190603Update&ForwardLook

CAIRNGORMS LOC­AL OUT­DOOR ACCESS FOR­UM 20^th June 2019 CAIRNGORMS LOC­AL OUT­DOOR ACCESS FORUM

Title: UPDATE AND FOR­WARD LOOK

Pre­pared by: Douglas Stew­art, Out­door Access Officer

Pur­pose: This paper provides an update on the main areas of work

	both undertaken and planned towards delivery of the five
	year outcomes in the Cairngorms National Park Partnership
	Plan.

1. Act­ive Aviemore

Pro­ject to devel­op non-motor­ised access pro­vi­sion for the pro­posed new hos­pit­al in Aviemore and wider community.

• The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA) is work­ing in part­ner­ship with Aviemore & Vicin­ity Com­munity Coun­cil, Hitrans, The High­land Coun­cil, Sus­trans and NHS High­land to improve walk­ing and cyc­ling facil­it­ies in Aviemore.
• Phase 1: Feas­ib­il­ity and pre­lim­in­ary design report com­pleted. Full report at: http://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​c​a​r​i​n​g​-​f​u​t​u​r​e​/​d​e​v​e​l​o​p​i​n​g​-​p​a​r​k​-​a​c​c​e​s​s​/​a​c​t​i​v​e​a​v​i​e​more/
• Phase 2: Detailed design fund­ing of £175,000 will be sought from Sus­trans Com­munity Links Fund from 2019 – 20 onwards.
• New Aviemore hos­pit­al plan­ning applic­a­tion has been sub­mit­ted to the High­land Coun­cil and ​‘called in’ by CNPA

1. Wee Walks Week 2019

Wee Walks Week will take place dur­ing the week of the 9^th of Septem­ber 2019. Like pre­vi­ous years the object­ive is to raise aware­ness of the need to be phys­ic­ally act­ive every day and to cel­eb­rate those using short walks to improve health out­comes. In the lead up to and over the course of Wee Walks Week the pub­lic will be encour­aged to pledge to walk. They will be encour­aged to take a Wee Walk by either:

a. Join­ing a health walk group: b. Under­tak­ing a walk in one of the Com­munity Path Leaf­lets; c. Under­tak­ing their own walk.

This year we are hop­ing to launch an app that will help the pub­lic find a short walk to enjoy the Park.

CAIRNGORMS LOC­AL OUT­DOOR ACCESS FOR­UM 20^th June 2019

1. Act­ive Travel in Badenoch & Strathspey

• In addi­tion to Act­ive Aviemore and our work with Trans­port Scot­land to secure a Non-Motor­ised Users route between Aviemore and Carr-Bridge as part of the A9 Dualling pro­gramme we are also sup­port­ing the com­munit­ies of Lag­gan, Kin­gussie, Dul­nain Bridge and Grant­own on Spey in improv­ing their walk­ing and cyc­ling infrastructure.
• Both the Kin­gussie and Dul­nain Bridge com­munit­ies have secured Sus­trans fund­ing for feas­ib­il­ity stud­ies to look at infra­struc­ture required to improve act­ive travel.
• Lag­gan are devel­op­ing pro­pos­als for a sim­il­ar bid later in 2019.

1. Spey­side Way Extension

• Con­struc­tion of the sec­tion SE of Kin­craig to Inshriach is now com­plete, in addi­tion sur­face improve­ment works have been car­ried out between Aviemore and Boat of Garten, these deal with water dam­age to the exist­ing surface.
• Fund­ing has been secured via CNPA and the ERDF Low Car­bon Trans­port Chal­lenge Fund to con­struct the remainder of the route from Tromie to Ruthven. Plan­ning per­mis­sion is now approved and the route is set to be com­pleted to Ruthven by end of 2019.
• Fur­ther work is being car­ried out in col­lab­or­a­tion with the Kin­gussie com­munity to exam­ine how to route might best be con­nec­ted through to Kingussie.

1. Uphold­ing Access Rights

Access case­work con­tin­ues to be repor­ted and pro­cessed accord­ing to agreed pro­to­cols. Since the last LOAF meet­ing there has been an upturn in the num­ber of new cases received, logged and under­go­ing pro­cessing. We are now oper­at­ing with a new, more com­pre­hens­ive sys­tem of case work log­ging with improved record keep­ing and response times­cales. An update will be giv­en under Agenda Item 4.

Oth­er Nation­al Park Initiatives/​Matters

1. Moun­tain Paths

Cairngorms Out­door Access Trust man­aged HLF and part­ner fun­ded (CNPA, LL&TNPA, FCS, SNH) pro­ject ​‘The Moun­tains and the People’ is now well into the second half of the fun­ded pro­ject and con­tin­ues to upgrade and improve key moun­tain paths in Aber­deen­shire, Angus, Perth and Drumochter as well as Loch Lomond & The Trossachs Nation­al Park. Fur­ther details avail­able of cur­rent activ­it­ies are avail­able at the pro­ject web­site: http://​themoun​tain​sandthep​eople​.org​.uk/

CAIRNGORMS LOC­AL OUT­DOOR ACCESS FOR­UM 20^th June 2019

1. HLF Tomin­toul / Glen­liv­et Land­scape Part­ner­ship Project

The pro­ject web­site at http://​tgdt​.org​.uk/​t​o​m​i​n​t​o​u​l​-​g​l​e​n​l​i​v​e​t​-​d​e​v​e​l​o​p​m​e​n​t​-​t​r​u​s​t​/​c​u​r​rent- projects/​landscapepartnership/​provides details of the pro­ject and its object­ives. The ​‘Access­ing the Land­scape’ pro­ject is now bey­ond the mid­way point with the access pro­ject out­puts which include improv­ing the Tomin­toul Spur (Spey­side Way) and a new low level path link­ing Glen­liv­et Dis­til­lery and Blairfindy Castle are now well under­way with con­tract­ors on site. The phys­ic­al works are now 50% com­plete aim­ing for com­ple­tion in the autumn. The Access Pro­ject deliv­ery budget is £360k.

1. Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie HLF Project

The Her­it­age Lot­tery Fund has now form­ally com­mit­ted £346,500 towards the 18 month devel­op­ment phase of the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject with a fur­ther £2.25million poten­tially avail­able for the deliv­ery phase.

The five-year pro­ject will focus on two main areas; provid­ing suit­able, improved hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie togeth­er with enga­ging and involving the pub­lic in the future sur­viv­al of the spe­cies. Car­rbridge has been chosen as a pilot com­munity with work under­way to devel­op the pro­ject out­puts in con­junc­tion with loc­al res­id­ents who will have a major say on key ele­ments of the pro­ject development.

The deliv­ery phase, if suc­cess­ful, will, carry for­ward tested meth­od­o­lo­gies with suc­cess­ful ini­ti­at­ives being rep­lic­ated through­out the Nation­al Park in the future.

1. Cairngorms Trust

With LEAD­ER com­ing to an end in 2020, the Cairngorms LAG – with sup­port from the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA) – has estab­lished a new approach to so that funds will still be avail­able and can be dis­trib­uted effect­ively to worthy causes and pro­jects in the Park. Hence the estab­lish­ment in 2016 of the Cairngorms Trust as a registered charity.

From 2019 onwards the Trust will fun­draise for two key pro­jects selec­ted by the Trust’s board, as part of a wider approach to seek­ing char­it­able dona­tions and fund­ing activ­it­ies deliv­er­ing pub­lic bene­fit in the Cairngorms. To this end it was announced in May that the Boat of Garten Wild­life Group and the Kin­gussie Path Net­work Improve­ment Pro­ject are the first two Cairngorms Trust Cam­paign Projects.

The Cairngorms Trust will be rais­ing funds through­out the Cairngorms Nation­al Park area for both of these deserving groups. Pro­jects are chosen on an annu­al basis by the Cairngorms Trust board of Trustees.

Douglas Stew­art Out­door Access Officer douglasstewart@​cairngorms.​co.​uk