CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

DRAFT MINUTES OF THE BOARD MEETING

held via LifeS­ize Video Con­fer­en­cing on Fri­day 13^th Novem­ber 2020 at 9.30

PRESENT

• Xan­der McDade (Con­vener)
• Car­o­lyn Caddick
• Peter Argyle
• Geva Black­ett
• Deirdre Fal­con­er
• Pippa Had­ley
• Janet Hunter
• John Lath­am
• Douglas McAdam
• Elean­or Mackintosh
• Wil­lie McKenna
• Ian McLar­en
• Dr Fiona McLean
• Wil­li­am Munro
• Anne Rae Macdonald
• Dr Gaen­er Rodger
• Derek Ross
• Judith Webb

In Attend­ance:

• Grant Moir, Chief Executive
• Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Services
• Mur­ray Fer­guson, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning & Rur­al Development
• Gav­in Miles, Head of Plan­ning & Communities
• Dan Har­ris, Plan­ning Man­ager (For­ward Plan­ning & Ser­vice Improvement)

Apo­lo­gies:

• John Kirk

Wel­come and Introduction

1. Xan­der McDade, the Con­vener, wel­comed every­one to the meeting.
2. Apo­lo­gies were noted from John Kirk.

Declar­a­tions of Interest

1. Xan­der McDade declared an Indir­ect Interest in Paper 1:

   • Reas­on: As a Perth & Kinross Coun­cil­lor sub­mit­ted a response to the ini­tial pro­posed Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.

2. Geva Black­ett declared an Indir­ect Interest in Paper 1:

   • Reas­on: As a res­id­ent of Braemar.

Sub­mis­sion of CNP LDP to Scot­tish Min­is­ters (Paper 1)

1. Dan Har­ris, Plan­ning Man­ager presen­ted Paper 1 to the Board which presents the mod­i­fied LDP as the ver­sion the CNPA wish to see adop­ted and agree to sub­mit to Scot­tish Min­is­ters in accord­ance with sec­tion 19(12) of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997.

2. The Board con­sidered the detail in the Paper and dis­cus­sions took place around the following:

   a) The Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener recog­nised the hard work that gone into get­ting the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan to this stage and praised staff. She men­tioned that she had atten­ded the recent meet­ing of the Developers For­um where they shared the same con­cerns of the remov­al of hous­ing sites in Aviemore North and Brae­mar. She explained that it takes time to pre­pare a site and that there was some frus­tra­tion that the plan should be look­ing bey­ond 5 years.

   b) The Deputy Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener high­lighted that the real pos­it­ive was around afford­able hous­ing level set at 45%, in view of gen­er­al policy where the level was 25% and achiev­ing that level was significant.

   c) Com­ment made around the sig­ni­fic­ant reduc­tion of the total afford­able hous­ing alloc­a­tion par­tic­u­larly in the Aber­deen­shire area of the plan and wheth­er it con­tra­dicts wider policies.

   d) A Mem­ber reminded the Board that when Main Issues Report was being con­sul­ted on ini­tially, the Brae­mar site was not a recom­men­ded site and it came in after­wards. She added that there were oth­er sites in Brae­mar that were being looked at for devel­op­ment. She said that the situ­ation in Brae­mar was not as bleak as people make it out to be.

   e) Com­ment made that they had noted that Scot­tish Min­is­ters had made a change to the 2015 Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plans, how likely were Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ters to make changes to the cur­rent plan spe­cific­ally the con­cerns of hous­ing alloc­a­tions in Brae­mar and Aviemore? Head of Plan­ning & Com­munit­ies advised that in that case report­ers had made a fac­tu­al error that provided a route in for Scot­tish Ministers.

3. The Board approved:

   a) the modi­fic­a­tions pro­posed to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan as a res­ult of the Exam­in­a­tion of the Plan and

   b) Report­ers’ Recom­mend­a­tions and pub­lic­a­tion of the pro­posed Plan (as modified);

   c) the pub­lic­a­tion of notices and noti­fic­a­tion of those who made rep­res­ent­a­tions on the pro­posed Plan of the CNPA’s inten­tion to Adopt the Plan (as mod­i­fied) with a view to adopt­ing the Plan in early 2021.

   d) the sub­mis­sion of the modi­fic­a­tions, pro­posed Plan (as mod­i­fied), Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al Record, SEA Envir­on­ment­al Report, and copy of advert­ise­ment of Notice of Inten­tion to Adopt the Plan to Scot­tish Min­is­ters by 26 Novem­ber 2020.

4. Action Point Arising: None.

Elec­tion Pro­cess Review and Elec­tion of Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener (Paper 2)

1. The Con­vener thanked the staff for the elec­tion pro­cess and bal­lot for the recent elec­tion of the Board Deputy Convener.

2. Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices presen­ted Paper 2 to the Board which presents a review of the pro­cess used in Septem­ber 2020 to elect the Deputy Con­vener, with a num­ber of sug­ges­ted amend­ments to resolve points where there was some lack of clar­ity. He added that the paper also seeks to ini­ti­ate the elec­tion pro­cess for the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Convener.

3. The Board con­sidered the detail in the Paper and dis­cus­sions took place around the following:

   a) Con­cern raised around the postal votes being received in time, giv­en that with Christ­mas loom­ing, the Roy­al Mail may be busier than usu­al. Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices noted the point and said that pro­vi­sions could be made for example if 18 mem­bers say they have pos­ted it and only received 11, then with the Board’s agree­ment they would extend the time limit.

   b) It was agreed that the names of pro­posers and second­ers with the declar­a­tions of can­did­ates would be pub­lished going for­ward. Xan­der McDade pro­posed this and Peter Argyle seconded this motion and the Board agreed it.

4. The Board approved:

   a) con­sidered the review points on the elec­tion pro­cess and to determ­ine wheth­er mem­bers wish to adapt pro­cesses as provided for as ​“poten­tial amend­ments” in Annex 1;

   b) con­sidered wheth­er there are any fur­ther points of review from their per­spect­ive of the Deputy Con­vener elec­tion which are not drawn out of the intern­al review pro­cess set out in Annex 1 and which require to be con­sidered pri­or to sub­sequent use of the elec­tion process;

   c) agreed to com­mence the elec­tion pro­cess for Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener with effect from the date of this Board meeting;

   d) sub­ject to decision at point ​“c”, note the planned elec­tion timetable for con­duct of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener election.

5. Action Point Arising: None.

AOCB

1. A Board mem­ber raised that the Dark Skies Obser­vat­ory was not going ahead any­more and what was planned for the £40k com­mit­ted to the pro­ject? Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices advised that the Fin­ance & Deliv­ery Com­mit­tee were meet­ing that after­noon and were look­ing at a budget review paper. The cur­rent pro­pos­al was that a paper would be brought to the Form­al Board meet­ing on 27 Novem­ber 2020 for fuller con­sid­er­a­tion by the Board and to agree the real­loc­a­tion of the monies.

2. Com­ment made by a Board mem­ber that she had not yet been invited to attend a Cairngorm Caper­cail­lie Group Meet­ing. CEO advised that they had been look­ing at dates for the next meet­ing and when avail­able she would be informed.

3. A Board Mem­ber asked that recently pub­lished Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment report entitled Driv­en grouse moors — socioeco­nom­ic and biod­iversity impacts: sum­mary report be cir­cu­lated around the Board. CEO agreed and advised that it would be included in an update sched­uled for cir­cu­la­tion to the Board later today.

4. A loc­ally elec­ted mem­ber who lives in the Glen­liv­et com­munity com­men­ted that the inform­a­tion sur­round­ing the Glen­liv­et applic­a­tion was to her know­ledge not yet in the pub­lic domain in her com­munity. The Fin­ance & Deliv­ery Com­mit­tee Chair noted that it was in the Fin­ance & Deliv­ery Com­mit­tee meet­ing papers for that afternoon.

Date of Next Meeting

1. Next form­al Board meet­ing to be held on 27 Novem­ber 2020 via Lifes­ize video Conferencing.

2. The meet­ing con­cluded at 10.20am.