at­ory plant­ing of a fur­ther 1,188 nat­ive trees across approx­im­ately 1.1ha to improve con­nectiv­ity between exist­ing wood­land hab­it­at (at the com­pens­at­ory plant­ing loc­a­tion near Tomin­toul) will provide suit­able com­pens­at­ory plant­ing for the loss of plant­a­tion wood­land and will in time deliv­er sig­ni­fic­ant biod­iversity enhance­ment. No pri­or­ity peat­land hab­it­ats or deep peat depos­its were recor­ded at the off-site com­pens­at­ory plant­ing location.
  2. The hab­it­at and pro­tec­ted spe­cies sur­vey iden­ti­fied that otter spraint was recor­ded along the River Avon, but no holts or rest­ing sites were found. There­fore, there should not be a sig­ni­fic­ant impact on otter con­nec­ted to the River Spey SAC as a res­ult of this development.
  3. Depend­ing on the tim­ing of con­struc­tion activ­it­ies, if more than three months have passed since the ori­gin­al sur­veys, updated pre-con­struc­tion checks for pro­tec­ted spe­cies includ­ing red squir­rel dreys and badger setts will be required pri­or to works com­men­cing. If pro­tec­ted spe­cies are detec­ted, a spe­cies pro­tec­tion plan detail­ing mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures to pre­vent dis­turb­ance and injury to pro­tec­ted spe­cies should be pro­duced and sub­mit­ted to the Park Author­ity for approv­al pri­or to works com­men­cing. In some instances, licences from NatureScot may be required.
  4. In addi­tion, it is recom­men­ded that no works should com­mence dur­ing the main breed­ing bird sea­son (March to August, inclus­ive) — this includes site clear­ance of veget­a­tion and trees. If work dur­ing the main breed­ing bird sea­son can­not be avoided, felling and con­struc­tion work should pro­ceed under super­vi­sion of an exper­i­enced eco­lo­gist, who will con­duct sur­veys to identi­fy all act­ive nests and pro­duce a spe­cies pro­tec­tion plan for nest­ing spe­cies. The SPP should be sub­mit­ted to the Park Author­ity pri­or to works com­men­cing for approval.
  5. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Land­scape Advisor does not con­sider that this pro­pos­al would res­ult in any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse land­scape and visu­al effects.

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 24 April 2026 Page 11 of 20

Whilst the pro­posed lar­der would be sub­stan­tially lar­ger than the exist­ing lar­der on the same site and would be loc­ated rel­at­ively close to the A939, it would be largely screened by a dense con­ifer plant­a­tion which sur­rounds the site. The new build­ing would be unlikely to be vis­ible from nearby recre­ation­al routes although there may be some elev­ated views of the roof struc­ture from close by hills. It is recom­men­ded that a dark col­oured clad­ding (prefer­ably black or dark brown) is selec­ted to min­im­ise intru­sion as it would merge more suc­cess­fully with the sur­round­ing ever­green wood­land. The plant­ing of nat­ive trees and shrubs around the new build­ing is welcomed.

  1. Glen­liv­et and Inveravon Com­munity Coun­cil and Kirk­mi­chael and Tomin­toul Com­munity Coun­cil were both con­sul­ted but did not respond.

Rep­res­ent­a­tions

  1. There were no rep­res­ent­a­tions to this application.

Apprais­al

  1. Sec­tion 25 of the 1997 Act as amended requires applic­a­tions to be determ­ined in accord­ance with the Devel­op­ment Plan. This com­prises Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 (LDP). Where there is con­flict between policies, NPF4 policies will be used.
  2. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions in this case are: the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment; land­scape and design; eco­lo­gic­al impacts; and access. These are con­sidered in detail below.

Prin­ciple of development

  1. This applic­a­tion is for the replace­ment of an exist­ing lar­der with a sub­stan­tially lar­ger single storey lar­der build­ing with gen­er­al pur­pose area. The use of the site for a lar­der has already been estab­lished and whilst the pro­pos­al intro­duces a con­sid­er­ably lar­ger struc­ture on the site, its over­all oper­a­tions will remain the same.
  2. NPF4 Policy 29: Rur­al devel­op­ment seeks to sup­port devel­op­ment pro­pos­als that con­trib­ute to the viab­il­ity, sus­tain­ab­il­ity and diversity of rur­al com­munit­ies and the

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 24 April 2026 Page 12 of 20

rur­al eco­nomy. The policy explains that pro­pos­als in rur­al areas should be suit­ably scaled, sited and designed to be in keep­ing with the char­ac­ter of the area.

  1. In addi­tion, LDP Policy 2: Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth, part 2.4 (oth­er eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment) sup­ports pro­pos­als that will help to extend the eco­nomy and enhance the range and qual­ity of eco­nom­ic oppor­tun­it­ies. Pro­pos­als should have no adverse envir­on­ment­al or amen­ity impacts, should be com­pat­ible with the exist­ing busi­ness activ­ity in the area and sup­port the vital­ity and viab­il­ity of the loc­al economy.
  2. The new lar­der is loc­ated on Glen­liv­et Estate and the pro­posed replace­ment lar­der and gen­er­al-pur­pose build­ing will sup­port estate oper­a­tions that con­trib­ute to hab­it­at man­age­ment, deer con­trol and con­ser­va­tion graz­ing. Accord­ing to the applic­a­tion ‘…The estate provides loc­al employ­ment and con­trib­utes to the rur­al eco­nomy through land man­age­ment, tour­ism, and food pro­duc­tion. The new build­ing will improve work­ing con­di­tions, sup­port these oper­a­tions, and enhance the estate’s resi­li­ence, thereby sus­tain­ing jobs and com­munity involvement’.
  3. It is recog­nised that Glen­liv­et Estate is an oper­a­tion­al estate respons­ible for the man­age­ment of a sig­ni­fic­ant area of land and this pro­pos­al will sup­port and improve the ongo­ing oper­a­tion of the busi­ness. The pro­pos­al is in keep­ing with the wider func­tions of the estate and is accept­able in prin­ciple sub­ject to the detailed con­sid­er­a­tion of design and oth­er mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions. As such, it com­plies with NPF4 Policy 29 and LDP Policy 2.

Land­scape and design

  1. NPF4 Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places sets out that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als which affect a Nation­al Park will only be sup­por­ted where the object­ives of des­ig­na­tion and the over­all integ­rity of the area will not be com­prom­ised and 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. In addi­tion, NPF4 Policy 14: Design, qual­ity and place seeks pro­pos­als to be designed to improve the qual­ity of an area and to be con­sist­ent with the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places. NPF4 Policy 7: His­tor­ic assets and places seeks to pro­tect and enhance his­tor­ic envir­on­ment assets and places.

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  1. LDP Policy 5: Land­scape sets out that there will be a pre­sump­tion against any devel­op­ment that does not con­serve or enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter or spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park. Pro­pos­als that do not com­ple­ment or enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter of the Nation­al Park will only be per­mit­ted where they are out­weighed by social, envir­on­ment­al or eco­nom­ic bene­fits of nation­al import­ance and all adverse effects on the set­ting have been min­im­ised and mitigated.
  2. LDP Policy 3: Design and place­mak­ing requires pro­pos­als to (amongst oth­er things) use land­scap­ing and mater­i­als that will com­ple­ment the set­ting of the devel­op­ment, be sym­path­et­ic to the pat­tern and char­ac­ter of the sur­round­ing area and pro­tect the amen­ity of neighbours.
  3. LDP Policy 9: Cul­tur­al her­it­age requires pro­pos­als affect­ing a lis­ted build­ing or its set­ting to pre­serve the spe­cial qual­it­ies and enhance its char­ac­ter. Lay­out, design, mater­i­als, scale and use of the devel­op­ment must be appro­pri­ate to the char­ac­ter of the build­ing and its setting.
  4. The devel­op­ment site forms part of a small rur­al group of three build­ings, centred around B lis­ted Kylad­rochit Lodge and Stead­ing. The small exist­ing lar­der will be replaced with a sub­stan­tially lar­ger lar­der and gen­er­al-pur­pose build­ing which will be rect­an­gu­lar in form with a pitched roof. The build­ing will extend to 12 metres wide by 36 metres long and the exter­i­or walls and roof will be clad in a col­oured plasticol coated cladding.
  5. The Nation­al Park Authority’s Land­scape Advisor is sat­is­fied that whilst the build­ing is sub­stan­tially lar­ger than the exist­ing lar­der and is in close prox­im­ity to the A939, it is sur­roun­ded by dense con­ifer plant­a­tion which will screen the build­ing from the road. It is also unlikely to be vis­ible from nearby recre­ation­al routes, although there may be some elev­ated views of the roof struc­ture from nearby hills (but is not vis­ible from nearby view­point Still’). As such, it is recom­men­ded that a dark col­oured clad­ding is used to integ­rate the build­ing with­in the sur­round­ing ever­green wood­land and min­im­ise any intru­sion of nearby elev­ated views. The col­our indic­ated on the plans is bottle green, although the final

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 24 April 2026 Page 14 of 20

col­our is still to be determ­ined. As such, this will be con­di­tioned to ensure that the col­our is appro­pri­ate with­in this context.

  1. The simple design and shape of the build­ing is char­ac­ter­ist­ic of agri­cul­tur­al and estate build­ings with­in this rur­al area. The new build­ing is slightly removed from Kylardrochit Lodge and Stead­ing itself and will be largely con­tained with­in the exist­ing lar­der site which will not intrude on or impact on the lis­ted build­ings. Whilst some plant­a­tion wood­land is pro­posed to be removed as part of the pro­pos­al which may have a tem­por­ary impact on the set­ting of the lis­ted build­ings, new nat­ive plant­ing is pro­posed. The replace­ment lar­der build­ing will still largely be con­tained with­in a wooded con­text and over­all is con­sidered accept­able in respect of sit­ing and design and will not res­ult in any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse land­scape and visu­al effects on the lis­ted build­ings or their wider setting.
  2. There­fore, it is con­sidered that the design of the pro­pos­al is accept­able and com­plies with NPF4 Policies 4, 7 and 14 and Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Policies 3, 5 and 9.

Eco­logy

  1. NPF4 Policy 1: Tack­ling the cli­mate and nature crises and Policy 2: Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion require pro­pos­als to give weight to the glob­al cli­mate and nature crises and be designed to min­im­ise emis­sions and adapt to cur­rent and future risks from cli­mate change.
  2. NPF4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity requires devel­op­ment pro­pos­als to con­trib­ute to the enhance­ment of biod­iversity, and NPF4 Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places to ensure that devel­op­ment will not have an unac­cept­able impact on the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment, or any sig­ni­fic­ant effect on European Site des­ig­na­tions includ­ing Spe­cial Areas of Conservation.
  3. This is also reflec­ted in LDP Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age, which requires new devel­op­ment to not adversely affect the integ­rity of des­ig­nated sites, the Nation­al Park or pro­tec­ted spe­cies or habitats.

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 24 April 2026 Page 15 of 20

  1. NPF4 Policy 6: Forestry, wood­land and trees sup­ports pro­pos­als that enhance, expand and improve wood­land and tree cov­er. There is a pre­sump­tion against wood­land remov­al unless it will achieve a clearly defined pub­lic bene­fit and com­pens­at­ory plant­ing will be expected.
  2. The pro­pos­al util­ises an exist­ing site that has been pre­vi­ously developed. It is not at risk from flood­ing and has been chosen to bal­ance oper­a­tion­al neces­sity and envir­on­ment­al sens­it­iv­ity. The pro­pos­al will incor­por­ate sus­tain­able mater­i­als with low-impact con­struc­tion meth­ods to cre­ate a build­ing that will be able to with­stand a chan­ging cli­mate and improve the estate’s capa­city to man­age hab­it­ats, con­trol deer and sup­port wider con­ser­va­tion activ­it­ies. As such it is con­sidered to com­ply with the pro­vi­sions of NPF4 Policies 1 and 2.
  3. The pro­pos­al lies approx­im­ately 130 metres from the River Avon, which is a trib­u­tary of the River Spey and part of the River Spey SAC. As the devel­op­ment pro­poses soak-away drain­age fea­tures and the install­a­tion of a sep­tic tank which has the poten­tial to impact on the water envir­on­ment, a Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan (CEMP) will be con­di­tioned and should be sub­mit­ted and agreed with the Park Author­ity pri­or to con­struc­tion com­men­cing on site. The CEMP should include a detailed, site-spe­cif­ic pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion plan (PPP) with meas­ures to pro­tect the River Avon and the water envir­on­ment from all sources of pol­lu­tion (sed­i­ment, oils, fuels etc).
  4. The Phase 1 Hab­it­at Sur­vey and Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies Sur­vey under­taken for the devel­op­ment site iden­ti­fied that otter spraint was recor­ded along the River Avon, but no holts or rest­ing sites were found. There­fore, there should not be a sig­ni­fic­ant impact on otter con­nec­ted to the River Spey SAC as a res­ult of this devel­op­ment. How­ever, as iden­ti­fied by the Park Authority’s Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer, depend­ing on the tim­ing of con­struc­tion activ­it­ies, if more than three months have passed since the ori­gin­al sur­veys, updated pre-con­struc­tion checks for pro­tec­ted spe­cies includ­ing red squir­rel dreys and badger setts will be required pri­or to works com­men­cing. This will be secured by condition.
  5. The site also has poten­tial to sup­port a vari­ety of wood­land bird spe­cies includ­ing cross­bills (which can breed early in the year). There is poten­tial for dis­turb­ance of

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 24 April 2026 Page 16 of 20

nest­ing birds or destruc­tion of nests and eggs. A con­di­tion will there­fore be included to require that no works should com­mence dur­ing the main breed­ing bird sea­son (March to August, inclus­ive), or if work dur­ing the main breed­ing bird sea­son can­not be avoided, felling and con­struc­tion work should pro­ceed under the super­vi­sion of an exper­i­enced eco­lo­gist, who will con­duct sur­veys to identi­fy all act­ive nests and pro­duce a spe­cies pro­tec­tion plan for nest­ing species.

  1. The pro­pos­al includes the remov­al of 0.19 hec­tares of non-nat­ive Sitka Spruce and West­ern Hem­lock com­mer­cial plant­a­tion (totalling 303 trees). Whilst NPF4 Policy 6 does not sup­port wood­land remov­al, in this case the wood­land is low biod­iversity value plant­a­tion which accord­ing to the Arbor­i­cul­tur­al Report would have been sub­ject to clear-felling in the near future as part of the estate’s long-term wood­land man­age­ment strategy. Sub­stan­tial com­pens­at­ory plant­ing is pro­posed by way of 160 nat­ive trees on site, com­bined with pro­posed off-site com­pens­at­ory plant­ing of a fur­ther 1,188 nat­ive trees across approx­im­ately 1.1ha which will improve con­nectiv­ity between exist­ing wood­land hab­it­at (at the com­pens­at­ory plant­ing loc­a­tion near Tomin­toul). This will provide suit­able com­pens­at­ory plant­ing for the loss of the plant­a­tion wood­land and will in time deliv­er sig­ni­fic­ant biod­iversity enhancement.
  2. With the inclu­sion of the con­di­tions set out above to mit­ig­ate any impacts on pro­tec­ted spe­cies and the River Spey SAC, it is con­sidered that this pro­pos­al com­plies with NPF4 Policies 3 and 4 and also LDP Policy 4. Whilst the pro­pos­al includes the remov­al of plant­a­tion wood­land, adequate nat­ive com­pens­at­ory plant­ing will be provided which will deliv­er biod­iversity enhance­ment and as such com­plies with NPF4 Policy 6.

Access

  1. NPF4 Policy 13: Sus­tain­able trans­port sup­ports pro­pos­als that demon­strate they have prop­erly con­sidered the trans­port require­ments in line with the sus­tain­able travel and invest­ment hier­arch­ies. It also refers to require­ments for devel­op­ment pro­pos­als for sig­ni­fic­ant traffic gen­er­at­ing uses. In addi­tion, LDP Policy 3: Design and place­mak­ing requires devel­op­ment to have an appro­pri­ate means of access, park­ing and pro­mote sus­tain­able trans­port meth­ods and act­ive travel.

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 24 April 2026 Page 17 of 20

  1. The lar­der and gen­er­al-pur­pose build­ing will not be access­ible to the pub­lic and is not con­sidered to be a high traffic gen­er­at­ing use. There is an appro­pri­ate exist­ing access to the site via a private track which dir­ectly con­nects to the A939. There will be room for vehicle park­ing around the build­ing as well as at the adja­cent Kylad­rochit Lodge.
  2. As such, the access arrange­ments are accept­able and in accord­ance with the rel­ev­ant pro­vi­sions of NPF4 Policy 13 and LDP Policy 3.

Con­clu­sion

  1. NPF4 Policy 29: Rur­al devel­op­ment and LDP Policy 2: Eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment both encour­age pro­pos­als that con­trib­ute to the viab­il­ity and viab­il­ity of rur­al com­munit­ies and the rur­al eco­nomy where they are appro­pri­ately scaled and designed and com­pat­ible with their sur­round­ings. This pro­pos­al for the replace­ment lar­der and gen­er­al-pur­pose build­ing will sup­port the ongo­ing land man­age­ment oper­a­tions on Glen­liv­et Estate and will make a pos­it­ive con­tri­bu­tion to the under­ly­ing prin­ciples of these policies.
  2. It is acknow­ledged that the replace­ment build­ing is sig­ni­fic­antly big­ger than the exist­ing lar­der and will require the remov­al of 0.19 hec­tares of plant­a­tion wood­land as well as being in the vicin­ity of lis­ted build­ings. How­ever, the new build­ing will con­tin­ue to sit with­in a wood­land set­ting and there will be no sig­ni­fic­ant impacts on the lis­ted build­ings, their set­ting or the wider land­scape. Appro­pri­ate com­pens­at­ory plant­ing com­pris­ing nat­ive wood­land will res­ult in wider biod­iversity enhancements.
  3. There­fore, sub­ject to the con­di­tions out­lined, this pro­pos­al com­plies with the rel­ev­ant NPF4 and LDP policies and there are no oth­er mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions which out­weigh this con­clu­sion. It is there­fore recom­men­ded that the applic­a­tion be approved.

Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 24 April 2026 Page 18 of 20

Recom­mend­a­tion

That mem­bers of the com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to APPROVE the applic­a­tion for the demoli­tion of estate lar­der and erec­tion of a single storey steel portal framed replace­ment lar­der with gen­er­al pur­pose area at Kyl­nad­rochit Lodge, Tomin­toul, Ballindal­loch, Moray, AB37 9HJ sub­ject to the fol­low­ing conditions:

Con­di­tions

Those con­di­tions lis­ted below in bold text are sus­pens­ive con­di­tions, which require to be dis­charged pri­or to imple­ment­a­tion of the development.

  1. The devel­op­ment to which this per­mis­sion relates must be begun not later than the expir­a­tion of three years begin­ning with the date on which the per­mis­sion is gran­ted. Reas­on: The time lim­it con­di­tion is imposed in order to com­ply with the require­ments of sec­tion 58 of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997 as amended.
  2. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until a Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan (CEMP) is sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. The CEMP shall include but not be lim­ited to: a) a detailed, site-spe­cif­ic pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion plan (PPP) with meas­ures to pro­tect the River Avon and the water envir­on­ment from all sources of pol­lu­tion (sed­i­ment, oils, fuels etc); b) The approach to site pre­par­a­tion, ground­works / ground mod­el­ling, soil excav­a­tion and storage; c) Ref­er­ence to pre-con­struc­tion eco­logy checks and sub­sequent spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans if required.

    All con­struc­tion works on the site shall be car­ried out in strict accord­ance with the approved Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan.


Item 8 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 24 April 2026 Page 19 of 20

Reas­on: In the interests of pro­tect­ing the biod­iversity and the envir­on­ment in accord­ance with NPF4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

  1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a pre-com­mence­ment sur­vey for pro­tec­ted spe­cies has been under­taken in accord­ance with cur­rent NatureScot guid­ance by a suit­ably exper­i­enced and licensed eco­lo­gic­al sur­vey­or. Depend­ing on the res­ults, a Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan (SPP) detail­ing appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures shall be sub­mit­ted as part of the Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment Man­age­ment Plan (CEMP). No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until the SPP has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. There­after the plan will be imple­men­ted in full and over­seen by a suit­ably qual­i­fied Eco­lo­gic­al Clerk of Works. Reas­on: To ensure the pro­tec­tion of pro­tec­ted spe­cies in accord­ance with Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity, and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.
  2. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence (includ­ing demoli­tion and felling of trees) dur­ing the breed­ing bird sea­son (March to August). If this can­not be avoided, works shall pro­ceed under super­vi­sion of an exper­i­enced eco­lo­gist, who will con­duct sur­veys to identi­fy all act­ive nests and pro­duce a Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan (SPP) for nest­ing spe­cies. The SPP (Breed­ing Birds) shall be sub­mit­ted to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity for approv­al pri­or to works commencing. Reas­on: To ensure the pro­tec­tion of pro­tec­ted spe­cies in accord­ance with Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity, and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.
  3. **No devel­op­ment