CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board Paper 3 6^th Decem­ber 2019

1. CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

FOR DECISION

Title: CAIRNGORMS ECO­NOM­IC ACTION PLAN

Pre­pared by: MUR­RAY FER­GUSON, DIR­ECT­OR OF PLAN­NING & RUR­AL DEVELOPMENT

GAV­IN MILES, HEAD OF PLAN­NING & COMMUNITIES

Pur­pose

To con­sider the res­ults of the con­sulta­tion under­taken between June and Septem­ber 2019 and seek the Board’s approv­al of final­ised Eco­nom­ic Action Plan 2019 – 2022.

Recom­mend­a­tion

That the Board:

a) con­sider the feed­back received dur­ing the con­sulta­tion b) approve the Cairngorms Eco­nom­ic Action Plan 2019 – 2022 c) agree to nom­in­ate a Board mem­ber to Chair the Cairngorms Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group

2. CAIRNGORMS ECO­NOM­IC ACTION PLAN – FOR DECISION

Back­ground and Stra­tegic Context

1. When the cur­rent Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 – 2022 (NPPP) was pre­pared in 2017 a spe­cif­ic ​“Pri­or­ity” and ​“Agenda for Action” on Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment was agreed. These sat along­side a com­pre­hens­ive set of Policies to guide future man­age­ment of the Park (many of which con­cerned eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment) and a list of Cap­it­al Invest­ment Pri­or­it­ies. Sev­er­al of the oth­er eight pri­or­it­ies in the Plan (includ­ing Hous­ing and Vis­it­or Infra­struc­ture) are dir­ectly rel­ev­ant to man­aging and pro­mot­ing the eco­nomy of the Park. The NPPP there­fore con­tains the strategy for eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment in the Park.

2. Fol­low­ing dis­cus­sion with part­ners (includ­ing the Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship (CBP), High­lands and Islands Enter­prise, loc­al author­it­ies, etc.) a draft Eco­nom­ic Action Plan was pre­pared to imple­ment the strategy. The Board approved the Plan for con­sulta­tion in Decem­ber 2018.

Pub­lic Consultation

1. Con­sulta­tion took place from 26 June to 20 Septem­ber and involved:

a) Dir­ect email of the draft Plan to inter­ested parties b) Press release and leaf­let drop to loc­al busi­nesses c) Social media cam­paign using Twit­ter and Face­book posts d) Blogs by Con­vener and seni­or staff

1. To pro­mote dis­cus­sion the fol­low­ing events and meet­ings were held:

a) Two meet­ings were organ­ised for CBP mem­bers in Grant­own and Brae­mar – CNPA staff atten­ded to facil­it­ate dis­cus­sion and CNPA Board mem­bers atten­ded to listen to the views expressed. b) CNPA offered to meet with all Busi­ness Asso­ci­ations with­in the Park. CNPA staff and Board mem­bers atten­ded two meet­ings – with Bal­later and with the Grant­own Busi­ness Asso­ci­ation. c) Meet­ings with indi­vidu­al bod­ies on request – includ­ing, for example, Scot­tish Land and Estates, Fed­er­a­tion of Small Busi­nesses, Grow­biz and Scot­tish Enterprise.

1. To sup­port the con­sulta­tion the CNPA Con­vener and Deputy Con­vener spent sev­en days out in the Park, meet­ing and vis­it­ing busi­nesses along with loc­ally elec­ted mem­bers and seni­or staff. The vis­its focused on the main set­tle­ments and included New­ton­more, Kin­gussie, Aviemore, Grant­own, Tomin­toul, Brae­mar and Bal­later. In total, mem­bers met dir­ectly with over 45 busi­nesses includ­ing sev­er­al sig­ni­fic­ant employ­ers (e.g. Cairngorms Brew­ery, McGowan’s and Wil­der­ness Scot­land) and the man­agers and front-line staff of many small shops and premises. A sum­mary of what was heard is provided at Annex 1.

Changes to the Action Plan

1. In the light of the con­sulta­tion feed­back the Eco­nom­ic Action Plan has been mod­i­fied as explained below and is attached for approv­al at Annex 3. The emphas­is has been kept on iden­ti­fic­a­tion of the actions that are most import­ant and likely to be delivered with­in the plan period.

2. In rela­tion to the first ques­tion asked in the con­sulta­tion (about data, trends and oppor­tun­it­ies) the Stra­tegic Con­text has been updated to include:

a) a new sec­tion on the import­ance of towns and vil­lages b) clar­ity about the CNPA response to cli­mate emer­gency c) links between pros­per­ous busi­nesses and nature d) strengthened sec­tion of the need to invest in nat­ur­al cap­it­al and to high­light the improved cross-ref­er­ences to the data we hold already e) ref­er­ences to some new research (e.g. on short-term lets) f) ref­er­ences to some new stra­tegic work (e.g. update on Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Rur­al Eco­nomy Action Group and SCDI Rur­al Com­mis­sion) g) the pro­posed evid­ence-gath­er­ing phase that is about to start for pre­par­a­tion of next Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan h) a num­ber of small changes (includ­ing bet­ter ref­er­ences to com­munity-led devel­op­ment and social enterprises)

1. The second ques­tion in the con­sulta­tion focused on the pro­posed actions in the Plan. The over­all struc­ture, using the five themes, was retained and changes made as follows:

Theme 1: Build­ing on eco­nom­ic strengths

a) i. Cla­ri­fic­a­tion of links to the Tour­ism Action Plan and Charter for Sus­tain­able Tourism

Theme 2: Sup­port­ing and attract­ing business

b) i. Con­sol­id­a­tion of all hous­ing deliv­ery actions under this theme ii. Addi­tion of a new action on con­trol of short-term lets

c) Theme 3: Edu­ca­tion, train­ing and skills development

i. New action to pro­mote con­nec­tions between busi­ness and envir­on­ment ii. Addi­tion of links to the nation­al Rur­al Skills Action Plan

d) Theme 4: Infra­struc­ture and cap­it­al investment

i. Increased emphas­is in the sec­tion on cap­it­al invest­ment on pri­or­it­iz­ing invest­ment in nat­ur­al cap­it­al ii. The sum­mary of pro­gress and plans has been updated

e) Theme 5: Com­munity and enterprise

i. A new action around devel­op­ment of a net­work of three Smart Vil­lages ii. A new action about the Cairngorms Young Action pro­ject iii. A new action around pro­mo­tion of col­lab­or­a­tion with Busi­ness Asso­ci­ations and emphas­is on town centres iv. A new action about the transna­tion­al, LEAD­ER-fun­ded pro­ject pro­mot­ing act­ive travel and trans­port integ­ra­tion – the TICK Project

1. In rela­tion the third ques­tion in the con­sulta­tion, on Deliv­ery and Mon­it­or­ing of the Plan, changes were made as follows:

a) CNPA Board mem­ber to chair the Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group b) Addi­tion of Fed­er­a­tion of Small Busi­nesses to the Steer­ing Group c) New emphas­is on bring­ing togeth­er Busi­ness Asso­ci­ations and help­ing the focus on Town Centres d) Devel­op­ment of indic­at­ors of pro­gress at first meet­ing of Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group

1. The Eco­nom­ic Action Plan is a part­ner­ship plan. The CNPA will con­sider its resource alloc­a­tion for our con­tri­bu­tion to deliv­er­ing the plan as part of our nor­mal annu­al oper­a­tion­al plan budget dis­cus­sions in March 2020.

Next Steps

1. Sub­ject to Board approv­al, the Eco­nom­ic Action Plan will be sub­ject to some mod­est graph­ic design work before being pub­lished online.

2. The first meet­ing of the Steer­ing Group will be con­vened in late Janu­ary 2020.

Mur­ray Fer­guson & Gav­in Miles Decem­ber 2019 murrayferguson@​cairngorms.​co.​uk gavinmiles@​cairngorms.​co.​uk