Draft 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.

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

2. 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.