Item9AAATVtrackLagganReport20230363DET

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 10/11/2023

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DEVEL­OP­MENT PROPOSED:

Part ret­ro­spect­ive con­struc­tion of 634m long ATV track for wood­land man­age­ment at Crath­ie Lodge Lag­gan New­ton­more High­land PH20 1AJ

REF­ER­ENCE: 2023/0363/DET

APPLIC­ANT: Mr Kev­in Fletcher

DATE CALLED-IN: 18 Septem­ber 2023

RECOM­MEND­A­TION: Approve Sub­ject to Conditions

CASE OFFICER: Ed Swales Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer

CNPA Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Applic­a­tion Site 0 35 70 Meters 木 N 140 633 Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2023. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber 100040965

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 10/11/2023

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 10/11/2023

SITE DESCRIP­TION, PRO­POS­AL AND HIS­TORY Site Description

1. The site is approx­im­ately 4km north­w­est of Lag­gan Vil­lage. It is loc­ated with­in an exist­ing wood­land enclos­ure of approx­im­ately 50 hec­tares and accessed via a pre-exist­ing estate track above the his­tor­ic town­ship of Crath­ie, Badenoch, at the entrance to Glen Markie. Proposal

2. 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=S0MI MASIOCP00

Title Draw­ing Date on Date Num­ber Plan Received Plans Plan — ATV Track 1 17/08/23 14/09/23 Plan — ATV Track 1 Pro­pos­al 12/07/23 14/09/23 plan — sec­tion plan — cul­vert 14/09/23 plan — sec­tion plan — track 14/09/23 Sup­port­ing Inform­a­tion Oth­er — Forest Track 12/07/23 14/09/23 Spe­cific­a­tion for ATV/​Argo track Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the 1^st of the month.

1. The applic­a­tion is for the con­struc­tion of a 2m wide ATV track run­ning to approx­im­ately 600m in length, although 300m is already con­struc­ted and there­fore the applic­a­tion is part ret­ro­spect­ive. A cul­vert install­a­tion is also pro­posed over the Allt Tar­suinn Beag. There will be a spur loc­ated in the middle of the pro­posed track run­ning south from the main route. The ini­tial pur­pose of the pro­posed track is to man­age the wood­land enclos­ure and fol­low­ing that it will be used for estate man­age­ment purposes.

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

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 10/11/2023

His­tory

1. In August 2023 the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity approved a Pri­or Approv­al for anoth­er track, 2km east of the cur­rent applic­a­tion site.

HAB­IT­ATS REG­U­LA­TIONS APPRAISAL

1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al [HRA] has been under­taken to con­sider the effects of the pro­pos­al upon the con­ser­va­tion object­ives of the European Sites as lis­ted with­in the doc­u­ment — attached at Appendix 2. The European sites poten­tially affected are the River Spey and Mon­adh­liath Spe­cial Area of Conservation.

2. The pro­posed track is approx­im­ately 800m south of Mon­adh­liath SAC and approx­im­ately 1500m north of River Spey SAC. The track will involve cul­vert­ing the Allt Tar­suinn Beag, which is a trib­u­tary of Markie Burn, which con­nects to the River Spey SAC down­stream of the site. The HRA con­cludes there is a likely sig­ni­fic­ant effect on the River Spey SAC dur­ing con­struc­tion with a risk that sed­i­ment­a­tion enters the Allt Tar­suinn Beag. How­ever, the require­ment for the sub­mis­sion of a Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan and its imple­ment­a­tion will mit­ig­ate against this.

3. While con­struc­tion is around 1 mile away from the bound­ary of the River Spey SAC it is con­sidered likely that otter will use trib­u­tar­ies of the River Spey, includ­ing the Markie Burn and Allt Tar­suinn Beag. As no sur­vey inform­a­tion on otter has been provided it is recom­men­ded that a Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan is con­di­tioned and imple­men­ted pri­or to fur­ther works occur­ring on site.

4. The HRA con­cludes that as all the oth­er con­ser­va­tion object­ives would be met, the pro­posed devel­op­ment would not pre­vent or hinder the con­di­tion or con­ser­va­tion status of the qual­i­fy­ing interests of the SAC, and so this con­ser­va­tion object­ive would be met.

DEVEL­OP­MENT PLAN CON­TEXT Policies Nation­al Policy Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045 POLICY 1 Tack­ling the Cli­mate and Nature Crises

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 10/11/2023

POLICY 2 Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion POLICY 3 Biod­iversity POLICY 4 Nat­ur­al Places POLICY 5 Soils POLICY 6 Forestry, Wood­land and Trees POLICY 14 Design, qual­ity and place POLICY 20 Blue and Green Infra­struc­ture 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 X POLICY 3 DESIGN AND PLACE­MAK­ING X POLICY 4 NAT­UR­AL HER­IT­AGE X POLICY 5 LAND­SCAPE X 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 2021. 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​-LDP- 2021-web.pdf

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 10/11/2023

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 X Guid­ance Policy 3 Design and Place­mak­ing Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X Policy 4 Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X Policy 5 Land­scape Non-Stat­utory Guid­ance X 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

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

1. Forest and Land Scot­land states the track will bene­fit the wood­land man­aged by FLS and the Deer Man­age­ment Group.

2. The High­land Coun­cil Access Officer sug­gests the pro­pos­al is close to a pub­lic right of way which is likely to be used to access the pro­pos­al too. A con­di­tion is there­fore required to ensure any dam­age to the right of way from con­struc­tion traffic is repaired fol­low­ing the com­ple­tion of con­struc­tion works.

3. CNPA Eco­logy Advisor states there is poten­tial for effects on the Mon­adh­liath and River Spey SSSI, due to sed­i­ment release and hab­it­at loss, how­ever the eco­logy advisor recom­mends a site-spe­cif­ic pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion plan/​construction meth­od state­ment should be provided for work­ing along­side the All Tar­suinn Beag. A Phase 1 Hab­it­at sur­vey is also required and site-spe­cif­ic assess­ment of the peat­land to assess the impacts of the devel­op­ment on pri­or­ity hab­it­ats. These should be con­di­tioned and assessed pri­or to any fur­ther works being under­taken on the site.

4. CNPA Land­scape advisor states that there is insuf­fi­cient inform­a­tion to prop­erly assess pre­dicted land­scape and visu­al effects. Information

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 10/11/2023

on its need and use, how the track relates to exist­ing and oth­er tracks and its route­ing and how the design relate to the land­scape is required. Fur­ther inform­a­tion on the loc­a­tion, scale and res­tor­a­tion of bor­row pits is also required and the sub­mis­sion of a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment which fur­ther describes the pro­pos­als for soil and veget­a­tion extrac­tion, stor­age and res­tor­a­tion in detail.

1. Lag­gan Com­munity Coun­cil has not made a com­ment relat­ing to this application.

REP­RES­ENT­A­TIONS

1. There have been no rep­res­ent­a­tions received in rela­tion to this proposal.

APPRAIS­AL

1. The main con­sid­er­a­tions are con­sidered to be, the prin­ciple of the devel­op­ment, envir­on­ment­al and land­scape impacts, access and design.

Prin­cip­al

1. The prin­ciple of the pro­posed track is con­sidered against Policy 6: Forestry, wood­land and trees of Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045 (NPF4) which sup­ports devel­op­ment that will enhance, expand and improve wood­land and tree cov­er. Policy 29: Rur­al Devel­op­ment of NPF4 states devel­op­ment pro­pos­als in rur­al areas should be suit­ably scaled, sited and designed to be in keep­ing with the char­ac­ter of the area. Fur­ther­more, Policy 2: Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 (LDP) states pro­pos­als which sup­port or extend the eco­nomy, or which enhance the range and qual­ity of eco­nom­ic oppor­tun­it­ies or facil­it­ies, will be con­sidered favour­ably where they have no adverse envir­on­ment­al or amen­ity impacts on the site or neigh­bour­ing areas.

2. The pro­pos­al will provide access to a newly planted wood­land and will allow for its long-term man­age­ment includ­ing tree replace­ment, deer con­trol and fen­cing repairs. In turn the pro­vi­sion of this wood­land scheme in this loc­a­tion will con­trib­ute to sup­port­ing the loc­al rur­al eco­nomy and there­fore, sub­ject to com­pli­ance with oth­er devel­op­ment plan policies, the track is con­sidered to be accept­able in principle.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 10/11/2023

Land­scape Issues

1. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Places of NPF4 states devel­op­ment pro­pos­als which by vir­tue of type, loc­a­tion or scale will have an unac­cept­able impact on the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment, will not be sup­por­ted. Policy 5: Land­scape of the LDP pre­sumes against devel­op­ment that does not con­serve or enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park. Para­graph 5.2: Hill tracks with­in Policy 5: Land­scape states there will be a pre­sump­tion against new private roads and ways in open moor­land areas.

2. The Land­scape advisor has reques­ted fur­ther inform­a­tion on how the track will fit with­in the con­text of the wider land­scape and is seek­ing the sub­mis­sion of a Con­struc­tion Meth­od Statement.

3. The pur­pose of the track, which is partly con­struc­ted, is to allow the man­age­ment of a new wood­land cre­ation scheme. The wood­land is planted on former moor­land and the track is loc­ated with­in the wood­land enclos­ure with fur­ther plant­ing planned. It is accep­ted that there will be some lim­ited land­scape and visu­al impacts, how­ever, these are likely to be in the short term and lim­ited in extent. The track will be well screened in time as the tress mature, integ­rat­ing with the sur­round­ing land­scape. Sub­ject to the sub­mis­sion of an appro­pri­ate Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment detail­ing amongst oth­er things, pro­pos­als for soil and veget­a­tion extrac­tion, stor­age and res­tor­a­tion details, the pro­pos­al will not be det­ri­ment­al to the land­scape char­ac­ter, in com­pli­ance with Policy 4 of NPF4 and Policy 5 of the LDP.

Envir­on­ment­al Issues

1. Policy 3: Biod­iversity of NPF4 states any poten­tial adverse impacts, includ­ing cumu­lat­ive impacts, of devel­op­ment pro­pos­als on biod­iversity, nature net­works and the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment will be min­im­ised through care­ful plan­ning and design while Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Places seeks to pro­tect and enhance nat­ur­al heritage.

2. Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of the LDP states that devel­op­ment that would have a sig­ni­fic­ant adverse effect on any European Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies will not be per­mit­ted unless the devel­op­ment will not be det­ri­ment­al to the main­ten­ance of the pop­u­la­tion of the spe­cies con­cerned at a favour­able con­ser­va­tion status in their nat­ur­al range.

3. An HRA has been pro­duced sug­gest­ing there will not be an adverse effect on site integ­rity for the River Spey SAC provid­ing a site-spe­cif­ic Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan is pro­duced and approved pri­or to any further

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 10/11/2023

works being under­taken. A pre-con­struc­tion otter sur­vey and oth­er rel­ev­ant spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans should also be under­taken and sub­mit­ted to the CNPA for approv­al. Sub­ject to a con­di­tion requir­ing a suit­able Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan is sub­mit­ted and approved, the pro­pos­al will com­ply with Policies 3 and 4 of NPF4 and Policy 4 of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Access Issues

1. Policy 20: Blue and green infra­struc­ture of NPF4 states LDPs should safe­guard access rights and core paths, includ­ing act­ive travel routes, and encour­age new and enhanced oppor­tun­it­ies for access linked to wider net­works. Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 states all devel­op­ment pro­pos­als must be designed to main­tain and max­im­ise all oppor­tun­it­ies for respons­ible out­door access, includ­ing links into the exist­ing path net­work. The High­land Coun­cil Access Officer has sug­ges­ted that repairs to the pub­lic right of way adja­cent to the pro­posed devel­op­ment should be under­taken, should any dam­age be caused by con­struc­tion vehicles dur­ing the devel­op­ment of the track. Apply­ing the sug­ges­ted con­di­tion will ensure the pro­pos­al com­plies with Policy 20 of NPF4 and Policy 3 of Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

CON­CLU­SION

1. The track is with­in an area of newly cre­ated nat­ive wood­land, which in time will screen the track from any land­scape impacts. While its use is ini­tially for the man­age­ment of the wood­land once these works have been fin­ished the track will facil­it­ate oth­er aspects of estate man­age­ment. With this the prin­ciple of the track is accept­able and sub­ject to the applic­a­tion of con­di­tions for a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment, a Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan and a Pre-con­struc­tion otter sur­vey and any required Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan pri­or to any fur­ther works on site the pro­pos­al will com­ply with the rel­ev­ant NPF4 and Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies.

RECOM­MEND­A­TION

That Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to approve the Con­struc­tion of a 634m long ATV track for wood­land man­age­ment at Crath­ie Lodge, Lag­gan, New­ton­more, High­land, PH20 1AJ, sub­ject to the fol­low­ing conditions:

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 10/11/2023

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

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence until a Con­struc­tion Meth­od State­ment (CMS) has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. The CMS shall include but not be lim­ited to:

a) A pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion plan demon­strat­ing that there will be no pol­lu­tion or sed­i­ment­a­tion of water courses dur­ing con­struc­tion; b) Details of pre-con­struc­tion sur­veys for pro­tec­ted spe­cies (otter) and any asso­ci­ated Spe­cies Pro­tec­tion Plan with stand­ard mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures to pre­vent harm to pro­tec­ted spe­cies that might enter the site dur­ing con­struc­tion; c) The approach to site pre­par­a­tion, soils man­age­ment, res­tor­a­tion and reinstatement.

There­after the devel­op­ment shall be imple­men­ted in accord­ance with the approved CEMP.

Reas­on: To ensure that there is no effect on the integ­rity of the River Spey SAC and to pro­tec­ted spe­cies in accord­ance with Policy 3: Biod­iversity and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Places of NPF4 and Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing, Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. Any dis­turb­ance or dam­age to the Glen Markie pub­lic right of way (HB31) must be repaired to as good or bet­ter a stand­ard than pre devel­op­ment with­in 14 days of the dis­turb­ance occur­ring, or such longer peri­od as agreed with the loc­al authority.

Reas­on: To com­ply with the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­it­ies stat­utory duty to uphold access rights and in com­pli­ance with Policy 20: Blue and green Infra­struc­ture of NPF4 and Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

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Inform­at­ives CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Item 9 10/11/2023

1. The devel­op­ment hereby approved must com­mence with­in 3 years of the date of this decision notice. If devel­op­ment has not com­menced with­in this peri­od then this plan­ning per­mis­sion will lapse.

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

3. 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.

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