CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee Paper 7 10/09/2021

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

AUDIT & RISK COMMITTEE

FOR DIS­CUS­SION

Title: COM­PLAINTS LOG

Pre­pared by: KATE CHRISTIE, HEAD OF ORGAN­ISA­TION­AL DEVELOPMENT

Pur­pose

This paper presents inform­a­tion on the num­ber and nature of com­plaints received by the Author­ity since the last update on this sub­ject to the Com­mit­tee in Septem­ber 2020.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee is asked to:

a) Con­sider the inform­a­tion on com­plaints made to the Authority.

Exec­ut­ive Summary

1. A sum­mary of com­plaints made to the Author­ity since the last update in Septem­ber 2020 is presen­ted in the fol­low­ing table.

Nature of Com­plaint	Res­ol­u­tion Information
1. 27/07/20 — Rap­tor pois­on­ing and the Park’s hand­ling of it.	Dealt with by Pete May­hew and respon­ded at Invest­ig­a­tion stage with­in 19 work­ing days.
2. 26/10/20. Over devel­op­ment (plan­ning)	Dealt with by Mur­ray Fer­guson and respon­ded at Invest­ig­a­tion stage in 16 days.
3. 05/01/21. Lack of sup­port for Grant­own health walk	Dealt with by Jack­ie Far­quhar and respon­ded at Front­line res­ol­u­tion stage with­in 2 days.
4. 18/01/21. Use of Park for grouse shoot­ing and the killing of rare raptors	Dealt with by Pete May­hew and respon­ded at Invest­ig­a­tion stage in 16 work­ing days.
5. 05/03/21. Lack of action by Plan­ning Dept to enforce pre-empt­ive plan­ning con­di­tions on an application.	Dealt with by Gav­in Miles and respon­ded at Front­line res­ol­u­tion with­in 4 work­ing days.
6. 13/04/21 — Con­duct of an employ­ee of a sport­ing estate loc­ated in the Park	Dealt with Grant Moir and passed on to estate involved to man­age. Estate respon­ded appro­pri­ately. Not a complaint
7. 06/05/21 — What is CNPA doing about Golden Eagle Poisoning	Dealt with by Pete May­hew and respon­ded at Invest­ig­a­tion stage in 13 work­ing days.
8. 08/06/21. Beha­viour of a coun­tryside ranger — and their inter­pret­a­tion of the SOAC.	Dealt with by Pete Crane. Iden­ti­fied through invest­ig­a­tion that this was not a CNPA ranger, and respon­ded accord­ingly, with details passed on to rel­ev­ant organ­isa­tion and inform­a­tion about SOAC provided in response. Com­plaint was respon­ded at Invest­ig­a­tion stage in 12 days.
9. 23/06/21. Lack of inform­a­tion on the pro­gress of a plan­ning devel­op­ment, and inab­il­ity to find the inform­a­tion on the website	Dealt with by Gav­in Miles and respon­ded at Invest­ig­a­tion stage in 14 days.
10. 30/06/21. CNPA’s hand­ling of com­plaint about a board member	Dealt with by Grant Moir and respon­ded at Invest­ig­a­tion stage in 23 days from date of ini­tial com­plaint but 16 days after cla­ri­fic­a­tion sought was provided.
11. 01/07/21. Con­cerns in rela­tion to the release of cor­res­pond­ence with a Sport­ing Estate in the Park and in rela­tion to the poisoned eagle found on the Estate	More a cri­ti­cism than a com­plaint but nev­er­the­less respon­ded at front­line res­ol­u­tion in 4 days by Vicky Walker.
12. 05/07/21. Pre­ven­tion of swim­ming at Muir of Din­net Nation­al Nature Reserve/​Loch Kinnord	Dealt with by Adam Streeter-Smith and respon­ded at Invest­ig­a­tion stage with­in 15 work­ing days.

1. Three com­plaints were dealt with at Front­line Res­ol­u­tion stage, and respon­ded to with­in the 5 days spe­cified. Com­plaints that are handled at Invest­ig­a­tion stage should be respon­ded to with­in 20 work­ing days. Of the eight handled at invest­ig­a­tion stage, one was respon­ded to after 23 days but fol­low­ing cla­ri­fic­a­tion on the detail of the com­plaint, the time lim­it was reset, and the response was with­in 16 days of cla­ri­fic­a­tion provided. One com­plaint related to the actions of staff of anoth­er employ­er in the Park and was passed on appro­pri­ately, and one was deemed to be more of a cri­ti­cism than a com­plaint and inform­a­tion was sign­posted to the indi­vidu­al accordingly.

2. Sev­er­al com­plaints related to the Park’s approach to hand­ling the issue of rap­tor pois­on­ing, and com­pre­hens­ive responses were sent to each com­plain­ant set­ting out the actions taken by the Author­ity in this regard.

3. To date, we are not aware of any of our responses hav­ing been escal­ated to the SPSO but com­plain­ants have 12 months from the date they raised the com­plaint to escal­ate it to the SPSO.

4. There has been a small increase in the num­ber of com­plaints received in the last 12 months when com­pared with the pre­vi­ous peri­od (12 in the peri­od Septem­ber 2020 — Septem­ber 2021 + an earli­er com­plaint that had not been pre­vi­ously repor­ted; 10 in the peri­od Septem­ber 2019 – Septem­ber 2020).

Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Development 10 Septem­ber 2021 katechristie@​cairngorms.​co.​uk