CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Board Paper 4 10^th Decem­ber 2021

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

FOR INFORM­A­TION

Title: CAIRNGORMS GREEN RECOV­ERY FUND

Pre­pared by: JACK­IE FAR­QUHAR, Rur­al Devel­op­ment Officer and MUR­RAY FER­GUSON, Dir­ect­or: Plan­ning and Place

Pur­pose

This paper sum­mar­ises deliv­ery of the Cairngorms Green Recov­ery Fund in 2020 – 21 (Phase 1) and 2021 – 22 (Phase 2).

Recom­mend­a­tions

That the Board:

a) Note the suc­cess of Phase I of the Green Recov­ery Fund, which was delivered in part­ner­ship with the Cairngorms Trust in 2020 – 21 to sup­port com­munit­ies and busi­nesses in their recov­ery from the COV­ID-19 pandemic.

b) Note the pro­gress to date with deliv­ery of Phase 2 of the Fund which is ongo­ing and all pro­jects are sched­uled for com­ple­tion by the end March 2022.

Exec­ut­ive Summary

1. CNPA approved the Cairngorms Green Recov­ery Plan in July 2020. One key ele­ment of that Plan was for CNPA to work in part­ner­ship with the Cairngorms Trust to estab­lish a Green Recov­ery Fund (GRF).

2. The pur­pose of the Fund was to sup­port the recov­ery of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, its com­munit­ies and busi­nesses from the impacts of COV­ID 19. Four guid­ing prin­ciples for the pro­jects to be sup­por­ted by Fund were agreed:

   a) Green – pro­jects should con­trib­ute to strength­en­ing the nat­ur­al and social cap­it­al of the Park;

   b) Cairngorms – pro­jects should be Cairngorms Nation­al Park-focused and con­trib­ute to the out­comes of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan;

   c) Part­ner­ship – applic­ants should work in part­ner­ship with oth­ers to deliv­er pro­jects, focused on green recov­ery, well-being and eco­nom­ic growth; and

   d) Employ­ment – Pro­jects should endeav­our to max­im­ise their con­tri­bu­tion to loc­al employ­ment and impact on the Nation­al Park.

Green Recov­ery Fund: Phase I

1. Phase I was launched in August 2020 for pro­jects to be com­pleted by the end of March 2021. The fund­ing com­prised £100k from CNPA and £30k from the Cairngorms Trust. The Fund was pro­moted widely on social media, by press release and through dir­ect con­tact with poten­tial applicants.

2. A total of 27 pro­ject applic­a­tions were received. All of the applic­a­tions were assessed in a two-stage pro­cess against an agreed set of eval­u­ation cri­ter­ia. First, the pro­jects were scored by an intern­al eval­u­ation pan­el com­pris­ing officers of CNPA and the Cairngorms Trust. The Trust also iden­ti­fied those pro­jects that matched their char­it­able object­ives. Then the pack­age of recom­mend­a­tions from officers was referred to an extern­al pan­el to make the final decisions, chaired by CNPA Board mem­ber Wil­lie Mun­ro and com­pris­ing rep­res­ent­at­ives of Cairngorms Nature Steer­ing Group, Vol­un­tary Action Badenoch and Strath­spey and the Marr Area Part­ner­ship and the Cairngorms Busi­ness Partnership.

3. A total of 13 pro­jects were fin­an­cially sup­por­ted. A full list of the pro­jects sup­por­ted is provided at Annex I.

4. Key high­lights from the pro­gramme included:

   a) The pro­ject to provide a wel­come for camper-vans, pre­pared by the Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship, was a sig­ni­fic­ant suc­cess, pro­du­cing a Camper Van leaf­let and inter­act­ive web­site page that was launched in time for the 2021summer sea­son. The resources sign-pos­ted vis­it­ors to the man­aged facil­it­ies through­out the Park and encour­aged respons­ible beha­viour, includ­ing dis­pos­al of waste in an appro­pri­ate manner.

   b) In Brae­mar, the con­tri­bu­tion from the Fund allowed the com­munity to take own­er­ship of small area of mature con­i­fer­ous wood­land with­in the vil­lage and improve the net­work of paths with nature trail and benches.

   c) In Kin­gussie, Caber­feidh Hori­zons, an innov­at­ive social enter­prise with a wide- ran­ging pro­gramme of activ­ity at the heart of the com­munity, used the funds to strengthen their staff base at key time in their development.

   d) The Fund helped deliv­er 4km of ripari­an res­tor­a­tion at the River Tru­im, Cruben­more includ­ing a macro-inver­teb­rate sur­vey which will help assess the qual­ity of the river habitat.

5. Feed­back was also giv­en to unsuc­cess­ful applic­ants. The most com­mon reas­on for refus­al of grant aid was the chal­lenge that the pro­ject out­comes could be delivered in the rel­at­ively short peri­od of time available.

Green Recov­ery Fund: Phase 2

1. A staff-led review of Phase I was under­taken and fresh pro­pos­als were developed for Phase 2 of the Fund in the year ²⁰²¹⁄₂₂. The over­all object­ives of the scheme were main­tained but the eval­u­ation cri­ter­ia and pro­cess were simplified.

2. More fund­ing was made avail­able; in Phase 2 there was a total budget of £300k, com­pris­ing £250k from the CNPA and £50k from the Cairngorms Trust. The scheme was able to be launched much earli­er in the year, giv­ing the pro­jects a con­sid­er­ably longer peri­od for delivery.

3. 37 pro­ject applic­a­tions were received for Phase 2 and 28 were fin­an­cially sup­por­ted. Once again, there was good geo­graph­ic cov­er­age of pro­jects across the Nation­al Park. A full list of the pro­jects sup­por­ted is provided at Annex 2.

4. In Phase 2 every pro­ject was assigned a ded­ic­ated pro­ject liais­on officer who the pro­ject lead­ers could con­tact dir­ectly with ques­tions, quer­ies etc. This was a two-way pro­cess and provided early warn­ing of any pos­sible emer­ging issues in order that they can be picked up promptly. A con­sol­id­ated pro­ject man­age­ment sheet is updated by all staff involved in liais­on and a traffic light sys­tem is in place to flag any emer­ging issues.

5. A con­di­tion of fund­ing also now requires each pro­ject to sub­mit reg­u­lar pro­gress reports. The first reports were received in Septem­ber and the next is due in mid- Decem­ber 2021. The report tem­plates are short and straight­for­ward. Pro­jects report any key mile­stones achieved in the report­ing peri­od and invited to provide ongo­ing mater­i­al (images, videos, quotes) that demon­strate pro­gress and cel­eb­rate pro­ject successes.

6. There was a great­er diversity of pro­jects sup­por­ted through Phase 2 of the Fund. Key high­lights from the pro­gramme so far have included:

   a) The Aviemore ice rink has cata­lysed com­munity action and been very pop­u­lar, exceed­ing the expect­a­tions set out in the busi­ness plan. The pro­ject has built the con­fid­ence of the Aviemore and Glen­more Com­munity Trust and developed a key new facil­ity for young people in the com­munity at a chal­len­ging time.

   b) Six com­munit­ies took up the offer of fund­ing to buy their own lit­ter pick­ing equip­ment and have gone on to devel­op their own volun­teer programmes.

   c) A pro­ject to build on the Badenoch Great Place Pro­ject which has now ended using tra­di­tion­al music and storytelling to build a story-telling cul­ture in the area and to lead into Scotland’s Year of Stor­ies 2022.

   d) A pro­ject led by Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et Devel­op­ment Trust to pick up on the new Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et Dark Skies Park and devel­op a key inter­pret­a­tion facil­ity at the Dis­cov­ery Centre in Tomintoul.

   e) A pro­ject led by the char­ity Coun­tryside Learn­ing Scot­land to build con­nec­tions between schools, loc­al land-man­agers and employ­ers and to devel­op rel­ev­ant skills amongst young people in the Park.

Con­clu­sions

1. Phase 2 of the pro­gramme is still being delivered and pro­gress reports are expec­ted very soon. It is expec­ted that all pro­jects will be com­plete by the end of March 2022. Some pro­jects have repor­ted slower pro­gress than ori­gin­ally anti­cip­ated with the main causes cited related to sup­ply chains (i.e. short­age of mater­i­als) and recruit­ment of staff/​contractors tak­ing longer than expec­ted. To date, nearly half of the fund­ing has been claimed, includ­ing a num­ber of advance pay­ments, allow­ing expendit­ure and deliv­ery to com­mence without caus­ing cash-flow dif­fi­culties for the lead bodies.

2. Over­all, the Fund has proved extremely pop­u­lar and has seen the deliv­ery of a very good vari­ety of pro­jects all across the Nation­al Park. The les­sons learned both at CNPA and at the Cairngorms Trust, will be use­ful as the com­munity-man­aged grant scheme is developed as part of the Her­it­age Hori­zon: Cairngorms 2030 Project.

Jack­ie Far­quhar and Mur­ray Fer­guson Decem­ber 2021

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Annex 1: Green Recov­ery Pro­jects (Phase 1) Sup­por­ted in ²⁰²⁰⁄₂₁

Applic­ant	Pro­ject
Aboyne and Upper Deeside Rotary Club	Lit­ter pick­ing in Upper Deeside
Blair Atholl and Area Tour­ism Association	Blair Atholl Com­munity and Busi­ness Devel­op­ment project
Dee Dis­trict Sal­mon Fish­ery Board	Glen Muick Wood­land Connectivity
Spey Catch­ment Initiative	River Tru­im Ripari­an Planting
Caber­feidh Horizons	Build­ing on Our Strengths
Boat of Garten Com­munity Hall	COV­ID 19 recov­ery and Green Events
Cairngorms Busi­ness Partnership:	Build­ing a sus­tain­able wel­come for camper-vans
Glen­shee and Strath­ardle Tour­ist Association	Glen­shee Vis­it­or Centre improvements
Castle Roy Trust SCIO	Castle Roy’s Cov­id Crisis
Grow­biz Scotland	Sup­port­ing Cre­at­ive Enter­prise in the Cairngorms
RSPB	Rare Inver­teb­rates in the Cairngorms
Brae­mar Com­munity Ltd	Tom­richton Com­munity Wood
Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Council	Ben Alder Road Car-park*

* Ben Alder Car Park pro­ject was with­drawn due to land own­er­ship and leg­al issues that were only fully under­stood as plan­ning for the pro­ject progressed.

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Annex 2: Green Recov­ery Pro­jects (Phase 2) Sup­por­ted in ²⁰²¹⁄₂₂

Applic­ant	Pro­ject
Boat of Garten Com­munity Company	Wood­land Wheels — con­struc­tion of a pump track for bikes
Inver­al­lan Church, Grantown	Inver­al­lan 20/20 — Pro­ject officer to raise fund­ing to deliv­er renov­a­tion of church for com­munity benefit
Caber­feidh Hori­zons, Kingussie	Build­ing on our Strengths — Com­munity Food and Reuse/​Repair Service
Castle Roy Trust, Nethy Bridge	Castle Roy’s Toradh Uaine — com­plete final phase of infra­struc­ture works so Castle can be opened for visitors
Vic­tor­ia and Albert Halls Com­mit­tee, Ballater	Deliv­er­ing the Bal­later Com­munity and Her­it­age Hub — facil­it­ies with­in new com­munity hub and cre­ation of a hub man­ager post
Brae­mar Tour­ist Group	Lit­ter pick­ing equipment
Dav­id Ritch­ie and Sons Ltd, Aviemore	Food Waste and Bio­de­grad­able recyc­ling — Cre­ation of gar­boli­gist post to instig­ate use of new food waste facility
Badenoch Her­it­age (SCIO)	The Story­lands Ses­sions — pilot the deliv­ery of com­munity music, storytelling, poetry and song events as part of Badenoch pro­ject legacy
Grant­own Com­munity Council	Lit­ter pick­ing equipment
Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et Devel­op­ment Trust	Cairngorms Dark Sky Exper­i­ence — Cre­ation of a Dark Skies exhib­i­tion at the Tomin­toul Dis­cov­ery Centre
Aviemore and Glen­more Com­munity Trust	Aviemore Com­munity Ice deliv­ery of a com­munity- owned sea­son­al covered recre­ation­al ice rink
Roots and Shoots Highland	Branch­ing Out in Strath­spey — deliv­er two branch­ing out pro­grammes in the Strath
The Grant­own Busi­ness Association/​Grantown Initiative	Activ­ity to pro­mote Grant­own as a year-round destination
Coun­tryside Learn­ing Scotland	Path­ways to Rur­al Work – youth skills ini­ti­at­ive in the Park
Fiona’s Whole­foods and Refills expan­sion, Grantown	Fiona’s Whole­foods and Refills expan­sion — Renov­a­tion works to cre­ate a new front­age shop area at the YMCA
Green Health Part­ner­ship, Badenoch and Strathspey	Green Health Skills Devel­op­ment — build on the capa­city of new health walk lead­ers and programme
Kil­liecrankie, Fin­castle and Tum­mel Com­munity Council	Lit­ter pick­ing equipment
Boat of Garten Com­munity Hall	Set­ting up a Repair Café in the Boat of Garten Hall.
Aviemore and Vicin­ity Com­munity Council	Lit­ter pick­ing equipment
Scot­tish Canoe Association	Loch Insh Launch Site Res­tor­a­tion — green engin­eer­ing repair to riverb­ank at Loch Insh/​Kin­craig for canoe access
Lag­gan Com­munity Council	Lit­ter pick­ing equipment
Brae­mar Com­munity Ltd	Auchtaven — Repair and improve the con­di­tion of the Queen Mother’s pic­nic cottage
Dulaig Park, Grant­own Initiative	Dulaig Park Renov­a­tion — works towards the renov­a­tion and regen­er­a­tion of the Park
Able2Adventure, Bad­aguish	All Abil­ity Bike Hub — to devel­op all-abil­it­ies cyc­ling initiative
Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Council	Lit­ter pick­ing equipment
Strath­spey Caman­achd Association	Our Shinty Leg­acy – equip­ment to devel­op youth par­ti­cip­a­tion at new shinty club in Strathspey
Nature Friendly Farm­ing Network	Mob-graz­ing for Diversity – work­ing with farm­ers to achieve sus­tain­able grass­land man­age­ment through adapt­ive graz­ing management
Ard­geal Com­munity Housing/​Badenoch Broad­band CIC	Argeal — to help the com­munity deliv­er super­fast broad­band at Ard­geal, near Kincraig