Planning Committee meeting - Item 6: committee report Auchtertipper track Muckrach - 14 November 2025

Cairngorms Item 6 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 Novem­ber 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 1 of 16

Com­mit­tee report

Devel­op­ment pro­posed: Upgrade of track for forestry (in ret­ro­spect) at Land Near Loch Beum A’Chlaidheimh, Carr-Bridge

Ref­er­ence: 2025/0090/DET

Applic­ant: Muck­rach Estate

Date called-in: 21 April 2025

Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to conditions

Case officer: Katie Crerar, Plan­ning Officer

---

Cairngorms Item 6 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 Novem­ber 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 2 of 16

[Map Image]

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 6 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 Novem­ber 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 3 of 16

Site descrip­tion, pro­pos­al and history

Site descrip­tion

1. This applic­a­tion relates to an exist­ing track loc­ated in an area of moor­land near Loch Beum, approx­im­ately 5km north of Duthil on Muck­rach Estate.
2. The applic­a­tion site com­prises a gently slop­ing sec­tion of track extend­ing to approx­im­ately 220 metres with an exist­ing link to the B9007 at its west­ern end and a turn­ing area to the east. It is sur­roun­ded by recently planted young trees form­ing part of Muck­rach Forest – a land­scape-scale wood­land plant­ing pro­ject com­pris­ing 619 hec­tares of nat­ive woodland.
3. The track upgrad­ing works have almost been com­pleted. The track is 3.5 metres wide (on aver­age) and has been sur­faced in graded loc­al mater­i­als. The sides have been re-pro­filed and have par­tially reve­get­ated. Approx­im­ately 166 metres up the track from the B9007 is a fenced enclos­ure for the wood­land. There is a vehicu­lar access gate and a ped­es­tri­an access gate cross­ing the track.

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=S2H06USIO CP00

Title	Draw­ing num­ber	Date on plan*	Date received
Loc­a­tion Plan	707373 PL01	01/02/2025	17/04/2025
Site Plan & Details	707373 PL02	01/02/2025	24/07/2025
Muck­rach Wood­land Cre­ation Plan	N/A	09/12/2022	24/07/2025
Visu­al Information	707373 PL03	01/02/2025	17/04/2025
Upgrade of Track Sup­port­ing Statement	N/A	01/07/2025	24/07/2025

---

Cairngorms Item 6 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 Novem­ber 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 4 of 16

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

1. This pro­pos­al seeks par­tial ret­ro­spect­ive plan­ning per­mis­sion for upgrad­ing works along a 220 metre sec­tion of exist­ing track.
2. Pri­or to 2021, the track was used by off-road vehicles to access grouse shoot­ing and for moor­land man­age­ment pur­poses. In 2022, Scot­tish Forestry approved the cre­ation of Muck­rach Forest a land­scape-scale wood­land plant­ing pro­ject com­pris­ing 619 hec­tares of nat­ive wood­land. The track provides the main access into the west­ern enclos­ure for the woodland.
3. Dur­ing the deliv­ery phase of the wood­land plant­ing pro­ject, the run­ning sur­face of the track was widened (to approx­im­ately 3.5 metres), the track edges were repro­filed and a turn­ing area was cre­ated at the east­ern end of the track. These works were under­taken to accom­mod­ate the machinery and vehicles asso­ci­ated with the con­struc­tion of deer fen­cing, ground pre­par­a­tion and tree plant­ing oper­a­tions for the wood­land plant­ing project.
4. Approx­im­ately 166 metres up the track from the B9007 is the fenced enclos­ure for the wood­land. There is a locked vehicu­lar access gate and a ped­es­tri­an access gate cross­ing the track.
5. The peat­land next to the track appears to have been stripped and rein­stated. Whilst it is reve­get­at­ing nat­ur­ally, it will be assessed in Spring 2026 and, if required, addi­tion­al re-seed­ing of the verges will be under­taken using an appro­pri­ate seed mix recom­men­ded by the Nation­al Park Author­ity. In addi­tion, there will be some plant­ing of Scots pine / birch / wil­low scrub, par­tic­u­larly to the south side of the road entrance and between the B9007 and deer fence to the east to soften the visu­al impact of the track whilst ensur­ing this does not affect vis­ib­il­ity onto the road.
6. In addi­tion to the works already under­taken, two chan­nel drains are pro­posed on the more slop­ing west­ern part of the track to man­age sur­face water. These have not yet been installed.

---

Cairngorms Item 6 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 Novem­ber 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 5 of 16

His­tory

1. There is no recent plan­ning his­tory on the applic­a­tion site itself. How­ever, this applic­a­tion is one of three relat­ing to ret­ro­spect­ive track upgrades on Muck­rach Estate. The first (2025/0077/DET) was approved at Plan­ning Com­mit­tee in August
2. The oth­er applic­a­tion (2025/0091/DET) is also repor­ted for Com­mit­tee con­sid­er­a­tion at this meet­ing – see item 7 on the agenda.

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

1. It is not con­sidered that the pro­posed devel­op­ment is likely to have a sig­ni­fic­ant effect upon a des­ig­nated European site. As such, a Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tion Apprais­al is not required in this case.

Devel­op­ment plan context

Policies

Nation­al policy	Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Scot­land 2045
Nation­al policy	Policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross (x)
Policy 1	Tack­ling the cli­mate and nature crises	X
Policy 2	Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adaptation	X
Policy 3	Biod­iversity	X
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al places	X
Policy 5	Soils
Policy 6	Forestry, wood­land and trees
Policy 7	His­tor­ic assets and places
Policy 8	Green belts
Policy 9	Brown­field, vacant and derel­ict land and empty buildings
Policy 10	Coastal devel­op­ment
Policy 11	Energy
Policy 12	Zero waste
Policy 13	Sus­tain­able transport
Policy 14	Design, qual­ity and place	X
Policy 15	Loc­al Liv­ing and 20-minute neighbourhoods
Policy 16	Qual­ity homes

---

Cairngorms Item 6 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 Novem­ber 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 6 of 16

| Policy 17| Rur­al homes| | Policy 18| Infra­struc­ture first| | Policy 19| Heat and cool­ing| | Policy 20| Blue and green infra­struc­ture| | Policy 21| Play, recre­ation and sport| | Policy 22 | Flood risk and water man­age­ment| | Policy 23| Health and safety| | Policy 24 | Digit­al infra­struc­ture| | Policy 25 | Com­munity wealth build­ing| | Policy 26| Busi­ness and industry | | Policy 27 | City, town, loc­al and com­mer­cial centres| | Policy 28| Retail| | Policy 29| Rur­al devel­op­ment| | Policy 30| Tour­ism| | Policy 31| Cul­ture and cre­ativ­ity| | Policy 32 | Aquacul­ture| | Policy 33 | Minerals|

Stra­tegic policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027
Loc­al plan policy	Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (2021)
	Policies rel­ev­ant to the assess­ment of this applic­a­tion are marked with a cross (x)
Policy 1	New hous­ing development
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth
Policy 3	Design and placemaking	X
Policy 4	Nat­ur­al heritage	X
Policy 5	Land­scape	X
Policy 6	The sit­ing and design of digit­al com­mu­nic­a­tions equipment
Policy 7	Renew­able energy
Policy 8	Open space, sport and recreation
Policy 9	Cul­tur­al heritage
Policy 10	Resources

---

Cairngorms Item 6 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 Novem­ber 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 7 of 16

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 (LDP). 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

Plan­ning guidance

1. Sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance also sup­ports 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 (x).

Policy 1	Hous­ing sup­ple­ment­ary guidance
Policy 2	Sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth non-stat­utory 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

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

2. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Out­door Access Officer raises no objec­tions to the pro­pos­al. They request that there should be a ped­es­tri­an gate suit­able for access on bike or horse.

---

Cairngorms Item 6 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 Novem­ber 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 8 of 16

1. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer raises no objec­tions to the pro­pos­al and acknow­ledges that it sup­ports the expan­sion of nat­ive wood­land hab­it­at, improv­ing hab­it­at con­nectiv­ity between exist­ing blocks of wood­land and deliv­er­ing sig­ni­fic­ant biod­iversity benefits.

2. They high­light that there is evid­ence of peat­land hab­it­at rein­state­ment along the track verge indic­at­ing that the turf has been stripped and then rein­stated. They note that rein­stated turves next to the track are reve­get­at­ing nat­ur­ally, but they request that if bare patches remain in May 2026, these should be sown with an upland acid heath­land wild­flower mix, such as Sco­tia Seeds’ High­land Grass­land mix, which con­tains dwarf ericaceous shrubs (includ­ing com­mon and bell heath­er) and a range of upland wild­flowers and grasses. This will help facil­it­ate faster reve­get­a­tion and enhance flor­al diversity along the track for pollinators.

3. They also make ref­er­ence to a related applic­a­tion which was approved at Plan­ning Com­mit­tee in August 2025 (2025/0077/DET), in which the applic­ant stated that the upgrad­ing works were under­taken out­with the bird breed­ing sea­son. They note that if that was also the case here, it would have avoided impacts on ground nest­ing birds. They advise that any fur­ther pro­posed track remedi­ation works should avoid the main bird breed­ing sea­son (March to mid-August).

4. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Land­scape Advisor high­lights that, ​‘Although the track is vis­ible, it affects a rel­at­ively small area of the sur­round­ing moor­land in pub­lic vant­age points. It poses accept­able visu­al impacts, affect­ing road users loc­ally. It has been repro­filed sens­it­ively with suf­fi­cient peat loc­ated with­in the edge areas to reve­get­ate and it does not pose an obvi­ous erosion risk’. They add that the track would bene­fit from some visu­al soften­ing when seen from the road (and recom­mend some nat­ive Scots pine / birch / wil­low plant­ing between the B9007 and the deer fence), which they acknow­ledge the applic­ant has agreed to. In addi­tion, they high­light that the applic­ant has agreed to estab­lish fur­ther reve­get­a­tion on the sides of the track in Sum­mer 2026 if there is insuf­fi­cient nat­ur­al revegetation.

5. They request a con­di­tion to require sub­mis­sion of a verge treat­ment and main­ten­ance plan which includes plant­ing and future reve­get­a­tion plans for the

---

Cairngorms Item 6 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 Novem­ber 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 9 of 16

sides of the track should they not nat­ur­ally reve­get­ate. In addi­tion, the con­di­tion should require any plant­ing which, with­in a peri­od of 18 months from the com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, is not reve­get­at­ing shall be re-seeded or replaced by plants of sim­il­ar size and species.

1. The High­land Coun­cil Road’s Team raised no objec­tion to the pro­pos­al fol­low­ing the applicant’s sub­mis­sion of fur­ther inform­a­tion to cla­ri­fy the pro­posed future use of the track.

2. The High­land Council’s Forestry Officer respon­ded that no trees appear to have been removed from around the track and as such does not object to the application.

3. Carr-Bridge Com­munity Coun­cil respon­ded that they did not have any com­ments to make on the applic­a­tion but stated that they gen­er­ally sup­port plan­ning applic­a­tions being made in advance of work being car­ried out.

Rep­res­ent­a­tions

1. There were no rep­res­ent­a­tions to this application.

Apprais­al

1. Sec­tion 25 of the 1997 Act as amended requires applic­a­tions to be determ­ined in accord­ance with the Devel­op­ment Plan. This com­prises the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 (LDP), and the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4). Where there is con­flict between policies, NPF4 policies will be used.

2. The main plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions in this case are the prin­ciple of devel­op­ment, design, eco­lo­gic­al impacts, impact upon land­scape, and access. These are con­sidered in detail below.

Prin­ciple of development

1. Not­with­stand­ing the fact that the works were under­taken without the requis­ite grant of plan­ning per­mis­sion, the pro­pos­al is to upgrade a sec­tion of pre-exist­ing track fol­low­ing a route used by estate vehicles to access remoter parts of the estate and recently planted wood­land. All the works will be seen with­in the context

---

Cairngorms Item 6 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 Novem­ber 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 10 of 16

of a large nat­ive wood­land plant­ing scheme, and sub­ject to detailed con­sid­er­a­tion of design and pro­posed mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures, the prin­ciple of a track is con­sidered acceptable.

Design

1. NPF4 Policy 14: Design, qual­ity and place seeks to sup­port devel­op­ments that improve the qual­ity of an area regard­less of scale and that are con­sist­ent with the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places, namely: healthy; pleas­ant; con­nec­ted; dis­tinct­ive; sus­tain­able; and adaptable.

2. LDP Policy 3: Design and place­mak­ing sim­il­arly seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment meets the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places.

3. This largely ret­ro­spect­ive plan­ning applic­a­tion seeks to author­ise main­ten­ance oper­a­tions already under­taken on this sec­tion of track. These have included widen­ing the run­ning sur­face of the track to an aver­age of 3.5 metres, re-pro­fil­ing the track edges, and the cre­ation of a turn­ing area at the east­ern end of the track.

4. The peat­land along the edges of the track has been rein­stated, which has helped to mit­ig­ate the degrad­a­tion of this hab­it­at, and the sides of the track appear to be reve­get­at­ing nat­ur­ally. The extent of reve­get­a­tion will be assessed in Spring 2026 and should fur­ther re-seed­ing be required, this will be under­taken. In addi­tion, plant­ing of Scots Pine / birch / wil­low scrub close to the south side of the road entrance and between the B9007 and deer fence to the east will be under­taken to soften the visu­al impact of the track. The pro­posed plant­ing and pos­sible re- seed­ing (which will be secured via a con­di­tion requir­ing a Verge Treat­ment and Main­ten­ance Plan) will fur­ther min­im­ise the vis­ib­il­ity of the track.

5. Two chan­nel drains will be installed on the track which will man­age sur­face water. The track will then be com­pacted to cre­ate a bound run­ning sur­face which com­bined with improved track drain­age will man­age water erosion and sta­bil­ise the track.

6. The track upgrades are of a func­tion­al design and the mater­i­als used reflect this. The nat­ur­ally reve­get­at­ing verges, pro­posed plant­ing and any fur­ther re-seeding

---

Cairngorms Item 6 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 Novem­ber 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 11 of 16

will fur­ther min­im­ise the lim­ited visu­al impact of the pro­pos­al and enable it to fur­ther integ­rate with­in its setting.

1. The design of the pro­pos­al is of a scale and nature that is com­pat­ible with its set­ting and the mater­i­als pro­posed are appro­pri­ate and loc­ally sourced. This ensures that in terms of design the pro­pos­al com­plies with the above policies.

Eco­logy

1. NPF4 Policy 1: Tack­ling the cli­mate and nature crises and NPF4 Policy 2: Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adap­tion require all devel­op­ment pro­pos­als to give sig­ni­fic­ant weight to the cli­mate and nature crises and adapt to the cur­rent and future impacts of cli­mate change.

2. NPF4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als pro­tect biod­iversity, reverse biod­iversity loss, deliv­er pos­it­ive effects from devel­op­ment and strengthen nature net­works. Devel­op­ment pro­pos­als must include appro­pri­ate meas­ures to con­serve, restore and enhance biod­iversity, in accord­ance with nation­al and loc­al guidance.

3. NPF4 Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places seeks to ensure that devel­op­ment pro­pos­als pro­tect, restore and enhance nat­ur­al assets mak­ing best use of nature-based solu­tions. Devel­op­ment that has sig­ni­fic­ant adverse impacts on des­ig­nated sites, after mit­ig­a­tion, will not be supported.

4. LDP Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age seeks to ensure that there are no adverse effects on European Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies and oth­er biod­iversity interests.

5. The Park Authority’s Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer raises no objec­tions to the pro­pos­al, sub­ject to advising that in Spring 2026 any remain­ing bare patches on the rein­stated track verges should be sown with an upland heath­land wild­flower mix of Scot­tish proven­ance to facil­it­ate faster reve­get­a­tion and enhance flor­al diversity for pol­lin­at­ors. This will be secured by con­di­tion, as noted above. In addi­tion, a con­di­tion ensur­ing that the out­stand­ing works should avoid the bird breed­ing sea­son is also required.

---

Cairngorms Item 6 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 Novem­ber 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 12 of 16

1. The pro­posed plant­ing of nat­ive tree and shrub spe­cies near to the road access will provide some biod­iversity enhance­ment. In addi­tion, the pro­posed devel­op­ment con­sti­tutes part of a wider pro­ject to plant nat­ive wood­land. The Eco­lo­gic­al Advice Officer recog­nises that this ​‘would deliv­er improved hab­it­at con­nectiv­ity between exist­ing blocks of wood­land and should deliv­er sig­ni­fic­ant biod­iversity bene­fits’, and it can also be expec­ted to deliv­er longer term bene­fits for cli­mate change mit­ig­a­tion through enhanced car­bon cap­ture and stor­age. There­fore, the pro­pos­al com­plies with NPF4 Policy 1: Tack­ling the cli­mate and nature crises, NPF4 Policy 2: Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion, NPF4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity, NPF4 Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places, and LDP Policy 4: Nat­ur­al heritage.

Land­scape

1. LDP Policy 5: Land­scape pre­sumes against devel­op­ment which does not con­serve and enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park, and par­tic­u­larly the set­ting of the pro­posed development.

2. LDP Policy 5.2: Private roads and ways pre­sumes against private roads and ways in open moor­land unless it can be demon­strated that they are essen­tial for land man­age­ment pur­poses and they are designed to min­im­ise land­scape and envir­on­ment­al impacts, con­serving and enhan­cing spe­cial qualities.

3. The track has been sur­faced in graded loc­al mater­i­al, and the sides have been gently re-pro­filed and par­tially reve­get­ated. In addi­tion, des­pite the track being made more prom­in­ent by its pale col­our against the sur­round­ing moor­land, the pro­file of the slope lim­its its vis­ib­il­ity from the road apart from the base where it meets the B9007 and over­all it is not prom­in­ent from the wider sur­round­ing area.

4. The Park Authority’s Land­scape Advisor states that the track ​‘poses accept­able visu­al impacts, affect­ing road users loc­ally. It has been repro­filed sens­it­ively with suf­fi­cient peat loc­ated with­in the edge areas to reve­get­ate and it does not pose an obvi­ous erosion risk’. They request a con­di­tion to secure nat­ive tree and scrub plant­ing (Scots pine / birch / wil­low) to provide visu­al soften­ing of the track when seen from the road, as well as reve­get­a­tion of the track sides if there is insuf­fi­cient nat­ur­al reve­get­a­tion by Sum­mer 2026. As noted pre­vi­ously, both of these elements

---

Cairngorms Item 6 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 Novem­ber 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 13 of 16

will be fully detailed in a Verge Treat­ment and Main­ten­ance Plan, which will be secured via a condition.

1. Ini­tial con­cerns were raised in respect of the width of the track and wheth­er the turn­ing area at the east­ern end (with­in the wood­land enclos­ure) would be retained. The applic­ant explained that the run­ning sur­face of 3.5 metres (aver­age) is a stand­ard width require­ment to safely accom­mod­ate the vehicles used dur­ing the wood­land cre­ation. In addi­tion, these same vehicles will be required dur­ing the winter ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆ and bey­ond to remove and replace deer fen­cing and 130 hec­tares of wood­land des­troyed in the recent wild­fire, as well as for future main­ten­ance. In addi­tion, the turn­ing area for vehicles was also used for heli­copter land­ing and refuel­ling dur­ing the recent wild­fire and will be retained as a future stra­tegic heli­copter ser­vi­cing site. The jus­ti­fic­a­tion for the width of the track and need to retain the turn­ing area is accepted.

2. The pro­posed upgraded track will have a lim­ited and loc­al­ised visu­al impact, and the mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures (com­pris­ing plant­ing and re-seed­ing) which will be secured via a con­di­tion will fur­ther reduce this impact. As such, the pro­pos­al is con­sidered accept­able in terms of its impacts on land­scape and accords with LDP Policy 5: Landscape.

Access

1. LDP Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing requires devel­op­ment to main­tain and max­im­ise all oppor­tun­it­ies for respons­ible out­door access, includ­ing links into the exist­ing path network.

2. The Park Authority’s Out­door Access Officer raises no issues in respect of the track oth­er than request­ing that there is an unlocked ped­es­tri­an gate suit­able for access on bike or horse. This has been provided by the applic­ant, and there­fore the pro­pos­al com­plies with LDP Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing in respect of access.

Con­clu­sion

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment con­sists of the widen­ing and re-pro­fil­ing of a pre- exist­ing track for which all works (apart from two drain­age chan­nels) have been under­taken. As such, this applic­a­tion is ret­ro­spect­ive. Not­with­stand­ing, the track

---

Cairngorms Item 6 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 Novem­ber 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 14 of 16

poses lim­ited loc­al­ised visu­al impacts which can be fur­ther mit­ig­ated via addi­tion­al plant­ing and pos­sible reve­get­a­tion of the track sides. The track is of a func­tion­al design, has been re-pro­filed sens­it­ively util­ising loc­al mater­i­als, and the impacts are con­sidered accept­able sub­ject to the recom­men­ded conditions.

1. The pro­posed devel­op­ment com­plies with the rel­ev­ant policies of NPF4 and the LDP, and there are no mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions which out­weigh this conclusion.

Recom­mend­a­tion That mem­bers of the com­mit­tee sup­port a recom­mend­a­tion to APPROVE the applic­a­tion for the Upgrade of track for forestry (in ret­ro­spect) at Land Near Loch Beum A’Chlaidheimh, Carr-Bridge, 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. No fur­ther works in con­nec­tion with the devel­op­ment hereby approved shall com­mence unless a verge treat­ment and main­ten­ance plan has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park author­ity act­ing as the plan­ning author­ity. This must be provided with­in three months from the date the per­mis­sion is gran­ted. The Plan should include:

a) Details of plant­ing to be under­taken sur­round­ing the track (between the B9007 and wood­land enclos­ure) to soften land­scape impacts. Recom­men­ded spe­cies include Scots pine, birch and wil­low. b) Details of re-seed­ing to be under­taken in the event of nat­ur­al reve­get­a­tion of the track sides not estab­lish­ing. The verges should be sown with an upland acid heath­land wild­flower mix such as Sco­tia Seeds’ High­land Grass­land Mix, which con­tains dwarf ericaceous shrubs (includ­ing com­mon heath­er and bell heath­er), and a range of upland wild­flowers and grasses.

The devel­op­ment shall be com­pleted in accord­ance with the approved verge treat­ment and main­ten­ance plan before the end of the first full plant­ing sea­son. Any plant­ing which, with­in a peri­od of 18 months from the

---

Cairngorms Item 6 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 Novem­ber 2025 Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 15 of 16

1. com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, is not reve­get­at­ing shall be re-seeded or replaced by plants of sim­il­ar size and spe­cies to those ori­gin­ally required.

Reas­on: To ensure the imple­ment­a­tion and man­age­ment of a sat­is­fact­ory plan for the land­scap­ing and verge treat­ment of the track in accord­ance with Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity, and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

No works shall be under­taken dur­ing the breed­ing bird sea­son (Mid-March to August, inclus­ive). If this can­not be avoided, works should pro­ceed under super­vi­sion of an exper­i­enced eco­lo­gist, who will con­duct sur­veys to identi­fy all act­ive nests and pro­duce a spe­cies pro­tec­tion plan (SPP) for nest­ing spe­cies. The SPP should be sub­mit­ted to the Nation­al Park Author­ity for approv­al pri­or to works commencing.

Reas­on: — To ensure the pro­tec­tion of pro­tec­ted spe­cies includ­ing breed­ing birds in accord­ance with Policy 4 (Nat­ur­al Her­it­age) of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Inform­at­ives

1. 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.

2. Fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, a noti­fic­a­tion of com­ple­tion shall, as soon as prac­tic­able, be giv­en to the Plan­ning Author­ity. Attached to this decision

---