Draft Minutes of the Board Meeting

Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own on Spey

In Per­son

22 March 2024 at 9.30am

Present

Sandy Brem­ner (Con­vener) Elean­or Mack­in­tosh (Deputy Con­vener) Bill Lob­ban Kenny Deans Paul Gibb Rus­sell Jones Lauren Mac­Cal­lum Duncan Miller Geva Black­ett Steve Micklewright

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

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 Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions Colin McCle­an, Head of Land Man­age­ment James Ade, Clerk to the Board

Apo­lo­gies

Wel­come and introduction

1. Sandy Brem­ner, the Board Con­vener, wel­comed every­one to the meet­ing. Apo­lo­gies were noted. The Con­vener also paid trib­ute to Stew­art Fulton who had chaired the Cairngorms Part­ner­ship which pre­ceded the Park Author­ity and who had sadly passed away recently.

Approv­al of minutes of pre­vi­ous meetings

1. The draft minutes of the last meet­ing held on the 24 Novem­ber 2023 were agreed not­ing a cor­rec­tion required that Derek Ross and Steve Mickle­wright were present at that meeting.

Mat­ters arising not covered elsewhere

1. The Board Con­vener provided an update on the action points from 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. In hand b) 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 24 Novem­ber 2023 minutes: c) Para 10i:The CEO to write to farm­ers and put on the Nation­al Park web­site on grant assist­ance for flood banks in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Com­plete d) Para 10ii:The CEO and Officers to meet with farm­ers and crofters to answer out­stand­ing ques­tions. Complete

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. None declar­a­tions of interest.

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. Elean­or Mack­in­tosh, informed the Board of a com­munity meet­ing bring­ing com­munity groups from across the Cairngorms Nation­al Park togeth­er, along with Board and staff Mem­bers to dis­cuss how the Park Author­ity and com­munit­ies should com­mu­nic­ate. This was done through a vari­ety of work­shops to gain feed­back which Officers are now col­lat­ing to cre­ate a sum­mary and pro­posed for­ward plans.

3. The Board noted the Paper. The Con­vener thanked the Chief Exec­ut­ive and all staff on behalf of the Board. a) Dis­cus­sion was had on Board Mem­bers involve­ment on work Val­ues and Cul­ture in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity. Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices & Deputy CEO, informed the Board that Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment Strategy would be going to the Resources Com­mit­tee at an appro­pri­ate stage in devel­op­ment for review and approv­al. This strategy will cov­er the out­come of the cul­ture and val­ues exer­cise in devel­op­ment with the staff group. Dav­id agreed that it would be appro­pri­ate to seek views of the full board at an appro­pri­ate stage in the devel­op­ment pro­cess in advance of the sub­mis­sion to the Resources Com­mit­tee. b) Dis­cus­sion was had on loc­al poli­cing num­bers and extra police patrols par­tic­u­larly at Glen­more. The CEO informed the Board that con­ver­sa­tions with Police Scot­land had happened, and the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity will be look­ing to pay for extra police pres­ence in 2024. c) A dis­cus­sion was had on improved com­mu­nic­a­tion with com­munit­ies, with more access­ible lan­guage, on how work being car­ried out on to improve the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment will bene­fit people and place. Com­mu­nic­a­tions was high­lighted, such as the Cairn magazine, which focuses more on plan­ning and place than nature, along with the pro­posed cli­mate adapt­a­tion fund which will help com­munit­ies. The mem­bers noted the import­ance of high­light­ing what the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s stat­utory oblig­a­tions are, with more spe­cif­ic com­mu­nic­a­tions on this. d) A Mem­ber asked for a brief­ing note on farm­ing activ­ity and stat­ist­ics in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The CEO respon­ded that this was some­thing that could be cre­ated and shared with the Board. e) Dis­cus­sion was had on work being done on the Well­being Eco­nomy, which will be com­ing to the Board form­ally in Septem­ber 2024. f) A dis­cus­sion on access, par­tic­u­larly around access to the River Spey, was had. Officers informed Board Mem­bers that this mat­ter was being con­sidered, high­light­ing small scale infra­struc­ture work to help access to the River Spey and reas­sur­ing mem­bers that the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity will be writ­ing to the Scot­tish Canoe Soci­ety on this issue.

4. Action Points Arising:

   i. CEO, to pre­pare a brief­ing note on farm­ing activ­ity and stat­ist­ics with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park and dis­trib­ute to the Board. ii. Mur­ray Fer­guson, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Place to write to the Scot­tish Canoe Soci­ety about access to the River Spey.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity budget and oper­a­tion­al plan for ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅

1. Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions, intro­duced the paper which set out the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s pro­posed budget for the ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ fin­an­cial year. The paper provided the Board with the oppor­tun­ity to con­sider the over­all budget pos­i­tion togeth­er with the impact of any key assump­tions made in estab­lish­ing budget estimates.

2. The Board con­sidered the detail in the Paper and dis­cus­sions took place around the fol­low­ing: a) A Mem­ber ques­tioned how much of the oper­a­tion­al plan was already com­mit­ted on pro­jects. Officers respon­ded while the Cairngorms 2030 pro­ject was a pre com­mit­ted spend, there were cur­rently rel­at­ively few mul­ti­year spend com­mit­ments that the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity had in place with total level of com­mit­ment there­fore rel­at­ively low. b) A Mem­ber reques­ted a list of grants that were avail­able to the com­munity to access. Officers respon­ded that a list could be pro­duced, cir­cu­lated with Mem­bers and put on the Cairngorms Nation­al Park web­site. c) Dis­cus­sion was had on effi­ciency sav­ings. Officers high­lighted work being done to cre­ate and improve shared ser­vices, around IT, GIS, pro­cure­ment and recruit­ment, with oth­er Nation­al Parks and NatureScot to find effi­cien­cies sav­ings. d) Dis­cus­sion was had on run­ning costs and staff­ing levels. Mem­bers raised that they are pleased with staff­ing levels in terms of this rep­res­ent­ing a low level of total budget com­mit­ment, cit­ing the qual­ity of the jobs being offered by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park and the pos­it­ive bene­fits this has for the loc­al eco­nomy. e) A dis­cus­sion was had on how an addi­tion­al Nation­al Park in Scot­land might affect the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity budget. Officers respon­ded that while they were unsure how much impact a new Park would have on budgets, or any oth­er single policy ini­ti­at­ive under­taken by Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment, staff con­tinu­ously look at what impact a 5 – 10% reduc­tion in budget might have on the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s fin­an­cial pos­i­tion as scen­ario plan­ning sup­port­ing our stra­tegic risk management.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Board was invited to:

a)  approve the Cairngorms National Park Authority budget and operational plan for 2024/25 as set out in this paper.

1. The Board noted the paper and approved the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ budget and oper­a­tion­al plan.

2. Action Points Arising: i. A list of com­munity grants to be pub­lished on the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Web­site and cir­cu­lated with Members.

The Board broke for a short recess at 10.45am

The Board recon­vened at 10.57am

Colin McCle­an and Heath­er Trench joined the meet­ing at 10.57am

Man­aging deer for cli­mate and nature: consultation

1. Colin McCle­an, Head of Land Man­age­ment, intro­duced the paper which sets out the Park Authority’s response to the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment con­sulta­tion on ​‘Man­aging Deer for Cli­mate and Nature’.

2. The Board con­sidered the detail in the Paper and dis­cus­sions took place around the fol­low­ing: a) Dis­cus­sion was had on the num­ber of roe deer in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, with Mem­bers feel­ing that num­bers were too high, with com­munity impacts through road acci­dents and increas­ing tick num­bers. Officers informed the Board that there was not a data set of roe deer dens­it­ies in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Officers agreed that they would add a para­graph to the con­sulta­tion on the issue of roe deer. b) Dis­cus­sion was had on wheth­er redu­cing deer num­bers would impact sport­ing estates and job num­bers. While this was a con­cern, mul­tiple schemes and sup­port mech­an­isms were high­lighted that sup­port this sec­tor. c) Dis­cus­sion was had on changes to the closed sea­sons. Officers high­lighted wel­fare issues for orphan­ing calves and reduc­tions in deer num­bers had been achieved without chan­ging the closed sea­son, a view that was shared by loc­al stake­hold­ers. A Mem­ber reques­ted a more nuanced state­ment form the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, with Officers agree­ing to put more of an explan­a­tion in their response.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Board was asked to:

a)  Approve the response to the ‘Managing Deer for Climate and Nature' consultation set out at Appendix 1.

The Board agreed to includ­ing cla­ri­fic­a­tion as discussed.

Action Points Arising:

i.  Colin McClean to add a paragraph to the consultation on the issue of roe deer in the Cairngorms National Park.
ii. Colin McClean to expand the Cairngorms National Parks response around the close season.

Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Action Plan – Annu­al Update

1. Mur­ray Fer­guson, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning & Place, intro­duced the paper which updated the Board on deliv­ery of the Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Action Plan 2022 – 27 and gave wider con­text on asso­ci­ated policy developments.

2. The Board con­sidered the detail in the Paper and dis­cus­sions took place around the fol­low­ing: a) Dis­cus­sion was had on pro­posed vis­it­or levies by Loc­al Author­it­ies in areas covered by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Officers high­lighted that legis­la­tion gave choice to Loc­al Author­it­ies to devel­op the scheme and they have the respons­ib­il­ity to set how the money raised through levies is used. It was high­lighted that tour­ism is a big sec­tor of the eco­nomy in the Nation­al Park, mean­ing the vis­it­or levy could gen­er­ate sig­ni­fic­ant fund­ing for tour­ism invest­ment in the Park. Addi­tion­ally, the levy will help longer term plan­ning mean­ing big­ger pro­jects can hap­pen, help­ing keep more and bet­ter paid jobs in the long term. Officers raised that it was being con­sidered wheth­er camper­vans should be included in the vis­it­or levy. b) Dis­cus­sion took place around work being done to pro­mote quieter areas of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park to help man­age vis­it­or num­bers in busy areas. Officers high­light work being under­taken to make pho­tos more widely avail­able to brand hold­ers for bro­chures that are from less vis­ited areas of the Nation­al Park.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Board was asked to:

a)  Note progress in delivery of the Sustainable Tourism Action Plan 2022-27.

The Board noted the papers.

Action Points Arising: none.

Colin McCle­an and Heath­er Trench left the meet­ing at 11.55am

Board Com­mit­tee Minutes

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

2. The Board noted the minutes.

3. Action Points Arising: None

AOCB

None.

Date of Next Meeting

The date of the next meet­ing is Fri­day 28 June in person.

The meet­ing con­cluded at 11.57am.