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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 24/09/2021

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED:

Form­a­tion, Main­ten­ance and Upgrad­ing of a Vehicu­lar Access Track (Part Ret­ro­spect­ive) at Track To The South Of B955, Glen Clova, Kirriemuir, DD8 4QR

REF­ER­ENCE: 2021/0262/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Mr Niven

DATE CALLED-IN: 16 August 2021

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve Sub­ject to Conditions

CASE OFFICER: Ed Swales Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer

CNPA Plan­ning Committee

Applic­a­tion Site

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 24/09/2021

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HISTORY

Site Descrip­tion

1. The site forms part of the Glen Clova Estate and is loc­ated approx­im­ately 15 miles north of Kirriemuir. The track itself sits on the grassy lower slopes Glen Clova on the south side of the B955, half a mile south of the Glen Clova Hotel and gives access to those slopes and a small plantation.

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=QXQ0KYSI0CH 00

Title	Draw­ing num­ber	Date on plan*	Date received
Plan­ning statement	21⁄0001	20/08/21	16/08/21
The saddle — track remedi­ation proposals	01/02/21		16/08/21
Loc­a­tion plan	01/04/21		16/08/21
Loc­a­tion plan	11/05/21		16/08/21
Pro­posed cul­vert install­a­tion diagram	11/03/21		16/08/21
Pro­posed drain back­filling dia­gram — after remediation	11/03/21		16/08/21
Pro­posed drain back­filling dia­gram — before remediation	11/03/21		16/08/21
Pro­posed relief cul­vert install­a­tion diagram	11/03/21		16/08/21
Pro­posed site plan			16/08/21
Pro­posed site plan			16/08/21
Pro­posed site plan			16/08/21
Sup­ple­ment­ary loc­a­tion plan	01/04/21		16/08/21
Pro­posed track before drain­age repairs diagram	11/03/21		16/08/21
Pro­posed pro­posed track after drain­age repairs diagram	11/03/21		16/08/21

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

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 24/09/2021

1. The applic­a­tion seeks ret­ro­spect­ive plan­ning per­mis­sion for the upgrad­ing of an exist­ing driv­en route, which has exis­ted since at least 2008. The track is 400m in length and approx­im­ately 4m in width.

His­tory

1. The CNPA approved a part-ret­ro­spect­ive applic­a­tion for a track in forestry at its August Plan­ning Com­mit­tee meet­ing (2021/0172/DET).

2. An applic­a­tion for hol­i­day lodges close to the Clova Hotel is cur­rently under con­sid­er­a­tion under applic­a­tion ref­er­ence: 2021/0168/DET

3. The CNPA plan­ning Com­mit­tee approved a Pri­or Approv­al applic­a­tion for the con­struc­tion of a forestry track with­in the Cad­dam Woods on the south side of Glen Clova on 26 May 2020.

4. A pri­or approv­al applic­a­tion for a forestry track high­er in Glen Clova was recently approved by Angus Council.

5. The CNPA approved a Hydro Elec­tric Scheme on land north of the Glen Clova Hotel in 2010.

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
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	OEN SPACE, SPORT AND RECREATION
POLICY 9	CUL­TUR­AL HERITAGE
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: https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​w​p​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​2​0​2​0​/​1​1​/​C​N​P​A​-​L​D​P​-​2​0​2​0-as- Modified-for-web.pdf

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 24/09/2021

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
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance	X
Policy 5	Land­scape Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 7	Renew­able Energy Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance
Policy 8	Sport and Recre­ation Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 10	Resources Non-Stat­utory Guidance	X
Policy 11	Developer Con­tri­bu­tions Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance

CON­SULTA­TIONS

Sum­mary of the main issues raised by consultees

1. Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil Archae­ology Ser­vice offer no comments

2. Angus Coun­cil Roads depart­ment offer no objec­tion to the application.

3. CNPA Eco­logy Officer has referred to the guid­ance giv­en by NatureScot on con­struc­tion of tracks in the Scot­tish uplands.

4. CNPA Land­scape Officer states the exist­ing track which is sub­ject to the ret­ro­spect­ive plan­ning applic­a­tion res­ults in some loc­al adverse land­scape and visu­al effects. This is primar­ily due to intro­du­cing prom­in­ent built lines upon the glen side slope which con­trast to the sim­pli­city of the sur­round­ing open land cov­er. As well as bare erosion and depos­ition scars fol­low­ing ground dis­turb­ance and a lack of care which res­ults in neg­at­ive land­scape and visu­al effects. The track route con­trasts to the land­scape char­ac­ter, par­tic­u­larly the land­form and the land­scape pat­tern. These effects would be reduced by the pro­posed res­tor­a­tion works which form part of the ret­ro­spect­ive plan­ning applic­a­tion, includ­ing re-pro­fil­ing, installing cul­verts and restor­ing veget­a­tion cover.

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al [HRA] has been under­taken to con­sider the effects of the pro­pos­al upon the con­ser­va­tion objec­tions of the European Sites of: the Cairngorms Mas­sif Spe­cial Pro­tec­tion Area [SPA] and the River South Esk Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion [SAC]. A copy of the full apprais­al can be viewed at Appendix 2.

2. Regard­ing the River South Esk SAC, it is con­cluded that the pro­pos­al would have a likely sig­ni­fic­ant effect due to poten­tial for sed­i­ment release affecting

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 24/09/2021

water qual­ity and smoth­er­ing hab­it­at relied on by the qual­i­fy­ing interests dur­ing con­struc­tion and oper­a­tion of track. How­ever, a con­di­tion requir­ing details of how drain­age will be formed, includ­ing pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion and con­trol meas­ures to pre­vent sed­i­ment release reach­ing water­courses con­nec­ted to the River South Esk SAC will ensure the con­ser­va­tion object­ives are met and there will not be an adverse effect on site integrity.

1. Regard­ing the Cairngorm Mas­sif SPA, the apprais­al con­cludes that the con­ser­va­tion object­ives will be met and there will not be an adverse effect on site integrity.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. There have been no rep­res­ent­a­tions sub­mit­ted for this application.

APPRAIS­AL

1. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions are con­sidered to be the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment, the impact upon land­scape and the envir­on­ment­al impacts.

Prin­ciple of Development

1. The plan­ning state­ment for the applic­a­tion makes the case that the track sup­ports the farm­ing and forestry activ­it­ies of the estate and is char­ac­ter­ist­ic of sim­il­ar tracks on the lower slopes of the Glen. Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 provides gen­er­al policy sup­port for pro­pos­als that sup­port the eco­nomy, where they are com­pat­ible with exist­ing busi­ness activ­ity and sup­port the viab­il­ity of the loc­al eco­nomy, sub­ject to hav­ing no adverse envir­on­ment­al or amen­ity impacts.

2. The track provides access to the Saddle plant­a­tion and to the slopes around the plant­a­tion and can be described as sup­port­ing the estate’s busi­ness activ­it­ies in a gen­er­al sense. Sub­ject to com­pli­ance with oth­er rel­ev­ant loc­al devel­op­ment plan policies, the prin­ciple of the pro­posed works is con­sidered accept­able and to com­ply with Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Land­scape Impacts

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. It also has a pre­sump­tion against new private roads and ways in open moor­land areas unless they are essen­tial for land man­age­ment pur­poses and are either designed to min­im­ise impacts, or, are part of a pro­gramme of remov­al of oth­er tracks.

2. In this case, the pro­posed form­a­tion of the track fol­lows an exist­ing driv­en route from the val­ley bot­tom over the lower slopes of the Glen, giv­ing access

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 24/09/2021

to a small plant­a­tion and the mid slopes above it. Vehicle access to the area is a legit­im­ate require­ment for the estate and has been under­taken over a peri­od of years. There are many oth­er short (though less prom­in­ent) tracks giv­ing access to sim­il­ar parts of the slopes through­out the Glen, and signs of older tracks and paths.

1. Although the track route con­trasts to the land­scape char­ac­ter, it is still with­in the grassy lower slopes of the Glen where there are oth­er small wood­land plant­a­tions and signs of agri­cul­ture and estate man­age­ment that con­trast to the steep­er middle and upper slopes that are rock­i­er and crag­gi­er, and more dom­in­ated by heath­er. The visu­al impacts of the track would be reduced by the pro­posed res­tor­a­tion works which form part of the ret­ro­spect­ive plan­ning applic­a­tion, includ­ing re-pro­fil­ing, installing cul­verts and restor­ing veget­a­tion cov­er. Those works will gen­er­ally reduce the visu­al foot­print of the track in the land­scape. With res­tor­a­tion works pro­posed as part of the applic­a­tions mean that the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment 2021.

Envir­on­ment­al Impacts

1. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to restrict devel­op­ment that would have an adverse impact on pro­tec­ted sites, spe­cies and hab­it­ats and where this can­not be avoided that appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures are provided. Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 seeks to main­tain water qual­ity and avoid impacts on the water environment.

2. The pro­posed res­tor­a­tion works will ensure that the track reduces water run- off and poten­tial for erosion of the track and sur­round­ing ground in future. Fur­ther pre­cau­tion­ary meas­ures dur­ing con­struc­tion of the track can be con­di­tioned through a con­struc­tion meth­od state­ment incor­por­at­ing stand­ard pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion meas­ures to pre­vent harm to the water envir­on­ment dur­ing construction.

3. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al has been under­taken (Appendix 2) regard­ing the proposal’s impacts on the des­ig­nated sites of the Cairngorms Mas­sif SPA and the River South Esk SAC which con­cludes that with appro­pri­ate mit­ig­a­tion, the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the sites will be met and there will not be an adverse effect on the integ­rity of the European Sites.

4. With the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures pro­posed in the plan­ning applic­a­tion and a detailed con­struc­tion meth­od state­ment incor­por­at­ing fur­ther pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion meas­ures secured through con­di­tion, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered to com­ply with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment 2021

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 8 24/09/2021

CON­CLU­SION

1. Sub­ject to a con­di­tion requir­ing pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion meas­ures The devel­op­ment pro­posed is accept­able in prin­ciple as a forestry related track sur­round­ing exist­ing plant­a­tion wood­land and the details of mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures included with the applic­a­tion will min­im­ise the impacts of the track on the land­scape and envir­on­ment. The pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with the policies con­tained with­in the adop­ted Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan and approv­al is there­fore recommended.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to approve the Form­a­tion, Main­ten­ance and Upgrad­ing of a Vehicu­lar Access Track (Part Ret­ro­spect­ive) at Track To The South Of B955, Glen Clova, Kirriemuir, DD8 4QR, 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 works shall com­mence on site until a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment (CMS) set­ting out the detail of how works will be car­ried out, how drain­age will be formed and how pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion and con­trol meas­ures will be applied to pre­vent sed­i­ment release reach­ing water­courses con­nec­ted to the River South Esk SAC, has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Authority.

There­after, the approved CMS shall be imple­men­ted in full.

Reas­on: To pre­vent sed­i­ment release caus­ing pol­lu­tion and hav­ing an adverse effect on the River South Esk SAC.

INFORM­AT­IVES

1. Fol­low­ing 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.