CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board Paper 5 | 11^th June 2021

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

FOR INFORM­A­TION

Title: CAIRNGORM ESTATE MASTERPLAN

Pre­pared by: MUR­RAY FER­GUSON, DIR­ECT­OR OF PLAN­NING AND PLACE

Pur­pose

1. To update the Board about the approv­al of a mas­ter­plan for the Cairngorm Estate by High­lands and Islands Enter­prise (HIE).

Recom­mend­a­tion

That the Board:

a) Note that HIE has pre­pared and launched a mas­ter­plan for Cairngorm Estate (see link below) which provides a wel­come sense of dir­ec­tion for their man­age­ment of the area.

Back­ground

1. Board mem­bers will recall that:

   a) HIE embarked on pre­par­a­tion of mas­ter­plan for the whole of Cairngorm Estate some time ago. CNPA wel­comed the work to pre­pare such a plan so as to give clar­ity about man­age­ment intent in this import­ant area of pub­licly-owned land in the medi­um to long term. b) The pro­cess has involved two phases of pub­lic con­sulta­tion. CNPA provided form­al com­ments on a pre­vi­ous ver­sion of the Mas­ter­plan in August 2020. c) CNPA agreed Work­ing Prin­ciples to guide work in this area and these are on our web­site at https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​w​p​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​2​0​1​9​/​0​4​/​C​a​i​r​n​g​o​r​m​-​M​o​u​n​t​a​i​n​-​C​N​P​A​-​W​o​r​k​i​n​g​-​P​r​i​n​c​i​p​l​e​s​-​c​o​n​v​e​r​t​e​d.pdf d) Officers from HIE atten­ded a busi­ness meet­ing with the Board in March 2021 and were giv­en fur­ther points of advice to assist in final­ising the masterplan.

2. The full doc­u­ment is avail­able online at www​.hie​.co​.uk/​c​a​i​r​ngorm. In launch­ing the mas­ter­plan, HIE said:

“A set of 10 strategies to shape devel­op­ment of the pub­licly-owned Cairngorm Estate over the next 25 years has been pub­lished by High­lands and Islands Enter­prise (HIE). The 3,500-acre estate (1,418 hec­tares) includes foot­paths and trails offer­ing access to wild areas that provide hab­it­at for rare moun­tain flora and fauna, in addi­tion to the well-known snowsports centre and funicu­lar railway.

The devel­op­ment agency has pre­pared the Cairngorm Estate Mas­ter­plan fol­low­ing wide­spread con­sulta­tion that included loc­al com­munity and busi­ness groups, sport­ing and nature con­ser­va­tion organ­isa­tions, and pub­lic bod­ies with an interest in the moun­tain estate. In addi­tion, more than 2,100 people took up a pub­lic invit­a­tion to com­plete detailed online ques­tion­naires and sub­mit views dir­ectly to HIE.

The out­come is an over­arch­ing vis­ion for the estate as: ʻa world-class moun­tain envir­on­ment where nature thrives and people of all ages and abil­it­ies enjoy access to out­door sport, recre­ation and edu­ca­tion oppor­tun­it­ies in every sea­son of the year’. The mas­ter­plan will act as a frame­work to help inform future devel­op­ment plans and sup­port deliv­ery of a suite of strategies that focus on 10 inter-related top­ics. These are:

• an all-year sus­tain­able oper­at­ing model
• cohes­ive eco­logy and hab­it­at restoration
• pro­mot­ing act­ive travel and sus­tain­able transport
• a moun­tain for all
• Scot­tish Centre for the Moun­tain Environment
• excel­lent vis­it­or experience
• moun­tain biking
• decar­bon­ising the mountain
• access from the Ptar­mig­an building
• mon­it­or­ing imple­ment­a­tion of new activities”

Plan­ning Context

1. The Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021, approved in March, provides the plan­ning con­text where it says, in the sup­port­ing text for Policy 2 on Sup­port­ing Eco­nom­ic Growth (see para 4.39 on page 35 on our website):

“There are three ski centres in the Nation­al Park and these play an import­ant role in the loc­al eco­nomy. They face chal­lenges and pres­sures in con­tinu­ing to provide the mod­ern infra­struc­ture and facil­it­ies that vis­it­ors expect, as well as respond­ing to cli­mate change and con­sid­er­ing ways of increas­ing sum­mer vis­its and rev­en­ues. The Plan will sup­port appro­pri­ate devel­op­ment and enhance­ment of these facilities.

Plan­ning applic­a­tions in these loc­a­tions should be sup­por­ted by a mas­ter­plan or sim­il­ar doc­u­ment which out­lines the longer term devel­op­ment strategy for the centre and explains how the pro­pos­al fits with­in this.”

1. Please note that all plan­ning applic­a­tions will be made in accord­ance with the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan unless mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tions indic­ate oth­er­wise. The mas­ter­plan will be a mater­i­al consideration.

Next steps

1. Early pri­or­it­ies for HIE itself over the next two years include sta­bil­ising the present oper­at­ing com­pany, Cairngorm Moun­tain (Scot­land) Ltd and review­ing options for future own­er­ship and oper­at­ing models.

2. Oth­er areas of focus with­in the same times­cale include eco­logy; sus­tain­able trans­port; cre­at­ing a plan for moun­tain bik­ing; relo­cat­ing the snow fact­ory and elec­tri­fy­ing snow can­nons, and facil­it­ies devel­op­ment, includ­ing options for new chairlift in Coire Cas.

3. CNPA looks for­ward to work­ing with HIE and oth­er part­ners to ensure the suc­cess­ful deliv­ery of the mas­ter­plan over the next few years.

Mur­ray Fer­guson murrayferguson@​cairngorms.​co.​uk 2 June 2021