240515 LOAF Paper 3 Statutory Duties

Paper 3 5^th June 2024 Page 1 of 4

CAIRNGORMS LOC­AL OUT­DOOR ACCESS FORUM

Title: 2023/2024 ‑Deliv­ery of stat­utory duties as con­ferred by the Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2003

Pre­pared by: Adam Streeter-Smith, Recre­ation and Access Manager

Pur­pose This paper is presen­ted in order to update LOAF mem­bers on deliv­ery of the Park Author­it­ies stat­utory duties under the Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2003. To date case­work and SOAC duties have been repor­ted sep­ar­ately and it is pro­posed these are com­bined into an annu­al paper to report on activ­ity in the pre­vi­ous fin­an­cial year

Recom­mend­a­tions

The LOAF is asked to: a) Note the sum­mary of access case­work under­taken by the Access & Infra­struc­ture Team. b) Mem­bers are asked how would they like to advise on case­work going for­ward at LOAF meetings.

Back­ground Part one of the Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2003 (“the LRA” or ​“the Act”) sets out the stat­utory duties, respons­ib­il­it­ies and powers of nation­al park author­it­ies in rela­tion to the pro­vi­sion and pro­mo­tion of the right of access,

Under part one of the LRA the Park Author­ity has four spe­cif­ic duties: • Sec­tion 10: The Scot­tish Out­door Access Code (“the Code”)- There is a duty imposed on the Park Author­ity, by sec­tion 10(7) (a) of the Act, to pub­li­cise the Code. • Sec­tion 13: Duty to uphold access rights- Sec­tion 13(1) of the Act places a duty on the Park Author­ity to uphold access rights which entails assert­ing, pro­tect­ing, keep­ing open and free from obstruc­tion any route, water­way or oth­er means by which access may reas­on­ably be exercised.

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• Sec­tions 17, 18 and 20: Core paths plan- The Park Author­ity has a duty, to draw up, pub­lish and review a plan for a sys­tem of core paths suf­fi­cient to provide reas­on­able pub­lic access through­out their areas. • Sec­tion 25: Loc­al access for­um- Sec­tion 25 of the Act places a duty on the Park Author­ity to estab­lish a loc­al access for­um con­sist­ing of per­sons, and bod­ies rep­res­ent­ing the interests of such per­sons, with an interest in pub­lic access on and over land includ­ing the exer­cise of access rights, rights of way, core paths plans and the use of core paths, and own­ers, or bod­ies rep­res­ent­at­ive of own­ers, of land in respect of which access rights are exercisable.

This paper high­lights the deliv­ery of those stat­utory duties above for the peri­od April 2023 — March 2024

Pro­mo­tion of the Scot­tish Out­door Access Code Dir­ect pub­lic engage­ment activ­it­ies pro­mot­ing respons­ible beha­viour and the Scot­tish Out­door Access Code (SOAC) are under­taken by Park Author­ity access and ranger staff. Details of this engage­ment are giv­en below for the peri­od April 23 to March 24. NB This describes form­al ded­ic­ated access activ­ity only, so does not include ranger patrolling and inform­al con­ver­sa­tions at oth­er com­munity events.

Activ­ity	No. of people	No. of ses­sions	Activ­it­ies
School groups	699	16	• Deliv­ery of SOAC edu­ca­tion pro­gramme in four primary and one high school • One-off out­door vis­its from schools
Pub­lic events	237	6	• Ranger ​“pop-up” events (stall in car park on busy day) • Two Deeside respons­ible access events in part­ner­ship with Police Scot­land, Scot­tish Fire & Res­cue, part­ner ranger ser­vices and land managers.
CPD / Training	166	9	• Teach­er train­ing to deliv­er SOAC edu­ca­tion resource

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			• Park Author­ity SOAC staff and volun­teer train­ing • Part­ner ranger ser­vices train­ing • SOAC work­shops at nation­al ranger event
Juni­or rangers	31	2	• Respons­ible access and land man­age­ment top­ics dur­ing sessions
Total num­ber of people dir­ectly engaged with	1,133

Pub­lic­a­tions — The Park Author­ity con­tin­ues to pro­mote the code under the aus­pices of Tread Lightly in the Park, the list of tread lightly pub­lic­a­tions includes; • Main gen­er­al leaf­let (10,000 leaf­lets) • Fire and barbe­que leaf­let (10,000 leaf­lets) • ​“High Fire Risk” mag­net­ic vehicle signs for all rangers vans and part­ner ranger ser­vice vehicles. • Posters – suite of 5 poster signs • Caper­cail­lie & dog on lead signs – dis­trib­uted to sev­en land managers.

Duty to uphold access rights

The cur­rent record shows a rel­at­ive increase in Sec­tion 14 case­work (obstruc­tions to access rights e.g. locked gates) for the 12 month peri­od April 2023 to March 2024 versus pre­vi­ous year. Records for the review peri­od com­pare as fol­lows: • 2023÷24− 33 cases • ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ – 28 cases

Of the above 33 cases recor­ded in ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ an addi­tion­al 2 cases were car­ried over from 2022/2023. Sev­en are cur­rently LIVE and there­fore OPEN mean­ing 26 cases have been CLOSED fol­low­ing invest­ig­a­tion and rel­ev­ant actions hav­ing been taken.

Of the 33 cases 20 were locked gates or oth­er such obstruc­tions that phys­ic­ally pre­ven­ted access. (2022÷23 – 17 gates).

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Mem­bers are asked how they would like to advise on case­work going for­ward at LOAF meet­ings Core paths plan Look­ing ahead it pro­posed that a review of the cur­rent Core Paths Plan, adop­ted in 2015, begins in 2025 with the likely adop­tion, sub­ject to objec­tions being resolved in early 2026. Loc­al access for­um The Cairngorms Loc­al Out­door Access For­um (LOAF) will have been oper­a­tion­al for 19 years on the 31 March 2024. For 19 years the LOAF has played a cru­cial role in help­ing the Park Author­ity shape and devel­op policies and plans, address access issues and advise on the sus­tain­able man­age­ment of out­door access. Mem­bers time and ded­ic­a­tion is highly val­ued by the Park Author­ity and by the Park Author­ity Board.

The LOAF met twice in 2023/2024 and covered top­ics as wide ran­ging as: • Fire man­age­ment bylaw • Out­door access case­work • Act­ive Cairngorms action plan • Caper­cail­lie conservation.

The LOAF oper­at­ing pro­ced­ures state there will be a max­im­um of 15 mem­bers includ­ing one Park Author­ity board mem­ber. Cur­rently there are 11 mem­bers and recruit­ment of new mem­bers is underway.