Item8AALionsFaceQuarryReport20210258DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 10/12/21

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PRO­POSED: Erec­tion of 8 Indus­tri­al Units (Class 4 — Busi­ness) Asso­ci­ated Infra­struc­ture and Form­a­tion of Access at Lions Face Quarry Depot Brae­mar Aberdeenshire

REF­ER­ENCE: 2021/0258/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Inver­cauld Estate

DATE CALLED-IN: 16 August 2021

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve sub­ject to conditions

CASE OFFICER: Stephanie Wade, Plan­ning Officer

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CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site 0 25 50 Meters A 100 P Cemy 323 MS Cre­ag Chonich Brae­mar Castleton achpodryne Cor Fer­agie 420m Dubh Chlais N Cre­ag Club Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2021. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber 100040965 1RY ROAD (A93) Pit (dis) CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 10/12/21 OLD MIL­IT­ARY ROAD (A93) 2

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 10/12/21

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion 1. 2. The applic­a­tion site is a former quarry which has been used in more recent years by the Aber­deen­shire Council’s Roads Main­ten­ance Depart­ment as a depot. The site known as ​“Lion’s Face Quarry” lies with­in the grounds of Inver­cauld Estate approx­im­ately 1.5 miles north-east of the centre of Brae­mar. Access is via the south­ern side of the A93 Old Mil­it­ary Road, in which a track leads in par­al­lel to the A93 in a west­erly dir­ec­tion with­in the site to serve a wider hard­core area. With­in the site are exist­ing light infra­struc­ture, and two sheds in poor repair. To the north­ern side of the A93 lies the River Dee which is sep­ar­ated from the road by agri­cul­tur­al fields. The sur­round­ing land on the south­ern side of the A93 is man­aged plant­a­tion wood­land, with the imme­di­ate land adjoin­ing the site being clear-felled.

Regard­ing des­ig­nated areas, the applic­a­tion site is loc­ated with­in 200m of the Bal­loch­buie Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area; Bal­loch­buie Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion and the Cre­ag Clunie and the Lion’s Face Site of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest. The River Dee Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion is also near to the site being loc­ated on the north­ern side of the A93. The site lies with­in the Deeside and Loch­nagar Nation­al Scen­ic Area and is with­in the vicin­ity of Core Paths UDE16 and UDE17. The site sits to the imme­di­ate south west of the Inver­cauld Garden and Designed Land­scape des­ig­na­tion (GDL00224) and the A lis­ted Inver­cauld House, includ­ing Butler’s Flat, Secretary’s Flat and Ancil­lary Struc­tures (LB2995).

Pro­pos­al 3. 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=QXO2V7SI0CH00

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
PLANS
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan 1:10000		09/08/21	16/08/21
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan	6183-
21_EX_LO C	01/07/21	16/08/21
Plan — Exist­ing Over­all Site Plan	6183-
21_EX_001	01/04/21	16/08/21
Plan — Exist­ing Site Plan	6183-
21_EX_002	01/04/21	16/08/21
Plan — Pro­posed Over­all Site Plan	6183-
21_PL_001	01/04/21	16/08/21

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 10/12/21

Plan — Pro­posed Site Plan | 6183- 21_PL_002 | 01/04/21 | 16/08/21 Plan — Pro­posed Plan and Elev­a­tions | 6183- 21_PL_003 | 01/04/21 | 16/08/21 Plan — Site Sec­tions and Exist­ing Pan­or­ama | 6183- 21_PL_004 | 01/04/21 | 16/08/21 Plan — Access Junc­tion Vis­ib­il­ity Splays | 18085 007 | 21/10/21 | 03/11/21 SUP­PORT­ING INFORM­A­TION | | | Oth­er — Sup­port­ing Plan­ning State­ment | 100367459 | 01/07/21 | 16/08/21 Oth­er — Tree Sur­vey, Arbor­i­cul­tur­al Impact and Tree Pro­tec­tion Plan | | 26/06/21 | 16/08/21 Oth­er — Ground Assess­ment and Drain­age Recom­mend­a­tion Report | ²⁷⁷⁶⁄₂₁ | 01/06/21 | 16/08/21 Oth­er — Bat Sur­vey Report | | 02/12/20 | 16/08/21 Oth­er — Artist Impres­sion | | | 16/08/21 Oth­er- Exten­ded Phase I Hab­it­at Sur­vey and Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies Assess­ment | | 03/12/20 | 17/09/21

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

This applic­a­tion seeks plan­ning per­mis­sion for the erec­tion of eight light indus­tri­al units togeth­er with an amen­ity WC block, vehicu­lar park­ing areas and water and waste water ser­vices. The units are pro­posed for use under Use Class 4 — Busi­ness. The pro­pos­al seeks to offer the indus­tri­al units in two sep­ar­ate blocks one with 5 units and one with 3 units. The amen­ity block would adjoin the north-west­ern elev­a­tion of the south­ern block. The indus­tri­al units take form from a steel portal frame con­struc­tion with steel sheeted elev­a­tions and a steel roller shut­ter door; all to be col­oured forest green. The roof is pro­posed as a shal­low, mono-pitched design also of forest green col­oured steel sheet­ing. Each unit is serve by car park­ing space and a lar­ger vehicu­lar park­ing space to the prin­cip­al elev­a­tion and a sep­ar­ate area for fur­ther vehicu­lar park­ing for 9 vehicles is pro­posed to be loc­ated to the south east of the indus­tri­al units. An improved vehicu­lar access is pro­posed to the A93 and the pro­pos­al is to be con­nec­ted to a private sep­tic tank foul water disposal.

The applic­a­tion is sup­por­ted by the fol­low­ing information:

a) Sup­port­ing Plan­ning State­ment: out­lines the rationale for the applic­a­tion sub­mis­sion includ­ing the policy con­text. The doc­u­ment states that the Estate has played a long­stand­ing role in facil­it­at­ing the loc­al eco­nomy in the pro­vi­sion of land and built devel­op­ment for occu­pa­tion by oth­ers and in response to a num­ber of enquir­ies seek­ing premises suited to small scale enter­prises, the Estate under­took a review and found there was no exist­ing stock of premises apart from the former saw­mill build­ings at Kei­loch which are unsuited to altern­at­ive use due to their

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 10/12/21

con­struc­tion, con­di­tion and scale. The applic­a­tion looks to address the need for rel­at­ively low cost premises suited to occu­pa­tion by loc­al busi­nesses at the applic­a­tion site. The quarry is cur­rently used by the Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil in con­nec­tion with road main­ten­ance oper­a­tions and this use will con­tin­ue on an adja­cent sec­tion of land to the applic­a­tion pro­pos­al which will util­ise the same, new access arrangement.

b) Drain­age Inform­a­tion: The Ground Assess­ment and Drain­age Recom­mend­a­tion Report con­firms that there are no exist­ing foul drain­age pro­vi­sion on site and a 3,800-litre sep­tic tank link­ing to a foul water soakaway is pro­posed. Regard­ing sur­face water dis­pos­al, am infilt­ra­tion trench is pro­posed for the sur­face water run-off from the roof areas and hard­stand­ing areas pri­or to dis­pos­al to the ground.

c) Eco­logy Sur­veys: An Exten­ded Phase I Hab­it­at Sur­vey and Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies Assess­ment has been under­taken for the site. The sur­vey notes that the site is an area of cleared ground with hard stand­ing and min­im­al eco­lo­gic­al value. 26 con­ifers are to be felled to facil­it­ate the site access and the major­ity of con­ifers will be retained in the area and the wider sur­round­ing area will not be dir­ectly impacted by the pro­posed work and the wider land­scape will not be changed. There was evid­ence of red squir­rel activ­ity in the area and appro­pri­ate steps to min­im­ise dis­turb­ance to any breed­ing red squir­rel must be taken dur­ing con­struc­tion. It is not anti­cip­ated that the pro­posed works will have an adverse long term impact on red squir­rels. No sign of pine mar­tin signs was recor­ded. The impact of the devel­op­ment on any bat poten­tially roost­ing in the trees is expec­ted to be low and the com­mut­ing and for­aging habits will remain intact. There were no signs of any oth­er pro­tec­ted spe­cies recor­ded on site dur­ing the sur­veys. There is a low like­li­hood to the presence/​disturbance of rare, pro­tec­ted spe­cies of birds although there is a high like­li­hood of com­mon breed­ing birds being with­in the adja­cent site. The sur­vey demon­strates the pro­pos­al will have a low impact over­all on any wild­life with­in the site and sur­round­ing area, and a low impact on the exist­ing hab­it­at. A Bat Sur­vey was also sub­mit­ted to assess the like­li­hood of bats roost­ing at the two exist­ing build­ings at the site, and this demon­strated a neg­li­gible and mod­er­ate suit­ab­il­ity for the pres­ence of bat roosts. The pro­posed works will not have a det­ri­ment­al impact on the bat pop­u­la­tion at the site as no bat roosts were iden­ti­fied and the for­aging and com­mut­ing hab­it­at will remain the same. There was evid­ence of nest­ing birds hav­ing pre­vi­ously nes­ted in Build­ing I and it is recom­men­ded that pri­or to any demoli­tion works com­men­cing dur­ing the breed­ing bird sea­son, a nest check is car­ried out.

d) Tree Sur­vey: The sub­mit­ted sur­vey con­firms that 26 trees are pro­posed to be felled for the cre­ation of the new access track, vis­ib­il­ity splay and park­ing area. These trees are 19 Cat­egory C, and 7 Cat­egory B. The report states that best prac­tice is to retain cat­egory B where pos­sible and cat­egory C trees should not usu­ally be retained where they pose a con­straint on devel­op­ment. The report states that the cat­egory B trees to be felled include a mix of non-nat­ive Nor­way spruce and 4 Scots pine. The felling would have a short term impact due to the loss of the trees but in the long term, com­pens­at­ory plant­ing is pro­posed redu­cing the Arbor­i­cul­tur­al impact to low. Root pro­tec­tion areas are also recom­men­ded with­in the report.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 10/12/21

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

His­tory 7. The site has no recent plan­ning his­tory. His­tor­ic­ally an applic­a­tion was sub­mit­ted and sub­sequently with­drawn in 2005 under ref­er­ence 05/331/CP for the ​‘Oper­a­tion of Com­post­ing Plan’ on part of the 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 (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 | X POLICY 10 | RESOURCES | X POLICY 11 | DEVELOPER CON­TRI­BU­TIONS | X

8. 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 9. 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

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 10/12/21

Policy 7	Renew­able Energy Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance
Policy 8	Open Space, 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 (2015)	X

CON­SULTA­TIONS Sum­mary of the main issues raised by consultees

1. His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land note that the pro­pos­al has the poten­tial to affect the Inver­cauld Garden and Designed Land­scape but after con­sid­er­ing the inform­a­tion, they do not have any com­ments to make on the proposal.

2. NatureScot note that the pro­posed devel­op­ment is loc­ated with­in 200 metres from three sites des­ig­nated for hab­it­at and spe­cies which are: Bal­loch­buie Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area [SPA]; Bal­loch­buie Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion [SAC] and Cre­ag Clunie and the Lion’s Face Site of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest [SSSI]. NatureScot con­sider that the pro­pos­al is unlikely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on any of the qual­i­fy­ing hab­it­ats or spe­cies either dir­ectly or indir­ectly and advise that an Appro­pri­ate Assess­ment is not required. Regard­ing the SSSI, the Team advises that the nat­ur­al her­it­age interests of the SSSI will not be affected by the pro­pos­al. NatureScot ref­er­ence the prox­im­ity of the site to the River Dee SAC but con­firm that they do not anti­cip­ate any neg­at­ive effects because it is usu­al for the foul treat­ment and sur­face water drain­age pro­pos­als to meet the stand­ards required.

3. Aber­deen­shire Envir­on­ment­al Health Officer has no objec­tions to the scheme although requests the inclu­sion of a plan­ning con­di­tion to obtain the details of the water sup­ply arrange­ments on site to ensure that the devel­op­ment is appro­pri­ately served by an adequate, pot­able water supply.

4. Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Flood Risk and Coast Pro­tec­tion Officer has no objec­tion to the applic­a­tion fol­low­ing review of the sub­mit­ted Drain­age Recom­mend­a­tion Report.

5. Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Roads Depart­ment ori­gin­ally had a hold­ing objec­tion requir­ing the sub­mis­sion of fur­ther inform­a­tion in rela­tion to the vis­ib­il­ity splays for the exist­ing junc­tion. Fol­low­ing receipt of this inform­a­tion the Roads Team con­firm that the required vis­ib­il­ity splay has been demon­strated as achiev­able and the Ser­vice does not object to the applic­a­tion sub­ject to the inclu­sion of plan­ning con­di­tions relat­ing to: access gradi­ent, access pav­ing, and pro­vi­sion of vis­ib­il­ity splays.

6. Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Con­tam­in­ated Land Officer con­firms that the site is a quarry later used as a coun­cil depot in which salt and fuel were stored and pre­vi­ous remedi­al work recom­mend­a­tions from 2004 were not car­ried out at that time. The Officer there­fore recom­mends the inclu­sion of a plan­ning con­di­tion for the sub­mis­sion of an intrus­ive invest­ig­a­tion to account for poten­tial con­tam­in­ant addi­tion, move­ment, and break­down as well as remedi­ation of the on-site fuel tank.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 10/12/21

1. Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Envir­on­ment Plan­ner South (Built Her­it­age) has no objec­tions to the scheme, not­ing the site’s prox­im­ity to the Des­ig­nated Gar­dens of Inver­cauld and to the lis­ted Inver­cauld House and asso­ci­ated struc­tures. The Officer con­siders the site is well screened and the site dips slightly cre­at­ing a visu­al bar­ri­er between the designed land­scape and the pro­pos­al. The Officer con­siders that due to the topo­graphy of the site and the dens­ity of the trees, the units would not be vis­ible in the wider landscape.

2. Aber­deen­shire Council’s Developer Oblig­a­tions Officer has reviewed the pro­pos­al and con­firms no con­tri­bu­tions are required as part of this devel­op­ment proposal.

3. Scot­tish Forestry advises that the CNPA should test the applic­a­tion against the Scot­tish Government’s Con­trol of Wood­land Remov­al Policy and if thought neces­sary, require com­pens­at­ory plant­ing to be under­taken by way of plan­ning con­di­tion on any sub­sequent consent.

4. CNPA Out­door Access Officer ori­gin­ally reques­ted the sub­mis­sion of fur­ther inform­a­tion to under­stand how the pro­pos­al will affect the Core Paths UDE16 and UDE17. As it stands Core Path UDE17 is loc­ated as such that it will become con­cur­rent with the pro­posed new access road into the site.

5. CNPA Land­scape Officer con­siders that the pro­posed devel­op­ment would res­ult in some adverse land­scape and visu­al effects, how­ever sub­ject to mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures being incor­por­ated, the pro­pos­al would be unlikely to res­ult in sig­ni­fic­ant land­scape and visu­al effects that would affect the integ­rity of the Nation­al Park landscape.

6. The sens­it­iv­ity of the site is reduced by the pres­ence of the former quarry and being cur­rently used for road main­ten­ance works as well as views from the A93 being filtered along some stretches by inter­ven­ing trees and land­form banks. The Officer recom­mends the inclu­sion of fur­ther mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures to include: the use of wooden clad­ding for the build­ings, replacement/​enhance­ment tree plant­ing, relo­ca­tion of the car park to increase the width of sep­ar­a­tion to screen fur­ther from the A93, a con­struc­tion meth­od state­ment and light­ing inform­a­tion and land­scap­ing details.

7. CNPA Eco­logy Officer has reviewed the sub­mit­ted eco­lo­gic­al inform­a­tion and fol­low­ing a site vis­it has the fol­low­ing com­ments. The Officer con­siders that the devel­op­ment may res­ult in dis­turb­ance to for­aging otter and pine marten along the river, which can be mit­ig­ated by pro­tec­tion meas­ures incor­por­ated dur­ing the con­struc­tion phase includ­ing spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans. The Officer also recom­mends plan­ning con­di­tions for: a light­ing plan designed to min­im­ise light pol­lu­tion and com­pens­at­ory tree plant­ing for the loss of 26 trees. A com­pens­at­ory nest plan should be sub­mit­ted for the loss of swal­low nests with­in the cur­rent build­ing on site. A pre- demolition/​felling check is required for the small build­ings and trees to be removed for pine marten, red squir­rel and breed­ing birds. The River Dee is adja­cent to the site and a high spe­cific­a­tion wastewa­ter treat­ment and sur­face water plan should be spe­cified for this devel­op­ment. The quarry site is very suit­able for nest­ing per­eg­rine and con­sulta­tion should be under­taken with BTO and RSPB to determ­ine wheth­er there

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 10/12/21

are any records which can form part of a pre-con­struc­tion breed­ing bird sur­vey by condition.

1. Aber­deen­shire South Access Pan­el notes that con­sid­er­a­tion should be giv­en for the pro­vi­sion of a dis­abled toi­let and dis­abled park­ing. The lat­ter of which should be suit­able for wheel­chairs with a hard, smooth sur­face. The com­ments are addi­tion­al to the require­ments of the Build­ing Stand­ards Verifier.

2. Brae­mar Com­munity Coun­cil sup­port the applic­a­tion not­ing that the Lion’s Face Quarry is an area which would bene­fit from devel­op­ment and the pro­pos­al would provide some much needed com­mer­cial units for the vil­lage. The Com­munity Council’s full com­ments can be found at Appendix 2.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. The applic­a­tion was advert­ised when first sub­mit­ted. One let­ter of pub­lic rep­res­ent­a­tion has been received not­ing their sup­port for the scheme. A copy of their response can be found at Appendix 3. With­in the rep­res­ent­a­tion, the respond­ent makes ref­er­ence to their own require­ment for a premises to devel­op their busi­ness and with­in the loc­al­ity of Braemar.

APPRAIS­AL

1. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions are con­sidered to be: the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment; the impact upon the land­scape, lay­out and design; the envir­on­ment­al impacts; the his­tor­ic envir­on­ment impacts; access and ser­vi­cing and developer contributions.

Prin­ciple of Development

1. Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth of the Cairngorms nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that devel­op­ments that con­trib­ute to the pro­vi­sion of an iden­ti­fied loc­al eco­nom­ic need, such as the pro­vi­sion of small busi­ness units, will be par­tic­u­larly encour­aged. Cri­terion 2.4: Oth­er Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment per­mits devel­op­ment which sup­ports or extends the eco­nomy, or which enhances the range and qual­ity of eco­nom­ic oppor­tun­it­ies or facil­it­ies with­in the Nation­al Park, where they:

a) Have no adverse envir­on­ment­al or amen­ity impacts on the site or neigh­bour­ing areas; and b) Are compatible/​com­ple­ment­ary with exist­ing busi­ness activ­ity in the area; and c) Sup­port the vital­ity and viab­il­ity of the loc­al economy.

1. The devel­op­ment seeks to address a loc­al need iden­ti­fied for low cost, busi­ness premises to serve loc­al busi­nesses with­in the Brae­mar area. This need is sup­por­ted by the Com­munity Coun­cil who con­sider that the pro­pos­al would provide some much needed com­mer­cial units for the vil­lage in a loc­a­tion which would bene­fit from devel­op­ment. The one let­ter of pub­lic rep­res­ent­a­tion received also notes their sup­port for the scheme as a loc­al busi­ness look­ing for small scale busi­ness premises with­in the

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 10/12/21

area. The pro­pos­al is there­fore con­sidered to sup­port the vital­ity and viab­il­ity of the loc­al economy.

1. The applic­a­tion site, known as Lion’s Face Quarry is a brown­field site, com­pris­ing cleared land, hard­stand­ing and a couple of build­ings in poor con­di­tion. Sur­round­ing the site is plant­a­tion wood­land. The Quarry has been used for a num­ber of years by the Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil in con­nec­tion with road main­ten­ance oper­a­tions, how­ever it is under­stood that the site is under­used and has capa­city to accom­mod­ate fur­ther com­pat­ible uses on site. The pro­posed erec­tion of Class 4 busi­ness premises on site is there­fore con­sidered to be com­pat­ible with the adja­cent Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil oper­a­tions and makes use of an exist­ing brown­field site. The prin­ciple of devel­op­ment is there­fore con­sidered to be accept­able in accord­ance with Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sub­ject to com­pli­ance with oth­er rel­ev­ant Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies as out­lined in more detail 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 com­prises a block of eight light indus­tri­al units and ancil­lary facil­it­ies upon exist­ing hard­stand­ing near the former Lion’s Face Quarry. The build­ings are pro­posed to be of steel frame con­struc­tion, with sheet steel walls and roofs, and steel roller shut­ter doors, to be ​‘forest green’ in col­our. The pro­pos­al lies with­in the Upper Deeside — Inver­cauld Land­scape Char­ac­ter Area for which includes the dis­tinct­ive strath land­form and lin­ear fea­ture of the River Dee, rocky hills and exposed crags, extens­ive gla­cial-flu­vi­al depos­its along the edges of the flood­plain, extens­ive pine wood­land and his­tor­ic land­scape fea­tures asso­ci­ated with Inver­cauld House designed landscape.

3. The CNPA Land­scape Officer con­siders that the land­scape pos­sesses some capa­city for the type of devel­op­ment being pro­posed sub­ject to the finer details of the scheme being agreed and mit­ig­a­tion being under­taken by way of addi­tion­al plant­ing, com­pens­at­ory plant­ing for the tree loss and details on the con­struc­tion and light­ing. It is there­fore pro­posed that these ele­ments are con­firmed by the addi­tion of plan­ning con­di­tions on any sub­sequent decision notice.

4. It is acknow­ledged that the pro­posed devel­op­ment would be loc­ated out­side of the set­tle­ment of Brae­mar and would con­trast to the pre­vail­ing rur­al land­scape char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the sur­round­ing site. How­ever, the sens­it­iv­ity of the site to the pro­posed devel­op­ment is reduced by the pres­ence of the former quarry and the exist­ing hard­stand­ing as well as by the exist­ing com­mer­cial use for road main­ten­ance oper­a­tions. The sit­ing of the pro­pos­al, util­ising under­used, brown­field land for an intens­i­fied com­mer­cial use to that exist­ing, togeth­er with its prox­im­ity to the vil­lage and road net­work is con­sidered to be accept­able in this case. The sit­ing in this loc­a­tion is also sup­por­ted by the Com­munity Council.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 10/12/21

1. Regard­ing design, the Land­scape Officer advises that to appear more befit­ting of the rur­al land­scape char­ac­ter and wooded set­ting with­in the Nation­al Park, tim­ber clad­ding should be used in place of the pro­posed sheet steel for the build­ings elev­a­tions. The applic­ant has con­firmed that due to the pro­posed use of the build­ings being for light indus­tri­al activ­it­ies, the sheet met­al is more appro­pri­ate on safety grounds for such activ­ity. In addi­tion, the pro­posed mater­i­als and design are in keep­ing with oth­er com­mer­cial premises and agri­cul­tur­al build­ings as seen through­out the Nation­al Park and the design and mater­i­als of the pro­pos­al are con­sidered to be accept­able in these cir­cum­stances. The Officer also recom­mends that the pro­posed park­ing on the east side of the site is relo­cated to retain/​reinforce a wider band of trees in between the site and the A93. It is under­stood that the design and lay­out of the pro­pos­al has taken account of the topo­graphy and site con­straints and designed to min­im­ise tree loss. The site lay­out as presen­ted is there­fore con­sidered to be accept­able on this basis and addi­tion­al screen­ing could be fur­ther achieved through the plan­ning con­di­tion requir­ing plant­ing enhance­ments with­in the site.

2. Sub­ject to an appro­pri­ate land­scape con­di­tions regard­ing a con­struc­tion meth­od state­ment, light­ing details, landscape/​plant­ing plan and main­ten­ance details togeth­er with com­pens­at­ory plant­ing details, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Envir­on­ment­al Issues

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 pro­posed devel­op­ment is loc­ated with­in 200 metres of the des­ig­nated sites: Bal­loch­buie Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area; Bal­loch­buie Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion and Cre­ag Clunie and the Lion’s Face Site of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest [SSSI]. NatureScot con­sider that the pro­pos­al is unlikely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on any of the qual­i­fy­ing hab­it­ats or spe­cies either dir­ectly or indir­ectly. Regard­ing the SSSI, the Team advises that the nat­ur­al her­it­age interests of the SSSI will not be affected by the proposal.

3. NatureScot ref­er­ence the prox­im­ity of the site to the River Dee SAC but con­firm that they do not anti­cip­ate any neg­at­ive effects because it is usu­al for the foul treat­ment and sur­face water drain­age pro­pos­als to meet the stand­ards required. The CNPA Eco­logy Officer also ref­er­ences the proposal’s prox­im­ity to the River Dee recom­mends that wastewa­ter should be treated through a Pack­age Sewage Treat­ment plant to give the highest water qual­ity out­put instead of the pro­posed sep­tic tank and soakaway arrange­ment. The pro­posed wastewa­ter arrange­ments would meet build­ing reg­u­la­tions and SEPA require­ments. In addi­tion, the soakaway would be loc­ated over 100m from the River Dee SAC and there do not appear to be any oth­er water­courses con­nect­ing the devel­op­ment site to the SAC and no dis­charge to any water­course is pro­posed. It is there­fore con­sidered, that in line with NatureScot’s advice, while a sec­ond­ary treat­ment sys­tem will fur­ther reduce impacts on the envir­on­ment in gen­er­al, an addi­tion­al sys­tem is not likely to be neces­sary to avoid an adverse effect on the integ­rity of the River Dee. A Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment is recom­men­ded as a

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 10/12/21

plan­ning con­di­tion to ensure pro­tec­tion of the water envir­on­ment from silt or pol­lut­ant laden sur­face water dur­ing the con­struc­tion phase of the development.

1. Regard­ing pro­tec­ted spe­cies and hab­it­ats, the CNPA Eco­logy Officer notes that a Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan for otter is required by con­di­tion due to the poten­tial dis­turb­ance the devel­op­ment may have to for­aging otter along the river dur­ing the con­struc­tion phase. Pre-con­struc­tion checks are also recom­men­ded for pine mar­tin, red squir­rel, bats and breed­ing birds. These are required as although evid­ence was not found dur­ing the sur­vey work sub­mit­ted with the pro­pos­al, signs of suit­able hab­it­at was found dur­ing the CNPA Eco­logy Officer’s site vis­it and there­fore con­di­tions are required to ensure that the pro­pos­al would not have a neg­at­ive impact on any pro­tec­ted spe­cies around the site. On this basis the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to accord with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

2. A total of 26 trees are pro­posed to be felled dur­ing the con­struc­tion of the site access and vis­ib­il­ity splays. Remov­al of wood­land is only per­mit­ted where it com­plies with the Scot­tish Government’s Con­trol of Wood­land Remov­al Policy and where the remov­al of the wood­land would achieve clearly defined bene­fits. It is con­firmed that the trees to be felled include a mix of non-nat­ive and nat­ive spe­cies of cat­egory B and C qual­ity. None of the trees form part of any ancient semi-nat­ur­al wood­land or any wood­land recor­ded in the Ancient Wood­land Invent­ory. The pro­posed pub­lic bene­fit of sup­port­ing the loc­al eco­nomy, on an exist­ing, brown­field site, togeth­er with road safety improve­ments through the new access works is con­sidered, on bal­ance to out­weigh the loc­al con­tri­bu­tion of the sub­ject trees and a plan­ning con­di­tion for com­pens­at­ory plant­ing is recom­men­ded, in accord­ance with the advice of Scot­tish Forestry.

3. Regard­ing oth­er envir­on­ment­al mat­ters, it is con­firmed that the site is not at risk of flood­ing from any source nor will it impact on any neigh­bour­ing res­id­en­tial prop­er­ties in terms of flood­ing. The Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Con­tam­in­ated Land Officer ref­er­ences the site’s former use as a quarry and coun­cil depot in which salt and fuel were stored. The Officer there­fore recom­mends the inclu­sion of a plan­ning con­di­tion for the sub­mis­sion of an intrus­ive invest­ig­a­tion report to account for poten­tial con­tam­in­ant addi­tion, move­ment and break­down as well as remedi­ation of the on-site fuel tank. Sub­ject to the inclu­sion of the plan­ning con­di­tion, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with to com­ply with Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Impact on the His­tor­ic Environment

1. Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 requires devel­op­ment that would affect the set­ting of a lis­ted build­ing to pre­serve the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the build­ing or struc­ture, and enhance the char­ac­ter, and the con­tri­bu­tion it makes to the cul­tur­al her­it­age of the Nation­al Park. Policy 9 also ensures that devel­op­ment affect­ing a designed land­scape has no adverse effect on the set­ting and con­serves the his­tor­ic des­ig­na­tion. The site sits to the imme­di­ate south west of the Inver­cauld Designed Land­scape and the cat­egory A Lis­ted Inver­cauld House and asso­ci­ated struc­tures. The Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Built Her­it­age Officer

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 10/12/21

con­siders the site to be well screened by the exist­ing trees and due to the topo­graphy of the site, which cre­ates a visu­al bar­ri­er between the site and the his­tor­ic des­ig­na­tions, the Officer does not fore­see the units being vis­ible in the wider land­scape. His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land also have no objec­tions to the scheme with regards to its poten­tial impact on the Inver­cauld Garden and Designed Land­scape. The pro­pos­al is there­fore not con­sidered to neg­at­ively impact the his­tor­ic envir­on­ment in accord­ance with Policy 9: Cul­tur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Ser­vi­cing and Access

1. Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 sets out the need for new devel­op­ment to be sat­is­fact­or­ily ser­viced and without harm to resources or the environment.

2. The pro­posed drain­age meas­ures of a sep­tic tank for foul water and an infilt­ra­tion trench for sur­face water run-off are con­sidered suf­fi­cient to deal with the wastewa­ter arising from this scale of devel­op­ment and in this loc­a­tion. The Aber­deen­shire Flood Risk and Coast Pro­tec­tion Officer has no objec­tion to the pro­posed drain­age meas­ures. The drain­age meas­ures are accept­able on this basis in accord­ance with Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

3. There is no pub­lic water sup­ply with­in the area and the pro­pos­al will there­fore be ser­viced util­ising a private water sup­ply. The Envir­on­ment­al Health Officer has no objec­tions to the pro­pos­al sub­ject to a plan­ning con­di­tion being attached to any sub­sequent decision notice to ensure the details of the water sup­ply are provided to ensure the sup­ply is adequate and potable.

4. 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 looks to install an upgraded access to that cur­rently serving the site with improved vis­ib­il­ity sight lines of 4.5m by 160m in either dir­ec­tion of the access. Park­ing arrange­ments are to cater for 25 vehicles on site. The space with­in the site is suf­fi­cient to provide adequate park­ing and cir­cu­la­tion space for vehicles for ensure a for­ward gear egress onto the road. Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Infra­struc­ture Ser­vices Roads Devel­op­ment has no objec­tion to the pro­pos­al and sub­ject to the inclu­sion of their recom­men­ded plan­ning con­di­tions, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to accord with Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 with regards to road safety matters.

5. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing also sets out that new devel­op­ment should be designed to main­tain and max­im­ise all oppor­tun­it­ies for respons­ible out­door access. It is noted that there are two core paths with­in the vicin­ity of the devel­op­ment site and fur­ther inform­a­tion is required to under­stand how the pro­pos­al will affect the core paths. The CNPA Out­door Access Officer notes that Core Path UDE17 is loc­ated as such it will become con­cur­rent with the pro­posed new access road into the site and a plan­ning con­di­tion is there­fore recom­men­ded to ensure an access plan is provided to ensure the core paths remain unaf­fected by the devel­op­ment dur­ing the construction

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 10/12/21

works. On this over­all basis the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Developer Con­tri­bu­tions

1. Policy 11: Developer Oblig­a­tions of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states that where devel­op­ment cre­ates a need to increase or improve pub­lic ser­vices, facil­it­ies or infra­struc­ture, or mit­ig­ate adverse effects, the developer will be required to make a fair and reas­on­able con­tri­bu­tion in cash or in kind towards addi­tion­al costs or require­ments. The Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Developer Oblig­a­tions Officer has con­firmed that the pro­pos­al does not give rise to the require­ment of any developer contribution.

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 build­ings are loc­ated at an appro­pri­ate dis­tance to the nearest res­id­en­tial dwell­ing at Inver­cauld House which is over 0.7km away, as the crow flies. Between the two sites is the road, the river Dee, wood­land and grass­land. 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.

Oth­er Issues Raised in Con­sulta­tions and Representations

1. All mat­ters raised by con­sul­tees and third parties have been addressed above. One let­ter of sup­port has been received from a mem­ber of the pub­lic and sup­port, as stated earli­er, has been received from the Com­munity Council.

2. The Aber­deen­shire South Access Pan­el recom­mend that con­sid­er­a­tion is giv­en to dis­abled access facil­it­ies with­in the devel­op­ment such as dis­abled toi­let and park­ing facil­it­ies. The pro­pos­al meets the Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Park­ing stand­ards require­ments and will sub­sequently need to com­ply with build­ing stand­ards. An inform­at­ive is there­fore recom­men­ded to high­light the Access Panel’s recom­mend­a­tion to the developer.

CON­CLU­SION

1. The redevel­op­ment of the former quarry site will bring this under­used, brown­field site back into a pro­duct­ive use ful­filling a need to sup­port the loc­al eco­nomy by provid­ing busi­ness premises for the loc­al community.

2. Any remain­ing points of detail that have not been suf­fi­ciently addressed will be resolved through the impos­i­tion of suit­able con­di­tions. Sub­ject to these recom­men­ded con­di­tions, the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with the policies con­tained with­in the adop­ted Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 and approv­al is there­fore recommended.

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