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DRAFT CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Fin­ance & Deliv­ery Com­mit­tee Paper 2 Annex 2 06/03/2020

Memor­andum of Under­stand­ing between

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

And

Out­door Access Trust for Scotland

1. Pur­pose

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA) and Out­door Access Trust for Scot­land (OATs) share a mutu­al bene­fit through col­lab­or­a­tion in the deliv­ery of high qual­ity access oppor­tun­it­ies for res­id­ents of and vis­it­ors to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

This MoU sets out the ways in which CNPA and OATS will work togeth­er to the bene­fit of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, set­ting out the stra­tegic rela­tion­ship over and above indi­vidu­al year’s oper­a­tion­al agree­ments. CNPA recog­nises and is aware of OATS pro­ject activ­ity bey­ond the Cairngorms Nation­al Park and noth­ing in this MoU restricts these or oth­er future pro­jects in oth­er areas. Equally, in enter­ing into this MoU, OATS recog­nises that some ongo­ing com­mit­ment to work in the Cairngorms and adequately resource this work from with­in its staff­ing struc­tures will be required to sat­is­fy both the expect­a­tions set out in this doc­u­ment and also the expect­a­tions of CNPA as a con­tinu­ing mem­ber of the charity.

This MoU sets out how the two organ­isa­tions will col­lab­or­ate on work with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

The MoU recog­nises a series of mutu­al bene­fits in part­ner­ship col­lab­or­a­tion between OATS and CNPA. The char­it­able object­ives of OATS are a clear fit with the deliv­ery pri­or­it­ies for access oppor­tun­it­ies with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP), while the oper­a­tion of the char­ity with­in the Cairngorms affords an effect­ive means of bring­ing third party invest­ment into the Cairngorms Nation­al Park which would not oth­er­wise be pos­sible. The work and net­works of each organ­isa­tion bring sig­ni­fic­ant know­ledge and exper­i­ence to sup­port the other.

1. Times­cale

This MoU cov­ers the peri­od until 31 March 2022, with the poten­tial for exten­sion on the basis of writ­ten agree­ment by both parties to the MoU once the likely dir­ec­tion of travel of the next Cairngorms NPPP is bet­ter understood.

1. Stra­tegic Context

Col­lab­or­a­tion between CNPA and OATS to date has delivered a high qual­ity access net­work through­out the Nation­al Park. The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan for 2017 – 22 sets out the pri­or­it­ies for the next five years. These include com­plet­ing and main­tain­ing the

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remain­ing stra­tegic links in the access net­work, main­tain­ing and con­tinu­ing to enhance the net­work we now have, as well as pro­mot­ing more use and participation.

CNPA and OATs are both com­mit­ted to the com­mon goals of:

• Main­tain­ing and enhan­cing an out­stand­ing access net­work in the Nation­al Park;
• Encour­aging more use of the net­work and par­ti­cip­a­tion in phys­ic­al activity;
• Devel­op­ing the skills base neces­sary to main­tain and enhance the access infrastructure;
• Enga­ging people’s sup­port for the access net­work includ­ing fin­an­cial, volun­teer­ing and oth­er con­tri­bu­tions of sup­port and promotion;

1. Pri­or­ity areas for Collaboration

a) The Moun­tains and the People Pro­ject & Cairngorms Moun­tain Her­it­age Project

OATS was lead body for deliv­er­ing these major pro­jects with a 10 yr com­mit­ment to the major fun­der to main­tain paths. The peri­od of this MoU sees the cap­it­al invest­ment peri­od of The Moun­tains and The People Pro­ject come to an end and paths cre­ated under this pro­ject, like those in the earli­er Cairngorms Moun­tain Her­it­age Pro­ject, enter into their main­ten­ance com­mit­ment peri­od. CNPA has an interest in ensur­ing the path net­work improve­ments achieved through OATS’ work on these pro­jects are sus­tain­ably main­tained, while it is import­ant for OATS’ repu­ta­tion as a char­ity work­ing in this sec­tor that it is seen to be deliv­er­ing on its main­ten­ance com­mit­ments and provid­ing ongo­ing, leg­acy bene­fit to the public.

CNPA will con­tin­ue to provide agreed sup­port and a fund­ing con­tri­bu­tion, and par­ti­cip­ate act­ively in gov­ernance and pro­mo­tion of the pos­it­ive leg­acy of these projects.

OATS will con­tin­ue to bene­fit from enhance­ment to its repu­ta­tion as an effect­ive char­ity deliv­er­ing large scale, long term, multi-object­ive and sus­tain­able pro­grammes of work. OATS will devel­op main­ten­ance sched­ules, inter­act appro­pri­ately with land man­agers, and plan fin­an­cially for the ongo­ing invest­ment in appro­pri­ate levels of main­ten­ance resources into these paths cre­ated from its pro­ject investment.

CNPA will provide fund­ing sup­port of 40% of the total main­ten­ance cost incurred by OATS in the Nation­al Park on paths that they are the primary respons­ible body in any one year, up to an agreed max­im­um to be determ­ined annu­ally (CNPA is sub­ject to an annu­al budget alloc­a­tion). The ²⁰²⁰⁄₂₁ max­im­um con­tri­bu­tion being £20,000 (for £50,000 total main­ten­ance expendit­ure incurred by OATS).

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b) Long Dis­tance Routes

The CNPA pri­or­it­ies are con­tinu­ing to main­tain and improve the Spey­side Way in the Nation­al Park as both a long dis­tance route and a com­munity link for res­id­ents and vis­it­ors; work­ing with High­land Coun­cil and Moray Coun­cil and part­ners to pro­mote the entire route.

Where oppor­tun­it­ies arise CNPA will work with OATS to secure fund­ing and route spe­cif­ic deliv­ery agree­ments to upgrade and improve Spey­side Way and poten­tially oth­er long dis­tance paths lis­ted below.

OATS will bene­fit though a dir­ect asso­ci­ation with devel­op­ment and main­ten­ance of a recog­nised and val­ued Long Dis­tance Route net­work, enhan­cing the charity’s repu­ta­tion and broad­en­ing its poten­tial base for devel­op­ment of future business.

CNPA will sup­port the work of part­ners, includ­ing Sus­trans and loc­al com­munit­ies, in devel­op­ing NMU routes and Deeside Way, Dava Way and Cat­er­an Trail, and where oppor­tun­it­ies arise will involve OATS.

c) Oth­er Path maintenance

CNPA and OATS will jointly devel­op and agree an annu­al main­ten­ance pro­gramme identi­fy­ing exist­ing com­mit­ments, pri­or­it­ies and fund­ing options.

The main­ten­ance pri­or­it­ies for CNPA and OATS resources are those routes for which the organ­isa­tions have a leg­al oblig­a­tion and oth­er pri­or­it­ies will be agreed on an annu­al basis.

CNPA and OATS will work col­lab­or­at­ively to effect­ively use volun­teers to both main­tain and ​‘audit’ paths.

OATS will bene­fit as a char­ity seen to be caring for the path net­works it is closely asso­ci­ated with cre­at­ing and in some cases is com­mit­ted to main­tain­ing, enhan­cing its repu­ta­tion and demon­strat­ing deliv­ery of its char­it­able object­ives to any extern­al scrutiny.

d) Income Generation

CNPA will con­tin­ue sup­port OATS in the man­age­ment, improve­ment and con­struc­tion of rur­al car parks in the Cairngorms where the income gen­er­ated is rein­ves­ted in path main­ten­ance and improve­ment in Nation­al Park.

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e) Pro­mo­tion and Aware­ness Raising

CNPA and OATS will col­lab­or­ate on oppor­tun­it­ies to gen­er­ate pos­it­ive media cov­er­age and aware­ness of their activ­it­ies and the partnership.

CNPA and OATS will co-ordin­ate with oth­er part­ners through an annu­al com­mu­nic­a­tions plan sum­mar­ising oppor­tun­it­ies for joint promotion.

Both CNPA and OATS will bene­fit through enhan­cing aware­ness and sup­port for their activity.

1. Rela­tion­ship and Fin­ance Management

CNPA and OATS both recog­nise the stra­tegic import­ance of their rela­tion­ship to deliv­ery of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and share an expect­a­tion of ongo­ing dia­logue. In addi­tion to oper­a­tion­al report­ing and com­mu­nic­a­tion both organ­isa­tions will main­tain reg­u­lar com­mu­nic­a­tion about stra­tegic dir­ec­tion including:

• Seni­or CNPA officers will attend an OATS board meet­ing annu­ally to co-ordin­ate busi­ness planning;
• OATS and CNPA board mem­bers will meet to dis­cuss stra­tegic dir­ec­tion and opportunities.
• Pub­lish­ing a brief joint annu­al sum­mary of the work delivered for board mem­bers and wider promotion
• CNPA will on the basis of this ongo­ing part­ner­ship col­lab­or­a­tion retain mem­ber­ship of OATS, sup­port­ing over­all gov­ernance and sus­tain­ab­il­ity of the charity
• OATS will provide a quarterly update of path work agreed and sup­por­ted by CNPA includ­ing expendit­ure incurred

The nom­in­ated officers respons­ible for rela­tion­ship man­age­ment and agree­ing any changes to the MoU are:

• Pete Crane, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices, CNPA
• Dou­gie Baird, Chief Exec­ut­ive, OATS

In the event of sig­ni­fic­ant stra­tegic issues arising, the Chairs and Chief Exec­ut­ives of OATS and CNPA will meet to resolve any dis­pute arising from deliv­ery or inter­pret­a­tion under this MoU which these nom­in­ated officers are unable to resolve.

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