230713LOAFPaperCaseworkReview

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 1 of 6

Cairngorms Loc­al Out­door Access Forum

Douglas Stew­art, Out­door Access Officer 28/06/23

Update on case­work volumes and types over 2019 – 2022 cal­en­dar years.

Pur­pose:

1. To update mem­bers on case­work hand­ling of all types includ­ing monthly break­downs and sum­mary of key types by volume.

2. To con­sider find­ings, trends and oth­er rel­ev­ant issues arising.

Back­ground

1. The Nation­al Park Author­ity has a num­ber of duties and respons­ib­il­it­ies requir­ing pro­vi­sion of advice to intern­al col­leagues and key part­ners along­side respond­ing to both gen­er­al enquir­ies from the pub­lic and also com­plaints over obstruc­tions to and/​or inter­fer­ence with the exer­cise of stat­utory access rights.
2. In order to both mon­it­or and pro­cess these tasks a case­work record is main­tained. This ​‘log’ records num­bers and types of case­work includ­ing dates, hand­ling times and a record of con­tacts made dur­ing processing.

Case­work Handling

1. Man­age­ment of case­work work­load is an ongo­ing con­sid­er­a­tion with the present sys­tem alloc­at­ing case­work on the basis of a 50:50 split between the two Out­door Access Officers in post. Depend­ing on the com­plex­ity or nature of any giv­en case col­lab­or­a­tion and dis­cus­sion often takes place towards ensur­ing bal­anced decision mak­ing. Pro­cessing, record­ing and alloc­a­tion is sup­por­ted by an admin­is­trat­ive sup­port officer.

Ana­lys­is of Annu­al Records

1. The cur­rent record shows a rel­at­ive decrease in case­work for the 12 month review peri­od versus 2021 fig­ures with an early indic­a­tion of over­all case­work volumes return­ing towards pre- Cov­id levels i.e. 2019. It is noted how­ever that ​‘access rights’ related cases (circa 40) have remained at a sim­il­ar level over the years 2020 – 2022, being high­er than baseline.
2. Records for the 12 month review peri­od vs baseline com­pare as follows:

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 2 of 6 • 2022-194 cases = 1% over baseline • 2021259 cases = 35% over baseline • 2020-215 cases = 12% over baseline • 2019-192 cases = baseline

1. It is prob­able that 2022 main­tained a high­er num­ber (com­pare pre-pan­dem­ic) of UK res­id­ents hol­i­day­ing at home (i.e. with­in the UK) due to pan­dem­ic related issues con­tinu­ing to affect inter­na­tion­al travel with these high­er num­bers seen feed­ing into the levels of extern­al case­work exper­i­enced. The logic here relates that a great­er num­ber of vis­it­ors to the Nation­al Park means a con­cur­rently high­er prob­ab­il­ity of access related prob­lems arising and thence being repor­ted. There is also anec­dot­al evid­ence to sug­gest the num­ber of camper­vans and mobile homes being used has seen a sus­tained increase since the pre-pan­dem­ic peri­od and this persists.

2. Plan­ning and forestry con­sulta­tions saw a reduc­tion over the peri­od while ​‘fund­ing’ case­work dropped out as a con­sequence of AECS Improv­ing Pub­lic Access grant oppor­tun­it­ies being with­drawn by SG.

3. Case­work hand­ling capa­city and pro­ced­ures have proven resi­li­ent to fluc­tu­ations in num­bers and types of issues over­all although any sus­tained upward trend requires mon­it­or­ing in respect of staff capa­city. Case­work is react­ive and tends to lim­it capa­city else­where when an increase in case­load is evident.

Pro­posed Changes to Future Case­work Mon­it­or­ing and Reporting

1. As of the cur­rent cal­en­dar year we have mod­i­fied the mon­it­or­ing approach adop­ted in our case­work hand­ling pro­ced­ures to focus primar­ily on mat­ters per­tain­ing to the deliv­ery of stat­utory con­sulta­tions (forestry and plan­ning) and the Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2003 Sec­tion 13 duty to uphold access rights. In effect this means mon­it­or­ing and report­ing going for­ward will be focussed on instances where obstruc­tions to access rights are the sub­ject. A key pur­pose of this to align mon­it­or­ing and report­ing with NP Park Plan out­comes and main­tain a focus on stat­ist­ics and trends relat­ing to obstruc­tion to access spe­cific­ally such they relate to Sec­tions 13 and 14 of the Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2003.

2. Future report­ing to the LOAF will take a sim­il­ar stat­ist­ics-based format as is cur­rently the case how­ever will reflect the afore­men­tioned change in focus.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Case­work Totals by Month/​Year: all Cat­egor­ies Page 3 of 6

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 4 of 6 Case­work Totals by Month/​Year: all Cat­egor­ies ex. Plan­ning & Forestry

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 5 of 6 Case­work Totals by Year/​Category

Grand Total for Year Plan­ning Con­sultns Forestry Con­sultns Access Rights Fund­ing Land Own­er­ship Obstruc­tion Oth­er Path Main­ten­ance Sig­nage Tourism

Grand Total for Year Plan­ning Con­sultns Forestry Con­sultns Access Rights Fund­ing Land Own­er­ship Obstruc­tion Oth­er Path Main­ten­ance Sig­nage Tourism

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 6 of 6