Item8CommitteeReport20240036DET

Cairngorms Item 8, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 1 of 18

Com­mit­tee report Devel­op­ment proposed:

Con­struc­tion of sed­i­ment trap for flood alle­vi­ation works (in ret­ro­spect) at Allt Mhor / Gyn­ack Ref­er­ence: 2024/0036/DET Applic­ant: Pit­main Estate Date called-in: 26 Feb­ru­ary 2024 Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to con­di­tions Case officer: Kath­er­ine Don­nach­ie, Plan­ning Officer Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh 8 CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site N 0 35 70 140 Meters Cre­ag Bhe Pit­main­itt Lodge 604 390m 0385m 0 380m 370m 365m O 360m m m CP 80 BB B SI D Q Weir Breac-Ruighe FB FB CA Item 8, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 09 August 2024 Page 2 of 18 Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2024. Ord­nance Sur­vey AC0000821810. The rep­res­ent­a­tion of fea­tures or bound­ar­ies in which Cairngorms Nation­al Park or oth­ers have an interest does not neces­sar­ily imply their true pos­i­tions. For fur­ther inform­a­tion please con­tact the appro­pri­ate author­ity. 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. Cairngorms Item 8, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 3 of 18

Site descrip­tion, pro­pos­al and his­tory Site description

1. The pro­posed site is loc­ated on Pit­main Estate to the north of Kin­gussie, ini­tially accessed by a long, tarred road from the vil­lage head­ing to the east of Pit­main Lodge. Tracks then con­tin­ue north and north­w­est over bridges towards the applic­a­tion site which is accessed by a wider track net­work lead­ing towards the hills bey­ond. There are a num­ber of core paths in the area to the south at Pit­main, and there is a right of way run­ning to the west.

2. The site is loc­ated in a slop­ing upland, moor­land area on the Allt Mor water­course. This runs south to feed into the River Gyn­ack which is part of the River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion. To the north of the site is moor­land. There is plant­a­tion wood­land to the south­east, along with the group­ing of build­ings around Pit­main Lodge.

3. The site is loc­ated upstream of an exist­ing off­take weir formed some years ago when plan­ning con­sent was gran­ted for a flood alle­vi­ation scheme here. That scheme was inten­ded to divert over­flow water at times of high-water flows from the Allt Mhor water­course and dir­ect it to Loch Gyn­ack via a sys­tem of chan­nels and wet­land, partly fol­low­ing the route of an his­tor­ic chan­nel here. The site is loc­ated with­in an area iden­ti­fied on SEPA’s flood maps as being at high risk of river flooding.

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=S2H06USI0CP00 Cairngorms Item 8, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 4 of 18

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Plan — Gen­er­al Plan	19	07/01/21	26/02/24
Plan — Loc­a­tion Plan	638847 001	01/11/23	26/02/24
Plan — Loc­a­tion site lay­out plan overview		07/01/21	26/02/24
Plan — Sed­i­ment Trap — Site plan (includ­ing loc­a­tion plan)	638847 PL003	01/11/23	26/02/24
Plan — Sed­i­ment Trap — Site plan	638847 PL003	01/11/23	26/02/24
Oth­er — Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment Man­age­ment Plan		17/03/23	26/02/24
Oth­er — Engin­eer­ing Permit	CAR/S/5004899	04/05/23	26/02/24
Oth­er — Design Meth­od Statement		20/01/21	26/02/24
Sed­i­ment Man­age­ment Plan		04/07/24	11/07/24

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

1. Plans of the pro­pos­als are included in Appendix 1.

2. This is a ret­ro­spect­ive applic­a­tion for what is effect­ively a ​“scooped out” area on the All Mhor water­course to the north of a pre­vi­ously approved exist­ing weir. The cur­rent applic­a­tion site area lies out with the ori­gin­al plan­ning applic­a­tion site as out­lined in red. The works were under­taken in order to cre­ate a sed­i­ment trap to cap­ture excess coarse sed­i­ment gen­er­ated in the upper catch­ment upstream of the weir. It is inten­ded to help alle­vi­ate flood­ing issues down­stream at Kin­gussie as res­ult of this mater­i­al com­ing down the river at the time of high rainfall/​water flows. The works ini­tially involved the remov­al of around 4, 100 cubic metres of mater­i­al which was to be stored for use in the oth­er ongo­ing works on the flood alle­vi­ation channel.

3. The sed­i­ment trap works involved recon­tour­ing the ori­gin­al ground here to cre­ate a deep­er wider area to the north of the weir. It is under­stood that sediment/​rocks trapped here will there­after be removed peri­od­ic­ally and used for works on the Cairngorms Item 8, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 5 of 18

estate and for trans­lo­ca­tion to down­stream of the diver­sion weir to main­tain sed­i­ment trans­port continuity.

1. The sup­port­ing mater­i­al explains that fol­low­ing con­struc­tion of the sed­i­ment trap the exposed embank­ments were to be reseeded with nat­ive grass spe­cies and any exist­ing turf rein­stated. These works have been undertaken.

2. No changes to ser­vi­cing are pro­posed and the works have received a CAR license from SEPA. The sub­mit­ted plans illus­trate some works down­stream of the weir area which have been approved pre­vi­ously dur­ing the con­di­tions dis­charge process.

3. The applic­a­tion is sup­por­ted by inform­a­tion including:

4. Design Meth­od State­ment which explains that engin­eers were com­mis­sioned to provide detailed designs to sta­bil­ise the approved diver­sion chan­nel and restore the flood relief func­tion. Oth­er works such as re-sec­tion­ing parts of the chan­nel and reform­ing rock armour pro­tec­tion were involved with the wider scheme in order to cre­ate suit­able chan­nel mor­pho­logy for long term sta­bil­ity by repro­du­cing a nat­ur­al stable chan­nel form. The doc­u­ment cov­ers works down­stream of the applic­a­tion site too. Sed­i­ment excav­ated from the applic­a­tion site was to be used in some of these works. This doc­u­ment also explains the sequence of works, detail­ing that the excav­a­tion of the sed­i­ment trap had to be under­taken first to reduce the risk of water flow and sed­i­ment to the design/​diversion site dur­ing flood con­di­tions – also because it would provide much of the fill sed­i­ment and boulders required for the wider site.

5. Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan which provided fur­ther detail and was con­sidered as part of the con­di­tions dis­charge pro­cess for the ori­gin­al consent.

6. Sed­i­ment Man­age­ment Plan – this plan has also been sub­mit­ted to SEPA as part of the CAR licens­ing pro­cess. It relates to post con­struc­tion pho­to­graph­ic and topo­graph­ic mon­it­or­ing and ongo­ing man­age­ment which is a con­di­tion of the SEPA licens­ing pro­cess. It explains that excess­ive volumes of coarse allu­vi­al mater­i­al are being gen­er­ated in the upper Gynack/​Allt Mhor catch­ment primar­ily from large Cairngorms Item 8, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 6 of 18

erosion scars believed to have been exacer­bated by past land use and man­age­ment. The sed­i­ment trap is designed to inter­rupt the lon­git­ud­in­al trans­port of sed­i­ment so redu­cing the volume of excess sed­i­ment reach­ing Kin­gussie. It explains that in the long-term erosion scar sta­bil­isa­tion works in the upper catch­ment will reduce sed­i­ment sup­ply to near nat­ur­al levels, but mean­time ongo­ing man­age­ment will be required.

1. This will involve repeat topo­graph­ic sur­veys fol­low­ing on from the topo­graph­ic sur­vey under­taken imme­di­ately after the trap was con­struc­ted in July 2023 which provides baseline data. A fur­ther sur­vey was con­duc­ted in Octo­ber 2023 and the Plan recom­mends that sur­veys be car­ried out every six months and/​or after major flood events. It recom­mends that the sur­vey work con­tin­ues at least until the point at which remedi­ation works in the upper catch­ment have addressed the excess sed­i­ment issues. It also recom­mends installing a flow gauge at the sed­i­ment trap to help under­stand the rela­tion­ship between stream dis­charge and bed­load trans­port. This will help under­stand cur­rent and nat­ur­al sed­i­ment trans­port rates and help determ­ine the need for long term main­ten­ance of the trap. It will also help determ­ine how much sed­i­ment is required in the down­stream reach of the Gyn­ack for sta­bil­ity and explains that topo­graph­ic and sed­i­ment­ary data will need to be col­lec­ted imme­di­ately down­stream of the weir.

2. This data will then be used to inform sed­i­ment man­age­ment, when to remove sed­i­ment from the trap and, if neces­sary, when to mit­ig­ate any loss of sed­i­ment down­stream. Guid­ance is con­tained as to when and how to carry out any sed­i­ment remov­al works (e.g. at low flow con­di­tions and out with the fish migra­tion and spawn­ing peri­ods) along with noti­fy­ing the Spey Fish­ery Board in advance of all in chan­nel works. Pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion meas­ures are included. It is also noted that an exper­i­enced Geo­mor­pho­lo­gist will reg­u­larly be present to ensure that neces­sary envir­on­ment­al and eco­lo­gic­al con­sid­er­a­tions are taken into account dur­ing works.

His­tory

1. Plan­ning con­sent was gran­ted in June 2016 (ref­er­ence 2016/0011/DET) for a flood alle­vi­ation scheme to divert water in extreme water­flows from the Allt Mhor water­course to dis­charge into Loch Gyn­ack to the south. This was inten­ded to Cairngorms Item 8, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 7 of 18

alle­vi­ate flood­ing issues in the vil­lage and avoid flood­ing of the River Gyn­ack. The works involved con­struc­tion of a con­crete diver­sion struc­ture on the Allt Mhor water­course, con­struc­tion of open chan­nel dis­char­ging to Loch Gyn­ack, and main­tain­ing exist­ing track access over the chan­nel at two locations.

1. As mem­bers are aware, the ori­gin­ally con­struc­ted flood alle­vi­ation chan­nel did not func­tion as inten­ded. Fol­low­ing a redesign of the tech­nic­al and engin­eer­ing spe­cific­a­tions of that scheme, the estate com­mis­sioned con­tract­ors to imple­ment the remedi­al meas­ures to the scheme dur­ing 2023 and CNPA officers have con­tin­ued to mon­it­or the redesign works which are now com­plete. Most of the redesigned scheme fell with­in the scope of the ori­gin­al plan­ning con­sent, but the sed­i­ment trap above the scheme inlet was out­side the terms of the ori­gin­al con­sent and officers sought a plan­ning applic­a­tion for those works.

2. Con­sent was also gran­ted pre­vi­ously for hydro power schemes at Allt Mhor and Loch Gyn­ack which have been imple­men­ted. (2011/0281/DET.)

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

2. The HRA notes that a HRA was under­taken in 2016 for the ori­gin­al flood alle­vi­ation scheme here which con­cluded that there was no adverse effect on the site integ­rity of the River Spey SAC. These flood alle­vi­ation works have been com­pleted. The cur­rent sub­mis­sion seeks ret­ro­spect­ive con­sent for the sed­i­ment trap works which have been com­pleted in accord­ance with a SEPA CAR license.

3. There are not con­sidered to be any impacts on sea lamprey and fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sels which have not been recor­ded on the Allt Mhor or Gyn­ack water­courses. With regard to Atlantic Sal­mon, the HRA notes that pol­lu­tion from sed­i­ment release Cairngorms Item 8, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 8 of 18

could indir­ectly cause their dis­tri­bu­tion to change due to tem­por­ary changes in water tem­per­at­ure and smoth­er­ing of hab­it­ats if sig­ni­fic­ant amounts of sed­i­ment reached the water­course. How­ever, the Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan includes mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures to ensure no adverse impacts.

1. With regard to otter, it is con­sidered that dis­turb­ance would be tem­por­ary dur­ing con­struc­tion and could be mit­ig­ated by the meas­ures included in the sub­mit­ted Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan. Their hab­it­ats would not be per­man­ently dis­turbed and the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures for Atlantic Sal­mon would reduce the risk of their prey spe­cies being affected.

2. The HRA con­cludes that the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the des­ig­nated sites will not be under­mined, and the devel­op­ment will not hinder or pre­vent the con­di­tion or con­ser­va­tion status of the qual­i­fy­ing interests of the SAC, and so this con­ser­va­tion object­ive would be met.

3. Nature Scot was con­sul­ted on the HRA and ini­tially high­lighted that they had con­cerns regard­ing the long-term effects of remov­ing sed­i­ment from the burn and the impacts this may have upon suit­able hab­it­ats for Atlantic Sal­mon. They wished to under­stand how the sed­i­ment to be removed was to be man­aged and wheth­er it would be replaced into the sys­tem. On receipt of the Sed­i­ment Man­age­ment Plan NatureScot has con­firmed they are now sat­is­fied with the HRA and have no objection.

Devel­op­ment plan con­text Policies

Nation­al Policy	Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045
POLICY 1	Tack­ling the Cli­mate and Nature Crises
POLICY 2	Cli­mate Mit­ig­a­tion and Adaptation
POLICY 3	Biod­iversity
POLICY 4	Nat­ur­al Places
Cairngorms
Item 8, Plan­ning Committee
Nation­al Park Authority
09 August 2024
Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’
Mhon­aidh Ruaidh
Page 9 of 18

POLICY 5	Soils
POLICY 12	Zero Waste
POLICY 13	Sus­tain­able Transport
POLICY 14	Design, Qual­ity and Place
POLICY 22	Flood Risk and Water Management
POLICY 23	Health and Safety
POLICY 29	Rur­al Development

Stra­tegic Policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 2027

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 1	NEW HOUS­ING DEVELOPMENT
POLICY 2	SUP­PORT­ING ECO­NOM­IC GROWTH
POLICY 3	DESIGN AND PLACEMAKING
POLICY 4	NAT­UR­AL HERITAGE
POLICY 5	LAND­SCAPE
POLICY 6	THE SIT­ING AND DEISGN OF DIGIT­AL COM­MU­NIC­A­TIONS EQUIPMENT
POLICY 7	RENEW­ABLE ENERGY
POLICY 8	OPEN SPACE, SPORT AND RECREATION
POLICY 9	CUL­TUR­AL HERITAGE
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
   1. 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​/​2​0​2​1​/​0​3​/​C​N​P​A​-​L​D​P​-​2​0​2​1​-​w​e​b.pdf Cairngorms Item 8, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 10 of 18

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 1	Hous­ing Sup­ple­ment­ary Guidance
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 3	Design and Place­mak­ing Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guidance
Policy 5	Land­scape Non-Stat­utory Guidance
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

Con­sulta­tions

1. A sum­mary of the main issues raised by con­sul­tees now follows:

2. SEPA has no objec­tions. They con­firm that the works have been licensed by them under their Con­trolled Activ­it­ies Reg­u­la­tions (CAR) and are the same works at those cur­rently being applied for retrospectively.

3. Spey Fish­ery Board was con­sul­ted and have not provided any com­ments to date.

4. High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team has no objec­tions and are con­tent that the applic­a­tion com­plies with NPF4. They note this type of work is classed as a water com­pat­ible use by SEPA and can be loc­ated in an area at risk of flood­ing. It is also noted that SEPA has gran­ted con­sent for the works in the water­course. Cairngorms Item 8, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 11 of 18

5. The Team con­siders that works which help reduce the sed­i­ment load that is passed down­stream to Kin­gussie will be of bene­fit to the vil­lage, not­ing that there are a num­ber of bridges which are sens­it­ive to sed­i­ment depos­ition in the vil­lage which res­ults in reduc­tion of flow capa­city with the High­land Coun­cil and Net­work Rail both hav­ing to remove sed­i­ment from the River Gyn­ack after flood events.

6. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Eco­logy Officer notes that the pro­pos­al is ret­ro­spect­ive involving minor alter­a­tions to pre­vi­ously con­sen­ted works. The works have been under­taken under a CAR license from SEPA and have had to com­ply with stand­ard best prac­tise under this license. No fur­ther assess­ment of nat­ur­al her­it­age interests is con­sidered necessary.

7. Kin­gussie and Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil was con­sul­ted and have not provided any com­ments to date.

Rep­res­ent­a­tions

1. The applic­a­tion was advert­ised in the loc­al press and no rep­res­ent­a­tions have been received.

Apprais­al

1. Sec­tion 25 of the 1997 Act as amended requires applic­a­tions to be determ­ined in accord­ance with the Devel­op­ment Plan. This now com­prises the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, and the Nation­al Plan­ning Framework

   1. Where there is con­flict between policies, NPF4 policies will be used.

2. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions in this case are the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment, the impact upon land­scape and envir­on­ment­al impacts, in par­tic­u­lar upon the water envir­on­ment. These are con­sidered below.

Prin­ciple

1. NPF4 Policy 29: Rur­al Devel­op­ment seeks to sup­port devel­op­ment pro­pos­als that con­trib­ute to the viab­il­ity, sus­tain­ab­il­ity and diversity of rur­al com­munit­ies and the loc­al rur­al eco­nomy. It explains that pro­pos­als in rur­al areas should be suit­ably Cairngorms Item 8, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 12 of 18

scaled, sited and designed to be in keep­ing with the char­ac­ter of the area. NPF4 Policy 22: Flood Risk and Water Man­age­ment sets out that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als with­in a flood risk area will only be sup­por­ted where they involve one of a series of excep­tions includ­ing for essen­tial infra­struc­ture where the loc­a­tion is required for oper­a­tion­al reas­ons and water com­pat­ible uses. The policy out­lines require­ments to be met, includ­ing the need to under­stand flood risk, ensure the devel­op­ment is safe and oper­a­tion­al dur­ing floods and that there is no reduc­tion in flood plain capa­city. The intent of the policy is to strengthen resi­li­ence to flood risk.

1. Sim­il­arly Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan also seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment is sym­path­et­ic to the char­ac­ter of the sur­round­ing area, whilst Policy 10: Resources seeks to ensure that there are no unac­cept­able det­ri­ment­al impacts on the water envir­on­ment, with all devel­op­ment to be free from the risk of flood­ing, not increase the risk of flood­ing else­where and not add to the area of land requir­ing flood pre­ven­tion meas­ures or affect the abil­ity of the func­tion­al flood­plain to store or move flood waters.

2. Set against this back­ground this devel­op­ment — which is inten­ded to trap sed­i­ment to ensure the prop­er func­tion­ing of the approved flood alle­vi­ation scheme here and alle­vi­ate down­stream flood­ing which may arise dur­ing extreme weath­er con­di­tions is wel­comed in prin­ciple. It is the detail of the devel­op­ment and any land­scape and envir­on­ment­al impacts that require to be con­sidered more fully.

Envir­on­ment­al Issues

1. NPF4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity requires that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als con­trib­ute to enhance­ment of biod­iversity includ­ing where rel­ev­ant restor­ing degraded hab­it­ats and build­ing and strength­en­ing nature net­works and the con­nec­tions between them. They should also integ­rate nature-based solu­tions where pos­sible, and include appro­pri­ate meas­ures to con­serve, restore and enhance biod­iversity pro­por­tion­ate to the scale of the devel­op­ment. NPF4 Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Places does not sup­port devel­op­ment which will have an unac­cept­able impact on the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment, or which will have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect on European Site des­ig­na­tions which include Spe­cial Areas of Con­ser­va­tion and Sites of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest. Cairngorms Item 8, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 13 of 18

2. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan sim­il­arly requires new devel­op­ment to have no adverse effects on the integ­rity of des­ig­nated sites, the Nation­al Park or on pro­tec­ted spe­cies or habitats.

3. In this regard the pro­posed devel­op­ment does not have any par­tic­u­lar adverse impacts on the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment with no loss of hab­it­at or par­tic­u­lar impacts on pro­tec­ted spe­cies. As noted earli­er the works are ret­ro­spect­ive, car­ried out in accord­ance with SEPA’s require­ments. The devel­op­ment also may have poten­tial to enhance biod­iversity by avoid­ing excess sed­i­ment being washed down the water­course in extreme flood events.

4. In terms of des­ig­nated sites, as set out earli­er in this report, the impacts on the NATURA site have been fully con­sidered dur­ing the HRA pro­cess (refer to Appendix 2) which has con­cluded that there will not be an adverse effect on the integ­rity of the des­ig­nated site and that the con­ser­va­tion object­ives will be met based upon the inform­a­tion provided with the application.

5. In terms of the water envir­on­ment, as noted earli­er, NPF4 Policy 22: Flood Risk and Water Man­age­ment sets out that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als with­in a flood risk area will only be sup­por­ted where they involve one of a series of excep­tions, whilst Policy 10: Resources seeks to ensure that there are no unac­cept­able det­ri­ment­al impacts on the water environment.

6. In this regard the intent of this devel­op­ment was to help alle­vi­ate flood risk by redu­cing sed­i­ment flow down the River Gyn­ack. The tech­nic­al con­sul­tees (SEPA and the High­land Coun­cil Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team) have no objec­tions to the devel­op­ment which has been con­sen­ted by SEPA in terms of their reg­u­lat­ory régime which con­siders impacts on the water envir­on­ment. SEPA will con­tin­ue to reg­u­late the site in terms of ongo­ing sed­i­ment man­age­ment too.

7. In addi­tion, the Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team has expressly noted that the pro­pos­al to reduce the sed­i­ment load which is passed down­stream to Kin­gussie will be of bene­fit to the vil­lage. The Team has also high­lighted that the devel­op­ment itself is con­sidered to be a water com­pat­ible use under SEPA’s flood risk and lands use vul­ner­ab­il­ity guid­ance and can there­fore be loc­ated in an area at risk of flood­ing. Cairngorms Item 8, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 14 of 18

8. In these over­all cir­cum­stances the pro­posed devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with NPF4 and Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies sub­ject to appro­pri­ate con­di­tions being attached regard­ing con­tin­ued adher­ence to the Sed­i­ment Man­age­ment Plan.

Impacts on Land­scape and Spe­cial Land­scape Qualities

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.

2. Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 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 Cairngorms Nation­al Park, with devel­op­ment that does not achieve this again only to be per­mit­ted where any sig­ni­fic­ant effects are clearly out­weighed by social, envir­on­ment­al or eco­nom­ic bene­fits of nation­al import­ance and all adverse effects on the set­ting have been min­im­ised and mitigated.

3. In this case there are little land­scape impacts as a res­ult of this devel­op­ment which has effect­ively deepened and widened an exist­ing area of water upstream of a diver­sion weir con­struc­ted under a pre­vi­ously con­sen­ted scheme. The sides of the works have been hydro-seeded and over time should blend in sat­is­fact­or­ily with the sur­round­ing area. There are not con­sidered to be any par­tic­u­lar impacts on the land­scape or spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies giv­en the small scale of these works.

4. As such the devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with NPF4 and Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies.

5. In terms of the design itself, NPF4 Policy 14: Design, qual­ity and place states devel­op­ment pro­pos­als should improve the qual­ity of an area and be con­sist­ent with the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places. It also sets out that pro­pos­als which are poorly designed and det­ri­ment­al to the amen­ity of the area will not be sup­por­ted. This Cairngorms Item 8, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 15 of 18

echoes the require­ments of Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan which also sets out prin­ciples of sus­tain­able design to be met with new devel­op­ment includ­ing require­ments to ensure that new devel­op­ment is sym­path­et­ic to the tra­di­tion­al pat­tern and char­ac­ter of the sur­round­ing area and using mater­i­als and land­scap­ing to com­ple­ment the set­ting of development.

1. In this case there are no par­tic­u­lar design issues as the works do not involve new build, but rather involved recon­tour­ing with the ground now cur­rently rein­stat­ing sat­is­fact­or­ily. Con­sequently, there is not con­sidered to be any con­flict with policies.

Trans­port issues

1. NPF4 Policy 13: Sus­tain­able Trans­port sup­ports new devel­op­ment where it is demon­strated that the trans­port require­ments gen­er­ated have been con­sidered in line with the sus­tain­able trans­port and invest­ment hier­arch­ies and where appro­pri­ate meet a num­ber of cri­ter­ia includ­ing the need to adequately mit­ig­ate any impact on loc­al pub­lic access routes. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan also requires devel­op­ment to have an appro­pri­ate means of access, park­ing and pro­mote sus­tain­able trans­port meth­ods and act­ive travel. It also requires new devel­op­ment to main­tain and max­im­ise all oppor­tun­it­ies for respons­ible out­door access includ­ing links into the exist­ing path net­work and ensur­ing con­sist­ency with the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Core Paths Plan.

2. In this regard the devel­op­ment does not gen­er­ate any trans­port issues oth­er than any future main­ten­ance needs which will be part of the exist­ing flood alle­vi­ation scheme in any event so no addi­tion­al traffic should be gen­er­ated. It is also served by exist­ing access tracks. There is no adverse impact upon the exist­ing path net­work in the area which is not affected by the development.

3. As such the devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with NPF4 and Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies. Cairngorms Item 8, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 16 of 18

Waste Issues

1. NPF4 recog­nises the need to min­im­ise waste with Policy 12: Zero Waste seek­ing to encour­age, pro­mote and facil­it­ate devel­op­ment that is con­sist­ent with the waste hier­archy. Sim­il­arly, Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 also requires new devel­op­ment to make sus­tain­able use of resources includ­ing min­im­isa­tion of waste and energy usage. Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 also seeks to ensure min­im­isa­tion of waste dur­ing con­struc­tion and life of devel­op­ments. Asso­ci­ated with these above object­ives to min­im­ise waste NPF4 Policy 5: Soils states that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als will only be sup­por­ted where they min­im­ise the amount of dis­turb­ance to soils on undeveloped land and is under­taken in a man­ner that pro­tects soils from dam­age includ­ing com­pac­tion and erosion.

2. The devel­op­ment involved alter­a­tions to the ground levels here to cre­ate a sed­i­ment trap upstream of the diver­sion weir with the sub­mit­ted Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan explain­ing that sed­i­ment excav­ated to achieve this would be used down­stream in the oth­er chan­nel works involved with the cre­at­ing the wider flood alle­vi­ation scheme, with any oth­er mater­i­al used in works on the estate. As such there should have been no waste asso­ci­ated with the devel­op­ment. The agent has also con­firmed that any sed­i­ment removed from the sed­i­ment trap in future will be reused on the estate too or in the water­course as per the Sed­i­ment Man­age­ment Plan.

3. In these cir­cum­stances the devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with NPF4 and Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies.

Amen­ity Issues

1. NPF4 Policy 23: Health and Safety has require­ments with regards to noise and air qual­ity. The policy explains that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als which will have an adverse effect on health will not be sup­por­ted. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan sets also out that new devel­op­ment must pro­tect the amen­ity enjoyed by res­id­ents includ­ing min­im­isa­tion of dis­turb­ance caused by access to the devel­op­ment site. Cairngorms Item 8, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 17 of 18

2. Due to its rel­at­ively remote loc­a­tion, small scale, and the nature of the devel­op­ment itself it does not raise any issues in this regard and there are no con­flicts with policy.

Con­clu­sion

1. This applic­a­tion seeks ret­ro­spect­ive con­sent for works to cre­ate a sed­i­ment trap in rela­tion to the oper­a­tion of a pre­vi­ously approved flood alle­vi­ation scheme. There are no ser­vi­cing issues with the devel­op­ment, nor any par­tic­u­lar land­scape or envir­on­ment­al impacts. The tech­nic­al con­sul­tee (Flood Risk Man­age­ment Team) has advised that a devel­op­ment to help reduce the sed­i­ment load will be of bene­fit to Kin­gussie and the devel­op­ment has been licensed by SEPA.

2. In these cir­cum­stances the devel­op­ment is con­sidered to com­ply with NPF4 and LDP policies sub­ject to con­di­tions and approv­al is recommended.

Recom­mend­a­tion That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to APPROVE the Con­struc­tion of sed­i­ment trap for flood alle­vi­ation works (in ret­ro­spect) at Allt Mhor / Gyn­ack 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 hereby approved shall be man­aged and mon­itored in accord­ance with the approved Sed­i­ment Man­age­ment Plan.

Reas­on: To ensure that the devel­op­ment is sat­is­fact­or­ily man­aged and mon­itored in order to ensure that there are no adverse effects on the nat­ur­al her­it­age of the Nation­al Park, and spe­cific­ally the NATURA interests in terms of the River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion, or any pol­lu­tion of water­courses in accord­ance with Policy 3: Biod­iversity, Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Places, Policy 12: Zero Waste, and Policy 22: Flood Risk and Water Man­age­ment of the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 and Policy Cairngorms Item 8, Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 09 August 2024 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 18 of 18

4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age, Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan

Inform­at­ives

1. Fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, a noti­fic­a­tion of 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.

2. Any management/​monitoring work (includ­ing the loading/​unloading of