Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 1 of 9

Minutes of the Board Meeting

Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own on Spey

In Per­son

24 Novem­ber 2023 at 9.30am

Present

Sandy Brem­ner (Con­vener) Elean­or Mack­in­tosh (Deputy Con­vener) Bill Lob­ban Kenny Deans Paul Gibb Rus­sell Jones Lauren Mac­Cal­lum Duncan Miller Derek Ross

Xan­der McDade Chris Beat­tie Dr Fiona McLean Han­nah Grist John Kirk Peter Cos­grove Ann Ross Steve Micklewright

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 Oliv­er Dav­ies, Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tion Adam Streeter Smith, Recre­ation and Access Man­ager Mari­aan Pita, Exec­ut­ive Sup­port Man­ager James Ade, Clerk to the Board

Apo­lo­gies

Geva Black­ett

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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 minutes of the last meet­ings held on the 8 Septem­ber and 27 Octo­ber 2023 were agreed with no amendments.

Mat­ters arising not covered elsewhere

1. The Board Con­vener provided an update on the action points from 8 Septem­ber 2023 minutes:

a) Para 14i: 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.

b) Para 17i: Meet­ing to be set up with CEO, Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning, Con­vener and Deputy Con­vener to dis­cuss the short­age of plan­ning staff. Completed

c) Para 17ii: Pro­posed paper to go to Resources Com­mit­tee regard­ing recruit­ment options for Plan­ners. Completed

d) Para 21i: 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. In hand

e) Para 25i: The Board agreed that Con­vener and Officers arrange a meet­ing with Forestry and Land Scot­land to dis­cuss resourcing at Glen­more. Completed

f) Para 25ii: The Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Rur­al Devel­op­ment to check wheth­er Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil rangers can give fixed pen­alty notices. Completed

g) Para 25iii: The Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Rur­al Devel­op­ment to com­mu­nic­ate with the Com­munity Coun­cil and Com­munity Trust the out­come of this meet­ing. Completed

h) Para 25iv: Paper on poten­tial bylaw imple­ment­a­tion across the park to be presen­ted to a future meet­ing of the board. Completed

i) Para 29i: The Clerks to the Board to dis­trib­ute inform­a­tion to Mem­bers of how sub­sti­tutes for com­mit­tee meet­ings are to be secured. Completed

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Declar­a­tions of interest

1. John Kirk declared a note for trans­par­ency in item 1: his farm is poten­tially affected by the pro­posed beaver release into the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. He will par­ti­cip­ate as the item and any dis­cus­sion arising is for information.

2. Ducan Miller declared a note for trans­par­ency in item 1: his farm is poten­tially affected by the pro­posed beaver release into the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. He will par­ti­cip­ate as the item and any dis­cus­sion arising is for information.

3. Rus­sell Jones declared a note for trans­par­ency in item 1: he is a mem­ber of a shinty club that is poten­tially affected by the pro­posed beaver release into the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. He will par­ti­cip­ate as the item and any dis­cus­sion arising is for information.

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.

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

a) Some mem­bers raised com­munity con­cerns that grant assist­ance from the Park Author­ity for flood banks poten­tially dam­aged by beavers was not yet in writ­ing and that Strath­spey Framers require fur­ther con­sulta­tion. The CEO respon­ded that the Park Authority’s offer of grant assist­ance was already in writ­ing, and that he would put out fur­ther inform­a­tion on grant assist­ance post 2026 to the con­cerned farm­ers and on the Nation­al Park’s web­site. Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature & Cli­mate Change, added that the com­mit­ment to grant assur­ance forms part of the licence applic­a­tion. The Con­vener high­lighted that deliv­er­ing the man­age­ment and mit­ig­a­tion plan was part of the applic­a­tion and would be part of the licence con­di­tions from NatureScot which should provide land man­agers with the reas­sur­ance that they were look­ing for. The CEO reas­sured the Board that he and oth­er Officers would con­tin­ue to meet with farm­ers and crofters to answer out­stand­ing questions.

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b) A dis­cus­sion was had on the risk that grant assist­ance for flood banks dam­aged by beavers posed to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity. Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices & Deputy CEO, informed the Board that the fin­an­cial con­sequences have been looked at and a spe­cif­ic budget will not cur­rently be put against the risk asso­ci­ated with beaver impacts on flood banks. There­fore there is no imme­di­ate impact on budget pro­vi­sions made. How­ever, the wider risk man­age­ment will be looked at with the Resources Com­mit­tee and fin­an­cial pro­vi­sions that may be required for any grant aid responses regard­ing beaver impact on flood banks.

c) A Mem­ber ques­tioned what part the Board plays on policies on equal­it­ies and gender. The Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices & Deputy CEO respon­ded that the polices arose through the Nation­al Parks Man­age­ment Group and has been imple­men­ted in sup­port of the Staff Group and its man­age­ment. Board Mem­bers input to the pro­cess is through the Resources Com­mit­tee and through the Committee’s scru­tiny of the Staff Con­sultat­ive For­um Minutes, and through indi­vidu­al Board Mem­bers that were nom­in­ated on to the For­um. This is all stand­ard pro­ced­ure for devel­op­ing and intern­ally con­sult­ing on all policy and pro­ced­ures. Grant Moir, CEO, rein­forced that this is all in keep­ing with the gov­ernance require­ments estab­lished by the Frame­work Agreement.

d) A Mem­ber raised wheth­er more could be done with Nation­al Park Brand­ing on agri­cul­tur­al products due to agri­cul­tur­al budgets being cut. The CEO informed the board that cur­rently brand­ing for ven­ison is being looked at, how­ever it is more dif­fi­cult with­in big­ger sup­ply sys­tems to say where products come from.

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

2. Action Points Arising: i. The CEO to write to farm­ers and put on the Nation­al Park web­site on grant assist­ance for flood banks in the CNP. ii. The CEO and Officers to meet with farm­ers and crofters to answer out­stand­ing questions.

Adam Streeter Smith entered the meet­ing at 10.29am

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Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan

1. Mur­ray Fer­guson, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Rur­al Devel­op­ment, intro­duced the paper which presen­ted the Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan for approv­al along with a sum­mary of related work that has been com­pleted to date. The Action Plan will help to deliv­er many of the object­ives of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan relat­ing to out­door activ­ity, health, well­being and gen­er­al enjoy­ment of the Park in a sus­tain­able way.

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

a) A Mem­ber ques­tioned what it meant where pro­jects were indic­ated as Cairngorms 2030 and raised con­cerns about pro­jects on lit­ter, health and edu­ca­tion which are not the Park Authority’s core busi­ness. The Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Rur­al Devel­op­ment respon­ded that most dir­ectly rel­ev­ant pro­jects that are Cairngorms 2030 are very spa­tially spe­cif­ic. He added that the green health agenda is key part of the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme and lit­ter is about bring­ing part­ners togeth­er who are already work­ing on a vol­un­tary basis and not tak­ing on anyone’s stat­utory responsibility.

b) A Mem­ber quer­ied what evid­ence there was of recre­ation impact­ing on dis­turb­ance. The Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Rur­al Devel­op­ment high­lighted evid­ence of dif­fer­ent recre­ation activ­it­ies impact­ing dif­fer­ent spe­cies includ­ing caper­cail­lie, goldeneye and rap­tors, with the Park Author­ity being keen to take an evid­ence based approach.

A Mem­ber raised con­cerns about the poten­tial risk that pub­lish­ing the pri­or­ity areas for man­age­ment areas of recre­ation­al dis­turb­ance of spe­cies could pose espe­cially if it ended up in the wrong hands. The Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Rur­al Devel­op­ment respon­ded that the map had been included to remain open and trans­par­ent, to rein­force that a spa­tially tar­geted approach was needed, and to recog­nise it was import­ant to take stake­hold­ers with the Author­ity on this work. There is a strong sense that under­stand­ing of the spa­tial approach through pro­vi­sion of broad map­ping inform­a­tion was import­ant to this pro­cess, while the maps were con­sidered suf­fi­ciently gen­er­al to not pose any sig­ni­fic­ant risks to the envir­on­ment­al object­ives of the work through wider pub­lic aware­ness. He added that sens­it­ive areas will not be high­lighted on sig­nage in the Park.

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Recom­mend­a­tions

The Board was asked to:

a) Approve the Action Plan (Appendix 1).

b) Note the sum­mary of engage­ment that has gone on in pre­par­a­tion of the Plan (Appendix 2).

c) Note that a paper will be brought back to the Board annu­ally to report on the pro­gress with delivery.

d) Note the work that has been under­taken by Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and part­ner organ­isa­tions on the man­age­ment for vis­it­ors in 2023 (Appendix 3).

e) Note the sum­mary of the grants awar­ded by Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity to part­ners as part of the Vis­it­or Infra­struc­ture Improve­ment Pro­gramme (Appendix 4).

1. The Board noted the paper and approved the Action Plan.

2. Action Points Arising: none.

Oliv­er Dav­is entered the meet­ing at 11.15am

Fire Man­age­ment Byelaws – Pro­posed Consultation

1. Grant Moir, CEO, intro­duced the paper which invites Mem­bers to agree on an approach to a pub­lic con­sulta­tion on wheth­er to take for­ward a fire man­age­ment byelaw for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park and what that fire man­age­ment byelaw should include or cover.

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

a) A Mem­ber raised that if the Author­ity goes out to con­sulta­tion could lan­guage be chosen care­fully, with the use of con­trolled burn­ing not just muir­burn as this is only one example of con­trolled burn­ing. The CEO agreed with this approach.

b) Mem­bers high­lighted the import­ance of tak­ing people along with the Park Authority.

c) A dis­cus­sion was had on how, if a bylaw was imple­men­ted, rangers would be pro­tec­ted. Mur­ray Fer­guson, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Rur­al Devel­op­ment, informed the Board that this is a dis­cus­sion that will hap­pen with the ranger team and have to be clear with part­ner ranger ser­vices that they will not be involved in enforcement.

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d) Mem­bers ques­tioned why one option in the con­sulta­tion was not time bound for no fires in the sum­mer. The CEO respon­ded that while Officers did look at a time peri­od, the highest fire risk is earli­er in the year when there is max­im­um load. The CEO high­lighted that it would of course be open for respond­ents to sug­gest a time peri­od for oper­a­tion of a byelaw if that was their view.

e) A mem­ber also asked that the con­sulta­tion be for 10 weeks rather than 8 weeks. This was agreed.

1. Paul Gibb put for­ward an amend­ment to include a spe­cif­ic ques­tion in the con­sulta­tion as to wheth­er con­trolled burn­ing should be covered in the byelaw options, and to reflect the impact of this ques­tion in the draft byelaw. Seconded by Ann Ross. This was agreed.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Board was asked to:

a) Agree to pro­ceed to a pub­lic con­sulta­tion based on three options as out­lined in this paper, start­ing in Janu­ary 2024 for 8 weeks.

1. The Board agreed to pro­ceed to a pub­lic con­sulta­tion for 10 weeks. the Board accep­ted the amend­ment to include a spe­cif­ic ques­tion on con­trolled burn­ing in the pub­lic con­sulta­tion togeth­er with asso­ci­ated illus­tra­tion of the impact of that ques­tion in a draft byelaw.

2. Action Points Arising: none.

Peter Cos­grove and Adam Streeter Smith left the meet­ing at 12.49pm

Con­sulta­tion on Gael­ic Lan­guage Plan 2024 – 28

1. Oliv­er Dav­ies, Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions, intro­duced the paper which out­lined the Park Authority’s pro­posed approach to a six-week con­sulta­tion on our pro­posed Gael­ic Lan­guage Plan 2024 – 28.

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

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a) A Mem­ber raised that the Nation­al Park Author­ity should be going bey­ond pro­mot­ing Gael­ic in the organ­isa­tion and encour­aging oth­ers in the pro­mo­tion in the use of Gael­ic. The Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions respon­ded that he will feed this back to Bòrd na Gàidh­lig and ask wheth­er the main object­ive can be adjusted.

b) A Mem­ber raised that it would be good to get young­er Gael­ic influ­en­cers involved as some have a big reach on TikTok.

c) A Mem­ber raised that there are a num­ber of young Shinty Play­ers that are flu­ent in Gael­ic that he could put Oliv­er Dav­is in con­tact with. The Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions respon­ded that more con­nec­tions in that com­munity would be helpful.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Board was asked to:

a) Review our pro­posed stake­hold­er engage­ment approach and agree that the con­sulta­tion can start w/​c 15 Janu­ary 2024 for a peri­od of six weeks.

1. The Board agreed to the Papers recommendation.

2. Action Points Arising: none.

Scot­tish Biod­iversity Stra­tegic Frame­work consultation

1. Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change, presen­ted the paper which sets out the pro­posed Park Author­ity response to the remain­ing parts of the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment con­sulta­tion on Scotland’s Stra­tegic Frame­work for Biodiversity .

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

a) A Mem­ber asked for clar­ity wheth­er the oth­er effect­ive area-based con­ser­va­tion meas­ures would be legis­lat­ive frame­works from the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment, or would a com­munity approach be taken and wheth­er this could be reflec­ted in the Nation­al Parks response. The Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change cla­ri­fied that this could be included in the Nation­al Parks response as a key con­sid­er­a­tion is the stat­utory oblig­a­tions to some of the des­ig­na­tions and stake hold­ers will be look­ing for assur­ance and account­ab­il­ity around those designations.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Board was asked to:

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a) Agree to the con­sulta­tion response set out in Annex 1

1. The Board noted the Paper and agreed to the con­sulta­tion response set out in Annex1.

2. Action Points Arising: none.

Com­mit­tee Annu­al Reports

1. Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive, presen­ted the Annu­al Reports of the Audit and Risk, Per­form­ance, Gov­ernance and Resources Com­mit­tees to the Board.

2. The Board noted the Annu­al Reports.

3. Action Points Arising: None

Minutes from Com­mit­tee Meetings

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. None.

Date of Next Meeting

1. The date of the next meet­ing is Fri­day 22 March in person.

The pub­lic part of this meet­ing con­cluded at 1.13pm.