Minutes of the Board Meeting

Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own on Spey

In Per­son

23 June 2023 at 9.30am

Present

Xan­der McDade (Con­vener) Janet Hunter (Deputy Con­vener) Kenny Deans Paul Gibb Rus­sell Jones John Kirk Derek Ross Elean­or Mack­in­tosh Sandy Bremner

Bill Lob­ban Steve Mickle­wright Han­nah Grist Chris Beat­tie Lauren Mac­Cal­lum Dr Gaen­er Rodger Geva Blackett

In Attend­ance

Grant Moir, CEO Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices & Deputy CEO Mur­ray Fer­guson, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning & Place Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature & Cli­mate Change Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices Dav­id Clyne, Head of Her­it­age Hori­zons Pro­gramme Dan Har­ris, Plan­ning Man­ager (For­ward Plan­ning & Ser­vice Improve­ment) Jenny Alan, Cairngorms 2030 Pro­gramme Man­ager Fiona McIn­ally, Rur­al Devel­op­ment and Com­munit­ies Man­ager Math­ew Hawkins, Con­ser­va­tion Man­ager Alan Smith, Out­door Learn­ing & Engage­ment Man­ager Kar­en Arch­er, Press and Com­mu­nic­a­tions Officer James Ade, Clerk to the Board

Apo­lo­gies

Ann Ross Dr Fiona McLean Doug McAdam

Wel­come and introduction

1. Xan­der McDade, the Board Con­vener, wel­comed every­one to the meet­ing along with the newly appoin­ted mem­bers Han­nah Grist, Steve Mickle­wright and Sandy Brem­ner to the meet­ing. Apo­lo­gies were noted.

Approv­al of minutes of pre­vi­ous meetings

1. The draft pub­lic minutes of the last meet­ing held on the 24 March 2023 were agreed with no amendments.

Mat­ters arising not covered elsewhere

1. The Board Con­vener provided an update on the action points from 24 March 2023 minutes:
   • a) Para 8i: Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning & Place to speak to Elean­or Mack­in­tosh and Geva Black­ett about poten­tial pro­jects in the short and long term in the Don­side area of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park — Complete
   • b) Para 12i: The CEO to add a review for sup­port mech­an­isms for farm­ing to the paper — Complete
   • c) Para 20i: Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices to write paper present­ing pos­sible vot­ing arrange­ments for forth­com­ing elec­tions — Complete

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. There were no declar­a­tions of interest.

CEO Report (Paper 1)

1. Grant Moir, Chief Exec­ut­ive, intro­duced Paper 1 which was to high­light to Board Mem­bers the main stra­tegic areas of work that are being dir­ec­ted by the Man­age­ment Team. These are areas where sig­ni­fic­ant staff resources are being

Kenny Deans joined the meet­ing at 9.44am

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

   • a) The issue of wild­fires in the Nation­al Park was dis­cussed at length, with mem­bers high­light­ing their con­cerns about the imme­di­ate and long term threat they pose to the res­id­ents of the park; response times to wild­fires; and the need for fire man­age­ment plans. Grant Moir, CEO, high­lighted the work by the Park Author­ity includ­ing clear wild­fire mes­saging and work­ing with part­ner organ­isa­tions in devel­op­ing an integ­rated wild­fire man­age­ment plan for the Park. He also high­lighted issues around enforce­ment and the need to think about this issue when con­sid­er­ing the poten­tial to intro­duce a fire man­age­ment byelaw. The Con­vener respon­ded to issues around fire and res­cue response times sug­gest­ing he write to the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment on the Board’s behalf to high­light the issue. The CEO agreed to put out a pub­lic state­ment after the board meet­ing set­ting out the work being done by the Park to com­bat wildfires.
   • b) A mem­ber asked wheth­er there are com­par­is­ons between spe­cies in the Cairngorms Con­nect pro­ject and the East Cairngorms Moor­land part­ner­ship and if there was an update on the Brae­mar Path. Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature & Cli­mate Change, respon­ded that there was a com­par­at­ive study tak­ing place and the res­ults of this can be shared. Mur­ray Fer­guson, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning & Place, replied that the ori­gin­al spe­cific­a­tions of the pro­ject in Brae­mar were not appro­pri­ate and a new pro­pos­al is cur­rently going through the Out­door Access Trust, though this will require new plan­ning permission.
   • c) Mem­bers quer­ied wheth­er the peat­land jobs cre­ated were new or exist­ing jobs and wheth­er staff­ing levels were suf­fi­cient to deliv­er pro­jects. The CEO respon­ded that data were cur­rently being gathered and that peat­land res­tor­a­tion fund­ing was secur­ing exist­ing jobs as well as cre­at­ing new ones. The Park Author­ity has the staff­ing capa­city to deliv­er the cur­rent pro­gramme and are also tri­al­ling using agents to do some of the work with Park staff act­ing as qual­ity control.
   • d) A mem­ber raised that it is essen­tial that hous­ing is used for key work­ers in the com­munity. The Con­vener respon­ded that hous­ing policy can pri­or­it­ise key work­ers with­in some loc­al author­it­ies in the Park and that Board Mem­bers nom­in­ated by loc­al author­it­ies could engage with those loc­al author­it­ies that don’t pri­or­it­ise key work­ers to change their policy.

2. The Board noted the Paper. The Con­vener thanked the Chief Exec­ut­ive and all staff on behalf of the Board.

3. Action Points Arising:

   • i. The CEO agreed to put out a pub­lic state­ment after the board meet­ing set­ting out the work being done by the Park to com­bat wildfires.
   • ii. The Con­vener will write to Scot­tish Fire and Res­cue on the Board’s behalf to high­light the issue that ser­vice changes will have on on wild­fire management.
   • iii. The Dir­ect­or of Nature & Cli­mate Change will share the com­par­at­ive study tak­ing place between spe­cies in the Cairngorms Con­nect pro­ject and the East Cairngorms Moor­land partnership.

Cairngorms 2030: Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Hori­zons Fund Deliv­ery Phase Applic­a­tion (Paper 2)

1. Grant Moir intro­duced Paper 2, which seeks approv­al to sub­mit the Cairngorms 2030 deliv­ery phase applic­a­tion to the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Hori­zons Fund (NLHF) as the main applic­ant and ​‘Account­able Body’ for the Cairngorms 2030 Pro­gramme, with present­a­tions from Dav­id Clyne, Head of Her­it­age Hori­zons Pro­gramme, cov­er­ing Pro­gramme plans and the key con­tent of the pro­posed bid and Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices & Deputy CEO, cov­er­ing gov­ernance and risk man­age­ment approaches.

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

   • a) Issues around pub­lic trans­port were dis­cussed with mem­bers ask­ing how this fund would help resolve them. Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices, informed the board that this fund would allow the Park Author­ity to try some new solu­tions that, if suc­cess­ful, could be rolled out else­where. The CEO added that while it was the first step in solv­ing some of the Park’s trans­port issues, the fund was in no way large enough to solve them all and fur­ther fund­ing would be needed. Dis­cus­sion also covered that it was not the role of the Park Author­ity nor the Pro­gramme to take over the stat­utory trans­port respons­ib­il­it­ies sit­ting with oth­er organ­isa­tions. Addi­tion­ally, the CEO stated he would con­tact Moray Coun­cil about bus trans­port routes.
   • b) Mem­bers ques­tioned Park Author­ity staff on how com­munity engage­ment would be imple­men­ted dur­ing the Cairngorms 2030 Pro­gramme. The CEO reas­sured the Board that com­munity engage­ment was embed­ded into all the pro­jects that make up the pro­gramme. The Head of Her­it­age Hori­zons Pro­gramme added that com­munity design is a key part of the fund­ing cri­ter­ia and is a set para­met­er for the pro­gramme. Addi­tion­ally, there has already been extens­ive series of con­sulta­tions, and engage­ment is built into the pro­gramme with three full time equi­val­ent Com­munity Engage­ment Officers.
   • c) Mem­bers asked if the Park had a leg­acy plan for the pro­ject and wheth­er infla­tion had been accoun­ted for in the budget. The CEO answered that this work is embed­ded in the Park Plan and will be picked up in the fol­low­ing Park Plan. Learn­ing has also been taken from oth­er NLHF pro­jects that have gone before. Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices & Deputy CEO, added that there is cur­rent pro­vi­sion with an infla­tion and also a wider con­tin­gency pro­vi­sion included in the Pro­gramme budget. While the pro­cess of estim­at­ing these pro­vi­sions has already begun, it will be final­ised pri­or to bid sub­mis­sion once all pro­ject plans are finalised.

3. The Board approved the Paper. The Con­vener thanked the Head of Her­it­age Hori­zons Pro­gramme and the Her­it­age Hori­zons staff on behalf of the Board.

4. Action Points Arising:

   • i. The CEO to con­tact Moray Coun­cil about bus routes into the park.

Amend­ments to Stand­ing Orders (Paper 3)

1. Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO, intro­duced Paper 3, lay­ing out the pro­posed changes to Stand­ing Orders, fol­low­ing noti­fic­a­tion of the changes to the board at its meet­ing in March 2023.

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

   • a) Mem­bers raised their dis­com­fort around chan­ging the num­bers required for com­mit­tee meet­ings to be quor­ate, even tem­por­ar­ily in excep­tion­al cir­cum­stances. The Con­vener high­lighted to the Board issues around a num­ber of com­mit­tee meet­ings being unable to go ahead due to vacan­cies and mem­bers being unavail­able, leav­ing com­mit­tees — par­tic­u­larly the Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee — not quor­ate. It was reques­ted that the Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO bring back a fur­ther paper lay­ing out mem­ber sub­sti­tu­tions at com­mit­tee meet­ings to help with issues around quorum.

3. The Board deferred decision on the paper pending fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tion of using sub­sti­tutes. The Con­vener thanked the Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices on behalf of the Board for con­tinu­ing to take for­ward the Board’s wishes on its desired Stand­ing Orders.

4. Action Points Arising:

   • i. Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO to bring back a fur­ther paper lay­ing out mem­ber sub­sti­tu­tions at com­mit­tee meet­ings to help with issues around quorum.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan – Devel­op­ment Plan Scheme 2023 (Paper 4)

1. Dan Har­ris, Plan­ning Man­ager, intro­duced Paper 4 out­lining the Devel­op­ment Plan Scheme (2023) for the next Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.

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

   • a) A mem­ber ques­tioned wheth­er the evid­ence gathered from the Nation­al Part­ner­ship Plan con­sulta­tions would be car­ried into the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan and how the Park would be sup­port­ing com­munit­ies with Loc­al Place Plans. The Plan­ning Man­ager respon­ded that the evid­ence has come from the pre­vi­ous Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan though the evid­ence base is still ongo­ing. Addi­tion­ally, ideally com­munit­ies would cre­ate their Loc­al Place Plan in advance of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan so that they can be taken into account in the devel­op­ment plan. How­ever, if a com­munity does not want to cre­ate a Loc­al Place Plan then their com­munity action plan will be taken into account.
   • b) Mem­bers ques­tioned how com­munity input would be delivered and how the com­munity would be con­sul­ted whilst keep­ing in mind con­sulta­tion fatigue. The Plan­ning Man­ager informed the Board that there will be advert­ising in the Cairn magazine to spread aware­ness and the devel­op­ment scheme con­tains a link to inform­a­tion and resources about what is required from groups. Mur­ray Fer­guson, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning & Place added that one of the key learn­ings from Cairngorms 2030 was the Author­ity con­sul­ted too widely, with con­sulta­tions now being mon­itored by the Com­mu­nic­a­tions Team in the Author­ity. Addi­tion­ally, the Author­ity is look­ing to revive and reen­gin­eer the Asso­ci­ation of Cairngorms Com­munit­ies so that staff can meet with the pub­lic in one place face to face.

3. The Board approved the Paper. The Con­vener thanked the Plan­ning Team on behalf of the Board.

4. Action Points Arising:

   • None

Frame­work Agree­ment with Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment (Paper 5)

1. Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO intro­duced Paper 5 which noti­fies the board of the pro­posed replace­ment of the Man­age­ment State­ment and Fin­an­cial Memor­andum (MSFM), which has set out the gov­ernance arrange­ments between Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment and the Park Author­ity since des­ig­na­tion of the organ­isa­tion, with an updated ​‘Frame­work Agreement’.

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

   • a) A mem­ber ques­tioned wheth­er the CEO was happy for the board to chal­lenge him on staff­ing num­bers and per­form­ance, as was sug­ges­ted in the doc­u­ment. Grant Moir, CEO, respon­ded that he has no prob­lem with this and this now hap­pens through the Resources Com­mit­tee and the oper­a­tion­al plan dis­cus­sion at board.

3. The Board noted the Paper. The Con­vener thanked the Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices on behalf of the Board.

4. Action Points Arising:

   • None

Pub­lic Sec­tor Equal­ity Duty: Update on Equal­ity Out­comes 2021 — 2025 (Paper 6)

1. Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment, intro­duced Paper 6 to draw the Board’s atten­tion to the Park Authority’s Update on Equal­ity Out­comes 2021 — 2025 Report, and to high­light the key equal­ity achieve­ments over the last two years.

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

a) A mem­ber asked who was on the equal­it­ies pan­el. Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment informed the Board that the equal­it­ies pan­el was made up of 11 mem­bers who rep­res­ent a broad vari­ety of people: those who have expert­ise in equal­ity mat­ters to enthu­si­asts in this sub­ject area. There is a yearly recruit­ment drive to get more people on the pan­el. A list of the mem­bers can be found on our web­site and is linked in the paper.

1. The Board noted the Paper. The Con­vener thanked the Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment and all the staff on behalf of the Board.

2. Action Points Arising:

   • None

Minutes from Com­mit­tee Meet­ings (Paper 7)

1. The Con­vener intro­duced the paper that presents the draft and approved minutes of the Form­al Board, Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee, Resources Com­mit­tee, Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee and Gov­ernance Committee.

2. The Board noted the Paper.

3. Action Points Arising:

   • None

AOCB

1. The Con­vener informed the Board that this was the last Form­al Board of Janet Hunter, thank­ing her for being Deputy Con­vener and lead­ing Cairngorms tour­ism part­ner­ship, acknow­ledging her hard work dur­ing her 8 years on the Board.

2. Grant Moir, CEO, informed the Board that this was Xan­der McDade’s last meet­ing as the Con­vener as he is step­ping down. Grant Moir thanked the Con­vener for all his work with the Board.

Date of Next Meeting

1. The date of the next meet­ing is Fri­day 8 Septem­ber in per­son. The pub­lic part of this meet­ing con­cluded 12.42.