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NPPP 2022 SEA Scoping Report

Cairngorms

NATION­AL PARK Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022

STRATEGY

Stra­tegic Envir­on­ment­al Assessment

Scop­ing Report Janu­ary 2020

To: [email protected] SEA Gate­way 2 H (South) Vic­tor­ia Quay Edin­burgh EH6 6QQ

Cov­er Note PART I

PART 2 An SEA Scop­ing Report is attached for the plan, pro­gramme or strategy (PPS) entitled: Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 — 2027 The Respons­ible Author­ity is: Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

PART 3 [x] The PPS falls under the scope of Sec­tion 5(3) of the Act and requires an SEA under the Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment (Scot­land) Act 2005. or [ ] The PPS falls under the scope of Sec­tion 5(4) of the Act and requires an SEA under the Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment (Scot­land) Act 2005. or [ ] The PPS does not require an SEA under the Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment (Scot­land) Act

  1. How­ever, we wish to carry out an SEA on a vol­un­tary basis. We accept that, as this SEA is vol­un­tary, the stat­utory 5 week times­cale for views from the Con­sulta­tion Author­it­ies can­not be guaranteed.

PART 4 Con­tact name Nina Caudrey Job Title Plan­ning Officer (Devel­op­ment Plan­ning) Con­tact address Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 The Square Grant­own-on-Spey PH26 3HG

Con­tact tel no 01479 873535 Con­tact email ninacaudrey@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

PART 5 Sig­na­ture (elec­tron­ic sig­na­ture is accept­able) Date Nina Caudrey 20 Janu­ary 2020

Table of Contents

  1. Con­text | a. Back­ground b. About the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2 c. Oth­er rel­ev­ant plans, pro­grammes and strategies 3

  2. Scop­ing inform­a­tion 3 a. Top­ics con­sidered 3 b. Top­ics scoped in 3 c. Envir­on­ment­al baseline 4

  3. Pro­posed envir­on­ment­al assess­ment meth­od­o­logy 4 a. Pro­cess 4 b. Assess­ment tem­plates and SEA object­ives 4 c. Longev­ity and per­man­ence of effects 5 d. Altern­at­ives and mit­ig­a­tion 5 e. Cumu­lat­ive and in-com­bin­a­tion effects 5 f. Oth­er envir­on­ment­al assess­ments 5

  4. Next steps a. Scop­ing advice sought from con­sulta­tion author­it­ies ।। b. Draft Envir­on­ment­al Report pro­posed con­sulta­tion peri­od ।। c. Indic­at­ive times­cales for plan pre­par­a­tion and consultation ।।

Annex I: Plans, pro­grammes and strategies rel­ev­ant to the NPPP 12 Annex II: Baseline envir­on­ment­al data 34 Annex III: Data ana­lys­is inform­a­tion 35 Annex IV: Pro­tec­ted area con­di­tion data 39 Note: Top­ic papers are sep­ar­ate documents

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan SEA Scop­ing Report

Janu­ary 2020

1. Con­text

a. Back­ground

The plan being scoped is the fourth Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP). The NPPP will be a five year man­age­ment plan cov­er­ing the whole of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park area (fig­ure 1) for the peri­od 20222027 although it will also con­tain tar­gets up to 2040. It will replace the cur­rent NPPP, which cov­ers the peri­od 20172022. NPPPs seek to identi­fy key land man­age­ment, social and eco­nom­ic issues for the Park as a whole, along with stra­tegic meas­ures to alle­vi­ate them.

[map of the Cairngorms] North Crom­dale Glen­liv­et Dul­nain Bridge Carr-Bridge Nethy Boat of Bridge Garten Aviemore Inver­druie Glen­more Kin­craig Kin­gussie Insh New­ton­more 0 Lag­gan Dal­whin­nie Blair Atholl Kil­liecrankie Tomin­toul Strath­don Din­net Bal­later Brae­mar Clova Glen­shee 0 5 10 20 30 40 Kilometers

Repro­duced by per­mis­sion of Ord­nance Sur­vey on behalf of HMSO. Crown copy­right and data­base right 2015. All rights reserved. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber 100040965 Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

Fig­ure I — the area covered by the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. The fourth NPPP is at a very early stage of devel­op­ment, with con­sid­er­a­tion of the key issues and focus for the NPPP tak­ing place dur­ing 2020. This has made detailed scop­ing dif­fi­cult, as the con­tent of the future NPPP is unknown. How­ever, as the NPPP will be stra­tegic in nature it has been pos­sible to scope the poten­tial for envir­on­ment­al effects by using the broad cat­egor­ies out­lined by SEA Top­ics (as defined in sec­tion 2. information).

Scop­ing

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan SEA Scop­ing Report

Janu­ary 2020 Con­sid­er­a­tion of the poten­tial for envir­on­ment­al effects has been done by using the con­tents of the cur­rent NPPP as a guide as to what broad type of issue may be included in the next NPPP (eg hous­ing that is afford­able for those work­ing in the Park remains a key issue), along with sig­ni­fic­ant envir­on­ment­al issues that have come to the fore since pub­lic­a­tion of the cur­rent NPPP (such as the cli­mate emergency).

b. About the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan

Hav­ing a NPPP is a leg­al require­ment under required under sec­tion 11 of the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000. The NPPP will:

  • Set the stra­tegic vis­ion and pri­or­it­ies for man­aging the Park by identi­fy­ing key land man­age­ment, social and eco­nom­ic issues.
  • Identi­fy meas­ures that the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA) and part­ners think will alle­vi­ate the issues and make the biggest con­tri­bu­tion to a suc­cess­ful Nation­al Park over the plan’s life­time and beyond.
  • Provide focus and pri­or­it­ies at a time of lim­ited fin­an­cial resources.
  • Show how the four aims of the Nation­al Park can be achieved togeth­er, bene­fit­ing people and place.

The NPPP will also provide stra­tegic dir­ec­tion for five key strategies and plans that sit below it, as shown in fig­ure 2. In turn, these plans and strategies will sup­port deliv­ery of the NPPP priorities.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan The over­arch­ing man­age­ment plan for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Act­ive Cairngorms The out­door access strategy for the Nation­al Park

Cairngorms Nature Action Plan

Eco­nom­ic Action Plan

Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan

LEAD­ER Loc­al Devel­op­ment Strategy

Sets out the con­ser­va­tion pri­or­it­ies for the Nation­al Park

Sets out the eco­nom­ic pri­or­it­ies for the Nation­al Park

Sets out the polices for land use plan­ning with­in the Nation­al Park

Sets out the pri­or­it­ies for pro­mot­ing com­munity- led loc­al devel­op­ment to sup­port a sus­tain­able rur­al eco­nomy in the Nation­al Park Fig­ure 2 — hier­archy of CNPA plans and strategies linked to the NPPP 2

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan SEA Scop­ing Report

Janu­ary 2020

C. Oth­er rel­ev­ant plans, pro­grammes and strategies

There are a large num­ber of oth­er plans, pro­grammes and strategies (PPS) that are of rel­ev­ance to the NPPP. Due to their num­ber, these are lis­ted in Annex I. The PPS are cat­egor­ised accord­ing to their inter­na­tion­al, nation­al and loc­al scales and are accom­pan­ied by inform­a­tion on their pur­pose, rela­tion­ship with the NPPP and their rel­ev­ance to the envir­on­ment­al assess­ment. The envir­on­ment­al assess­ment that informs the Envir­on­ment­al Report will need to con­sider the PPS that are act­ive at the time of writ­ing. There­fore this aspect of the assess­ment will be reviewed as the assess­ment progresses.

2. Scop­ing information

a. Top­ics considered

Sched­ule 3 of the Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment (Scot­land) Act 2005 lists cat­egor­ies of poten­tial envir­on­ment­al effects that should be con­sidered as part of the envir­on­ment­al assess­ment pro­cess. These have been grouped togeth­er into eight Top­ic areas. The Top­ics are:

  • Top­ic 1: Cli­mat­ic Factors
  • Top­ic 2: Air
  • Top­ic 3: Water
  • Top­ic 4: Soil (includ­ing geodiversity’)
  • Top­ic 5: Mater­i­al Assets
  • Top­ic 6: Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna
  • Top­ic 7: Land­scape and Cul­tur­al Heritage
  • Top­ic 8: Pop­u­la­tion and Human Health

b. Top­ics scoped in

All the SEA Top­ics iden­ti­fied in sec­tion 2.a have been scoped in, as the stra­tegic nature of the NPPP and baseline issues iden­ti­fied in the Top­ic papers have the poten­tial to influ­ence all topics.

With the small num­ber of com­mer­cial quar­ries in the Park, geo­di­versity is more rel­ev­ant to soils (Top­ic 4) in the Park. There­fore, con­sid­er­a­tion of geo­di­versity will be included under Top­ic 4, Soils, rather than the con­ven­tion­al loc­a­tion of Top­ic 5, Mater­i­al Assets. (The con­tri­bu­tion of min­er­al extrac­tion to resources will how­ever still be included under Top­ic 5.)

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C. Envir­on­ment­al baseline

The sep­ar­ate Top­ic papers present detailed inform­a­tion on the envir­on­ment­al baseline, ordered by the eight dif­fer­ent top­ic areas: cli­mat­ic factors, air, water, soil, mater­i­al assets, biod­iversity flora and fauna, land­scape and cul­tur­al her­it­age, pop­u­la­tion and human health.

3. Pro­posed envir­on­ment­al assess­ment methodology

a. Pro­cess

The inten­ded SEA pro­cess is to:

  • Gath­er envir­on­ment­al baseline data and inform­a­tion, identi­fy draft methodology.
  • Con­sult on the scop­ing report, to con­firm the envir­on­ment­al baseline is com­plete and agree the assess­ment meth­od­o­logy with con­sulta­tion author­it­ies (cur­rent stage).
  • Along­side the pre­par­a­tion of the out­line NPPP, carry out envir­on­ment­al assess­ment and pre­pare a draft Envir­on­ment­al Report, using the assess­ment meth­od­o­logy and tak­ing into account con­sulta­tion author­ity advice on the scop­ing report.
  • Con­sult on the draft Envir­on­ment­al Report and out­line NPPP.
  • Final­ise the NPPP and amend the Envir­on­ment­al Report accord­ingly, tak­ing into account con­sulta­tion author­ity advice.
  • Adopt the NPPP and issue a post-adop­tion state­ment on the Envir­on­ment­al Report.
  • Mon­it­or envir­on­ment­al effects dur­ing the Plan peri­od, identi­fy and imple­ment mit­ig­a­tion where unex­pec­ted adverse effects occur.

b. Assess­ment tem­plates and SEA objectives

At this stage, it is inten­ded that the assess­ment will focus on the vis­ion and principles/​objectives of the NPPP, where these give a dir­ec­tion that may have envir­on­ment­al effects. Tables 1, 2 and 3 will be used as a basis for car­ry­ing out the envir­on­ment­al assess­ment and record­ing the find­ings. Table I (found in sec­tion f, Oth­er envir­on­ment­al assess­ments) provides the inten­ded scor­ing mat­rix that will be used to ensure con­sist­ency dur­ing the envir­on­ment­al assess­ment. Tables 2 and 3 (found in sec­tion f, Oth­er envir­on­ment­al assess­ments) provides the main object­ives and tem­plate for scor­ing and record­ing poten­tial envir­on­ment­al effects dur­ing the envir­on­ment­al assess­ment. It incor­por­ates pro­posed SEA object­ives and sub-object­ives that each ele­ment of the NPPP will be scored against. Where avail­able, guid­ance pub­lished by the con­sulta­tion author­it­ies has been used as a basis for set­ting the SEA object­ives and sub-object­ives. These relate to the spe­cif­ic SEA envir­on­ment­al recept­ors and issues that have the poten­tial to be affected by the NPPP4

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan SEA Scop­ing Report

Janu­ary 2020 The inform­a­tion and issues iden­ti­fied as part of the baseline have also been used to inform which object­ives and sub-object­ives are rel­ev­ant to the envir­on­ment­al assess­ment of the NPPP. The SEA object­ives and ques­tions are pro­vi­sion­al and may be mod­i­fied dur­ing the SEA pro­cess – for example as a res­ult of com­ments from the Con­sulta­tion Author­it­ies, changes in the baseline data when it is fully col­lec­ted and/​or if the con­tent of the draft NPPP cov­ers dif­fer­ent sub­ject mat­ter than cur­rently expected.

c. Longev­ity and per­man­ence of effects

Con­sid­er­a­tion of longev­ity and scale of effects is built in to the assess­ment table tem­plate, so will form an integ­ral part of the envir­on­ment­al assess­ment for each ele­ment assessed.

d. Altern­at­ives and mitigation

At this stage, the NPPP vis­ion, over­all strategy, prin­ciples and pri­or­it­ies, as well as any pos­sible altern­at­ives are unknown. How­ever altern­at­ive options will be con­sidered and assessed as dif­fer­ent options start to emerge dur­ing the draft­ing of the NPPP and as a res­ult of the pub­lic con­sulta­tion process.

e. Cumu­lat­ive and in-com­bin­a­tion effects

Con­sid­er­a­tion of the poten­tial for cumu­lat­ive and in-com­bin­a­tion effects will be included as an integ­ral part of the envir­on­ment­al assess­ment pro­cess for indi­vidu­al ele­ments of the plan. A review of the assess­ment res­ults will also be under­taken to double check any cumu­lat­ive or in-com­bin­a­tion effects that may not have been appar­ent dur­ing indi­vidu­al assessments.

f. Oth­er envir­on­ment­al assessments

A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) will be under­taken at the same time as the draft Envir­on­ment­al Report. The HRA will be used to inform the Envir­on­ment­al Report and vice versa as part of an iter­at­ive pro­cess. 5

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan SEA Scop­ing Report

Janu­ary 2020 Table I — scor­ing mat­rix Sig­ni­fic­ance of Effect Ele­ment would have a major pos­it­ive envir­on­ment­al effect in its cur­rent form as it would resolve an exist­ing issue or max­im­ise ++ oppor­tun­it­ies. SIG­NI­FIC­ANT. Ele­ment would have a minor pos­it­ive envir­on­ment­al effect. + Effect of Ele­ment is uncer­tain. ? No con­nectiv­ity with the envir­on­ment­al Topic/​Objective being assessed. X Ele­ment would have no pre­dicted envir­on­ment­al effects. 0 Ele­ment would have a minor adverse envir­on­ment­al effect. — The Ele­ment would have a major adverse envir­on­ment­al effect as it would cre­ate sig­ni­fic­ant new prob­lems or sub­stan­tially exacer­bate exist­ing prob­lems. Con­sider exclu­sion of option. SIG­NI­FIC­ANT6

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan SEA Scop­ing Report

Janu­ary 2020 Table 2 – main envir­on­ment­al objectives

Top­ic Object­ive Main Objective(s) num­ber Cli­mat­ic factors la Reduce the emis­sions of green­house gases with par­tic­u­lar focus on emis­sions from build­ings, trans­port, energy gen­er­a­tion and industry (espe­cially CO2), but also from nat­ur­al car­bon sinks (such as wood­lands and peat­lands). Cli­mat­ic factors Ib Ensure exist­ing and pro­posed infra­struc­ture and build­ings are loc­ated and designed to cope with future cli­mate con­di­tions. Air 2a To main­tain or improve air qual­ity and reduce emis­sions of key pol­lut­ants. Water 3a Main­tain and improve the qual­ity of water resources and to pro­tect and enhance the state of the water envir­on­ment. Water 3b Reduce demand for water and min­im­ise unne­ces­sary water use. Water 3c To reduce the impact of invas­ive non-nat­ive spe­cies on the water envir­on­ment. Soil and 4a Min­im­ise con­tam­in­a­tion and safe­guard and improve soil, peat geo­di­versity qual­ity and geo­di­versity. Mater­i­al assets 5a Encour­age the sus­tain­able use and reuse of mater­i­al assets. Biod­iversity 6a Pro­tect and enhance the biod­iversity of the Nation­al Park. flora and fauna Land­scape and 7a Pro­tect and enhance the char­ac­ter, diversity and spe­cial cul­tur­al her­it­age qual­it­ies of the land­scapes of the Park. Land­scape and Pro­tect and enhance the his­tor­ic and cul­tur­al envir­on­ment and 7b cul­tur­al her­it­age assets (includ­ing lin­guist­ic) of the Park. Pop­u­la­tion and 8a Sup­port and enhance the health and well­being of res­id­ents and human health vis­it­ors to the Park through hous­ing, recre­ation and employ­ment opportunities.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan SEA Scop­ing Report

Janu­ary 2020 Table 3 — envir­on­ment­al assess­ment tem­plate SEA Issue / Top­ic Insert Issue / Top­ic title

SEA Objective(s): Insert SEA Objective(s)

Sig­ni­fic­ant Inter­re­la­tion­ships Insert sig­ni­fic­ant rela­tion­ships with oth­er SEA Issues / Topic

Assessor(s): Insert assessor(s)’s name

Date of Assess­ment: Insert date(s) of assessment

SEC­TION OF PLAN BEING ASSESSED: (eg Vis­ion, Policy X, Option IA, etc) SEA objective

la Assess­ment of envir­on­ment­al effects SEA sub-object­ive Nature of effect Insert a descrip­tion of the nature of the poten­tial effect the Option will have on the issue against the cri­ter­ia set out by the SEA Object­ive. Include con­sid­er­a­tion of cumu­lat­ive effects. Link to baseline inform­a­tion as necessary.

Scor­ing: sig­ni­fic­ance of effect before mit­ig­a­tion Insert scor­ing for the sig­ni­fic­ance of the envir­on­ment­al effect BEFORE mit­ig­a­tion (using the sym­bology in Table 1)

Mit­ig­a­tion and enhance­ment Insert inform­a­tion on how adverse effects will be mit­ig­ated and/​or how enhance­ments will be used to cre­ate pos­it­ive effects. Scor­ing: resid­ual sig­ni­fic­ance of effect after mit­ig­a­tion Insert scor­ing for the resid­ual sig­ni­fic­ance of the envir­on­ment­al effect AFTER mit­ig­a­tion (using the sym­bology in Table 1)

Will there be an effect on energy con­ser­va­tion and effi­ciency in new development?

la

Will there be an effect on the pro­duc­tion of renew­able energy of appro­pri­ate scale for the Park?

la

Will there be an effect on loc­al pro­duc­tion and use of mater­i­als and food produce?

la

Will there be an effect on car­bon sinks (such as wood­lands and peatlands)?

la

Will there be an effect on travel that pro­duces green­house gas emissions?

lb

Con­sid­er­ing future implic­a­tions of cli­mate change (eg increased sever­ity of weath­er res­ult­ing in more flood­ing, peri­ods of drought and extremes of tem­per­at­ure), will there be an effect on exist­ing infra­struc­ture and buildings?

lb

Con­sid­er­ing future implic­a­tions of cli­mate change (eg increased sever­ity of weath­er res­ult­ing in more flood­ing, peri­ods of drought and extremes of tem­per­at­ure), will there be an effect on infra­struc­ture and build­ings pro­posed in the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan?

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Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan SEA Scop­ing Report Janu­ary 2020

2a 2a 3a 3a 3a 3b Will there be an effect on the levels of UK Nation­al Air Qual­ity pol­lut­ants (e.g. NO2, PM10, PM2.5, SO₂)? Will there be an effect on the levels of oth­er types of air pol­lu­tion (eg par­tic­u­lates)? Will there be an effect on the water qual­ity of rivers, lochs and ground-water from dif­fuse and point source pol­lu­tion? Will there be an effect on the abil­ity of river catch­ments to store water and the nat­ur­al flood man­age­ment ser­vices they provide? Will there be an effect on pub­lic water sup­plies? Will there be an effect on demand for water from devel­op­ment (res­id­en­tial and business)?

3b Will there be an effect on sus­tain­able use of water resources?

3c Will there be an effect on the water envir­on­ment from invas­ive non-nat­ive species?

4a Will there be an effect on car­bon rich soils, in par­tic­u­lar peat?

4a Will there be an effect on soil seal­ing, soil struc­ture and soil loss?

4a

Will there be an effect on the levels of soil contamination?

4a Will there be an effect on soil erosion and landslides?

4a

Will there be an effect on geo­di­versity interests (eg GCRs)?

5a Will there be an effect on sus­tain­able use of nat­ur­al resources (eg water, tim­ber, aggregates)?

5a Will there be an effect on the sus­tain­able use and man­age­ment of exist­ing and pro­posed infra­struc­ture (eg water, heat, energy or flood pro­tec­tion infrastructure)?

5a Will there be an effect on the use of finite resources through the use of sec­ond­ary and recycled materials?

6a Will there be an effect on the favour­able con­di­tion of areas pro­tec­ted for nature conservation?

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Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan SEA Scop­ing Report Janu­ary 2020 6a

6a

6a

6a

6a

7a

7a

7b

8a

8a

8a Will there be an effect on pro­tec­ted spe­cies? Will there be an effect on Cairngorms Nature Action Plan hab­it­ats and plants? Will there be an effect on Cairngorms Nature Action Plan bird and mam­mal spe­cies? Will there be an effect on wider biod­iversity (out­with pro­tec­ted areas and the hab­it­ats and spe­cies iden­ti­fied in the CNAP) in the Nation­al Park? Will there be an effect on deer man­age­ment prac­tices that seek to reduce envir­on­ment­al effects? Will there be an effect on land man­age­ment prac­tices that seek to avoid the intro­duc­tion and spread of invas­ive non-nat­ive spe­cies and tree dis­eases? Will there be an effect on the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park land­scapes? Will there be an effect land­scape char­ac­ter and loc­al dis­tinct­ive­ness? Will there be an effect on the his­tor­ic and cul­tur­al envir­on­ment and assets (includ­ing lin­guist­ic)? Will there be an effect on hous­ing for loc­al needs? Will there be an effect on recre­ation and act­ive travel oppor­tun­it­ies that sup­port health­i­er life­styles? Will there be an effect on employ­ment oppor­tun­it­ies loc­al to places of residence?

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4. Next steps

a. Scop­ing advice sought from con­sulta­tion authorities

As described in the pre­vi­ous sec­tions, all Top­ics have been scoped in but the con­tents of the NPPP are at this stage unknown. CNPA there­fore wish to seek the par­tic­u­lar advice of the con­sulta­tion author­it­ies on:

  • the pro­posed meth­od­o­logy (sec­tion 3)
  • wheth­er there are gaps or errors in the envir­on­ment­al baseline inform­a­tion iden­ti­fied in sep­ar­ate Top­ic papers,
  • if there is new inform­a­tion that is expec­ted to become avail­able over the next 12 – 18 months that could be use­ful to add to the envir­on­ment­al baseline.

The advice of the con­sulta­tion author­it­ies will be valu­able for inform­ing both the envir­on­ment­al assess­ment and the NPPP going forward.

b. Draft Envir­on­ment­al Report pro­posed con­sulta­tion period

A six to eight week con­sulta­tion peri­od is anti­cip­ated for the draft Envir­on­ment­al Report.

C. Indic­at­ive times­cales for plan pre­par­a­tion and consultation

Ini­tial iden­ti­fic­a­tion of the issues and pri­or­it­ies for the out­line NPPP will take place during

  1. A pub­lic con­sulta­tion on the issues iden­ti­fied, draft pri­or­it­ies and altern­at­ives (where rel­ev­ant), as well as draft envir­on­ment­al assess­ments, is inten­ded to take place in 2021. The final­ised NPPP should be ready for adop­tion in sum­mer 2022. ।।

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan SEA Scop­ing Report

Janu­ary 2020

Annex I: Plans, pro­grammes and strategies rel­ev­ant to the NPPP

Rel­ev­ant PPS Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose SEA Top­ic Rela­tion­ship between the PPS and the NPPP Inter­na­tion­al Dir­ect­ives and Policies (note that this list will be sub­ject change due to the UK leav­ing the EU on 31 Janu­ary 2020) The Clean Air Policy Pack­age (EC, 2013) Dir­ect­ive 91/676/EEC: Nitrates Dir­ect­ive Dir­ect­ive 92/42/EC: The Con­ser­va­tion of Nat­ur­al Hab­it­ats of Wild Fauna and Flora The pack­age con­sists of a Clean Air Pro­gramme for Europe with air qual­ity object­ives for the peri­od up to 2030, a revised Nation­al Emis­sion Ceil­ings Dir­ect­ive (cur­rently under review) with stricter nation­al emis­sion ceil­ings for the six main pol­lut­ants, and a pro­pos­al for a new Dir­ect­ive to reduce pol­lu­tion from medi­um-sized com­bus­tion install­a­tions. Requires mem­ber states to reduce water pol­lu­tion caused or induced by nitrates from agri­cul­tur­al sources and to pre­vent fur­ther such pol­lu­tion. Requires mem­ber states to sus­tain pop­u­la­tions of nat­ur­ally occur­ring flora and fauna by sus­tain­ing areas of hab­it­ats to main­tain eco­lo­gic­ally and sci­en­tific­ally sound levels. Air Water Soil and geo­di­versity Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna Pop­u­la­tion and Human Health Water Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna Water Biod­iversity, Fauna and Fauna Land­scape and Cul­tur­al Her­it­age The pro­pos­als in the NPPP should not adversely affect air qual­ity. The pro­pos­als in the NPPP should not increase water pol­lu­tion caused or induced by nitrates from agri­cul­tur­al sources. The pro­pos­als in the NPPP must ensure pro­tec­tion and enhance­ment of European sites and pro­tec­tion of European Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies. Dir­ect­ive 1999/31/EC: Land­fill of waste Dir­ect­ive The object­ive of the Dir­ect­ive is to pre­vent or reduce as far as pos­sible neg­at­ive effects on the envir­on­ment, in par­tic­u­lar on sur­face water, ground­wa­ter, soil, air, and on human health from the land­filling of waste by intro­du­cing Air Water Soil and geo­di­versity The pro­pos­als in the NPPP should pro­mote the waste hier­archy and work towards redu­cing land­fill waste. 12

Rel­ev­ant PPS Dir­ect­ive 2000/60/EC: The Water Frame­work Dir­ect­ive Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan SEA Scop­ing Report Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose strin­gent tech­nic­al require­ments for waste and land­fills. Requires mem­ber states to achieve good eco­lo­gic­al status of inland water bod­ies, and devel­op integ­rated catch­ment man­age­ment and river basin man­age­ment plans. Janu­ary 2020 Rela­tion­ship between the PPS and the NPPP SEA Top­ic Mater­i­al Assets Pop­u­la­tion and Human Health Water Biod­iversity, Flora and Fauna The pro­pos­als in the NPPP should sup­port pro­tec­tion and enhance­ment Land­scape and of the water envir­on­ment. Dir­ect­ive 2001/42/EC: Stra­tegic Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment Dir­ect­ive Dir­ect­ive 2001/81/EC (NECD): Nation­al Emis­sions Ceil­ing Dir­ect­ive Dir­ect­ive 2002/49/EC: Envir­on­ment­al Noise Dir­ect­ive Dir­ect­ive 2006/7/EC: Bathing Water Dir­ect­ive Dir­ect­ive 2006/113/EC: The Requires Stra­tegic Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ments to be under­taken for plans, pro­grammes and strategies with sig­ni­fic­ant envir­on­ment­al effects. Sets ceil­ings for each mem­ber state for emis­sions of ammo­nia, oxides of nitro­gen, sul­phur diox­ide and volat­ile organ­ic com­pounds. Aims to define a com­mon approach inten­ded to avoid, pre­vent or reduce on a pri­or­it­ised basis the harm­ful effects, includ­ing annoy­ance, due to the expos­ure to envir­on­ment­al noise Aims to pro­tect the pub­lic and the envir­on­ment from faecal pol­lu­tion at waters used for bathing by a large num­ber of vis­it­ors. Aims to pro­tect or improve shell­fish waters in order to Cul­tur­al Her­it­age All Top­ics Enables sig­ni­fic­ant envir­on­ment­al effects of pro­pos­als in the plan to be iden­ti­fied and addressed. Air The pro­pos­als in the NPPP should reflect the pur­pose of the Dir­ect­ive Pop­u­la­tion and Human health and should not adversely affect air qual­ity. Pop­u­la­tion and Human health The pro­pos­als in the NPPP should seek to ensure it does not res­ult in neg­at­ive health and well­being effects res­ult­ing from noise. Water Pop­u­la­tion and Human health Water The pro­pos­als in the NPPP should con­sider the con­tri­bu­tion that actions could make towards the attain­ment of bathing water qual­ity stand­ards. The pro­pos­als in the NPPP should 13

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan SEA Scop­ing Report

Janu­ary 2020 Rela­tion­ship between the PPS and the NPPP Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose SEA Top­ic Rel­ev­ant PPS Shell­fish Waters Dir­ect­ive sup­port shell­fish life and growth. It is designed to pro­tect Biod­iversity, seek to avoid neg­at­ive effects on the aquat­ic hab­it­at of bivalve and gast­ro­pod mol­luscs, which Flora and shell­fish waters, which in the Park include oysters, mus­sels, cockles, scal­lops and clams. Fauna includes fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel. Dir­ect­ive 2006/118/EC: Made under the Water Frame­work Dir­ect­ive, the Daugh­ter Water The pro­pos­als in the NPPP should Ground­wa­ter Daugh­ter Dir­ect­ive aims to pre­vent and lim­it inputs of pol­lut­ants to Soil and where pos­sible con­trib­ute to the Dir­ect­ive ground­wa­ter. geo­di­versity pro­tec­tion of ground­wa­ter resources. Pop­u­la­tion and Human health Dir­ect­ive 2007/60/EC: Floods Requires mem­ber states to assess if all water courses and Cli­mat­ic The pro­pos­als in the NPPP should Dir­ect­ive coast lines are at risk from flood­ing, to map the flood Factors reduce and man­age flood risk extent and assets and humans at risk in these areas and to Water encour­aging nat­ur­al flood take adequate and coordin­ated meas­ures to reduce this Pop­u­la­tion and man­age­ment approaches. flood risk Human health Dir­ect­ive 2008/50/EC: Estab­lishes stand­ards for air qual­ity and sets lim­its for Air The pro­pos­als in the NPPP should Ambi­ent Air Qual­ity and vari­ous pol­lut­ants. Pop­u­la­tion and sup­port meas­ures that would Clean­er Air for Europe Human health improve air qual­ity. Dir­ect­ive 2008/98/EC: Waste The revised EU Waste Frame­work Dir­ect­ive estab­lishes the Mater­i­al assets The pro­pos­als in the NPPP should, if Frame­work Dir­ect­ive legis­lat­ive frame­work for the hand­ling of waste by mem­ber Pop­u­la­tion and needed, sup­port waste man­age­ment states. Human health with­in the Nation­al Park. Dir­ect­ive 2009/28/EC: Estab­lishes a com­mon frame­work for the pro­duc­tion of Cli­mat­ic The pro­pos­als in the NPPP should Pro­mo­tion of the use of energy from renew­able sources and the pro­mo­tion of its factors seek to pro­mote the devel­op­ment energy from renew­able use. and use of appro­pri­ate renew­able sources energy sources. Dir­ect­ive 2009/147/EC on the Requires mem­ber states to sus­tain pop­u­la­tions of nat­ur­ally Water The pro­pos­als in the NPPP should Con­ser­va­tion of Wild Birds occur­ring wild birds by sus­tain­ing areas of hab­it­ats to Biod­iversity, sup­port pro­tec­tion and enhance­ment main­tain eco­lo­gic­ally and sci­en­tific­ally sounds levels. Flora and of bird hab­it­at where rel­ev­ant to the Fauna pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied. 14

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan SEA Scop­ing Report Janu­ary 2020 Rela­tion­ship between the PPS and the NPPP SEA Top­ic Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose Rel­ev­ant PPS European Charter for Region­al European adop­ted under the aus­pices of the Coun­cil of Land­scape and The pro­pos­als in the NPPP should or Minor­ity Lan­guages Europe to pro­tect and pro­mote his­tor­ic­al region­al and Cul­tur­al sup­port the Gael­ic lan­guage where (European Coun­cil, 1992) minor­ity lan­guages in Europe. Iden­ti­fies Gael­ic as being an Her­it­age rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies iden­ti­fied. endangered lan­guage. Land­scape and Cul­tur­al her­it­age Pop­u­la­tion and Human health European Land­scape Pro­motes the pro­tec­tion, man­age­ment and plan­ning of Biod­iversity, Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies Con­ven­tion (European European land­scapes and organ­ises European co-oper­a­tion Flora and iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP Com­mis­sion, 2000) on land­scape issues Fauna should be a tool for the main­ten­ance Land­scape and and res­tor­a­tion of land­scapes and Cul­tur­al their nat­ur­al hab­it­ats. her­it­age Pop­u­la­tion and Human health European Uni­on Biod­iversity Strategy aims to halt the loss of biod­iversity and eco­sys­tem Biod­iversity, Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies Strategy to 2020 (European ser­vices in the EU by 2020. Flora and iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP Com­mis­sion, 2011) Fauna should sup­port con­ser­va­tion and enhance­ment of biod­iversity. The Par­is Agree­ment (United The agree­ment sets out a glob­al action plan to put the Cli­mat­ic Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies Nations Frame­work world on track to avoid dan­ger­ous cli­mate change by Factors iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP Con­ven­tion on Cli­mate lim­it­ing glob­al warm­ing to well below 2°C and pur­su­ing should seek to pro­mote the Change, 2015) efforts to lim­it it to 1.5°C. devel­op­ment and use of appro­pri­ate renew­able energy sources and con­trib­ute to cli­mate change mit­ig­a­tion. 15

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan SEA Scop­ing Report Janu­ary 2020 Rela­tion­ship between the PPS and the NPPP SEA Top­ic Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose Rel­ev­ant PPS European Uni­on Com­mon Sets policy for agri­cul­tur­al sup­port with increased emphas­is Land­scape and Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies Agri­cul­tur­al Policy (European on rur­al devel­op­ment sup­port. Cul­tur­al iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP Com­mis­sion, undated) Her­it­age should recog­nise and provide for Biod­iversity, rur­al diver­si­fic­a­tion of eco­nom­ic flora and fauna activ­it­ies. Pop­u­la­tion and Human Health 2030 Cli­mate and Energy A frame­work for EU cli­mate and energy policies in the Cli­mat­ic Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies Frame­work (European peri­od from 2020 to 2030. At the heart of the 2030 Factors iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP Com­mis­sion, undated) frame­work is a 40 % reduc­tion in green­house gas emis­sions should seek to pro­mote the by 2030. devel­op­ment and use of appro­pri­ate renew­able energy sources and con­trib­ute to cli­mate change mit­ig­a­tion. Kyoto Pro­tocol (UNFC­CC, Pro­tocol to the inter­na­tion­al Frame­work Con­ven­tion on Cli­mat­ic Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies 1997) Cli­mate Change Frame­work with the object­ive of redu­cing factors iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP the Green­house gases that cause cli­mate change. should sup­port meas­ures that will reduce green­house gas emis­sions. The Pan-European Bio­lo­gic­al The Strategy aims to reverse the decline of land­scape and Biod­iversity, Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies and Land­scape Diversity bio­lo­gic­al diversity, by pro­mot­ing innov­a­tion and pro­act­ive Flora and iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP Strategy (Coun­cil of Europe, policy mak­ing. Fauna should sup­port the Strategy by 1995) Land­scape and con­sid­er­ing the con­tri­bu­tion that Cul­tur­al actions could make to pro­tect­ing Her­it­age biod­iversity and land­scapes. Pop­u­la­tion and Human health Ram­sar Con­ven­tion on Requires con­ser­va­tion and wise use of wet­lands. Water Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies Wet­lands of Inter­na­tion­al iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP 16

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan SEA Scop­ing Report Janu­ary 2020 Rela­tion­ship between the PPS and the NPPP SEA Top­ic Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose Rel­ev­ant PPS Import­ance 1971 Biod­iversity, should ensure the pro­tec­tion and Flora and enhance­ment of wet­lands. Fauna Land­scape and Cul­tur­al Her­it­age Sev­enth Envir­on­ment­al Action The object­ives are iden­ti­fies three key object­ives: to All Top­ics Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies Pro­gramme of the European pro­tect, con­serve and enhance the Union’s nat­ur­al cap­it­al; iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP Com­munity (European to turn the Uni­on into a resource-effi­cient, green, and should pro­mote all forms of Com­mis­sion, undated) com­pet­it­ive low-car­bon eco­nomy; to safe­guard the Union’s sus­tain­able devel­op­ment. cit­izens from envir­on­ment-related pres­sures and risks to health and well­being. It also iden­ti­fies means of achiev­ing this that mem­ber states should imple­ment. Tak­ing Sus­tain­able Use of A sec­tor based strategy pro­duced as a require­ment of the Cli­mat­ic Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies Resources For­ward: A Sev­enth Envir­on­ment­al Action Pro­gramme of the European factors iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP them­at­ic Strategy on the Com­munity, seek­ing to help Europe become a recyc­ling Air should seek to min­im­ise waste and pre­ven­tion and recyc­ling of soci­ety that seeks to avoid waste and uses waste as a Mater­i­al assets pro­mote recyc­ling. waste (EU 2005) resource. Them­at­ic Strategy for Soil A sec­tor based strategy pro­duced as a require­ment of the Soil and Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies Pro­tec­tion (EU 2006) Sev­enth Envir­on­ment­al Action Pro­gramme of the European geo­di­versity iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP Com­munity, seek­ing to estab­lish com­mon prin­ciples for the should con­trib­ute towards the pro­tec­tion and sus­tain­able use of soils. pro­tec­tion and improve­ment of soil. UN Con­ven­tion on Bio­lo­gic­al An inter­na­tion­al leg­ally-bind­ing treaty with three main goals: Biod­iversity, Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies Diversity (UN, 1992) con­ser­va­tion of biod­iversity; sus­tain­able use of biod­iversity; Flora and iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP fair and equit­able shar­ing of the bene­fits arising from the use Fauna should look for oppor­tun­it­ies to of genet­ic resources. con­serve, and where pos­sible restore, biod­iversity. UN Frame­work Con­ven­tion Treaty aimed at redu­cing glob­al emis­sions of green­house Cli­mat­ic Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies 17

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan SEA Scop­ing Report Janu­ary 2020 Rela­tion­ship between the PPS and the NPPP SEA Top­ic Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose Rel­ev­ant PPS on Cli­mate Change (the Rio gases to com­bat glob­al warm­ing. factors iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP Earth Sum­mit) 1992 (UN, should assist in the reduc­tion of 1992) green­house gas emis­sions. Nation­al Legis­la­tion (UK and Scot­land) Air Qual­ity (Scot­land) Estab­lishes stand­ards for air qual­ity and sets lim­its for Air Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies Reg­u­la­tions 2000 (as amended vari­ous pol­lut­ants in Scot­land. Pop­u­la­tion and iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP in Scot­land) Human health should sup­port meas­ures that would improve air qual­ity. Ancient Monu­ments and Pre­scribes the approach to be taken to plan­ning for Land­scape and Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies Archae­olo­gic­al Areas Act 1979 sched­uled ancient monu­ments and archae­olo­gic­al areas. Cul­tur­al iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP (as amended by His­tor­ic her­it­age should ensure that sched­uled ancient Envir­on­ment (Amend­ment) monu­ments and archae­olo­gic­al areas (Scot­land) Act 2011) are not adversely affected by new devel­op­ment. Cli­mate Change (Scot­land) Act Legis­la­tion to set a tar­get for the year 2050, an inter­im Cli­mat­ic factors Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies 2009 tar­get for the year 2020, and to provide for annu­al tar­gets, iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP for the reduc­tion of green­house gas emis­sions; to provide should sup­port and include cli­mate about the giv­ing of advice to the Scot­tish Min­is­ters relat­ing change adapt­a­tion and mit­ig­a­tion to cli­mate change; to con­fer power on Min­is­ters to impose meas­ures. cli­mate change duties on pub­lic bod­ies; to make fur­ther pro­vi­sion about mit­ig­a­tion of and adapt­a­tion to cli­mate change; to make pro­vi­sion about energy effi­ciency, includ­ing pro­vi­sion enabling coun­cil tax dis­counts; to make pro­vi­sion about the reduc­tion and recyc­ling of waste; and for con­nec­ted pur­poses. Con­ser­va­tion (Nat­ur­al These reg­u­la­tions relate to the des­ig­na­tion of European Biod­iversity, Where rel­ev­ant to the pri­or­it­ies Hab­it­ats, &c) Reg­u­la­tions 1994 sites, and pro­vi­sion of pro­tec­tion to vari­ous plant and Flora and Fauna iden­ti­fied, the pro­pos­als in the NPPP 18

Rel­ev­ant PPS (as amended for Scot­land) Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan SEA Scop­ing Report Rel­ev­ant objectives/​purpose anim­al spe­cies. January

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