CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board Paper 2 27 Novem­ber 2020

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

FOR INFORM­A­TION

Title: CAIRNGORMS GREEN RECOV­ERY PLAN UPDATE

Pre­pared by: CNPA MAN­AGE­MENT TEAM

Pur­pose

1. The CNPA Board approved the Green Recov­ery Plan in June 2020. There has been con­sid­er­able work car­ried out on the Plan since then and this paper has been pro­duced to update the board on the cur­rent pos­i­tion and show progress.

2. The recov­ery from Cov­id is going to be dif­fi­cult and there are many busi­nesses and res­id­ents still hav­ing major issues. This paper shows the breadth of sup­port the CNPA has been involved in since June to deliv­er the Plan.

Recom­mend­a­tion

That the Board:

a) Note the pro­gress being made on the Green Recov­ery Plan.

Cairngorms Recov­ery Plan

The plan con­tains a num­ber of spe­cif­ic sec­tions. Each sec­tion has been updated with rel­ev­ant inform­a­tion on the work that has been under­taken since agree­ment by the Board in June.

Action

Update

Cairngorms Recov­ery Fund to be developed

Cairngorms Recov­ery Fund launched on 20 August and closed on 20 Septem­ber. The Fund com­prised £100k from CNPA and 30k from The Cairngorms Trust. The Board agreed four guid­ing prin­ciples for the Fund – Green solu­tions, Well­being and eco­nom­ic growth, Employ­ment and the Long-term aims of Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The Fund was widely pro­moted and 27 applic­a­tions were received for a total level of sup­port of £263k. The applic­a­tions were assessed against a set of eval­u­ation cri­ter­ia and decisions to fund 13 pro­ject made by a Pan­el involving extern­al part­ners includ­ing busi­ness and com­munity groups. A detailed review paper was dis­cussed at Fin­ance and Deliv­ery Com­mit­tee on 13 November.

Full list of pro­jects that have been awar­ded funding:

• Aboyne & Upper Deeside Rotary Club: Lit­ter Pick­ing Upper Deeside
• Dal­whin­nie Com­munity Coun­cil: Ben Alder Road Carpark
• Blair Atholl & Area Tour­ism Asso­ci­ation: Blair Atholl Com­munity and Busi­ness Devel­op­ment project
• Dee Dis­trict Sal­mon Fish­ery­Board: 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 & Green Events
• Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship: Build­ing a sus­tain­able wel­come for camper vans
• Glen­shee & Strath­ardle Tour­ist Asso­ci­ation: Glen­shee Vis­it­or Centre
• 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

Busi­ness

Seni­or Respons­ible Officer – Mur­ray Ferguson

Action	Update
Sup­port Cairngorms Tour­ism Emer­gency Response Group	CTERG has met on a weekly, and then fort­nightly, basis through­out the sum­mer and autumn as a sub-group of the Cairngorms Tour­ism Part­ner­ship, chaired by Board mem­ber Janet Hunter. Very good rep­res­ent­a­tion by part­ners from key private and pub­lic sec­tor bod­ies with­in and around the Park. Key top­ics dis­cussed included deploy­ment of busi­ness sup­port; research on busi­ness con­fid­ence and vis­it­or aspir­a­tions; #Cairngorm­s­To­geth­er cam­paign mar­ket­ing; integ­ra­tion of tour­ism, com­munity and vis­it­or man­age­ment, input to nation­al tour­ism dis­cus­sions, etc. Full meet­ing of CTP took place on 9 Novem­ber to look at future changes to Tour­ism Action Plan. A board report will be tabled in March 2021.
Attend Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Rur­al Eco­nomy Stake­hold­er Group,	Attend­ance ongo­ing through­out COV­ID response peri­od. Pro­gress has been pos­it­ive in secur­ing pos­it­ive policy out­look toward some form of Com­munity Led Loc­al Devel­op­ment (CLLD) replace­ment to the EU fun­ded LEAD­ER Pro­gramme. Remain­ing and con­sid­er­able depend­en­cies on the over­all Scot­tish budget pos­i­tion and UK Government’s policy devel­op­ment around the ​“Shared Prosper­ity Fund” which is inten­ded to replace EU fund­ing fol­low­ing EU Exit
CNPA to sup­port Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship through grant funding.	Addi­tion­al sup­port has been provided to CBP over the peri­od to encour­age sus­tained mem­ber­ship and to focus on busi­ness sur­viv­al, recov­ery and mar­ket­ing. CBP (along with oth­er des­tin­a­tion organ­isa­tions e.g. Vis­it­Ab­er­deen­shire and Moray Spey­side, etc.) have done exem­plary work over a very chal­len­ging peri­od. Addi­tion­al sup­port was provided to CBP via Green Recov­ery Fund to work on motor-home coordin­a­tion and inform­a­tion; and joint work with Grow­biz on busi­ness sup­port and ment­or­ing was under­taken. Liais­on is now under­way with HIE who are provid­ing ded­ic­ated des­tin­a­tion sup­port funding.
Vis­it­or & res­id­ent mar­ket­ing to be developed at appro­pri­ate time as lock­down meas­ures ease	Mar­ket­ing sup­port and com­mu­nic­a­tions has been developed with part­ners. A joint mar­ket­ing cam­paign for the winter peri­od is being developed. Sig­ni­fic­ant mes­saging deployed through­out the sum­mer sea­son through all channels.
Devel­op Grow­biz ​‘Smart Vil­lages’ to enhance digit­al con­nectiv­ity and busi­ness resi­li­ence post Covid.	Four smart vil­lages are in devel­op­ment in Bal­later, Brae­mar, Grant­own and at Park-wide scale focus­sing on the cre­at­ive sec­tor. The work is led by the Char­ity Grow­biz and is integ­rated with the work they are under­tak­ing on enter­prise sup­port and ment­or­ing. Meet­ing of the Digit­al Steer­ing Group will take place to review the work later in November
Deliv­er a com­pre­hens­ive plan­ning ser­vice to enable recovery	The Plan­ning Ser­vice has con­tin­ued through­out the peri­od with revised pro­ced­ures in place for hold­ing meet­ings online, (includ­ing par­ti­cip­a­tion by object­ors and com­munit­ies) and to cov­er for the chal­lenges in con­duct­ing site vis­its. Devel­op­ment of policy has con­tin­ued without inter­rup­tion and the LDP will be con­sidered for adop­tion on 11 Novem­ber. Sig­ni­fic­ant case­work has been pro­gressed includ­ing at Bal­later and Kin­gussie for afford­able hous­ing, at Cairngorm Moun­tain for ski-related devel­op­ment. Pro­gres­sion of plan­ning con­di­tions has allowed import­ant work to com­mence on con­struc­tion of new dis­til­lery at Grant­own and to repair Funicu­lar. The Developers For­um took place on 11 Novem­ber to look at the new LDP and what chal­lenges developers are oth­ers are facing.
Seek resources to research, invest­ig­ate and plan for how we build resi­li­ence, sus­tain­ab­il­ity and diver­si­fic­a­tion into Cairngorms eco­nomy and com­munit­ies as part of the next iter­a­tion of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan	Taken for­wards through dis­cus­sions about Her­it­age Hori­zons pro­ject and dis­cus­sion at the Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group about trans­ition to a well­being eco­nomy. Skills Devel­op­ment Scot­land are now provid­ing addi­tion­al sup­port o to Grow­biz to under­take skills deploy­ment work­shops with­in the Cairngorms NP.

Com­munit­ies

Seni­or Respons­ible Officer – Mur­ray Ferguson

Action	Update
CNPA to sup­port VABS, Marr Area Part­ner­ship & T&G Devel­op­ment Trust through Grant in Aid funding	Enhanced dir­ect sup­port was provided. Reg­u­lar meet­ings took place with Com­munity Liais­on Officer net­work over sum­mer and autumn. Assist­ance was provided in secur­ing and deploy­ing addi­tion­al funds though loc­al-author­ity led schemes. VABS and MAP were dir­ectly involved in mak­ing decision about deploy­ment of Green Recov­ery Fund.
Devel­op a new approach to com­munity engage­ment (e.g. citizen’s assembly) at Nation­al Park level to build on the work under­taken through Cov­id response.	This work is a sig­ni­fic­ant part of the Her­it­age Hori­zons bid that the CNPA is devel­op­ing for sub­mis­sion in Feb 2021. How­ever, dur­ing the sum­mer the CNPA and oth­ers have engaged with res­id­ents, com­munity coun­cils, Park coun­cil­lors, estates through a series of zoom meet­ings. This will be con­tin­ued dur­ing the winter in pre­par­a­tion for next sea­son. Dis­cus­sions are also under­way with Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment about devel­op­ment of Com­munity Cli­mate Hubs based on the Park.
Cairngorms Dark Skies Obser­vat­ory Project	CES has decided not to take for­ward the applic­a­tion with NatureScot.
Request fund­ing from Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment for LEAD­ER net­work to sup­port com­munity and busi­ness devel­op­ment. Poten­tial to update LDS as part of pre­par­ing for next NPPP	Influ­en­cing work ongo­ing through both Min­is­teri­al Rur­al Eco­nomy Stake­hold­er Group and LEAD­ER struc­tures. Feed­back from Min­is­ters and Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Officers is very pos­it­ive on com­mit­ment to put in place replace­ment of LEAD­ER funds in ongo­ing sup­port of com­munit­ies and rur­al busi­nesses, with broad sup­port from a wide range of organ­isa­tions. Out­comes tied into 21⁄22 budget round. Work under­way to con­sider use of any remain­ing nation­al LEAD­ER Pro­gramme under­spend in 20⁄21.

Land Man­age­ment, Cli­mate Change and Conservation

Seni­or Respons­ible Officer – Pete Mayhew

Action	Update
Sup­port wood­land expan­sion & peat­land res­tor­a­tion work in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park	Wood­land work on tar­get with 1000ha of wood­land expan­sion being delivered each year A 3 year peat­land pro­gramme for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park is being agreed with Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment to increase capa­city and ensure over 1000ha per annum is delivered. Update on future fund­ing pos­i­tion for Cairngorms Peat­land Pro­gramme presen­ted to Fin­ance and Deliv­ery Com­mit­tee 13 November
Biod­iversity Chal­lenge Fund delivery.	Deliv­ery under­way and on track. Works include sup­port for the Rare Inver­teb­rates Cairngorms pro­ject, wader hab­it­at improve­ment in the ECMP and SWWI areas, fresh water pearl mus­sel rein­force­ment, aspen plant­ing and pine hov­er­fly translocation.
Catch­ment Man­age­ment & river res­tor­a­tion delivery	Ripari­an plant­ing under­way on the rivers Tru­im and Muick, sched­uled for com­ple­tion March 2021. Plans being developed with land man­agers and com­munity bod­ies for re-nat­ur­al­isa­tion of the Slug­gan burn, sur­face water man­age­ment in Kin­gussie (Gyn­ack burn and con­flu­ence of the Calder/​Spey), Milton burn, exten­sion of the Alt Lorgy re-nat­ur­al­isa­tion, remov­al of embank­ments on the Dee flood­plain at Mar Lodge and plans for link­ing upstream man­age­ment in the S.Esk catch­ment with the down­stream com­munit­ies of Brechin and Kirriemuir.
Stage 2 of Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject sub­mit­ted to NLHF	Suc­cess­ful applic­a­tion for deliv­ery phase. Pro­ject now under­way to 1. Improve and cre­ate more hab­it­at for caper­cail­lie. 2. Help com­munit­ies to cre­ate and deliv­er their own com­munity-led actions for caper­cail­lie. 3. Raise aware­ness of the plight of caper­cail­lie and how people can help. 4. Research the genet­ic diversity of caper­cail­lie in the Nation­al Park to help inform action. 5. Strengthen cur­rent caper­cail­lie mon­it­or­ing to enable more informed decisions.
Devel­op­ing Her­it­age Hori­zons bid to NLHF	On track for sub­mis­sion of bid in Feb­ru­ary 2021.

Vis­it­or Management

Seni­or Respons­ible Officer – Pete Mayhew

Action	Update
Devel­op an eas­ing of lock­down vis­it­or man­age­ment plan for the Cairngorms	Vis­it­or Man­age­ment Plans were developed for the whole Cairngorms plus spe­cif­ic plans for Deeside and Glen­more. The vis­it­or man­age­ment sea­son review was held on 28 Octo­ber (see vis­it­or man­age­ment update paper).
Devel­op eas­ing of lock­down comms strategy as part of wider vis­it­or man­age­ment plan	Eas­ing of lock­down comms strategy was put in place and sig­ni­fic­ant and suc­cess­ful comms were delivered through 2020. CNPA con­tin­ues to pro­mote respons­ible oppor­tun­it­ies to safely enjoy the Nation­al Park shap­ing the emphas­is on cur­rent Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment guid­ance and using the over­all ​‘strap line’, developed with Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship, of #Cairngorm­s­To­geth­er. Tra­di­tion­al media interest in the sum­mer was extens­ive and gen­er­ally pos­it­ive ran­ging from inter­views with BBC Radio Scot­land to web­casts, and news­pa­pers from Press and Journ­al to Sunday Times. Social media uptake of com­mu­nic­a­tions is covered In the Vis­it­or Man­age­ment paper. See Vis­it­or Man­age­ment Paper for more info.
Sup­port vis­it­or man­age­ment through the devel­op­ment of CNPA sea­son­al ranger ser­vice & exist­ing ranger ser­vices through grant support	9 sea­son­al rangers were employed in sum­mer 2020 until 30 Octo­ber 2020. 2 rangers have been employed for the winter sea­son to help pre­pare for the deploy­ment of rangers next year. Grant sup­port was provided for estate-based ranger services.
Cap­it­al­ise on the increase in phys­ic­al activ­ity, engage­ment with nature, increase in loc­al food net­works & volun­teer­ing that has been seen in lock­down to encour­age long-term beha­viour change that bene­fits cli­mate change, biod­iversity, loc­al economy	This work is sig­ni­fic­ant part of the Her­it­age Hori­zons bid that the CNPA is devel­op­ing for sub­mis­sion in Feb 2021

Rur­al Trans­port in Cairngorms and Kilkenny (TICK)

Pur­chase of a fleet of elec­tric bikes to sup­port more act­ive travel as part of social pre­scrib­ing for a more act­ive and health­i­er life­style has now been pro­cured, with loc­al bike shops / busi­nesses secur­ing all sup­ply con­tracts. Con­tract in place between Cairngorms Trust and Cyc­ling UK to sup­port busi­ness and com­munity engage­ment activ­ity, and ebike pro­cure­ment and ser­vice devel­op­ment pro­cesses. Pro­cure­ment of elec­tric minibus for Com­munity Trans­port Com­pany in devel­op­ment. Kilkenny has picked up act­ive travel ele­ment from Cairngorms NP and incor­por­ated an aspect of this into their pro­ject. Cairngorms and Kilkenny explor­ing a joint film to pro­mote their pro­ject col­lab­or­a­tion toward end of project.

Spaces for People Pro­ject not taken for­ward but look­ing at oppor­tun­it­ies through Her­it­age Horizons.

Cap­it­al Investment

Seni­or Respons­ible Officer – Dav­id Cameron

Title	Update
Shovel Ready (can hap­pen in f/​y 2020⁄21)
Glen­more NMU path exten­sion to enhance RTIF funding.	Fund­ing secured from Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment cap­it­al real­loc­a­tions in sum­mer 2020. Con­tract let and will be com­pleted in Decem­ber 2020
Deeside Way Exten­sion – Brae­mar to Inver­cauld Bridge	Fund­ing not secured to build this section.
ECMP wil­low and juni­per exclosures	Del­nadamph juni­per exclos­ure delayed to 2021 but will pro­gress. Mar Lodge wil­low exclos­ure delayed to 2021 to allow com­bined trans­port of mater­i­als with peat­land res­tor­a­tion project
Com­munity Con­ser­va­tion Grant Scheme	Some ele­ments of this incor­por­ated into the Green Recov­ery Grant Fund launched in 2020. Remains in scope for future devel­op­ment work.

Medi­um Term (can poten­tially hap­pen in 2021⁄22)
Cairngorms Nature Big Weekend	Work pro­gress­ing for 2021 Big Weekend
Spey­side Way – Boat to Aviemore resur­fa­cing & traffic lights on Kin­gussie Bridge	No pro­gress to report
Dul­nain to Grant­own NMU	Under­way and sched­uled for com­ple­tion by March 2021
Strath­spey Ripari­an Plant­ing – river Truim	Plans in devel­op­ment with landown­ers and com­munity bodies
Strath­spey River Restoration	Integ­rated into Her­it­age Hori­zons project
Nethy/​Spey Con­flu­ence Project	No pro­gress to report
Aviemore Street Fur­niture and Inter­pret­a­tion project	No pro­gress to report
Motorhome dis­charge facil­it­ies at pub­lic toilets	Link to CBP Green Recov­ery Fund pro­ject and winter VMP work.
Badenoch vis­it­or inform­a­tion enhancement	No pro­gress to report
Longer Term (2022÷23 onwards)
Rails to Grantown	No pro­gress to report
Cairngorm Moun­tain masterplan	Mas­ter­plan work ongo­ing and to be final­ised in early 2021. Funicu­lar repair has started.
High­land Folk Park enhancements	No pro­gress to report

Con­clu­sion

1. There has been sig­ni­fic­ant work under­taken across the Green Recov­ery Plan. There has also been oth­er work developed that will con­trib­ute to the Green Recov­ery Plan, such as, the applic­a­tion to Kick­start for a vari­ety of work place­ments across all the Nation­al Parks in the UK.

2. These are dif­fi­cult times for busi­ness and com­munit­ies across the Park but the CNPA and its part­ners are work­ing hard to provide sup­port where we can best add value.

3. The CNPA will con­tin­ue to mon­it­or the work that we are under­tak­ing under the Green Recov­ery Plan and will provide an updated ver­sion at the June 2021 Board meet­ing. Many of the prin­ciples of the Green Recov­ery Plan can also be incor­por­ated into the work as we look to devel­op for the next Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan from 2022 – 2027.

CNPA Man­age­ment Team

Novem­ber 2020