230908DraftFormalBoardMinute

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 1 of 11

Draft Minutes of the Board Meet­ing Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own on Spey

In Per­son 8 Septem­ber 2023 at 9.30am

Present Sandy Brem­ner (Con­vener) Elean­or Mackintosh(Deputy Con­vener) Bill Lob­ban Kenny Deans Paul Gibb Rus­sell Jones Lauren Mac­Cal­lum Dr Gaen­er Rodger Dr Fiona McLean Geva Black­ett Xan­der McDade Chris Beat­tie Steve Mickle­wright Han­nah Grist John Kirk Peter Cos­grove Ann Ross Doug McAdam

In Attend­ance Grant Moir, CEO Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices & Deputy CEO Mur­ray Fer­guson, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning & Rur­al Devel­op­ment Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature & Cli­mate Change Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices Dav­id Clyne, Head of Her­it­age Hori­zons Pro­gramme Mari­aan Pita, Exec­ut­ive Sup­port Man­ager James Ade, Clerk to the Board

Apo­lo­gies Derek Ross Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 2 of 11

Wel­come and introduction

1. Sandy Brem­ner, the Board Con­vener, wel­comed every­one to the meet­ing. Apo­lo­gies were noted.

Approv­al of minutes of pre­vi­ous meetings

1. The draft pub­lic minutes of the last meet­ing held on the 23 June 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 & Rur­al Devel­op­ment 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. Bill Lob­ban declared interest in item 11 for trans­par­ency and will not be tak­ing part in the conversation.
2. Sandy Brem­ner declared an interest in item 11 as it influ­ences him as Con­vener, he will be leav­ing the room and Xan­der McDade will chair the meeting.
3. Elean­or Mack­in­tosh declared an interest in item 11 as it influ­ences her as Deputy Con­vener and will be leav­ing the room.

CEO Report

1. Grant Moir, Chief Exec­ut­ive, intro­duced the paper 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 dir­ec­ted to deliv­er (with part­ners) the aspir­a­tions of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 3 of 11

2. The Board con­sidered the detail in the Paper and dis­cus­sions took place around the fol­low­ing: a) Integ­rated wild­fire man­age­ment plan was dis­cussed, and the CEO con­firmed we now have a good format and work is con­tinu­ing on it. b) The ranger ser­vices in the Angus Glens were high­lighted as there has been some chal­lenges, we will revis­it our cur­rent approach and see how we can take that for­ward in the future. c) Smal­ler birds were raised and what we as an author­ity were doing to look after them. Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change con­firmed that we are doing a lot of work on waders and our focus is on the rare and endangered spe­cies iden­ti­fied with­in the Cairngorms Nature Action Plan. . d) Inward invest­ment was men­tioned and to include this in the Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan.

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

4. Action Points Arising: none.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Annu­al Update

1. Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning intro­duced the paper which sum­mar­ised the mon­it­or­ing frame­work for the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and which iden­ti­fies some of the key areas where indic­at­ors show pro­gress or where officers expect pro­gress to be demon­strated in future after the first year of deliv­ery of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan.

2. The Board con­sidered the detail in the Paper and dis­cus­sions took place around the fol­low­ing: a) Ques­tions were asked on where we are with the study on herb­i­vore graz­ing. Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change con­firmed that we are in the pro­cess of estab­lish­ing the baseline as we are work­ing with the three Deer Man­age­ment groups in the south of the Park, through Cairngorms 2030 and Nature Scot to make sure all the data gets fed in. b) A mem­ber brought up the hous­ing crisis in the Brae­mer area. The Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning said the key is to cre­ate more afford­able hous­ing that does not Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 4 of 11

go on the open mar­ket and identi­fy­ing the right sites with the right devel­op­ment is what the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan could help with. c) Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Rur­al Devel­op­ment met with the Board of Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship and repor­ted a view that the busi­ness com­munity is really tak­ing a lead on the hous­ing issue. A few mem­bers noted that they had reser­va­tions on this. d) A mem­ber raised that with­in Perth and Kinross Coun­cil they have a policy to pri­or­it­ise keywork­ers with­in hous­ing alloc­a­tions . e) The CEO con­firmed that the key issue is that the vast major­ity of new built hous­ing should be afford­able. Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship hous­ing ini­ti­at­ive was raised again and mem­bers asked about the num­bers of houses that could get built. The CEO con­firmed that we will speak with Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship and dis­cuss their long-term plans and come back to the Board with an update. f) Mem­bers sug­ges­ted a work­shop for the Board to brain­storm on hous­ing and an oppor­tun­ity to dis­cuss dir­ec­tion through the plan­ning pro­cess we can take; define what we mean as keywork­ers and afford­able; con­sider what we want to achieve; and make sure that the Board has a united voice. g) Wood­land cre­ation not meet­ing its goal as part of the nature deliv­ery was high­lighted. Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change con­firmed that there is ongo­ing dis­cus­sion on Scot­tish Forestry Grant scheme as they con­sider changes to the scheme, and we will keep a close eye on this.

1. The Board noted the pro­gress sum­mar­ised in the paper and asso­ci­ated Annex 1.
2. Action Points Arising: i. The CEO con­firmed that we will speak with Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship and dis­cuss their long-term plans and come back to the Board with an update.

Cor­por­ate Per­form­ance ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ Update

1. Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO, intro­duced the paper which presents a review of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Cor­por­ate Per­form­ance over ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ fin­an­cial and oper­a­tion­al year.

2. The Board con­sidered the detail in the Paper and dis­cus­sions took place around the fol­low­ing: Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 5 of 11

a) A mem­ber ques­tioned why the rat­ing of cyber secur­ity has increase on the risk register. Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive con­firmed that it reflec­ted the gen­er­al trend that all organ­iz­a­tions are see­ing more var­ied cyber attacks.We have been chan­ging our oper­a­tion­al plat­forms and tak­ing oth­er remedi­al approaches to address this risk. How­ever, the risk rat­ing is increased to reflect the increased threat and like­li­hood of this risk. b) A mem­ber high­lighted that an option of a cyber secur­ity course for the Board would be bene­fi­cial. The Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive con­firmed that the staff do have a train­ing course that they have to com­plete, and it could pos­sibly be rolled out to the Board if they wish. c) It was noted that plan­ning should be added to the register due to staff short­age at this time and there is a risk that lim­ited staff resource avail­ab­il­ity will dam­age our plan­ning ser­vice. The Deputy Con­vener reques­ted a meet­ing with the CEO, Con­vener and Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning to dis­cuss this. d) The CEO con­firmed that there are com­plex issues with­in Scot­land around the nation­al short­age of plan­ners and we would be look­ing to take a paper to next Resources Com­mit­tee to dis­cuss the key issues we have and how to address them. This fol­lows up pre­vi­ous dis­cus­sion by the Resources Com­mit­tee on this sub­ject. e) A mem­ber high­lighted that arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence is on the rise and will change the way we work; do we have any policy on this. Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive con­firmed that there is no policy, but we will give it con­sid­er­a­tion on the change of our con­tent and format of risk register. f) The break­down of invest­ment into the Park over the last 20 years was men­tioned and a mem­ber said that they would be keen to see the break­down. Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive con­firmed that he could ask the fin­ance team to look into that.

Recom­mend­a­tions The Board is asked to: a) Review the update on the Park Authority’s cor­por­ate per­form­ance over ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ presen­ted with this paper. b) Dis­cuss any mat­ters of sig­ni­fic­ance arising from this cor­por­ate per­form­ance update for ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ to the Park Authority’s ongo­ing per­form­ance in deliv­ery of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 6 of 11

organisation’s stra­tegic object­ives as set out in the agreed Cor­por­ate Plan for 2023 to 2027. c) Con­sider the cov­er­age of the Park Authority’s cur­rent stra­tegic risk register.

1. Action Points Arising: i. Meet­ing to be set up with CEO, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning, Con­vener and Deputy Con­vener to dis­cuss the short­age of plan­ning staff. ii. Pro­posed paper to go to Resources Com­mit­tee regard­ing recruit­ment options for Planners.

Caper­cail­lie Conservation

1. Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change intro­duced the paper which sets out the next steps in caper­cail­lie con­ser­va­tion fol­low­ing on from the Park Author­ity Board dis­cus­sion last year and the Minister’s response to the advice provided by Nature Scot and the Park Author­ity. It is a high-pro­file area of work with repu­ta­tion­al and resource implic­a­tions, there­fore Board were asked to con­sider the plans and to guide for­ward dir­ec­tion for staff in shap­ing work as it goes forwards.

2. The Board con­sidered the detail in the Paper and dis­cus­sions took place around the fol­low­ing: a) A mem­ber asked how we will main­tain momentum to ensure that we see great­er improve­ment. Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change con­firmed that a work­shop was held on the 16 August to bring back all the part­ners that worked with us and with our col­lab­or­at­ive approach we have brought a range of stake­hold­ers with us. The emer­gency plan will address this with clear actions to take and cost involved iden­ti­fied, along with the longer-term resi­li­ence work. b) A mem­ber reques­ted that there be con­sid­er­a­tion for this paper to be a decision paper and not for dis­cus­sion. The CEO con­firmed that we need com­plete the Pine Marten pop­u­la­tion study as per the dir­ec­tion from the Min­is­ter to bet­ter under­stand the issue, and as there is noth­ing to decide at this point the paper was a dis­cus­sion to allow the board help dir­ect for­ward action by the staff group. c) A ques­tion was raised on the quiet spaces for nature: would that influ­ence people’s right to respons­ible access? Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate change said that in the first instance we will look at a vol­un­tary approach that will not affect peoples access rights and will work with dif­fer­ent user groups. In essence we are ask­ing people at cer­tain times of year to avoid cer­tain areas. This will be kept under review to see if it is suc­cess­ful. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 7 of 11

d) It was also noted that Nature Scot would need to be very clear on mes­saging and what that would mean for com­munit­ies as there is some con­cern at the moment. e) Mem­bers agreed that a paper com­ing for­ward once the sur­vey is com­pleted would be a good idea. f) The Con­vener added an addi­tion­al action that all stra­tegic aspects of the plan come back to the Board for approv­al and Per­form­ance Com­mit­tees for reg­u­lar updates, this was seconded by Gaen­er Rodger and Doug McAdam.

1. The Board noted the Paper.
2. Action Points Arising: i. Stra­tegic aspects of the plan come back to the Board for approv­al and Per­form­ance Com­mit­tees for reg­u­lar updates, this was seconded by Gaen­er Rodger and Doug McAdam.

Man­aging for Vis­it­ors in the Cairngorms

1. Mur­ray Fer­guson, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Rur­al Devel­op­ment, presen­ted the paper which seeks the views of the Board on poten­tial options around man­aging for vis­it­ors in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Officers are seek­ing a steer on the options that the Board would like staff to do fur­ther work on, to help with the pre­par­a­tion of the Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan which will be brought back to the Board in Novem­ber 2023.

2. The Board con­sidered the detail in the Paper and dis­cus­sions took place around the fol­low­ing: a) Mem­bers raised strong con­cerns over the lack of resources being com­mit­ted to Glen­more by Forestry and Land Scot­land, voicing con­cerns from the com­munity over how the site is being man­aged. The Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Rur­al Devel­op­ment informed the Board that Forestry and Land Scot­land Man­agers have iden­ti­fied Glen­more as one of six nation­al pri­or­it­ies and are invest­ing more resources there than ever before. The Con­vener reas­sured the Board that the Con­vener and Officers will be seek­ing an urgent meet­ing with Forestry and Land Scot­land to dis­cuss resourcing as it is cur­rently inad­equate and gave assur­ances that the Con­vener and Deputy Con­vener will be at that meet­ing. b) The Deputy Con­vener asked how the Park Author­ity is going to keep the com­munity around Loch Mor­lich involved and informed. The Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Rur­al Devel­op­ment respon­ded that com­mu­nic­a­tion with the Com­munity Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 8 of 11

Coun­cil and Com­munity Trust has already begun, and they will be informed of the out­come of this meet­ing. c) A mem­ber asked if there were data from Loch Lomond and the Trossachs Nation­al Park on fixed pen­alty notices. The CEO respon­ded that if a bylaw is in place, it gives clar­ity of mes­sage, but needs enfor­cing. If the Board agrees that they would like Officers to present a paper on intro­du­cing a bylaw, this paper will explore wheth­er the Park Author­ity has the resources to enforce a bylaw across the park and wheth­er this would make a sig­ni­fic­ant dif­fer­ence. A sub­sequent paper would there­fore pick up on the intent of this ques­tion. d) The CEO also informed the Board that part of Scotland’s Stra­tegic Frame­work for Biod­iversity is that bylaws in Nation­al Parks are to be enforced under a fixed pen­alty notice sys­tem. Mem­bers agreed that Officers should bring back a paper with more inform­a­tion for the Board to con­sider. e) A mem­ber raised that there should be nation­al con­sist­ency in mes­saging around fires. The CEO respon­ded that the Park Author­ity have raised this with Scot­tish Fire & Res­cue Ser­vice, who should be lead­ing on nation­al mes­saging. f) The Deputy Con­vener quer­ied wheth­er Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil rangers are able to issue fixed pen­alty notices. The Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning & Rur­al Devel­op­ment respon­ded that that was the inform­a­tion he had been sup­plied by Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil, but he is happy to check this.

1. The Board noted the Paper and con­sidered the options set out with­in it, agree­ing a steer for staff on which ones to invest­ig­ate further.
2. Action Points Arising: i. The Board agreed that Con­vener and Officers arrange a meet­ing with Forestry and Land Scot­land to dis­cuss resourcing at Glen­more. ii. The Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Rur­al Devel­op­ment to check wheth­er Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil rangers can give fixed pen­alty notices. iii. iv. The Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Rur­al Devel­op­ment to com­mu­nic­ate with the Com­munity Coun­cil and Com­munity Trust the out­come of this meet­ing. Paper on poten­tial bylaw imple­ment­a­tion across the park to be presen­ted to a future meet­ing of the board. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 9 of 11

Stand­ing Orders: Elec­tion of Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener and Com­mit­tee Mem­ber­ship Substitutions

1. Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive, presen­ted the paper which noti­fies the board of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Convener’s upcom­ing end of term of appoint­ment and of the elec­tion pro­cess for this role. The paper also fol­lows up the Board’s dis­cus­sions at its meet­ing in June 2023 on the quor­um for Com­mit­tee meet­ings and capa­city for Com­mit­tee mem­bers to nom­in­ate sub­sti­tutes for meetings.

2. The Board con­sidered the detail in the Paper and dis­cus­sions took place around the fol­low­ing: a) The Deputy Con­vener asked if the elec­tion would be delayed if the appoint­ment of new Min­is­teri­al Board Mem­bers was delayed. The Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices informed Mem­bers that the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment were aware of the upcom­ing elec­tions and were con­fid­ent of the time scales. Should any delay arise, he will inform the Con­vener. b) A Mem­ber ques­tioned how sub­sti­tutes would be secured. The Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices sug­ges­ted the board portal be used and the Clerks to the Board would dis­trib­ute inform­a­tion to Mem­bers of how this would work. c) A mem­ber reflec­ted that sub­sti­tutes were per­mit­ted in oth­er organ­isa­tions up to a point imme­di­ately before a meet­ing. The Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive explained that the pro­pos­als put for­ward reflec­ted mem­bers’ respons­ib­il­it­ies under the Code of Con­duct to be pre­pared for meet­ings, and there­fore sought to ensure appro­pri­ate amount of time was avail­able to any mem­ber attend­ing as a sub­sti­tute to become famil­i­ar with the sub­ject mat­ter and ask any ques­tions of detail or con­text pri­or to the meeting.

3. The Board agreed the pro­cess for elec­tion of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener, as set out in this paper. Addi­tion­ally, the Board agreed the pro­vi­sion of sub­sti­tutes for Com­mit­tee mem­ber­ship and attend­ance, as set out in this paper.

4. Action Points Arising: i. The Clerks to the Board to dis­trib­ute inform­a­tion to Mem­bers of how sub­sti­tutes for com­mit­tee meet­ings are to be secured. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 10 of 11

Board Mem­ber Fee Policy

1. Xan­der McDade presen­ted the review of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Board Mem­ber Fee Policy under­taken by the Board’s Resources Com­mit­tee at its meet­ing of 25 July 2023. The paper seeks approv­al from the board of decisions taken by the Com­mit­tee on the man­age­ment of mem­bers’ time avail­able for Park Author­ity busi­ness and asso­ci­ated pay­ment of board fees.

2. The Board con­sidered the detail in the Board Fee Policy Review and dis­cus­sions took place around the fol­low­ing: a) Rus­sell Jones seconded the pro­pos­al. b) The Deputy Con­vener asked for cla­ri­fic­a­tion on wheth­er if a board mem­ber only attends all required meet­ings they get paid in full. Xan­der McDade cla­ri­fied that if mem­bers only atten­ded all required meet­ings they would get paid for 32 days, includ­ing 10 days prep time, but would not receive any top up days.

3. The Board noted the Board Fee Policy Review, agree­ing the increase in base level time input by Park Author­ity Board and auto­mat­ic deduc­tions to fee payments.

12.31pm Sandy Brem­ner and Elean­or Mack­in­tosh left the board room.

1. The Board con­sidered the detail in the Con­veners Alloc­a­tion Review and dis­cus­sions took place around the fol­low­ing: a) A mem­ber ques­tioned how the decision for both the increased num­ber of paid days for both Deputy Con­vener and Con­vener had been reached. Xan­der McDade respon­ded that, while both roles reflect more work than the num­ber of paid days pro­posed, the increase reflects a bet­ter bal­ance and would make the roles for people with caring com­mit­ments, for example, more real­ist­ic. b) A mem­ber raised con­cerns over the num­ber of days the pre­vi­ous Con­vener was required to work as it seems excess­ive com­pared to oth­er sim­il­ar organ­isa­tions. Xan­der McDade respon­ded that this is in part due to the size of the Board and an ele­ment of the amount of work the Con­vener wants to do. The CEO, added that mem­bers add to the work­load through the amount of email traffic between meet­ings that is not always necessary.

2. The Board noted the Con­veners Alloc­a­tion Review, agree­ing the changes in base level time input by Park Author­ity Board Con­vener, Deputy Con­vener and Plan­ning Con­vener. Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 11 of 11

3. Action Points Arising: None 12.45pm Sandy Brem­ner and Elean­or Mack­in­tosh re-entered the board room. Minutes from Com­mit­tee Meetings

4. 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.

5. The Board noted the Paper.

6. Action Points Arising: None AOCB

7. Grant Moir, CEO, informed the Board that on 7 Septem­ber 2023 the Stra­tegic Frame­work for Biod­iversity con­sulta­tion was launched by the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment. The Board will be hav­ing a dis­cus­sion on this at the end of October.

8. The Con­vener informed the Board that the next Board Vis­it, in Octo­ber, would be to the Angus Glens.

Date of Next Meeting

1. The date of the next meet­ing is Fri­day 24 Novem­ber in person.

The pub­lic part of this meet­ing con­cluded at 12.50pm.