CAIRNGORMS

NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY UGH­DAR­RAS PAIRC NAISEANTA A’ MHON­AIDH RUAIDH

Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme and plans Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment (Scot­land) Act 2005

1. Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme Screen­ing determ­in­a­tion In accord­ance with Sec­tion 8(1) of the Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment (Scot­land) Act 2005 CNPA has form­ally determ­ined, in con­sulta­tion with His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land, Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency (SEPA) and NatureScot, that imple­ment­a­tion of the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme is unlikely to lead to sig­ni­fic­ant envir­on­ment­al effects, and there­fore no envir­on­ment­al report will be pre­pared for the programme.

State­ment of reas­ons The pro­gramme itself is too vague to enable mean­ing­ful assess­ment and in itself is unlikely to res­ult in sig­ni­fic­ant envir­on­ment­al effects. Deliv­ery is through the asso­ci­ated Cairngorms 2030 plans, which are sub­ject to sep­ar­ate assessment.

1. Cairngorms 2030 plans Screen­ing determ­in­a­tion In accord­ance with Sec­tion 8(1) of the Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment (Scot­land) Act 2005 CNPA has form­ally determ­ined, in con­sulta­tion with His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land, Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency (SEPA) and NatureScot, that imple­ment­a­tion of 10 of the 23 Cairngorms 2030 plans are likely to lead to sig­ni­fic­ant envir­on­ment­al effects, and there­fore envir­on­ment­al assess­ments will be pre­pared for those plans. CNPA has also form­ally determ­ined, in con­sulta­tion with His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land, Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency (SEPA) and NatureScot, that imple­ment­a­tion of the remain­ing 13 plans are unlikely to lead to sig­ni­fic­ant envir­on­ment­al effects, and there­fore no envir­on­ment­al report will be pre­pared for them.

State­ment of reas­ons The Cairngorms 2030 plans have been screened in or out for the reas­ons set out in the table below.

Plan	Poten­tial for envir­on­ment­al effects
la Well­being Economy	None — stage I out­puts are con­sensus build­ing and inform­a­tion gathering.
Ib Green Health	None — stage I out­puts are con­sensus build­ing and inform­a­tion gathering.
Ic Demen­tia Activ­ity Resource Centre	While there is lim­ited detail to enable mean­ing­ful envir­on­ment­al assess­ment at present, the ​‘pro­gramme of activ­it­ies developed and delivered’ could have envir­on­ment­al effects on sens­it­ive envir­on­ment­al areas around the pro­posed loc­a­tion at Bad­aguish (par­tic­u­larly areas import­ant for caper­cail­lie), while also hav­ing pos­it­ive health bene­fits for those will demen­tia and their carers. There are poten­tial inter­re­la­tion­ships with oth­er Cairngorms 2030 plans that involve act­ive travel that may also affect the same loc­a­tion and sur­round­ing area.
2a Cli­mate learn­ing and education	None — stage I out­puts are con­sensus build­ing and inform­a­tion gath­er­ing, and future bid preparation.
2b Effect­ive Com­munity Engage­ment (com­bined with 3b Citizen’s Assembly)	None — stage I out­puts are con­sensus build­ing and inform­a­tion gath­er­ing, and future bid preparation.
2c Com­munity Arts and Culture	None — stage I out­puts are con­sensus build­ing and inform­a­tion gath­er­ing, and future bid preparation.
3a Cli­mate Con­scious Communities	None — stage I out­puts are con­sensus build­ing and inform­a­tion gath­er­ing, and future bid preparation.
3c Com­munity Man­aged Grants scheme	None — stage I out­puts are pro­cess based man­aging grant funding.
4a Region­al Land Use Part­ner­ship and land rights and responsibilities	None — stage I out­puts are con­sensus build­ing and inform­a­tion gathering.
4b Green Invest­ment Plan	None — stage I out­puts are inform­a­tion gath­er­ing and fin­ance testing.
5a Wood­land Expansion	None — stage I out­puts are inform­a­tion gathering.
5b Peat­land restoration	While there is very little detail on where res­tor­a­tion would take place or what would be involved, sites will be iden­ti­fied and there could be envir­on­ment­al effects for example through access with machinery to and from the res­tor­a­tion area caus­ing dam­age and sed­i­ment release (affect­ing water qual­ity), noise and light­ing from machinery and human activ­ity caus­ing dis­turb­ance, and/​or works timed inap­pro­pri­ately so caus­ing increased dis­turb­ance or dam­age to hab­it­ats and spe­cies. There may also be effects on cul­tur­al her­it­age that may be hid­den under peat­land hab­it­at being restored. There should be bene­fi­cial effects on air and cli­mat­ic factors through the con­tri­bu­tion res­tor­a­tion would make to tack­ling the causes of cli­mate change by improv­ing the func­tion of the restored peat­lands as car­bon sinks. Poten­tial inter­re­la­tion­ship with the cli­mate resi­li­ent catch­ments plan.
5c Cli­mate resi­li­ent catchments	While there is very little detail on where res­tor­a­tion would take place or what would be involved at present, there could be envir­on­ment­al effects for example through access with machinery to and from the res­tor­a­tion area caus­ing dam­age to hab­it­ats and/​or pol­lu­tion through sed­i­ment release, noise and/​or light­ing from machinery and human activ­ity caus­ing dis­turb­ance to spe­cies, and/​or works timed inap­pro­pri­ately so caus­ing dis­turb­ance or increased damage/​pollution. There is also the poten­tial for pos­it­ive envir­on­ment­al effects such as nat­ur­al flood man­age­ment (cli­mat­ic factors) and res­tor­a­tion hav­ing bene­fi­cial effects on biod­iversity. Poten­tial inter­re­la­tion­ship with the peat­land res­tor­a­tion plan.
5d Deer Management	None — stage I out­puts are inform­a­tion gath­er­ing and con­sensus build­ing, while the pre­par­a­tion of Stra­tegic Land Use Plans out­put is too vague to enable mean­ing­ful assessment.
5e Cairngorms Future Farming	None — stage I out­puts are inform­a­tion gath­er­ing and con­sensus build­ing, while the pre­par­a­tion of Integ­rated Land Man­age­ment Plans out­put is too vague to enable mean­ing­ful assessment.
5f Land­scape and communities	None — stage I out­puts are con­sensus build­ing and inform­a­tion gathering.
6a Ebikes	While there is lim­ited detail to enable mean­ing­ful assess­ment at present, there could be envir­on­ment­al effects from changes in e bike use, for example changes to the pat­terns of human activ­ity hav­ing effects on
6b Glen­more trans­port plan	While there is lim­ited detail to enable mean­ing­ful assess­ment at present, there could be envir­on­ment­al effects from reduced or restric­ted vehicle use, for example changes to the pat­terns of human activ­ity hav­ing effects on sens­it­ive envir­on­ment­al areas/​receptors (eg areas pro­tec­ted for nature con­ser­va­tion or oth­er­wise import­ant for wild­life, sens­it­ive hab­it­ats, cul­tur­al her­it­age, built envir­on­ment, land­scape effects, etc). There is also poten­tial for health bene­fits to people through being more act­ive and reduced emis­sions from fossil fuel powered vehicles. Poten­tial for inter­re­la­tion­ship with oth­er travel related plans and plans affect­ing the same area in the Cairngorms 2030 programme.
6c Act­ive com­munit­ies Badenoch and Strathspey	While there is lim­ited detail to enable mean­ing­ful assess­ment at present, there could be envir­on­ment­al effects from infra­struc­ture improve­ments and concept designs caus­ing built devel­op­ment and/​or changes to the pat­terns of human activ­ity hav­ing effects on sens­it­ive envir­on­ment­al areas/​receptors (eg areas pro­tec­ted for nature con­ser­va­tion or oth­er­wise import­ant for wild­life, sens­it­ive hab­it­ats, cul­tur­al her­it­age, built envir­on­ment, land­scape effects, etc). There is also poten­tial for health bene­fits to people through being more act­ive and reduced emis­sions from fossil fuel powered vehicles. Poten­tial for inter­re­la­tion­ship with oth­er travel related plans in the Cairngorms 2030 programme.
6d Sus­tain­able trans­port in Deeside	While there is lim­ited detail to enable mean­ing­ful assess­ment at present, there could be envir­on­ment­al effects from infra­struc­ture improve­ments and concept designs caus­ing built devel­op­ment and/​or changes to the pat­terns of human activ­ity hav­ing effects on sens­it­ive envir­on­ment­al areas/​receptors (eg areas pro­tec­ted for nature con­ser­va­tion or oth­er­wise import­ant for wild­life, sens­it­ive hab­it­ats, cul­tur­al her­it­age, built envir­on­ment, land­scape effects, etc). There is also poten­tial for health bene­fits to people through being more act­ive and reduced emis­sions from fossil fuel powered vehicles. Poten­tial for inter­re­la­tion­ship with oth­er travel related plans in the Cairngorms 2030 programme.
6e Sus­tain­able trans­port in High­land Perthshire	While there is lim­ited detail to enable mean­ing­ful assess­ment at present, there could be envir­on­ment­al effects from the route between Blair Atholl and Kil­liecrankie caused by built devel­op­ment and/​or changes to the pat­terns of human activ­ity hav­ing effects on sens­it­ive envir­on­ment­al areas/​receptors (eg areas pro­tec­ted for nature con­ser­va­tion or oth­er­wise import­ant for wild­life, sens­it­ive hab­it­ats, cul­tur­al her­it­age, built envir­on­ment, land­scape effects, etc). There is also poten­tial for health bene­fits to people through being more act­ive and reduced emis­sions from fossil fuel powered vehicles. Poten­tial for inter­re­la­tion­ship with oth­er travel related plans in the Cairngorms 2030 programme.
6f Act­ive Aviemore	While there is lim­ited detail to enable mean­ing­ful assess­ment at present, there could be envir­on­ment­al effects from infra­struc­ture improve­ments and concept designs caus­ing built devel­op­ment and/​or changes to the pat­terns of human activ­ity hav­ing effects on sens­it­ive envir­on­ment­al areas/​receptors (eg areas pro­tec­ted for nature con­ser­va­tion or oth­er­wise import­ant for wild­life, sens­it­ive hab­it­ats, cul­tur­al her­it­age, built envir­on­ment, land­scape effects, etc). There is also poten­tial for health
6g Cairngorms act­ive travel plan	bene­fits to people through being more act­ive and reduced emis­sions from
fossil fuel powered vehicles. Poten­tial for inter­re­la­tion­ship with oth­er travel
related plans in the Cairngorms 2030 programme.
While there is lim­ited detail to enable mean­ing­ful assess­ment at present,
there could be envir­on­ment­al effects from infra­struc­ture improvements
and concept designs caus­ing built devel­op­ment and/​or changes to the
pat­terns of human activ­ity hav­ing effects on sens­it­ive environmental
areas/​receptors (eg areas pro­tec­ted for nature con­ser­va­tion or otherwise
import­ant for wild­life, sens­it­ive hab­it­ats, cul­tur­al her­it­age, built
envir­on­ment, land­scape effects, etc). There is also poten­tial for health
bene­fits to people through being more act­ive and reduced emis­sions from
fossil fuel powered vehicles. Poten­tial for inter­re­la­tion­ship with oth­er travel
related plans in the Cairngorms 2030 programme.

Fur­ther inform­a­tion A copy of the June 2022 screen­ing report sub­mit­ted to con­sulta­tion author­it­ies, which provides fur­ther detail on the pro­gramme and plans assessed, can be viewed online via https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​w​o​r​king- togeth­er­/­cairngorms-2030/ or reques­ted by email­ing planning@​cairngorms.​co.​uk or writ­ing to CNΡΑ, 14 The Square, Grant­own on Spey, PH26 3HG.

5 July 2022